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shizzyfinn

shizzyfinn is a Reader contributor. See staff page for published articles.

I never thought I'd become a welfare queen

Mindy, your comment is offensive beyond belief. My wife's mother was on welfare for a few years in the 1980s after her husband left her with four young children. Without child care available for her toddlers, and no one else to ask for help, there was no other option. The welfare payments weren't much - just enough to eke out an existence in a L.A. ghetto. But without that support, she and her four kids would have been on the street. Overall, Mindy's whole comment sounds just like the BS that Ronald Reagan and Co. spread in the 1980s...images of people on welfare driving Cadillacs and laughing all the way to the bank. Of course, the real-life examples of welfare queens are few and far between (if you have any proof besides personal anecdotes and recollections, please share). In the absence of legitimate proof (news articles, case studies, census data, etc) these types of accusations add nothing to the debate, though they do give us insight into the accusers. There is validity in the assertion that welfare can create a cycle of dependence, which is a problem. But not one to be solved with sweeping generalizations like Mindy's. As for "A welfare investigator once went out to a house to find the client had three mint-condition, classic cars on the property." So the investigator promptly noted that the person was not eligible for welfare, right? Sounds to me like the system worked in that example. If the example is even real. More likely, it's as phony as your fantasies of romancing Michael Jackson.
— January 9, 2010 8:58 a.m.

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