FACES OF ENTITLEMENT

It is a sad reality that we rarely see the face of the average “entitlement” recipient. The media loves to show us the extreme example. After we become bored with the novelty of octuplets, media spends endless hours discussing the cost to the public of octuplets. Two million in medical costs, Mom takes out student loans to live on, food stamps and a home in foreclosure. Nadya Suleman: POSTER CHILD FOR THE EVILS OF ENTITLEMENT! These are your tax dollars at work. Redistribution of wealth at it’s finest.

Yesterday, I saw another side of “entitlements”. I stood in line at the grocery store muttering to myself about how slow the person ahead of me was. He had a case of soup-in-a-cup and the checker was ringing each cup up individually. It was taking forever and I was in a hurry! Then I listened to the conversation he was having with the checker and I realized why. It was the middle of the month and the man only had so much left in food stamps for the month. He worked nights and was raising his kids as a single parent. The soup was an easy and affordable meal that he didn’t need to be home to prepare. He bought as many as he could afford. The rest of his cart contained fresh vegetables, rice, milk and fruit rollups for the kids. No junk food, no soda, none of the items we are told by talk radio that welfare recipients waste OUR tax dollars on. Instead I saw a father working hard to make ends meet during bad economic times.

As a society, we don’t find any gratification in looking at the millions of Americans who survive because they accept food stamps, Medicare or Section 8 Housing. We show no interest in the numbers of people who have left the welfare system because the system worked for them. They accept help during a bad time and then use that help to get back on their feet. But they’re not interesting! Spend time talking about them and watch your news ratings drop.

There are a lot more people like that man on welfare today than there are Nadya Sulemans. They are good people with something to contribute to our society. Many of them will leave the rolls of welfare eventually. Some of these former entitlement recipients may be your friends. I know a woman who in the 70’s was an unmarried mother of two, who took food stamps, Section 8 housing and student loans. Thirty years later she has a degree and is part owner of a small business. Without government assistance she would never be where she is today. She (and all those like her) are the justification for why entitlements are necessary.

So the next time you want to complain about all those worthless people sucking up tax dollars, keep in mind that all you hear about are the losers. Often the system works and that too deserves recognition.