[lit-ideas] Re: [lit-id] The Poverty of Heritage
- From: Carol Kirschenbaum <carolkir@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 14:57:59 -0700
>There is a very sophisticated, organized boondoggle going on that is draining
>>our 'welfare' system. These people are professional loafers who are living
>off >the government and there are tens of thousands of them.
ck: I keep hearing about such people, but I honestly haven't known anyone like
that. I wonder if there's some urban mythology going on. How do people pull
off big welfare fraud schemes? I'm curious. Really.
The unmasked big welfare frauds that come to mind were run by medical clinics
and private doctors bilking the Medicare funds. I can think of one horrible,
local instance of "professional loafers"--two adults sisters who claimed to be
caring for their mother (therefore entitled to the mother's Social Security
check, and payment as formal caregivers). The old woman was dead, in fact, but
not buried.
The sisters were afraid to bury their mother because their checks would stop.
I suspect mental illness had something to do with "professional loafing" here,
and perhaps elsewhere.
Carol
----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Stone
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2006 2:01 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: [lit-id] The Poverty of Heritage
At 04:47 PM 5/25/2006, you wrote:
Lawrence wrote:
> Neither is blaming the government for their poverty.
ck: Because the government is providing them with an income, Lawrence--the
very thing you've been objecting to, I thought.
Nah... I think Lawrence is objecting to 'exorbitant' government income. You
know like "I don't care if they pay your rent and buy you food, but damned if
I'm going to keep you in beer and smokes". That's perhaps an extreme position,
but in Canada, where it's almost as socialist as Europe, that 'beer and smokes'
has escalated to include "cell phones, big screen tvs, cars, etc". It kind of
ticks a fellow off who has a 'good' job and still can barely afford those very
same conveniences. I guess it must be the LACK of that 20,000 I pay to the
government every year so that those people can live.
I still haven't arrived at a decision about to what extent I condone
government support. I don't like what i see down South with utter destitution
on every corner of big cities, folks truly left to rot, but I can't go whole
hog either. I deeply resent that a good portion of my paycheque is divied up to
the rest of the society for their -- in many, many cases, chosen proclivities
towards 'poverty'. It's gone beyond just surviving above the poverty lines.
There is a very sophisticated, organized boondoggle going on that is draining
our 'welfare' system. These people are professional loafers who are living off
the government and there are tens of thousands of them.
In case anyone thinks I speak from a position of ignorance, I urge you to
visit 280 Sammon Ave in Toronto, an apartment I inhabited for 8 months in 1993
that my partner (at the time) and I called "Hell Hath Three Stories". I think
her and I were the ONLY people in the place who actually had a source of
non-governmental income. That place was a non-stop party, unless you actually
had to be somewhere in the morning. There are hundreds of buildings just like
it in Toronto and every other city in Canada.
feeling non-nostalgic,
Paul
##########
Paul Stone
pas@xxxxxxxx
Kingsville, ON, Canada
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