So basically, this post is advocating for all 50 States to follow the example of Florida, Kentucky, and Missouri in the practice of drug testing welfare recipients, because of course we all know, that if you’re on welfare, you must be a drug addict or lazy, or some kind of leach, or all of the above. I’m being sarcastic of course.
Sadly, this stereotype has been around for a long time and has been negatively perpetuated even further today by talking heads/pundits on TV, some of the very people we have elected into office, and even past presidential candidates like Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Michelle Bachman and others. The people who are supposed to be looking out for our best interests rather than looking at us in disdain.
Baseless
stereotyping is a pet peeve of mine so of course I had to reply and put my two cents
in. What I said to my friend was that not only has the courts found that drug
testing welfare recipients IS unconstitutional, Florida has already shown that
it costs more money to implement their drug testing laws than save. And it has
also been shown that only 2% of welfare recipients failed drug testing showing
that an epidemic of drug use amongst recipients is vastly overstated. But of course that's not
going to stop Florida Governor Rick Scott! Rick Scott has also been planning to implement mandatory drug testing for all government employees. Is it because there is a major drug problem with their State's workers? Nope! I just so happens, Rick Scott owns the Drug Testing Company that is doing all tests. But I'm sure that is a coincidence! Pretty sure.
In fact, if you look into the finances of these politicians who are voting to pass these drug test laws, you’ll find that almost all of them have shares, owns, or have ties to Drug Testing Companies. Rick Scott isn’t the only one making money. The Drug and Alcohol Testing Industry, like all the other corporate industries, is a big lobbying presence in Washington. You have to research and look at the REAL agenda for why these laws are being proposed. And unfortunately, the media or random Facebook Picture Post isn’t going to tell us.
Rather than looking at those folks who NEED assistance with total disdain and inaccurately look at them like they are lazy, indigent, drunk, immoral, drug attics, why aren't we looking at the reason why they have to be on government assistance in the first place?
First off, look at the economy. Unemployment has fallen to 7.7%, but that is still not nearly low enough and not enough jobs created to put Americans back to work. And with our continuing Austerity policies and after the effects of the Sequester kicks in; expect the unemployment to go back up and more people needing to be on some type of government assistance just to survive. Many Americans are being crushed by poverty, lack of job and a system set against the poor and middle class. It's not because they are lazy and drug addicts. Far from it.
Secondly, who is on welfare? Certain GOP members like Paul Ryan, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum would have you believe that its minorities (mainly "blah" people as Rick Santorum puts it) and drug addicts who abuses welfare. Simply not true. Even Mitt Romney’s parents were on welfare and I’m pretty sure they weren’t on drugs or lazy or even a blah person. And it's okay that they were receiving government assistance. Everyone needs help every once in a while.
Also, did you know that a majority of welfare recipients do in fact have jobs? A lot of them work at Wal-Mart for example. Not all jobs pay a living wage, and Wal-Mart is no exception!
Wal-Mart,
is the largest private employer in the world and a company who reported $17 Billion in
POFITS last year! So why are their employees need government assistance? Well, besides not willing to pay their
"associates" a living wage, in order to save money, Wal-Mart has
employed various tactics like cutting employee hours so they don't have
to pay for full-time benefits like medical. Plus, fewer hours equals an even
smaller paycheck, thus forcing Wal-Mart employees to seek government assistance
to help their families. I used to work at Wal-Mart and know many people who
work there and trust me; you can't be "lazy" and work there.Another example of people who may be forced to seek government assistance is College Graduates. Going back to the lack jobs and the diminishment of living wage jobs, ESPECIALLY in the graduate’s chosen field, graduates are crushed with debt from the exorbitant loans that they have to take out in order to pay for the astronomical cost of tuition. On average, a graduate coming out of a University can have over $150K in loan debt. It is virtually impossible for them to meet their financial obligations with the cards so stacked against them.
And don't even get me started on Senior Citizens! Another group thought of to be living high off the hog and the life of luxury with their fancy Social Security and Medicare.
Actually, when you think about it, I probably would be in favor of drug testing
welfare recipients. But not the ones I’ve mentioned here.
I'm talking about the Corporate Welfare Queens like Wal-Mart who receive billions of dollars in tax breaks, subsidies, and force us to pay for their worker's benefits when they can clearly do it on their own. Trust me, with all the money that Wal-Mart makes, they can easily pay all of their employees a decent living wage and still have a huge profit. They can also single handedly affect the cost of healthcare in the positive with their massive negotiating power. But that insight is for another article.
I'm talking about the Corporate Welfare Queens like Wal-Mart who receive billions of dollars in tax breaks, subsidies, and force us to pay for their worker's benefits when they can clearly do it on their own. Trust me, with all the money that Wal-Mart makes, they can easily pay all of their employees a decent living wage and still have a huge profit. They can also single handedly affect the cost of healthcare in the positive with their massive negotiating power. But that insight is for another article.
Other welfare recipients that should be drug tested is International Corporations like the Oil Companies who are literally the most profitable companies in the WORLD. These folks report record breaking profits EVERY quarter and they not only receive substantial tax breaks & numerous government subsidies, they receive $4 Billion/year free money thanks to a 100 year old tax loophole that should have been closed a long time ago. Again, that's $4,000,000,000 the Oil Companies, the most profitable companies in the WORLD, receives just for the heck of it and our tax dollars pays for it.
And don't forget the Banks and the folks on Wall Street, who single handedly,
crashed our economy, by the way. They received TRILLIONS (with a capital “T”) in
interest free bailout money. I guarantee if you drug test those guys, you would
have a higher percentage of failed tests than those of the poor who truly need
government assistance.
And while we’re at it, why not drug test our politicians. The “elected”
officials who are SUPPOSSED to represent us instead of their corporate
“donors”. If we can get rid of the REAL crooks, then we wouldn’t need welfare
so much and have it for those who really do need it. And we are going to gladly
give that assistance to those people because we are human beings who look out
for each other rather than follow an Aynd Rand type philosophy. That is where I
would rather and gladly give my tax dollars.
Please don't fall for and believe the GOP, Fox News, and extreme right wing
talking points. Their goal is to distract us and have us point our fingers and
fight each other so we don't see the TRUE welfare recipients so they can keep
on going with their Crony Capitalism and robbery of poor and middle class. All
they want is to shovel all the wealth to the top!
This should get you mad and upset, but hopefully at the right people. This is literally the Hunger Games come to life!
This should get you mad and upset, but hopefully at the right people. This is literally the Hunger Games come to life!
LINKS:
TYT: Florida Drug Testing (video)
TYT: Pat Buchanon Attack (video)
TYT: Corporate Welfare (video)
David Sirota: Selective Outrage (video)
SUZANNE COLLINS: The Hunger Games
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