Life on the dole
Had a long talk tonight with a cop who’s growing increasingly disgusted by the number of people in this city, Lewiston, Maine, who exist without ever being called upon to work. They drink, smoke, hang out at the clubs, eat lobster claws for breakfast and never have to punch a clock. State welfare supports many of these shabby yet hedonistic lives. Disability and Social Security take care of the rest.
For your consideration, here is a glimpse at two people I know. One is prideful and hard working, though damn ugly. The other is prideful only in the manner of neck chains bought on the government dime, and hard working only in the sense that he has to go to his mailbox to pick up his monthly checks.
Raoul (not his real name, but isn’t it hilarious?) hurt his back two decades ago and required surgery. At the time, he was working at a shoe shop. Following surgery, his doctor stated without ambiguity that Raoul was entitled to a handicapped license plate and a regular disability check for the rest of his life. Raoul said no friggin way. He has been working the same job for 23 years now and takes heaps of shit from management. Yet he is never tempted to call it quits and take the social welfare path to financial independance.
George (his real name) worked for a few months at a construction job after serving time for crack dealing. A short time into his employment, he went “ooh, ooh! My back!” and that, as the old-timers say, was all she wrote. Got a check-up and a check. Government check, that is. Disability and SSI are taking care of him all the way. He has eight illigitimate children but not a penny of child support can be collected. I see him every day weaving between downtown bars and having a grand old time with his homies on the corner. It’s funny, it really doesn’t look like his back pains him much.
I’m absolutely not a “all welfare is bad” kind of guy. There are men out there with missing limbs, or unspeakable daily pain that cannot be expected to limp in to the factory every day. There are women whose rat bastard husbands ran and left her with four kids she can’t afford even on two part-time jobs. There are people who need the help and they should get it.
Yet, every time I see George Bling chainsmoking from the frosty blur of his beer pitcher, I get to wondering how many of those on the dole are truly needy and how many are downright weasels. I like to believe that most of us are like my friend Raoul, who was offered a handout but who turned it down. I hope one of you can tell me that’s right.
February 19th, 2009 at 9:58 am
This is like a straight pin under the fingernails for me. I agree with you completely that there are circumstances where help is needed. It’s the lazy able bodied bloodsuckers that piss me off. My dad was a builder – had a bad fall & was paralyzed when he was 47. During the 9 months he spent in the hospital & rehab – his business partner robbed him blind – even lost the apartment buildings they owned together. He had no choice but to go on SS Disability (he had paid into the system for 30 years) – but it provided less than $1000 per month. He worked his ass off making stuff out of wood in his workshop & selling it to supplement his ‘income’. He also rebuilt small engines & even (out of a wheelchair) took on jobs like building decks. Welfare wasn’t an option because he owned his home. From the time I was little he always told me ‘there’s no such a word as can’t’. He proved, by his actions, that his ‘motto’ wasn’t just talk. The stories I could tell about the guy…. he was awesome.
February 19th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Geeze, was that one of the Palmer boys you were talking about Flammer?
Just heard on Channel 6 that Maine is getting 300 million for Medicaid. Hopefully they will pay off the bills that the hospitals have acquired.
How about the 20 year old Somolian chick that calved again with her 5th child? It occured at her home in downtown Lewiston.
When is this State going to get a handle on the notion that in order to build the State, that we have to provide handouts to those that have no intention on carrying their own weight?
February 20th, 2009 at 4:55 am
Two ventings to join you here:
1)I can’t even get a Dr to prescribe an antibiotic when I’m at death’s door and wheezing for breath with bronchial pneumonia, or an occasional pain pill for excruciating back,leg and hip pain.These same people you mention have a constant supply to supplement those pitchers of beer.
2) Every time I drive by Human Resources building, I am stunned at the sheer size of the building in a small city and all the people in it yelling “We are understafffed and overworked.”
February 20th, 2009 at 7:56 am
Not to bring up a bad subject, but what about the single mother of the Octuplets who already has 6 children in California? How is she going to provide for her family?
Every time I drive to work at 6 a.m. and get home exhausted at 6 p.m., I think about how my tax dollars are supporting these people. Not a nice thought.
Thanks for a nice start to my Friday, LaFlamme.
February 21st, 2009 at 11:53 pm
“Baby mills.” Copyright. Use but credit, please. I haven’t seen it recently, but somewhere around the Oxford Hills there’s a car with a bumper sticker that reads “If you can’t feed ‘em, don’t breed ‘em.” I think every bail hearing I’ve gone to, the lawyer makes a case about how poor Stabby McStabstab has a couple of children who he’s the only support for, the poor bastards. Go watch Idiocracy if you haven’t yet.
But regarding your point about the medical benefit shilling, I was arguing the same point with my sister on our Thanksgiving road trip. I guess the mentally ill are a separate case, but it does seem kind of depressing that there are a good number of people subsisting off disability dollars and contributing nothing but ink to the arrest logs.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Here here to Nancy. I’m exhasted from currently working three jobs to pay for a modest lifestyle. I keep telling myself that people like George are the minority but I think that is only to help myself keep my own sanity.