Joe Vs. You!

My sister and I were discussing welfare the other day and she laid this gem on me. Which I think sums up the situation nicely:

"Everyone notices the woman with the coach bag and the iPhone using her welfare card. You're looking for her, but you don't look twice at the woman with the clean but over-washed clothing and her kids in clothes two sizes too big using hers to get milk and bread. She is invisible. We don't WANT to see her because that makes us feel greedy and self indulgent and that is because we are."

Louis C.K. also put it aptly by saying that by driving his Infinity he's killing people. He could easily trade it in for a different vehicle, get the $20,000 in cash and use that to feed hundreds of people from dying of starvation.

It's my opinion that the vast majority of people on welfare are like the latter mentioned in my sisters quote. People use financial assistance when times are hard, times are hard because the economy is bad. If you don't need assistance you don't get it. It's that simple. It is also my opinion that the mustachio twirling fat-cats who fund our politicians campaigns actively influence policy that keeps themselves getting richer and restricts opportunities for those with less. 

I don't particularly like Bill Maher as an individual, I think he's kind of a cocky asshole, but every once in a while he will say something that rings with potential. He was quoted as saying "Hard work doesn't make people successful, if that was true this country would be run by Mexicans with leaf blowers". It's opportunity that makes people successful and what we have going on right now is a nominee who is part of a system that is actively trying to reduce opportunities for people. 

I shared my sisters quote because I believe that the republican party contains within it's upper echelons people who hype up the myth of the welfare queen for their own nefarious benefit. The myth that people make money off welfare and refuse to work therefor becoming leeches on the rest of society. I don't deny that such people are out there, but according to the link below and research provided there 93% of welfare fraud is committed by vendors, not the individuals receiving the benefits.

I'm not opposed to reforming welfare, I think we all need to tighten the belt a little bit for the benefit of our children in the generations to come, I also think that with all the wealth in this country being funneled directly towards the top more of it needs to be coming back down through taxes and social programs that provide opportunity.

This is why I'm voting for President Obama, not because I think Democrats are better than Republicans, but because I think Obama is better than Romney. I think Romney would walk past the homeless man on the street with a grimace, hoping he doesn't get something on his shoes. I think Obama would stop and help him up. I think we all need to stop and help him up, not call him lazy for not having a job.

I could get into an entire list of things that I disagree with President Obama about as well, but that's not the point of this wall of text here.