Having struggled is something that many can relate too, however, the actions she took, including writing this emotion laden column, display a stunning lack of responsibility. She makes it clear in her last paragraph that her family neither deserved to be poor nor deserved to be rich. This levies the entire blame for their situation on chance and leaves no room for individual decision making and responsibility. To claim that individual decision making or responsibility play any part in outcomes is akin to heresy on the progressive left. Instead, the left believes that there are systemic and societal forces that determine outcomes that are entirely divorced from the decisions that people make. In other words, it’s all by chance, the world is inherently unjust and there is no individual agency.
This column was written with the intent to erase any stigma (including the author’s own) associated with being on public assistance. It’s become a core tenant of progressive belief to assert that those receiving tax-payer funded assistance shouldn’t feel any stigma attached to the use of those funds. Those funds should come without strings or judgment attached. She complains about the means testing she endured to qualify to receive aid despite owning a home and two vehicles. Her story is not one of gracefully weathering and overcoming the hardships of a struggle. Her story is an attempt to use emotion to justify the removal of all stigma associated with public welfare that is provided by taxpayers.
There are other avenues one can turn to besides taxpayer funded aid. These include the little platoons that the left is intent on destroying, the church, family, friends, and community service groups who provide supplemental food and aid. Of course these avenues are not entirely devoid of judgment. Anytime you ask a favor of another human being, you open yourself up to the judgment of those of whom you ask the favor.
She expects that those around her to not question the financial decisions she is making while at the same time expecting their tax dollars to fund the programs she is using. There is no such thing as a free lunch and to expect that those who are helping you will make no judgments regarding financial decisions is an untenable expectation.
At the end of the day, this is a pity party from a women who feels sorry for herself that she choose to rely on public welfare, while still owning a Mercedes, and who feels that she doesn’t deserve to endure the slightest stigma associated with her use of taxpayer funded, means tested programs.
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