She eats. I’m her mother. I let my daughter eat. Last night she was hungry and we had some peppers.

[burnsei sensei]

65. Many of the comments at Slate

are quite ugly.
Clearly, there is the perception in this country that a person on public assistance of any kind is living in luxury.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
We've often heard "those who will not work shall not eat."
The problem with this piece of "wisdom" is that Americans confound work with employment. There are many people who are not employed who often work quite hard. Should they be malnourished? Should they starve?
Why does American society define work so inaccurately?
Then there has been no mention, in the article or in the comments I've seen, of the economic impact of public assistance, how it puts money into an economy otherwise overproducing and starved for spending.
If food is not bought, it will rot. Enable people to buy it and the economy functions. Refuse to do so and look stagnation in the face.
I'd sooner have some dynamic going than none.
There is also the perception that the more money a person makes, the more he or she is contributing to the society as a whole.
I don't agree.
I think the janitor that cleans a building on Wall Street is doing much more to serve the society as a whole than all the investors who work there.
In fact, the person who sweeps Wall Street is serving society far more than most of those walking on Wall Street.
I believe that the food server, teacher and the janitor all serve society more than the district manager of the fast food restaurant.
The church sexton serves society more than the lawyer.
The bailiff and clerk both, in fact, serve the society more than the judge and lawyer combined.
The majority of people in this country do not have college degrees, and yet they have the least power and the least money.
The impact a person has on society should not be determined by his wealth. It should be determined by exactly what he does or does not do.
Even the SNAP recipient is serving the society in the use of his/her benefits.
The person on public assistance serves society in the use of every benefit he/she receives.
I'm sick of the self-deceptions of the most self-deceived society in the world.