I have to agree some with JagsNGeorgia on this. I worked for 2 years with an organization in Jacksonville that shall remain nameless that worked with low(er) income folks and did I learn some interesting things. 

 

The most shocking at the time was that people who receive food stamps would 'sell' them. I asked how on earth do you sell something like that? The one with the benefits and their friend go to the food store and buys whatever the friend wants to a certain dollar amount and the one with benefits gets drugs/cash/sex/favors/whatever in return. And this happens all the time. 

 

I also lived in the ghetto of Duval and saw the same stuff JnD saw. People with no ambition, at all. Of the block I lived on with 7 houses on it, myself and my roommates were the only ones who actually worked. Only one guy was disabled and couldn't work. Another house was a full on drug house. People sitting on their porches and waiting for the welfare checks to come in. Going and buying booze instead of paying rent or the electric bill. Going and buying the biggest flat screen TV they could fit on the wall and designer shoes while collecting every welfare benefit available. 

 

I'm not against helping folks. I have been on the receiving end of benefits when my life hit the wall in ways that still pain me to think about and I had no options. I used what I needed and appreciated it, but I didn't live there. I didn't stay in that mindset. The problem for a lot of folks is, that is the mindset they're raised in. And their families and friends were raised in. It goes back generations. When you're raised in an environment you tend to repeat that with your kids and they repeat it with theirs. Unless folks were to be forced to depend on themselves entirely, which will never happen, they won't change. They don't know any other way and they don't really have to.

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