I’m not going to get into my various ailments and issues. Suffice to say, I almost certainly “qualify for” various government “welfare” programs—that’d be particularly true were I not making pretty good money in my “chosen profession.”
Even if I couldn’t make that claim on my own “merit” (or lack thereof), I would be able to make it on the basis of my son’s “condition.”
I’ve said copious times in past, my youngest son is not “just” Autistic, but sufficiently so that he may never live a life in which others aren’t “watching over him.”
Perhaps at some point, he will come to be more or less independent. At the present moment, that seems entirely unlikely.
Since he’s still a student (not yet on a “secondary school” level), he (and by extension I) could claim various government “benefits” we forego based on my unwillingness to burden an already heavily abused (in my opinion) system.
Even after he leaves school (and I have every intent to have him at least complete high school), he—and again by extension I—certainly qualify for any number of additional government programs.
As things stand, I take the tax credit for Autism when I file taxes on a yearly basis.
As has been pointed out by various folks (an example being Tim Pool), most of us do not pay more in taxes, than we receive in benefits of various kinds (road creation and repair, school systems, programs that fund or otherwise provide foodstuffs for schools and daycares through entities like USDA).
Many (I’ve heard the number set at some fifty four percent), not only pay no taxes at all (looking at what’s taken out of their check, and realizing they receive as much or more in refund, than they actually paid in taxes), but actually gain more in “return,” than their financial statements indicate they’ve paid out. I’m among those who pay more than is returned at the end of the year, but are still “on the margin” of getting more benefit than what they pay.
One of the obvious points here is—considering my income is not terrible (low to mid middle class)—that means even I am not supposedly “paying my fair share” based on the benefits I supposedly receive. This implies the upper middle class and those above it are paying taxes for which they receive no direct benefit where in some sense, most of us are technically “freeloaders.”
If you’ve read much of anything I’ve written (particularly recently), by this point, you’ve probably noticed a pattern in my works. It’s very common for me to start what I pen with things that might cause people to ask the question, “How does what you’ve said so far relate to the subject of the article you’re currently creating?”
Allow me to explain what I’m moving to in this case.
The fact is, even though I’m not doing fantastically at this point, I’m far from “poor.”
Because this is the case, my need of anything approaching “welfare” at this juncture is low to non-existent.
Even so, you need to understand that has nowhere near always been the case.
For much of my younger life, I either could have “benefited from” various government programs, or actually even took advantage thereof.
When I was a member of the military, at least for the majority of my time in service, I was at or below the poverty level.
As such, my family used programs like “The Women and Infant Children’s Program” (WIC), and what’s today called EBT (at the time called simply the “Food Stamps” program).
Looking back on my life, I rue having used any such program. Not only that, but in many cases, I ended up being counted “ineligible” for such on one basis or another. For the most part, had I been willing to fight to maintain such “benefits,” I could have continued to reap the windfall of them.
Looking back, I’m entirely pleased that I refused to take the time to battle to keep them.
There are a couple of pretty good reasons this is true. One of them is that I would’ve been sitting in various offices for extended periods, rather than seeking ways to better my situation in other, more sustainable ways (among other things).
Please understand, I’m by no means saying, “Nobody ever needs help to ‘dig themselves out of’ hard times or bad circumstances.” I am saying though, that most of the time, people take advantage of programs meant for folks in far worse circumstances than those in which they find themselves when they do so.
Others will argue such people’s use (in my mind abuse) of such “legs up” is reasonable and proper. You will permit me to strongly disagree.
Though my experience is (obviously) anecdotal in nature, it suggests massively, that the majority of folks would rather seek to receive the largess of various—mostly government—assistance, than find ways to better themselves. Furthermore, most will happily stay on such “gimmes” rather than constantly seek to become better, more fruitful, more productive, higher paid individuals.
Many will vehemently argue the statistics don’t bear out what I’m saying. I consider that to be immaterial on the basis that such dives into the data are using information that later proves to be invalid or incorrect on its face.
I could go on about this for some time, but won’t.
The reason I won’t continue along this line, is that I wanted to discuss something I consider to be far more important.
There’s a sad reality most folks refuse to embrace. It is this; When you work for a paycheck rather than working to achieve the absolute best you’re able to accomplish, you will not typically manage to do great things.
Such is the lot of many in the private sector. That’s bad enough.
What’s worse though, is almost all in the “public sector” are more interested in their paycheck, and how they’re going to pay for tomorrow’s lunch, or how they’ll manage to afford their rent, mortgage, or similar, than in producing quality output, or innovating.
That’s not to say many in both have no interest in producing quality, just that it’s a secondary impulse at best.
Between this and the tendency for government to naturally migrate toward bureaucracy, it’s exceptionally uncommon for those in the public sector to work in either effective, or meaningful ways.
It’s primarily on this basis that I advocate for private charity, rather than government programs of various kinds.
It should be pretty clear at this point, I could say a good deal more on this subject than I’ve currently put out there.
That said, I try very hard to keep my little wordplays to roughly a thousand words. As such, I’ll leave off for the moment. You may expect to see more on this in the course of time, though.
As I normally do, I will wish you the best of times. If you’re not currently in such a place, I’ll pray that you get to such a spot in the very near future.