Let's talk about welfare...

I have heard people talk about the bums collecting welfare, no jobs, kids running wild, etc etc
Hear's the thing, most of that crap is just not true. And I'm not saying that there aren't people who game the system, there are, but they represent a very small percentage of welfare recipients. I can't speak to any experiences but my own. So I'm going to talk about the food service industry. Food service employees, industry-wide, collect around $9 BILLION dollars in welfare benefits a year. That is about $197,000 a year per Olive Garden location. Why? They have jobs. They work, often far beyond 40 hours a week.

Here's why. A corporation exists to produce profit. If they hire full time workers and pay them good benefits they might save money on turn-over and training. But they WILL save money if they hire all part-time workers and give them no benefits. Although the rate of attrition is high, the overall savings is higher. As a food service worker I have often found myself in a position, mostly when I was a young single parent, of having two and three part time jobs in order to pay the bills. But I lived in fear of someone getting sick or having an accident. I raised my kids hand to mouth and it sucked. Yet here we are, 25 years later, corporations posting record profits, CEO's making obscene salaries 300 times the pay of their average employee, and still, still we blame the worker who, trying to put food on the table, turns to welfare.

This is corporate welfare folks. This is the taxpayer subsidizing the income and benefits of the worker while Wall Street reaps the profits. So, they build companies utilizing publicly funded infrastructure, like roads and the power grid which taxpayers paid for, then they screw the taxpayer again by forcing them to subsidize the wages of their employees. To top it off, they use their welfare check to purchase favors and influence from the public officials that WE PAY.


Thing is, both political parties are taking the payola. If they weren't there would be no such a job as lobbyist. Both parties work diligently to convince you that they are looking out for your interests and both are lying. Listen, everyone knows you don't bite the hand that feeds you.

I wish Elizabeth Warren would run for President.

Hillary ate at a Chipotle in Iowa. No tip.