Maybe it was my job as a social worker that turned my perception of life. Let me tell you a true story (names are made up, but their situation is 100% real).
One of my clients was Willie. He's was in his late 60s. He's been in and out of prison most of his adult life due to selling and using cocaine. He has multiple kids with multiple women and doesn't have much of a relationship with any of them. He continues to use cocaine and constantly complain how "government is not helping him enough". He rarely worked during his adult life. He has Medicare, which covers 80% of his medical bills. He also received app. $900 in SSI per month. Due to his low income, he also qualified for low-income apartment (he paid app. $200 per month for a beautiful apartment in Milwaukee's downtown), food stamps (app. $250 per month) and T-19, which covered remaining 20% of what Medicare didn't.
My other client was Ronald. He worked all of his life as a pastor. He has 3 adult children - all who are college graduate and visit every Thanksgiving and Christmas with their families. Ronald and his family are some of the nicest people that I've met in my life. Ronald had a house in community. Shortly after retiring, he became sick and was forced to permanently move to a nursing home. Despite his app. $3,000 income from Social Security and Pension, he was still forced to sell his home because nursing home costs $10,000-$15,000 per month. He was able to use money from the sale of the house to pay for the nursing home; however, after few years he ran out of money and that's when he was enrolled in our program. Now government pays for the nursing home, but only the difference. Since Ronald receives $3,000 in income, everything except for $100 (which he's allowed to keep for personal spending) goes towards the nursing home and the state pays for the remaining balance. Because his income is very high, he doesn't qualify for food stamps or any other government assistance.
So, how did benefit Ronald to be a perfect citizen all of his life compared to Willie? Despite being a perfect citizen, Ronald was forced to sell his home and government takes his income. On the other side, government continues to pay everything for Willie and also gives him $900.
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When I die, I want to be buried face down. That way whoever doesn't like me can kiss my ass.
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