On Food Stamps

And no, I don't mean that my family is on food stamps, not yet anyway, though we have applied for them, at Sharon's^* insistence, since I've been out of work for 5 months.

To put it mildly, I have very mixed emotions about this: I still have savings, and cars, and a house, and there is a part of me that feels that I am somehow not deserving of these benefits as a result....Though ultimately, it will be a case officer who will be making that call.

I've never bought into the "Lazy, shiftless, insertprogramhere recipient," meme, but it feels wrong for me to be an "insertprogramhere recipient," personally.

In any case, there is a New York Times article discussing the growing number of people who are availing themselves of the safety net program that they once disdained.

Some people who have found themselves on some form of public assistance have come away with a new compassion for those in need, and realize that they are just like themselves, but others take this experience, and see it as another justification for hate, as in the case of the comments in the article from Greg Dawson, who is on food stamps despite having a job:

With most of his co-workers laid off, Greg Dawson, a third-generation electrician in rural Martinsville, considers himself lucky to still have a job. He works the night shift for a contracting firm, installing freezer lights in a chain of grocery stores. But when his overtime income vanished and his expenses went up, Mr. Dawson started skimping on meals to feed his wife and five children.

He tried to fill up on cereal and eggs. He ate a lot of Spam. Then he went to work with a grumbling stomach to shine lights on food he could not afford. When an outreach worker appeared at his son’s Head Start program, Mr. Dawson gave in.

“It’s embarrassing,” said Mr. Dawson, 29, a taciturn man with a wispy goatee^† who is so uneasy about the monthly benefit of $300 that he has not told his parents. “I always thought it was people trying to milk the system. But we just felt like we really needed the help right now.”

...

While Mr. Dawson, the electrician, has kept his job, the drive to distant work sites has doubled his gas bill, food prices rose sharply last year and his health insurance premiums have soared. His monthly expenses have risen by about $400, and the elimination of overtime has cost him $200 a month. Food stamps help fill the gap.

Like many new beneficiaries here, Mr. Dawson argues that people often abuse the program and is quick to say he is different. While some people “choose not to get married, just so they can apply for benefits,” he is a married, churchgoing man who works and owns his home. While “some people put piles of steaks in their carts,” he will not use the government’s money for luxuries like coffee or soda. “To me, that’s just morally wrong,” he said.

He has noticed crowds of midnight shoppers once a month when benefits get renewed. While policy analysts, spotting similar crowds nationwide, have called them a sign of increased hunger, he sees idleness. “Generally, if you’re up at that hour and not working, what are you into?” he said.

Unlike many of the other people, who have come to the conclusion that people down on their luck are simply down on their luck, Mr. Dawson still steadfastly maintains that he's a worthy recipient, and the rest are all a bunch of spongers on the system?

Why does he think this? My guess is because a lot of them are not white, and he just knows how shiftless and lazy they are, but I'm an but I'm an engineer, not a psychologist, dammit,^‡, which makes it so much supposition.

On a deeper level, if we look at what he is saying, and simply take it at face value, this is all about jealousy, selfishness, and a fear of the other.

Because, you see if someone, anyone, is somehow getting a bit more than they deserve, then the programs just support lazy people, and should be eliminated.

It is this sort of the thinking is the only thing that has the Republican Party remaining politically viable: Too many people need someone/something to hate.

H/t Atrios.

^*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.
^†There is something fundamentally suspicious about a man in a goatee, that's why the evil Spock in Mirror, Mirror wore one.
^‡I LOVE IT when I get to go all Doctor McCoy!!!.