Thursday, January 27, 2005

Freebies, revisited

Got the following comment on my Freebies post from a couple of days ago, from someone named Anon:

Are you for real in this post or just being sarcastic? It certainly comes off as being highly intolerant. Did you know that it takes about $35000 for a family of four to live comfortably in most cities in Iowa? I think you need to educate yourself about the facts of poverty before you judge all these people so negatively.


This is a non-sequitur, Anon. My complaint is that we have a system that now encourages people to live without facing the full consequences of their decisions. These people standing in line aren't impoverished.

Sure, I don't know anyone who was standing in that line. But that's exactly my point as well -- I don't know any of them. Why should my hard-earned money (which I earn by educating their teenage children in the lowest-socioeconomic-level public high school in Des Moines) go to people I don't even know? What if they are making choices that I don't approve of?

It's a wicked system, and I mean that in the sense that it rewards bad behavior just the same as it helps people who truly DO need the help. It's a blind system, as only a government bureaucracy can be.

No, Anon, it really doesn't matter whether I'm "educated" about poverty in Iowa... because that isn't my point. But I actually AM educated about it, if it matters so much to you. I live in the inner city of Des Moines, and I work in the inner city of Des Moines, with people who also live and work in the inner city. I know what I'm talking about. And, why, YES, I am intolerant. I'm intolerant of the notion of subsidizing people's choices and behaviors which I believe are harmful to their well-being and success.

We do NOT have true poverty here. I've also spent a great deal of time in Haiti, and I've seen what REAL poverty is. We are a very spoiled bunch of folks who look around us at the other plasma-TV-owners and feel oppressed because we don't also own one. We all want to have sex as often as we like with whoever we like, and we don't want to have to PAY the consequences such as the costs and responsibilities of raising children. It's wicked and vile, and I intend to work hard to change my little corner of the societal fabric, for as long as I have the chance.

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