You’ll often hear Americans complain about a supposed epidemic of people taking advantage of social programs when they don’t really need them (Those damn poor people are just so lazy and immoral!), even though that statistically doesn’t happen very often.
Every judgemental white suburbanite has some anecdote about a person they know who gets some kind of state assistance, and who they think doesn’t deserve it. It’s incredibly stigmatized to be on any kind of public assistance, and people will often just assume that you’re a dishonest freeloader if you are—even though, again, incrediblyfuckingrare.
But you almost never hear any talk of the opposite problem.
Everyone, not just right-wing talk radio blowhards, is familiar with the trope of the person who fakes a disability to get worker’s compensaton or disability benefits or whatever. (Faking a limp, “I’ve got anxiety, doc…definitely,” that kind of thing.) But I’ve never heard someone who isn’t themselves disabled point out how insanely difficult and complicated it is to get and keep disability benefits.
And I’ve never heard a non-disabled person even mention the fact that there are a lot of people who can’t work due to a disability, but who don’t get benefits because some incompetent doctor hired by Social Security who doesn’t know them and only talked to them for twenty minutes decided they weren’t disabled ‘cause they can string a sentence together.
There are a lot of disabled people who fall through the cracks because the system is so strict, and most people probably aren’t even aware that that happens. But fuck, everyone’s heard of “welfare queens.”
Someone being forced to starve and live on the street is worse than someone being a freeloader, but you only ever seem to hear people bring up the latter—because focusing on the former would require one to be empathetic and put in the effort help people, while focusing on the latter lets one demonize them and not have to do anything.
if i can get psychological for a second: it’s because focusing on people in trouble kinda makes you want to die. it makes you feel helpless and angry and sad. it’s bad times.
those of us who are disabled have no choice but to feel those things when we look at the system.
abled people have a choice, and they choose not to feel awful.
i forgive that. i understand that. i wish more would take a hit for the team and pay attention to the bad things so they’ll become less bad, but i can’t honestly be sure i would if i had a choice.
spreading lies about how people who suffer deserve it, that’s just world bullshit and it’s cruel and wrong. that’s not ok. but noping out of putting yourself in the shoes of the millions of people who need help and can’t get it? weak, but understandable. not everyone can be strong. i guess the world needs helpless bystanders too.
No, but compassionate bystanders would be a start
To reply… it was super hard to get food stamps. I was going to art school and taking 15 credits a quarter (mostly production classes which meant a huge project due at the end instead of a final exam). That equaled to 5 classes, 4 hours each a week, so 20 hours.
I also had a total of four hours a week per class in homework, so another 20 hours. There’s your basic 40 hour work week.
To get food stamps I had to prove that I was working at least 20 hours a week, and I did that too working security. Which paid $9 an hour. So I made $180 before taxes working the equivalent of a 60 hour work week, not counting any freelance gigs I could pick up since they were few and far between and not something to count on. So: a total of $650 after taxes that went to rent, car payment, supplies for school, power, laundry, garbage, and water.
My rent was $650/month. Literally I would have starved once that case of ramen that my mom bought me ran out if I didn’t have food stamps.
It took a month and a lot of interviews and paperwork to prove I needed it.
The first time I went grocery shopping with that card was damn near orgasmic. I could afford fresh meat and vegetables and fruit. Good food which helped me to focus better in school and make the honors society.
I guess I could have not gone to school and worked a minimum wage job all my life, or gone to school and been homeless, or any manner of other things… but those things are all frowned on too.
Now I’m a professional in my field, making not much more, but dammit, I’m happy. And I will not give anyone shit for needing assistance. If you’re scamming the system that’s between you and whatever gods you deal with, but I know what it’s like to need help and feel bad because “you shouldn’t be asking for it.”
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