Working is Stupid

Posted by LionelHutz 11 years ago to Culture
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My BS meter went to high the second this call started, but the longer I listened the more I began to think this actually might be legit. I never got to more than 50% confident about it though. Anyone in Austin among us that can say whether this exchange really happened?

SOURCE URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRRwZDSmTVI


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  • Posted by j_IR1776wg 11 years ago
    Lucy is not the problem. The Marxists are approaching their treasured goal of no private property. I wonder if my nine month old grandson will ever be allowed to own anything.
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  • Posted by $ rockymountainpirate 11 years ago
    I agree with the show host that said "we're the ones that are saps".

    Don't believe that the government wants anyone off the system. I have repeatedly turned in someone committing SSI fraud, including did the entire investigation and handed all the documents over to my congressman who sent it to the IG of social security and they have never done an investigation or cut her off.
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  • Posted by eilinel 11 years ago
    Can't speak to the above exchange, but I have spent most of my career in the land of intergenerational welfare. (Third generation in several families, fourth in a few.) If you ask some of the kids around here what they want to do when they grow up, they'll unashamedly tell you they want to "get a check". Teenage pregnancies are welcomed, because it means more money coming in. Young adults, if they do get a job, have some "accident" within the first six months and then try for both workers' comp and disability. Granted, not everyone behaves that way, but the parasites are the ones breeding. The kids with talent and ability leave the area "to go to college" and many don't come back.

    And lest anyone accuse me of racism, the parasites are all white.
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  • Posted by $ minniepuck 11 years ago
    it did happen, but the caller later said it wasn't entirely true and did it to raise awareness of welfare abuse. here's an article from the Austin Chronicle with details:
    http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/...

    your hunch was right. still, what the caller said was very interesting. she said she doesn't consider herself a bad person for taking money the rest of her lifetime. is there pride now in being a lifetime moocher? how do you change that thought? sure, you could cut them off and say, "work, starve, or find a private charity." even if they go to work, does that entitlement remain?
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    • Posted by 11 years ago
      Thanks, Minnie! I did a quick internet search as I suspected foul play here, but didn't come up with anything and your link explains it well.

      I didn't want to make a lot of hay about the particulars of what she said because I doubted the truth and even the motivation for the call.
      Honestly - my first clue that something was amiss was that she was up before 8AM listening to a morning show. :-)
      I half-suspected this was a setup by someone who wanted the hosts to jump all over her - to basically "punk" the radio hosts and then turn around and warp the deception into some sort of "well, this therefore proves there is no such thing as welfare fraud."
      I shared it anyway because the detail in the conversation that i thought was intriguing / credible was the rationale of "well, if someone laid a million dollars at your feet, you'd take that too, so don't get all moral and look down on me because I'm taking my million in a form that comes slowly over my lifetime".
      Additionally, if you read some of the comments about the video on youtube, you'll find some black people are making the argument "hey, this is reparations for slavery - so we're entitled to it. If you don't like it, I don't give a rip."
      I'm a bit facinated by people's rationalization for living on welfare - I mean deliberately just laying in the safety net like it's a hammock for years on end.
      While it looks like this caller turned out to be a big liar, that doesn't mean these people and, shall we say "interesting", justifications don't really exist.
      I totally think there are good chunks of people taking the money believing it is their due or that there is really no moral difference between them and those that are actually providing for themselves.
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    • Posted by $ Maphesdus 11 years ago
      That raises the question, though: if this particular caller had falsified certain parts of her statements, can we really say that welfare abuse is as bad as she says it is?
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      • Posted by $ minniepuck 11 years ago
        her credibility can certainly be questioned. on the show she was claiming to want to be on welfare for a lifetime, while the article states she is now actually off the program. nevertheless, what matters is that anyone, regardless of the caller herself, would want to ride the system for their entire lives, and worse, find pride in doing so. it's the sense of entitlement that concerns me, especially if it's considered a moral issue. if people will always feel they're owed something, then I wonder how that can be changed - - if it can at all. a moral argument will almost always turn into a fight; it's very difficult to have a debate at that point.
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        • Posted by $ Maphesdus 11 years ago
          But do they really find pride in accepting government welfare, or do they simply do it because they've fallen on hard times and it's the only way they can get by, albeit temporarily?
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          • Posted by $ minniepuck 11 years ago
            yeah, that's essentially my question as well when, in my first post, I asked, "is there pride now in being a lifetime moocher?" I could offer some examples, but they'd obviously be anecdotal and unsuitable for our discussion. a longitudinal study would be better to answer our question. if someone comes across one in the future, perhaps we can get back to this.
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