In defense of Robin Hood

I used to work in a gas station and swear to you that one out of five people who opened their wallets to pay for stuff had a bridge card (food stamps) sticking out of one of the pockets. What struck me is that 90% of them were wearing better clothes than I could afford. Now I was clearing $800 a month, paying $500 rent and $150 in utilities, not counting phone, and I qualified for about $20 a month in help from DHS (welfare.) Granted I lived in a nice apartment, but I was over 30 and damnit I wasn't gonna live in a shithole. I turned down the $20 because I could have lived cheaper had I chose to and $20 wasn't going to make much difference. What I wanted to know was, why are young, pretty, well groomed people in nice clothes living off the government? So, I know that welfare is abused. In a perfect world, we wouldn't need it.

But we do need it and I'm tired of the blame being put on the wrong people. Everyone wants to blame jobless people for being lazy. Nobody wants their tax dollars spent on helping people that won't help themselves, but who is really at fault here? I'm not going to tell you that capitolism is evil, because it works beautifully (in theory.) Nor will I tell you we need to be more socialist, because frankly, every system of government this planet has seen has been abused by a small percentage of people who control the wealth. Do you really think that in a socialist society the wealth would be spread equally among every person?

So, we've got an imperfect system. A small number of people are making millions of dollars every year, while the rest of us complain about our taxes going to help the people they have laid off in order to keep their standard of living. Now we're looking at our healthcare system and people are complaining about higher taxes and socialized medecine. Put the blame where it belongs, though. On the rich.

Why are people rich? Is it because they are smarter and harder working than the rest of us. Well, sort of. But how did they get that way? Almost all of them were born into wealth and had educational and other advantages that the rest of us didn't. Very few people born without advantages rise to the top through hard work and perceverance. That's a myth. When it happens, it's on the 6:00 news and everyone hears about it and talks about it and dreams about doing it, but it just doesn't happen much. It's like turning on the news and saying "what a crappy world we live in. Look at all the murder and chaos." That's what people want to see but it doesn't describe 99.9% of America. It's the exception, not the rule. A disadvantaged person striking it rich is also not the rule, it's a headline.

I could go on, but I think I've made my point. We all hate the welfare system and paying higher taxes to support people who are lazy, uneducated and lack self esteem, but let's spread the blame around more. Make them take responsibility, but put some responsibility on all Americans, including yourself. It's an imperfect system, because it's an imperfect world. If you want to be a capitolist, and I assume you do, if you live in America, then you've got to accept the need for some aspects of socialism to balance it out.