Lazy people

I am jobless, but then again I am dealing with dizziness/headaches and other stuff that prevents me from getting a job. Just be careful not to paint everyone with a broad brush is all I ask.

 

Some lazy people are indeed lazy.

Sometimes depression manifests itself as laziness or, better yet, diminished productivity.

Understanding the root of the laziness is important.

 

Cass, the kind of behavior you describe is really, really uncommon. So uncommon that it's not really worth getting mad about.

I think it's more important to look at the lives of people in say, Section 8 housing and what they are doing, and how they survive. I read a story once that a mother of two got a better paying job and landed deeper in poverty because as a result of getting the better job (a good thing, right?) she no longer qualified for as much government assistance. But the difference between her better paying job and the lower paying job was less than the amount of the government assistance she was receiving.

That's a really sad thing, and politicians blow shit at math.

 

The only reason I was able to go to college was due to government assistance (Pell Grant).

 

So much hate...

 

In many states in the US, Welfare often pays much more than a Job would. Something that generally discourages people on welfare from getting Jobs. I wouldn't really call those people lazy. They are doing what financially would be considered the smart thing but they are taking the money from the people who pay taxes. If they chose to accept a job that pays a little less than welfare and work their way up then in a few years or so they would be in a better situation than they were when on welfare.

Welfare is a great thing that helps so many people in need but it also creates a dependency for the people on it. It should really be restricted to the people who are working low paying jobs and need the money to support their family, people who are very actively looking for a job, and the people who can't work due to disability.

I read an interesting article in the New York post earlier and even though it's almost a year old article it's still relevant
When welfare pays better than work | New York Post

 

Ditto.

 

My family's position right now, actually. We live in a Section 8 apartment and both my parents have been in really shit jobs for the past few years. Dad's in the back rooms of a department store doing menial and stressful work despite his heart problems, mom's constantly being called in on her days off. They've both been at their jobs long enough to get raises from time to time, which means all our bills get jacked up from time to time. It's like a really fucked up trapeze act.

I've been toying with the idea of getting a job myself to help out, but thanks to my depression i barely have the energy to take a shower and change my clothes some days, let alone go to school. Not sure if i'd be able to handle a job while I'm still in school. At this point I'm just hoping my parents' pay doesnt get so high that we can't afford rent. We're barely scraping by as it is.

Think long and hard before you accuse people of being lazy. My parents are anything but lazy, and the only thing keeping us off the streets is their hard work and government assistance.

 

Okay, well how do you feel about the scenario I described? I feel that I argued pretty forcefully that the problem is not dependency, because again, dependency is rare. People generally don't want to be on welfare. They want to survive while they are working back to a position of stability. No, the problem is that means-testing is not calibrated correctly. It should never be the case that a person can get a better job and be worse off. Their benefits should decrease of course, because they need them less; however, the amount of that decrease needs to work better so that it doesn't become economically more rational for people to work menial service jobs. We don't need to "restrict" welfare more. We need to means test correctly.

I would also argue that you crucially missed students. Until hiring managers stop being bigoted idiots against people without four-year degrees, there is going to be a need to provide more assistance to students pursuing degrees for productive employment. At my place of work, my mentor told me stone cold that he would trust a 4-year computer science degree guy sooner than a high school graduate with five certifications. I'm not sure how much you know about my field, but certifications are not easy to get, and getting even two certifications demonstrates considerable initiative. The sad truth is, as long as the bachelor's degree is now the "new high school diploma" in this sick racket of a private education system we now have, there's going to be a real need for government assistance for those people too, as a matter of rational investment in citizenship.

 

I see some of these responses and I think you are missing the point of the OP's rant. Being unable to work (like biguy8), going to school on a Pell Grant, or people who are doing their level best and still need assistance (like hen's parents) are exactly why the government programs are in place and I don't think that you would ever hear anybody complain about you using them. I have lost my job and landed on my parents couch a few times myself.

I think the OP was complaining about people like my sister and her husband. My sister took a summer job after high school and hasn't worked since! She has been married for about 10 years and her husband only ever had one job working at a pizza place. They live at home with my parents and draw food stamps. They both have minor learning disabilities but not bad enough that they cannot work. If you take the time to actually teach them something they CAN learn (I have taught them both tasks that are wayyy more complex than anything you would find in a factory and done so in less than an hour). They would rather complain about having a learning disability and having to live with my parents, than getting a job and making plenty enough to live on their own (I do factory work and makes enough on just one income). People like them abuse the system and give those who need it a bad reputation.

I believe that is who the OP was ranting about.

 

For what it's worth, I've been called a government leech in the past because I didn't have a job while going through college and relied on financial aid to pay for everything.

 

The problem, though, is that the people you're talking about often get put in the same category as the other people mentioned in this thread. Thus the ''give those who need it a bad reputation'' part of what you said. It's all too easy for a lot of people to look at a homeless person or a person on welfare and automatically think, ''They're probably lazy.'' or ''It must be their fault that they're in this situation.''

Waaay too many people take the classist approach to this subject, and people living in poverty get stigmatized for it. Calling a group of people as a whole lazy is a dangerous path to tread, and that's what the OP was doing, regardless of intent.

 

I know of several individuals who are on various welfare programs. A few teenage mothers who need it for their children, a few who rely on food stamps to feed their family, and of course individuals who rely on it for schooling.

With anything you do, you are going to find people who will exploit and abuse it. I'll be one of the first to admit, I was one of those. I quickly discovered, by using food stamps, I could save money and spend it towards other things. Hell, I could even sell food stamps in "bundles", because of them being tax free. I'd wind up making a bit of profit, so I'd have more money than I was granted originally. It is tempting to never want to work, however...

You will only make enough to continue to sustain where you are. Unless you're some kind of corner hustler magician, you won't be able to do all the things you'd like to do on welfare. Welfare pretty much just guarantees you the bare minimum. And honestly, most people on welfare who abuse it, probably lack the motivation to go out and make extra money. I'd say the issue isn't so much the abusing of the system as it is why they do.

 

Yes, legal students who have to commute several hours per day and have no leisure time as it is should be working and refuse money from government and family to obey your holy command of productive righteousness.

 

What is your concern, though? More money is stolen by individual businesspeople in high positions than is stolen by thousands of poor.

 

hypocrite! you can't chastise lazy people when you yourself admit being lazy!

 

Forget them. My only jobs during college was bookstore work and begging for donations for the college over the phone. If you can't find work or school is difficult based on schedule load, no one has any place.