The Entitlement Crowd: GIMME, GIMME, GIMME!

Yesterday, I was reading Bungalow Bill's post on government-paid cell phones for "the poor", and it really got my panties in a twist. But after reading and posting over at Left Coast Rebel's site about healthcare, I decided that my first post of the day was going to address the money pit that is the generational welfare crowd.

In the 1960's, Lyndon Johnson introduced his Great Society programs and created a whole class of people who realized that working was just not what they wanted to do. The Great Society has done as much harm to this country as a left-wing socialized government can do.

Let's be clear: I do not begrudge those who need temporary help during times of need in their lives. I've been there. When you're 21 and a single-mother divorcee with no marketable skills and no help, your options are limited. It's the people who have no desire to help themselves and make a better life for their families yet continue to scream for what others DO have that are the target of my contempt today.

It sickens me to go to Wal-Mart at the beginning of every month. Buggies heaped with top-of-the-line name-brand food are often in the clutches of a food stamp card toting family with more kids than they can afford. While they're buying New York strip steaks and frozen shrimp, I'm thinking of the cheapest meals I can make for my family. While they're buying Pepsi and Mountain Dew, I'm buying Sam's Choice pop. Comfort and convenience foods should be disallowed if you are on the food stamp program. Referring to Quinn's first law: Liberalism always generates the exact opposite of its stated intent.

Charity programs have great intentions but are often taken advantage of by the GIMME crowd. When my now 21-year-old son was 6, I took him to volunteer at a local hospital handing out gifts to people who were to be helped by hospital employees via an angel tree one Christmas. While there were some recipients who were truly grateful, the majority were bitter. "Is that all you got?" asked one mom of her teenage son. "Maybe we'll do better at K-Mart [with their angel tree program]." Here in Pittsburgh, a local TV station has a program called "Project Bundle-Up", aimed at buying winter coats, hats, and gloves for the needy. While a noble idea, I can't understand why they will buy the kids expensive Steeler coats when they could go to Wal-Mart and get three or four coats for the same price. And people wonder why charities are in trouble.

To see someone with their hair and nails done whip out an ACCESS card makes my blood boil. This would be the crowd that gets cash assistance. Do I have anything against a woman having her hair and nails done? Nope. In fact, I wish I could. My beef is that while I'm paying for them to have their's done, I can't afford to have mine done. And the recipients who sport numerous tattoos....PAY FOR THEM YOURSELVES!!! I have three, and no one else paid for them. It is not a God-given right that someone else pay for your every want and desire.

It used to be that receiving welfare benefits carried a certain stigma; not anymore. In fact, some recipients boast about how they got this for free and that for free by working the system. It's time to give these people a wake-up call: You have no claim on my money. Before the entitlement programs, poor people were proud of what they had and too proud to accept charity. If they couldn't earn it, they didn't need it. How the times have changed.

If anyone sees the Hookah-Smoking Caterpillar, tell him I'll be over for a smoke shortly. We are definitely down the rabbit hole.