Take and Give

                 Events in my personal life have led me to the realization that the system, and the country that it supports is undeniably flawed.  For a long time, I felt that the negative view of the United States was unwarranted, that we weren’t really as bad as everyone claimed us to be.  It could be that I was just too young to see with my own eyes what was right in front of my face.  The stunning lack of ambition and self respect in my generation and younger is destroying this country. 

                This is a problem that has obviously increased as more options for children to be lazy and less accountability for those same children increased as well.  Instead of going to play outside, children are now sitting inside all day, watching other people play video games.  You read that right, watching other people play video games.  I am a huge proponent for video games in general.  I think they create and enhance hand-eye coordination as well as develop problem solving skills; causing children to not only explore every avenue in terms of solving a problem, but also providing an instant reward if they do.  Watching someone do that on YouTube instead of doing it yourself is tantamount to putting your brain on autopilot and pledging not to learn anything new. 

                Sorry, that was a mini-rant, and one not even completely related to the topic at hand.  What I would really like to uncover is the handout process in the United States.  How someone with no education and no skills can be making more in governmental support than someone with a Master’s Degree.  How did we get to be so backwards as a society that we are actively rewarding those individuals that sit home and pop out kids because they know that the government will not let children starve?  Believe me, I understand not letting kids go hungry, but if your entire idea of subsistence is popping out a new child every year (often from different fathers) so that you can cash in on their existence, how does that make you worthy of even having the child? 

                I understand that there is a job crisis, and a housing crisis and so many other crises in this country, but I have a solution for you, one that will cost no more than what the government is spending now, and probably a lot less.  Give these people jobs.  Give them all of the menial shit jobs that no one wants.  I could go on Monster/Careerbuilder/etc. right now and bring up 500 open positions in the Syracuse area alone.  If you give each individual currently on welfare a coupon with a special code on it that they can present to their prospective employer, thereby entitling that employer to only have to pay that individual half their hourly wage (the government would make up the difference) you can’t tell me that a restaurant or a department store wouldn’t jump at that. 

Here’s the kicker though, you get six months of housing assistance in order to get on your feet, and a month of food stamps to use until it’s gone.  (Speaking of food stamps, let’s dial back what you can buy on food stamps while we’re at it.  White or whole wheat bread (the store brand), water, milk, peanut butter, etc., things like that.  No one should be able to purchase soda, chocolate or anything that can be denoted as “fancy” while using government money.  Why should you be able to eat better than 90% of the working class?)  Once that money is gone, you’re done; you have to struggle to make ends meet like the rest of us.  That means breakfast for dinner, turning the heat down and throwing on an extra sweater and not being able to afford the finer things in life without budgeting for them. 

If you deny that, if you decide you still want to sit on your ass and just collect, then you can go fuck yourself.  Be homeless, die penniless.  If you have no ambition, motivation or self-respect, then you’re not contributing to society anyway. 

If you have children, and their other parent is better off than you and in a position to care for the children, then you lose your kids, regardless of your gender unless you can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt why they belong with you over someone that works for a living.  This archaic notion that the mother should be raising the children has run its course.  There are plenty of terrible mothers (just look on Facebook, they’re the ones that always repost memes about being good mothers) and good fathers and this line of thinking that says a child needs to live with their mother to grow up well adjusted is about as forward thinking as women not being allowed to vote.  Children that grow up in a household of takers, will become takers themselves and if we are going to stop the downward spiral, it needs to start here and now. 

This will not only cause people to have to start working for what they get in life, but in the long run it will help those individuals that may have been trying to get off welfare but were unable to get a job because of a lack of knowledge or experience.  An employer would more likely be willing to train someone on the job if they’re only paying them half the salary that they require by law, thereby increasing that individual’s stock and making the next job that they get a lot easier to obtain. 

This is not hard.  Will it receive pushback from bleeding hearts that think everyone is special and that the destitute deserve the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness at the expense of those that bust their ass everyday to make something of themselves?  Absolutely.  Do those people have a pot to piss in, considering the fact that they are collecting a government check of a different kind?  Not at all.  Let’s make some noise.  Stop paying people for being lazy and worthless and start making them earn their keep.  Let’s bring accountability back to this country.  We can make it great again, something to be proud of, as long as we start from the bottom and build everyone up.