Often I’m told that the paper should do some kind of story about how our tax dollars are being wasted on social welfare. I hear of how people exploit the system to buy lottery tickets, beer and support all kinds of human debauchery.
Perfect failing examples of the sort of person so often stereotypically described can be seen tipping back government-sponsored six packs and lighting up good will cigarettes on just about any corner in Norwich at the end of the month, but there is something tragic to be seen further in the community.
There are different kinds of welfare – basically any money received from the state to supplement the cost of living. That covers a wide range of things from Medicaid, Social Security, unemployment, food stamps, public assistance, disability and so on.
I myself by that broad definition have been a welfare recipient at different points in my life because I received unemployment for a four-month duration and lived in HUD-approved housing (that’s a home that received government aid for its upkeep in exchange for placing rent to help lower income earners).
I know a handful of people who benefit from such programs. A disabled high school friend and veteran who lost part of his hearing in the service, another who is a single mom in her 20s reeling from a divorce and raising two kids, one who is fighting an ever-rising battle with a potent bipolar disorder, an elderly relative on public assistance because the cost of caring for her deceased husband wiped out everything they saved.
But, I also grew up here and like a lot of locals I can name quite a number of people who basically had the exact same opportunities all of us did, but instead inundated their lives with bad decisions often involving lazy mistakes over sex and drugs.
When people make these typical judgments about the laziness of welfare recipients, I’m fairly certain they’re referring to that generation stereotype commonly seen in Chenango County.
That’s the person who was raised in poverty (likely by a single parent) whose income also depended on a social program. They were bred in an environment of drugs, complacency and abuse and are transformed by their surroundings so drastically that once they mature, they emulate them, feeding off the system themselves when in fact they are capable of contributing to society.
Other people who fall into the easily-criticized category are those who suffer a great calamity in their lives, sometimes at their own doing, who can’t ever escape the consequences and become dependent on the system to survive.
