This is the high life?

I’m often surprised at how much resentment there is out there for people who receive public assistance. Some want recipients tested for drugs, closely watched and sharply questioned about how they lead lives. They want an accounting for every penny because they’re sure there’s widespread fraud and waste. They don’t seem to realize that there is little evidence of excessive abuse, and that adding all these layers of scrutiny will only make the bureaucracies bigger and more inefficient, and the people receiving help, who are by and large really poor and in many cases really sick, feel as though they’re being treated like common criminals. Would you want to tell a government bureaucrat how much money you’re spending a month for toilet paper? Would you like handing over a bottle of your urine to a government bureaucrat?

There is this belief that huge numbers of people are living in a grand style at taxpayer expense, and this is bankrupting the country. First of all, the people who think this should spend a few minutes actually looking at government expenditures. This is public information, and it can easily be accessed on the internet. And secondly, these people should listen to those who are receiving public assistance. For instance, people like me. I’m on Disability Social Security, SSI and my rent is subsidized. And I have both Medicare and Medical.

I’m grateful that I live in a country that can afford and is generous enough to help people like me. I’m grateful that I have a roof over my head, food to eat and that my medical expenses are paid for. But this idea that I’m living in luxury is, in a word, horseshit. I live in a small, rundown apartment on the “wrong” side of town. For nearly six months, my kitchen sink has leaked. It’s more than a drip now, it’s a steady stream. I’ve told the maintenance man four times about the leak, but he just doesn’t have time for me. There are 100 units here and just one maintenance man. For several months last year, the tank on my toilet leaked water into the floor every time I flushed. It made a mess, and it was quite a bother, but what could I do?

At every turn, I’m threatened with eviction if I don’t fill out this or that form on time or let inspectors in my apartment at appointed times, which are never, ever at my convenience. And I don’t exactly feel safe going outside after eight o’clock.

I don’t own a car. I don’t buy hardly anything other than groceries and supplies. I dress in the most basic and simplest clothes--t-shirts, gym shorts, hooded sweatshirt jackets. And I wear my shoes until they have holes in them. I live just a couple of hours away from Yosemite and San Francisco, but I can hardly ever afford to go to the city, and I only manage to go to Yosemite once a year for a few days. I went to Yosemite last month because it was so much cheaper to go in December. I had to save for months, and still I had to basically skip Christmas. I couldn’t even afford to send anyone a Christmas card. And this month is no better. We’re just a third of the way into the month, and after paying my bills and stocking up on groceries, I have about $30 left for the rest of the month. So where are these people leading jet set lives on welfare? If they’re out there, I don’t know how they’re doing it by accessing the same programs available to me.