'I Am So Very Tired'
By Susie Madrak Sunday Dec 28, 2008 7:15pmA weary social worker writes:
I have had a ringside seat to the economic downturn this year. It is not an abstraction to me. The folks at the bottom are always the first to feel the pinch, when it comes. Clients of the agency I work at come through our doors every day requesting assistance with basic necessities like food, clothing, shelter and medications. As the year has progressed and New York State has chosen to repeatedly victimize its most vulnerable citizens, it has become more difficult to help people meet these needs. I have visited food banks with empty shelves, been told clients were ineligible for help when I knew they were and had to challenge these decisions. I have sat with clients while their applications for public assistance were reviewed by fraud investigators at social services. Our local social services department actually hired fraud investigators at the same time that it was laying off child protective workers demonstrating conclusively where our values lie and how genuinely mean spirited we are as a people. At the federal level Social Security routinely denies people eligible for benefits in the hopes that they will not reapply. Many people who receive benefits must hire a lawyer before social security will concede that they are indeed eligible. As the resources have become more limited, the level of scrutiny and inhumanity has risen accordingly.
I have, of course read about the rising unemployment numbers and the ensuing uptick in applicants for public assistance and food stamps nationwide like everyone else. It seems the chickens of Bill Clinton's (Best moderate Republican president ever)welfare reform are finally coming home to roost. We always knew that the flaw of his plan was an economy without jobs and here we are. The reform has no provision for an unemployment rate like we are experiencing now. Once again, our policy in practice serves to punish most harshly children and the elderly. Perhaps, it is time to repeal the child labor laws and begin allowing them to work 12 hour days again.
For nearly 30 years we have done our best to dismantle the safety net for the poor and struggling among us. I keep praying that we have reached the end of this folly. At 42, these policies are what I have known my entire work life. I dream about social service programs and rules that would treat people like human beings, rather than as an undesirable applicant to be culled out. I want so badly for us as a nation to stop punishing people for being poor, or elderly or a child of poor people. This holiday season was hellish as I watched scores of our clients navigate the realities of a holiday with nothing but further grinding poverty. Some days I am just weary from the strain of witnessing the suffering that goes on around me. It takes a toll that is more than physical, it eats away at the soul to see people ask for so little and receive far less.
As I contemplate how to pry a few dollars from these systems designed to humiliate and degrade my clients, already struggling with being social outcasts, chronic illness, drug addiction and mental illness I sigh audibly. I read of billion dollar bailouts and disappearing pallettes of cash as I ponder how to help a family with $400.00 so they will not be homeless in three days. I am so very tired.
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right now so we can't post or publish new material....Figures...Sunday nite and Holiday time...The problem is in our rack space....Equipment failure...
I hope it's fixed by the morning...
Damn!
It wasn't until the end of Clinton's tenure that I bothered to learn about the real effect of his welfare reform (among other policies). It makes me sad to know how apathy and ignorance on the part of the electorate (that includes me) has led us to our current situation as a nation.
This country has enageed the worst administrations of its governmenance starting with Ronnie the amicable dunce and ending with dumbshit George. It has been fed by a national psyche that will take this country to its logical end. Happy New Year!
A Russian professor has predicted the end of this country in 2 years.
Couldn't happen to a nicer system. This is what we get for letting conservative scum fuck things up while they tell us it's good for us.
So an ex-KGB analyst predicts that Canada will take over some of the most conservative states in the US? That Mexico, a nation in far worse financial straights than the US could ever hope to be, will take over a region dominated by WASPs?
And all of this KGB Propaganda is published by the Wall Street Journal, a publication which used to be respected, but since the takeover by Rupert Murdoch, has turned into tabloid trash.
And further, let me poke this little financial hole in his theory. If the US dollar collapses (which is what would happen in the event of a US collapse), then China, India, Japan, the Middle East, and Europe, all of whom own a gargantuan amount of debt and assets denominated in US Dollars, would descend into anarchy. It would be the end of every major industrialized nation.
Yes, you are correct. Why do you think it can't happen?
It can happen, but the US would not be split up like Berlin. If the US Government collapsed, and the dollar, then the world's reserve currency collapses. China's citizenry, for example, is perilously close to rioting on a daily basis. The same is true in Mexico, and every other major "emerging market" where the vast majority of the population can see the difference between the poverty they live in and the decadent wealth of their top .1%
If the US Government collapses, the theories of this Russian KGB Analyst (sorry, "Professor") are too simple, and blindly ignorant of the rest of the world's reaction. China, Mexico, Canada, and Europe (who are arguably worse off than we are and in much the same boat) will cease to exist. At best it would be some sort of single world government spawned from decades of conventional warfare, and at worst, something more along the lines of Mad Max.
This simple theory of "The US would go down, and the nearest geographic powers would carve up equal pieces" is ludicrous. Extrapolating that absurd theory to the rest of Dr. Panarin's hypothesis, and it's easy to dismiss.
Of course, you could look at a handful of other opinions. Or better yet, look at one of his "thoughtful" proponents.
Actually whites are becoming a minority in Texas so the theory of Mexico taking over and creating a southern Republic of Texas is a real possibility. The whites in Texas are mostly German American not Anglo, fyi.
The US is in deep financial trouble. It is completely bankrupt and deep in debt with industries crumbling. The professor's theory is a strong possibility many are thinking about these days.
I saw on Chinese TV, in English, an interview with a "top -Western-economist" that said Americans are broke, and in 10 years, after the stimulus packages, and higher unemployment, the government may very well be too. Happy New Year.
is a crime. I don't go out much, so I won't be arrested.
When they said: "Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free..."
It was a figure of speech.
They didn't meant it.
Anyone who has ever volunteered to help the poor will have somewhat similar stories which leaves you suspended in the disbelief that these conditions exist right here in the good ol' U.S. of A. It is an absolute shame that the country that so vocally brags and boasts of it's superiority is almost every area, also happens to be the planets biggest hypocrite when it comes to the welfare of the least among us. This craziness has to stop.
for the 22% who have golden parachutes, wear glass slippers, and eat from silver spoons. These are GREAT TIMES for people who's pockets are so deep they don't have to worry about GM failing or their neighbors' house going into foreclosure. He was a president "of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy."
It's really too bad it took the Christians in this country so long to figure that out.
It's really too bad it took the Christians in this country so long to figure that out.
I've heard otherwise from some of my friends who hooked up with their families during the holidays. Action and passion to help those with less, per religious principles, instead skews in the direction of Obama bashing.
Actually, I've been feeling tired a lot lately. I have to take much more medication than I expected at this point in my life to keep going. I work in an underpaid job, but fairly recession proof. Whatever greatness I've aspired to seems to have been ephemeral and evaporating like a will o'wisp.
It looks like if I'm ever going to get a book published, I must get in a public scandal and write a tell-all. People read my stuff, and say it's too difficult. I had one person tell me my villains are likeable and my heroes unlikeable, and I end stories on an open-ended note. So it's not commercial.
I've had people look at my cartoons and tell me they look like a cross between Art Deco of the 1890's to 1920's with a touch of Egyptian hieroglyphs, and a sensibility that like my books tends to be nasty, sarcastic and cynical. Again not commercial.
Meanwhile a retard like boosh gets all his power because of birth, that he's wasted and going to retire in comfort.
Do you have any samples online? (If you need hosting space, I can help.) Contact me at joe@nethead.com.
This is exactly why Bush and his fascist cohorts have destroyed the laws protecting us from the military.
Bush, Cheney and the rest of the criminal elite have been planning for this for a long time and they are fully aware that when you and I are put into this situation, its to the closets and our guns.
The end of American civilization may be just around the corner, and the violence and destruction that may result is the next step.
The government has very little idea how much the domestic populace can destroy its own environment in a flash...or maybe it does.
There are several steps that can be taken to avert this:
1) Repeal all trade laws and enact local production laws that take the profit out of moving jobs overseas and to foreign lands.
2) Provide for the poor in a humane manner and ensure that our society can return to normal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-pmpgrYQgs
Madeline Kahn, how I miss you and your wacky talents.
Thanks for the laughs, Ms Kahn, and a big thanks to you, ysbad!
Bush's other mess, nobody reports about.
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/513.html
Thank god I'm from Louisiana and already have the recipes.
Mmmm. Sounds good. Hope you make extra.
"Our local social services department actually hired fraud investigators at the same time that it was laying off child protective workers..."
Does anyone have reliable statistical knowledge that illustrates that welfare fraud is or is not rampant and the enhanced investigation team did or did not impact the fraud statistics? In other words, is there any reliable evidence to support the action the authorities?
I don't have any "proof" other than my own experience. I used to work in social services, and I'm convinced that the way each of our over-unionized state employee systems work... that we have a vested interest in maintaining and growing our caseloads of food stamp clients, welfare clients, voc/rehab clients, probation clients, etc. I'm also convinced that the majority of our social services workers are no longer challenged to achieve greatness.
as my mentor for the State of Oregon's Adult & Family Services used to say "the average bureaucrat's salary is directly proportional to the width of her ass" - I eventually grew so depressed watching human beings be herded in & out & back in to the system that I finally quit to re-join the private sector.
I grew tired of working around people who took too many cigarette breaks and wanted to work around people who actually felt nervous enough about getting fired to commit to excellence. I wanted to work around people who actually picked up the damn phone when you called them.
This was in 1999... this was when Bill Clinton created his "welfare to work" system - which was nothing more than a mandate to yank a bunch of people off of welfare so that he could proudly announce that our economy had vastly improved, by showing a reduced number of people on welfare.
friends of mine who need food stamps or unemployment checks since then have told me crazier and more depressing stories with each passing year. I find it both depressing and hypocritical that ordinary citizens have so many hoops to jump through to obtain $120/month worth of food, when law-breaking bankers get $1.6 trillion with little to no oversight. if a food stamp client buys her neighbor bread with her food stamp card, she faces jail time. if an AIG exec buys his neighbor a convertible with his bailout money we're "powerless". what an utterly depressing double standard.
*****
no Ed, I don't think anybody ever publishes the statistics of welfare fraud. they have to keep the meme going that its the public, not our governmental and economic leaders, who are at failing.
I am 43, white male. I say this because the stereotype of the african american or illegal hispanic solely wanting to use the welfare system is not true. I was in a car accident with an uninsured motorist. I had to have surgery on my back and am now disabled. I lost my job when I told my boss I needed to have this done and could not work until it was performed. I was fired that day! I applied to Social Security, a system I have paid into since I started working at the age of 15. I was denied and and now broke. I decided to go to the county offices for short term help; what I found out destroyed me. THERE IS NO HELP! I qualified for 154 dollars a month in food stamps, that was it. Broke, not able to work, Soc Sec denying my claims; it was a rapid fall from grace. I filed my cliam for Soc Sec in Aug 2004. After getting a laywer and wading through the system it was approved by a judge in June 2006. Ask yourself, could you go 23 months with no money, no help and only 154 dollars for food for a month? There is no saftey net, none, nothing at all. I am one of the lucky ones, a family member let me live rent free, bill free for 23 months. Would yours? We have let the wealthy wingnuts take away our saftey net. It was there for people like me, now it is gone for people like you. It was there for short term help in emergencys. Now the emergency happens, but there is nothing. 700 billion for the rich and the poor get screwed. I hope no one ever has to go through what I did. Unfortunatelly, with Bush's economic miracle and Clinton's destruction of the saftey net, some of you will.
Batjack
So sorry to read about your situation. I have a 44 yo male friend in a similar position. He was suffering from severe depression and anxiety attacks - and was putting up with the most evil bullying and harrassment from his boss and other work colleagues which sent him spiralling towards a massive nervous breakdown.
Nowadays he spends most of his time in bed or sitting in his living room with the curtains drawn. He tried to get welfare but was turned away - basically mental illness in Australia is not considered a "disability" and therefore to qualify for welfare he was expected to miraculously cure himself and apply for about 8 jobs a fortnight or ELSE!
He is luckier than you - he had a little nest egg that has been ravaged by the global financial mess - but he somehow is surviving on whatever is left.
Of course many of his friends - like myself - help him out where we can like meals and cleaning...
I can't solve your problem - but I am hoping things get a bit better for you and the many many millions around the world who are in pain right now.
And those bail outs in America? The companies caused their financial collapse themselves - and now the mug taxpayers are helping them out????
And from what I have read so far - many of these companies are refusing to tell congress where the money is being spent!!!!
To think some of this money is going towards paying the executives their multi-million $ pays, bonuses, corporate jets, spa retreats!!!!
F*CKING OUTRAGEOUS!
This is very true. I push my favorite charity every year - modestneeds.org - to potential givers as well as those who know people in need.
The outfit makes small grants to people on the verge of poverty. Grants (usually under $1000) are payed to creditors (utilities, landlords, banks etc.)
It is easy to apply online for help. It is just as easy to give whatever you can spare online as well.
I need to expand my list of public aid groups. I meet more and more people who are shell shocked by their predicaments and have no idea how to go about getting help.
The same is happening all over the world and I still just don't understand how leaders and big business can continue to get away with this immoral - and sometimes illegal - behaviour!
In Australia, we endured 11 or so years under one of the most vile PMs ever - John Howard - who looked after the white anglo christian rich and sod all to everyone else. We finally threw the boot at him when he tried to destroy our "fair go" workplace system with reforms that were very much like the ones in the US - ie minimum wages a termite can't survive on and dismissal laws that can get you fired for coming in 5 minutes late!
What I could never understand was why so many blue collar workers voted this a-hole in???
Same in the US - George W and the Republican party don't represent the poor, the disabled, the working class, minorities - but still many of them voted for him - AND many still supported McCain and Palin at the recent election!
Remember Joe the Plumber? Obama's tax plans would have benefited blue collar workers like him - but "Joe" and many of his like supported the Republicans. The party that gave massive tax cuts to the rich and right now are bailing out failing businesses! Billions available for the CEO of the big banks - but giving welfare to the poor, sick and homeless - that's COMMUNISM!
In Zimbabwe there are millions starving and sick with cholera and AIDS - but yet there are still many supporting the dictator Mugabe! I don't see guns to the heads of those cheering him on at recent rallies!
Likewise in Thailand - former PM Thaksin is a white collar criminal - defrauding the country of BILLIONS - and is now in exile in the Phillipines (I think) and addressing thousands of his supporters via satellite to overthrow the current government!
Many of these supporters don't look like billionaires to me - so why do they support a leader who doesn't give a sh1t about them???
2008 was bad - 2009 may be worse - but one ray of sunshine will be the US President Elect Barrack Obama - and for us in Australia - the knowledge that our PM Mr Rudd has similar views about the world and the direction we pray we all go in!
I know it is tiring and difficult - but we gotta hope and keep on hoping for a brighter day.
Who knows - the next pair of shoes might actually hit the bastard Bush! And a pair should be reserved for a few other people ... Madoff? Cheney?? Rumsfield, Rove etc. etc etc..
First thankyou so much for your kind words, they mean a lot to me. Second I have asked myseld the same question over and over. How can people vote for politicians who are not in their best interest? If anyone knows please let us in on the answer. McCain would have been a disaster for our country and our economy. His economic advisers (ie Phil Gramm) were the ones who wrote the banking deregulation laws. They helped cause this mess and wanted to do more in a McCain administration. There is an interestin book by the name What's The Matter With Kansas that tries to tackle this problem. It argues that the people of Kansas have been systematically "Dumbed" down enough to vote against their best economic interests. Strange tail. I hope the flood of information on the net will help inform people about what is happening in their governments. Why you would vote for four more years of Bush policys is beyond me!
... vote against their own interests? Check out
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/haidt08/haidt08_index.html
It's a bit long, but worth reading.
Blue collar workers vote against their best interests because Neocon Republicans have learned how to use *wedge issues*, like abortion and gay rights, to encourage them to do so.
While technically part of the 'labor' party, these mostly middle Americans are socially conservative, and are brainwashed into believing it's these small, often pointless agendas matter more than their own well being.
American politics are a complex matter; much more so than it probably looks from AU
NuLabour is getting ready to dismantle the safety net as we know it. Single parents with kids under 16 can get Income support, housing benefit and other benefits to look after their kids. The new plan is to force people with kids under 7 back to work, and then single parents have to start looking for full-time work once their child turns 1 year old. If they don't, their benefits will be cut. The lone parent will have to attend some class or sit in front of a computer (a kind of detention) all day long. Now, there is NO provision for childcare. When my child was in private daycare, it cost us £7000 a year in childcare. There cheaper private schools. This was in a two-income household with neither of us on minimum wage, but neither of us on high-wages either. How the hell is a single parent supposed to afford that kind of money? At the time, we weren't living in London, so the childcare was not as expensive.
Nearly every think-tank, policy group, social research organisation and some of Labour's own MPs are against this. Those that are on Incapacity Benefit will be forced into work or forced to do things such as sweep streets, weed gardens or paint fences. I pay council tax for that-- and there are people employed to do those things. Labour (who is supposed to be the party of the working people) and the tabloids have practically criminalised being poor and idiots fall for it because the Sun or Daily Mail has run a story about a person getting £40000 in benefits and living high on the hog. Meanwhile, they see nothing wrong with non-dom billionaires living it up and paying less in taxes than they do.
I've been poor in America and I'd still rather be poor here in the UK than in my home country. While Labour is trying its best to destroy the system, there is still some system left.
My sister informed me, by e-mail, that my parents back in Canada, instead of going on a spending orgy, sponsored two local families, both with four children, so they could have A CHRISTMAS, period.
I just wrote and told them I've never been prouder.
PS I sent them this article in the letter.
The frustration this writer feels was isolated and new. Unfortunately this attitude of making people in need jump through hoops has been prevalent and pervasive for decades. After forcing the DC Government to open a women's shelter which the group i worked with ran free of charge in December of 1978 they turned around the following summer and sold the property to the Canadian Government for their new Embassy. Although the Embassy was not to be built until 1984 the DC Government sold it under the condition that they tear the building down immediately.
Their solution for the fifty women we housed was that if they wanted shelter it would be provided for them under the condition that they show up at their office at 8 am and wait for the bus to arrive at 8 pm to transport them to the other side of town where they rented motels rooms at $1000 a night that were rat infested and dangerous. Heaven help them if they were late getting back to the office the next day. If they were they were not allowed in to wait sitting in hard chairs for yet another 12 hours with out food and only a water fountain.
Our country blows.
Just last week I got into a yelling match (at church) with a woman who talked about welfare queens in Cadillacs. She didn't want her tax money going to these imaginary cars or Universal Health Care for those too lazy to work (she's a stay at home Army wife).
The Conservative myths of welfare fed the reforms that Clinton and the Republican Congress foisted on the American people.
Cadillac queens, generational abuse, having children just to get higher benefit checks and all of it coming frem the taxes raised on the back of people making less than middle class income.
These were the lies that Republicans used to control welfare reform. They convinced the people who might someday benefit from a safety net that it was a golden parachute for the lazy and criminal class (insert racial bias here).
No matter how often these imaginary abuses are debunked, the lies live on because of demogogues like Rush and the subconsious prejudices and ignorance they play on.
Perhaps the only cure is for millions to experience the degradations of severe poverty.
is sucking off of the biggest, most socialist, welfare teat there is. She doesn't pay any goddamn tax. I would rather pay 90% tax so sick people got meds, kids didn't go hungry, homeless or without coats, and disabled people got the care the need rather than give mega-billionaires even more money for fucking up the economy with useless bits of paper pushing.
When our local Dept. of Social Services started to hire fraud investigators, they named the civil service title "Quality Control Investigator." Mostly they were used to determine that homeless people were really homeless, and not getting a room to turn around and sublet to someone. I suggested that a better name for the title would have been Sherlock Homeless.
At the federal level Social Security routinely denies people eligible for benefits in the hopes that they will not reapply. Many people who receive benefits must hire a lawyer before social security will concede that they are indeed eligible.
I am disabled and on social security. I didn't apply for disability for a few years after I became disabled because of the"shame" of it that I was brought up with. When I finally broke down and applied - after my father, who instilled that shame in me told me it was time to concede that I was disabled... I was of course turned down, because all initial applications (with rare exceptions) are turned down and you must appeal. That is the STANDARD procedure.
In NY, it takes two years to get a court date for the appeal, meaning that the minimum length of time before you get disability is two years. In my case, it took FOUR years.
So in the meantime, unable to work, living off credit cards with debt mounting, unable to afford treatment for my illness that disabled me in the first place, unable to afford a place to live and sleeping on a relative's floor, I became so depressed I ended up in a psych ward, suicidal. Ironically, that helped my disability case.
Of course, I needed a lawyer, which cost thousands (taken out of disability benefits retroactively after they were awarded.)
Occasionally I come across a person, unfailingly a republican, who calls me a con-man, or lazy, or says I'm on "welfare" because I'm on disability. One said "unless you're typing that with a stick in your mouth, you're not disabled."
Yes, it was all just an elaborate and lengthy scheme to get to live off of $12k a year.
I've come to realize that we have taken mental illness, a dysfunctional mentality, and elevated it and celebrated it by calling it "American Individualism." We celebrate the sociopaths lacking empathy and call them rugged individualists. We celebrate gluttons and compulsive consumers who ruthless amass fortunes and tell the lie that the American Dream was simply about becoming a billionaire when in fact it was about the ability to live your life without oppression and class structure - to be able to open a butcher shop or farm your own land or attend (or not attend) the church of your choice, and to build a future for your family.
If you have been paying attention for the last few decades, or just the last 8 years, you will be extremely aware of the Republican dream (enabled by some Democrats) of stripping away the social safety net in this country. My wife works in Health & Human Services in our county and it has been brutal for years. Part of it has to do with California and the ridiculous tax system in this state, but not all of it. Single payer health care will help the population of this country so much and it is sickening that there still is not serious talk about it.
A lot of the trouble of individual economics stems less from the screw-ups of government as it comes from the acceptance of a social order based on money. We are never taught about the economic social stratification that we live with, where the top 5% or whatever the percentage is suppose to be of the ones that determine the lives of those beneath them. It is still a matter of the serfs and the lords in this country and always has been. Once you stop looking for the ones on top to drop scraps our way, and reject the idea of suspect materialism (buying stuff because we are told it will make us happy) then we will have better control of the important things that are not material at all but have greater worth then something that fades with age.
An example of the differences in our thinking is the Sears and Roebuck catalogue from the late 19th century. People use to call them a Wish Book. Now we use the internet in much the same way but think of it as a shopping list. Big difference.
We were luckier it only took my husband a year to get his SS diability oked. But like you we lived on my $800 a month paycheck and credit cards. Even being careful with what we bought we were $20,000 in debt by the time he got his ss. We did not have to hire a lawyer, we had doctor reports that helped him. Plus he already knew that he would be turned down when he first applied. As soon as he was turned down he applied again. They give you just enough to live on. I had to drop him from my insurance when it got to expensive to carry him. All he ended up with was medicare and heaven forbid if you get real sick. A year ago he died of cancer. He knew it would cost too much to have anything done so decided not do to anything.
It's very sad that people are treated this way. It's not just the govt though. A large portion of our society is more worried that someone might scam the system than they are about making sure people who really need help get it.
Rev Wright had it right. "God damn America!"
I'm glad this subject has been discussed. I always had a feeling people were too afraid to talk about it in the US. Social welfare has to be a huge priority for the Obama govt. It has to be taken out of the Dickension era and rejuvenated for the 21st century. It's a right not a privilege and its also not a shame to be on welfare. I was struck down mid career with a disability. Thank god I live in Australia where getting benefits was not a problem and I have universal health care, dental, rental, internet, utility and other concessions. I was even given a Christmas bonus of $1400 to catch up on the doing without list. I think if I lived in the US I maybe ineligible for welfare, unable to work and be homeless. It sounds like hell to me.
Here's your "compassionate conservatism" at work.
"They're not unemployed because of the economy, they're welfare kings and queens too lazy to get a job!"
Are there no work houses? No prisons?...If (the poor) would rather die than go there, perhaps they had better do so, and decrease the surplus population!
-- Ebenezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
No matter what opinion is posted, this I'm so very tired note needs to be right smack in the middle of the Wallstreet Journal for the money snobs/theives to read.
Maybe we should penalize the theives, we can put them in the shoes of the poor, let the money snobs suffer,
I know for a fact some people who are poor are not all "lazy" yes there are some, but you can not attribute all to one point of view. As for the thieves on Wallstreet they are the Lazy ones, stealing from the baby boomers 401 Ks forcing them to not be able to have the quality of life they worked all there life to ear, just to have the money snobs take the money way.
Is there no where safe to keep our money ?
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