It started with a picture shared on, of all places, Facebook.
These things scroll down my Newsfeed with alarming regularity, and I generally pay them all the attention they deserve. Which is to say absolutely no attention at all.
What grabbed me this time was the person who posted it.
She is a single Mom who works for an Investment Bank. She almost never posts anything of a political nature, yet she has a wide circle of friends who would listen to her "water-cooler chatter". As such she is one of those independent folk who could help enormously were we ever able to puncture the conventional wisdom.
Posting of pictures like this is often done unthinkingly, because it seems to contain a grain, a kernel of some essential truth. Dispelling that myth is important. With this particular friend I felt it worth the effort to at least try.
Here is the offensive image:
The words you are about to read are exactly as they appear in the Facebook comment thread. I get rather tired of trying to read images that never render very well on here, so I simply copied the text and tidied it up that it might be more easily followed.
Steve Bracken
I could agree with that ... providing that any Corporation that can afford dividends to Shareholders doesn't get a red cent in Government aid.
2 hours ago · Like
Friend
If one were to always put "if this, then that"s on things, nothing would get done.
about an hour ago · Like
Steve Bracken
Okay ... we can start with the Corporations, the poor are having a hard enough time of it already.
about an hour ago · Like
Friend
So knock the big corporations that employ people? Rather than limit people abusing the system by their wants? (their wants, Not their needs) (ie: drugs, new tattoos, cigarettes etc are WANTS not NEEDS) Sorry, I'm not onboard with that plan. I agree the poor are having a hard time of it, but boozing and smoking and doing drugs and getting new tattoos is not going to help improve their future in any way, shape or form.
47 minutes ago · Like
Steve Bracken
That picture was never created to provoke legitimate discussion. It was made that the poor could be scapegoated for all the ills in society. If we are going to do this, all I am saying is that we put everything on the table. If we are going to discuss wasteful Government spending, and where it all goes, then Corporate Welfare is a very large slice of the pie. US Corporations are sitting on a cash pile of around 2 Trillion dollars, yet they are not creating jobs. So yes, they could manage with a smaller snout in the Public trough.
I don't actually blame them for that. Why would they make stuff when the warehouses are full and they have no customers? But pictures like that are not meant to spark this debate. They are nasty attacks by small-minded people, who would jump at the chance to drug test welfare recipients, yet baulk at the very idea of treating the Executives of major companies in receipt of millions of dollars, in the same even-handed manner.
When the folk who create images like that are prepared to look at solutions, rather than engage in rhetoric and scapegoating, then they will find me ready to talk.
Oh, and I agree .... poorly educated people from whom all hope has been removed can make some very poor life choices. The question is ... Who would be responsible for drawing up a list of what people are allowed to purchase, at various income levels?
Does that sound like America?
30 minutes ago · Like · 1
Friend
"If you can afford beer, drugs, cigarettes, manicures and tattoos, you don't need food-stamps or welfare" --I don't agree that statement is (as you call it) a 'nasty attack by small minded people'.
Maybe the problem is that I do not understand the logic against the statement. If people can spend $120-500 a month on things they want (but do not need) then I don't see why they need the government to give them hundreds of dollars for the things they need.
*Most people that work go without things they want, so they can have the things they need.* Why are people on welfare not held to the same standard? The standard of needs before wants?
19 minutes ago · Like
Steve Bracken
Well that assumes, of course, that the statements on that image are correct, and not simply a figment of the rabid imagination of a few judgemental idiots.
I thought we had grown beyond the old "Welfare Queens in Cadillacs" meme.
13 minutes ago · Like
Will I change her mind? Probably not, but I do know this person, and she will think long and hard before posting stuff like that again. Indeed, she is a fair-minded if politically naive person, who may actually think about the conversation we just had.
At least I hope so.