Early morning thoughts on welfare reform
My thoughts go to odd places in the morning. I usually try toward the creativity, but I barely have any control when I'm solidly awake; in those first minutes between one state and another, I take what I get. This morning, I got thoughts on welfare reform.
A woman on my Facebook feed recently declared that she would never go to Walmart again due to being in line behind a woman with an expensive cell phone and her nails done in a French manicure buying brand name clothes with her EBT card. I tried to put it out of my head after silently congratulating her for getting her frustration out without a clearly identifying bigoted label. We can come to our own racist identifiers from experience or stereotype, but she put all the blame on "Walmart."
I thought I'd let it go, but apparently it's been simmering under the surface because, in those post alarm-pre-coffee moments, I decided that the welfare system should be reworked to take and investigate such complaints. Tax payers *shouldn't* be defrauded with impunity, and the poor-but-not-on-the-dole should have their say. BUT. There should be fun punishments for those who report on race or class rather than real fraud.
The young lady who falsely insisted that EBT is to be used for FOOD and not for name brand name clothes(, nails, and smart phones) should be able to declare this beyond Facebook. But if it turns out that woman in question spent just a few dollars on press on nails instead of big bucks at the salon, got her phone before she fell on hard times or in a super cheap promo, and had her real bills taken care of before clothes (and let's be real, this was Walmart, not Saks...what'd she spend $10 a pop on Baby Phat t-shirts?), the young lady should have to giver her pedicures for a year.
Similarly, my right wing high school buddy who always spots the Cadillac in the projects should be able to report it. But if it belongs to, say someone who can legally afford it rather than the welfare mother with six kids that he imagines, he should have to wash the car for a year. And crime shouldn't save him from penance to his imaginary welfare mother. If it belongs to a pimp, say, he should have to provide security to the prostitutes...
A woman on my Facebook feed recently declared that she would never go to Walmart again due to being in line behind a woman with an expensive cell phone and her nails done in a French manicure buying brand name clothes with her EBT card. I tried to put it out of my head after silently congratulating her for getting her frustration out without a clearly identifying bigoted label. We can come to our own racist identifiers from experience or stereotype, but she put all the blame on "Walmart."
I thought I'd let it go, but apparently it's been simmering under the surface because, in those post alarm-pre-coffee moments, I decided that the welfare system should be reworked to take and investigate such complaints. Tax payers *shouldn't* be defrauded with impunity, and the poor-but-not-on-the-dole should have their say. BUT. There should be fun punishments for those who report on race or class rather than real fraud.
The young lady who falsely insisted that EBT is to be used for FOOD and not for name brand name clothes(, nails, and smart phones) should be able to declare this beyond Facebook. But if it turns out that woman in question spent just a few dollars on press on nails instead of big bucks at the salon, got her phone before she fell on hard times or in a super cheap promo, and had her real bills taken care of before clothes (and let's be real, this was Walmart, not Saks...what'd she spend $10 a pop on Baby Phat t-shirts?), the young lady should have to giver her pedicures for a year.
Similarly, my right wing high school buddy who always spots the Cadillac in the projects should be able to report it. But if it belongs to, say someone who can legally afford it rather than the welfare mother with six kids that he imagines, he should have to wash the car for a year. And crime shouldn't save him from penance to his imaginary welfare mother. If it belongs to a pimp, say, he should have to provide security to the prostitutes...