Why don’t I benefit more from
America’s Socialist Programs?In browsing through a list of America’s Socialist Programs, it struck me that I am not benefiting from any of them at this time. Why not? I am poor. I am under-employed. The programs do not seem to quite fit into the details and the scheme of my life. Also, I was brought up in a
socioeconomic world that assigned a negative social stigma to those who benefit from some of the more “
welfarish-sounding” of these programs.
Knowledge of that social stigma brings with it the accompanying knowledge that welfare is a type of slavery—letting the government run your life and, also, letting the government make you stand in lines under bad, fluorescent lighting.
1
Government Worker ProgramsI do not receive and I do not anticipate receiving any monies from government pensions, although I did work as a civil servant at one time. My pension was cashed in long ago, in an effort to survive and supplement a rocky period of unemployment. So, government worker pensions are of no use to me—although I do have relatives who are involved in a federal employee retirement group called
NARFE.
Civil Service Retirement Systems
Federal Employee Retirement Systems
Railroad Retirement System
2Housing & Urban Development (HUD) ProgramsSince I live in Cook County, Illinois and, more specifically, Chicago, I have no idea how I would go about getting a rental voucher, qualify for Section 8, getting senior citizen housing or a “circuit breaker’ energy assistance check or moving into a public housing complex,. Quite frankly, the desire to live in a Chicago public housing complex could be seen as a type of insanity, no matter how poor a person might become.
I have the impression that to get a Section 8 voucher in Chicago, the applicant might have to be a member of a certain group or be related to someone very special. In other places that I have lived, it is easier to qualify and there is less red tape; however, there is always the social stigma of living off of government aid. If I could get the government to pay part of my rent, I would sign up in a flash.
Public Housing
Rental Vouchers & Certificates
Section 8 Housing Vouchers
Shelter Plus Care
I anticipate, in the future, with a certain degree of dread, taking advantage of senior housing and the “circuit breaker” program.
Low Income Home Energy Assistance
Single Room Occupancy
3Social Security ProgramsSocial Security (
OASDI)
I am told by the US government that I will be receiving a check from Social Security, when I retire. Because this check will be so very tiny, my retirement plan actually involves not retiring at all but driving around in an old
VW bus and selling strange fruit and/or crafts to campers in the southern United States. I am glad to know that Medicare or Medicaid might make it possible for me to go to a doctor, if I somehow manage to get really old. I was recently informed that I qualify for the Medical Card and I plan on applying for the Medical Card in the very near future. I keep putting it off because I’m afraid of the Public Aid office—again, the lines, the abrasive people and, of course, the horrid lighting.
Temporary Disability Insurance
Medicare
Medicaid
Medicare Prescription Drug Plan
Unemployment Insurance
Although Unemployment Insurance is listed under Socialist Programs, the worker and the boss actually pay into this system. And although this may be viewed as a socialist management of a separate ‘worker/owner” taxation system, I must admit that I have collected Unemployment Insurance 13 times. I was able to get back the money that I paid into this system.
4
Welfare ProgramsI have never received
SSI,
WIC, a LINC card or AFDC—or as it is now called—
TANF. The main reason that I have never received any of these programs is that I am out of the loop on how to benefit from these programs. Also, I hate waiting in lines and I hate fluorescent lighting. I don’t have any children and these programs generally frown on helping single people. They will look you up and down and mutter, “Get a job.”
Supplemental Security Income
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (
WIC)
Food Stamp ProgramI do plan on applying for food stamps in the near future.National School Lunch Program
School Breakfast Program
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)In the past, I may have
benefited from a cheaper school lunch; however, quite frankly, these government school lunches were horrible to the taste and severely lacking in nutrition—to a criminal degree. I should have brought a sack lunch. This horror in the cafeteria is linked to the USDA farmer welfare connection. Just as Wall Street Bankers do not consider the Big Bail Out to be welfare, farmers do not consider these USDA checks to be welfare.
In fact, farmers are some of the worst critics of the government welfare state—all welfare programs are bad except the USDA welfare programs that pays them not to till the land as well as other odd agricultural rituals. The USDA pays farmers not to farm, and when they do farm the government pays them to produce crap that can be made into dried chipped beef in ultra-fat, e-
coli gravy on toast, or gasoline.
5Programs That Threaten Liberties in GeneralFederal Communications Commission (FCC)I spent a number of years in various jobs dealing with the FCC. During this time, the FCC deregulated but the lack of laws proved to not be for the better of broadcasting. The people may own the airwaves, but it is big business that will twist the digitizing of broadcasting into a
Rube Goldberg machine of absurd complexities in order to line their pockets with gold.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)I think that it is pretty obvious to everyone that The Food and Drug Administration sleeps with cows, drug companies and meat packers
Import TariffsSince the American worker still refuses to work for five cents a day, there is no way that we can compete with poorer countries on the price of goods. I still do not see how I benefit from import tariffs, since we really don’t make anything in America anymore anyway. As America sinks into fake-money depression, we may have to start making our own things again—after China refuses to accept any more
U.S. bills for payment on their cheaply made goods. The Chinese workers may not be paid very well, but they do have food, housing and medical care. It’s OK in
China to be on welfare—although I am sure they will put you to work doing something—if nothing more than to dig your own grave.
Although I was brought up with a middle-class pride that
forbade me to be a welfare recipient and instilled resentment within me toward those who did get public aid, I am changing my tune. Since we are stuck with a government and stuck paying taxes to that government, I want something back. As an American, I want more socialist benefits. I want food, housing, and medical care. I want to have all the benefits that I would have if I were a Chinese citizen. I am more than willing to work.; however, I will not dig my own grave.
As we enter into the next Great Depression, let's bring back the WPA, hell, let's get some socialist program advice from the Chinese--since we seem to be having trouble digging our own graves with a half-ass welfare state that still propping up a demolished American middle-class, self-sufficient dreamland.
I want more American Socialist Programs.
Right now.
No stigmas attached.
