I haven't published a diary in years. Mainly because I do most of my browsing on Mobile Platforms nowadays. However, I've lurked and read for most of that time. Sometimes I stop reading for a month or two because it seems like the site goes through periods of Clinical Depression. That's neither here nor there at the moment though. I have something to say that needs more space than a comment to write.
Everybody I know is on Food Stamps. We have jobs, but the jobs pay so low that we still need help. We stock shelves, pump gas, and cook your food. Stuff that needs to be done, but is somehow not "Real Work" or a "Real Job." Let's not even go into the fact that a good chunk of us went to college so we could have a "Real Job" but when we finished those "Real Jobs" turned out to be as mythical as the Yeti or Brownies.
For some strange reason, people who don't get Food Stamps think that it's easy to get them. That all you have to do is walk down to the office and get instantly approved. There are long complicated forms to fill out, interviews to go through, and endless appointments. Then when you do have them, they don't automatically continue forever. For one thing, you have to recertify for them every year. Also, DSS keeps track of things like how many hours you work, who lives with you, how much they make, how many kids you have. If you don't work enough or at all they send you to job education classes where you are treated like a complete moron, and make you put something like 20 job applications a day in.
Then there are the jobs that exist. First off, corporations seem to resent having to pay people to work for them. Which is why we have a minimum wage in the first place. Everywhere I've worked, the managers were constantly being harassed by corporate because payroll was too high. As it is, I'm just glad I don't work as a food server. The 0.00 pay checks would drive me nuts.
As a bonus there is the fact that you will get hired for only part time. Not because the place doesn't need full time workers, but because of some mythical beast called benefits. I don't know when, but at some point the Corporate world decided that paying benefits to the average worker was evil. So they will do everything in their power to avoid it.
Some people can't work, they just medically are incapable of it. Or they have those little beasts called "Children." Which means at least some of the time they have to spend time with them. Or else CPS gets involved. But, you have to have full availability, or else you're going to get crap for hours. Which means someone has to stay home with the children... Which isn't something you can always afford.
I could go on for hours about what life is really like at the bottom, but I have a few points I'd like to make. One, life is already hard enough for those of us on public assistance, don't start trying to add onto it because of some sense of moral superiority. Two, we need to raise the minimum wage because people actually have to live off it.