OK... About the Free Money... Here is how it works, atleast around here.
I pay to a government for 20 plus years for this "feature" that is suppose to pay me something in case of an Emergency... Such as watching the company I work for go down in flames in one week... Also during those 20 plus years I pay taxes for everything including the toilet paper to wipe my butt. I become an expert in my field ... but now, where is the field? And in the next State, or County, or City, are 1000 other "Experts" in my field competeing for the few jobs available for our field.
So I sign up for this Free Money, and although I have paid into it for 20 plus years, I can only draw max. 2. And the kicker is, it is not the amount I made, so, there I go... I start to slide... So I sign up for the "Free" Food vouchers, that in reality, if I had, would maybe offset the loss of income enough I could afford to pay my bills a little longer, and hopefully enough time to find a new job... Afterall, I paid into it for 20 plus years. But hey, I only qualify that is, IF I have lost about everthing I own, which isnt much. And at that time, I hadn't. Now ask me. As a Single mother, how THRILLED I was for this "Free" money as opposed to a job... Ask me how I felt when I had to sell my house for peanuts, and luckier than most, I broke even. Ask me how I feel when my kids need clothes and supplies for school, and I have to choose if they eat, or have a pair of shoes. Ask me how it feels that I forgo my medical needs, and prescriptions in order to have money to cover car insurance so I can keep looking for a job, and attending classes, so I can hopefully "reinvent myself" KNOWING it increases the chance my children may not have a mother in a year or two because of it... Ask me how it feels when medicaid will cover my uninsured children's medical needs, but didn't my child's funeral expense... Oh yeah... ASK ME, and MANY others who are caught up in this nightmare. You See, this FREE MONEY has cost me everything I have. And I hope to God, You never have the misfortune to have to stand in that line to ask for it ... And yes, I know you never have, or you would never have made such an insensitive comment.