Another Rant

As you can tell I haven’t posted in an entire week. The reason is this… I’ve been stupid busy with work and family and the like (who’d have guessed?). Anyway. What was my most busy day is also the day that keeps irking me the most. Nonetheless, it was a Monday. I got assigned to work at one of the regional “one stop shop” locations for the flood relief. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I’ll just apologize and you can click right out because I’m not going to go into the whole flood thing…

Wow, that sounded angry! But really. Because the 3 northwestern most counties in our great state were declared “disaster areas” because of the hurricane, FEMA came in with all their programs and stuff to offer a little relief from the G-man. The state jumped on board with FEMA and loosened up on the purse strings to do their part in helping out. The biggest contribution the state was making was offering food stamps (read: debit cards) to families who lost food and other stuff in the flooding.

Unfortunately, there was lots of money to be handed out and not a lot of regulation. I understand fully that you didn’t have to necessarily have your house float away to lose food and stuff, and I keep that in mind in this post. So on Monday, I worked at the state center that was handing out the food stamps, in varying denominations. At about 7:30 am (the center opened at 8) it was estimated that there were about 2,000 people in line. Essentially, with a few exceptions, the line was cut off to additional people before the center even opened. Some people in line had been there since 9 pm the night BEFORE. In other words, to get to the back of the line, they expected it to take all the way until closing time, which was 8 pm.

Not to generalize but I happen to know that most people with jobs aren’t going to be able to wait in a line for 12 hours or more to get free money. Sure, maybe a few were off that day, or maybe a few had taken a day off, but I think it’d be pretty safe to conclude that the vast majority of the people in line just didn’t have anything better to do but wait in line for 12+ hours. And figure, if you get a $500 debit card, for 12 hours of waiting in line, that equals roughly $41.66 per hour for waiting in line and not causing problems. See, if you caused problems or complained about the free money, you were out. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (sorry, BJ) to realize that most of the people there didn’t lose a dime in the flood – they were there for their $41.66/hour paycheck, tax free.

So when 5 pm rolled around and all the people who’d been at work all day showed up in their business suits and 2 kids on their hips that they just picked up from daycare, we had to turn them away. Yeah, sorry, you can’t stand in this line with all the unemployed people who filled up the line when you were driving to work this morning. That’s the epitome of pathetic. Reward those who cheat or beat the system, and piss on anyone who is actually out there doing it the right way. I was so angry.

As I was telling a friend the other day, I’m all about help for those who need it. The key word here is need, not want, or I’m just too lazy to really make an effort to make a positive contribution to society. There is truly a culture of people who think they are owed something, and who feel the G is the entity that should support them. Not to mention their tax contributions, manpower contributions, or the like are more than likely minimal at best. I was just in awe to see all the kids under school age (and some who weren’t) standing in that line for 14 hours for a handout that they probably didn’t need or deserve. All they learned that day was how to get a freebie. Not how to go out and perform well in an interview, or how to secure and keep a job, or how to be polite and respectful. They learned that it pays (big!) to stand in a line all day and take advantage of the system. To add salt to the wound, because of the sheer number of people applying, their names or whatever weren’t immediately being entered into the system, so these people were actually getting their food stamps at one location, then jumping in a car and heading to the next location, getting food stamps there, and so on.

Now I want to be perfectly clear that I am not generalizing on any one gender, race, or religion here. There were people of all shapes and colors fitting into this group. And I have equal disdain for each and every one of them, regardless of what hat they wore. So, to the people who were there in real need – I hope the assistance helps you get back on your feet. To the people who really needed help and couldn’t get it because the lines were closed – I apologize. If I had been organizing the event, we would have had a separate line for anyone who could produce a pay stub from the last month. But to the people who were there simply because they saw the loosely regulated opportunity for free money and wanted their shake – shame on you and everyone you encouraged to be there that day. You wonder why this country is in a financial crisis? You wonder why the state and/or the federal government and/or any given lending institution has no money to lend you to get that new Escalade or $300,000.00 mortgage? Look in your own backyard, and thanks for helping f it up for the rest of us… if you care…