On Fox News this morning, during my daily ten minute audit to see where the right wingers are getting their crazy ideas, they ran a story about Republican legislators concerned that President Biden’s Covid Relief Plan has unemployment benefits that will “discourage people from looking for work”, specifically a $400 per week unemployment insurance supplement and an extension of programs expanding jobless benefits to millions more Americans through Aug. 29.
A common myth on the right is that giving people “free money” in the form of welfare, or SNAP, or unemployment assistance creates a culture of dependency, and as former Republican Senator Ben Sasse wrote in his book “The Vanishing American Adult”, fails to install a work ethic in young adults, and deprives them of the character building and self-confidence that hard work imparts. Senator Sasse goes on to tell how he raised his daughter and wanted her to “learn how to suffer…because very simply neither our children nor yours will grow up to be free, independent, self-respecting adults if we hand them everything without the expectation of something in return.”
Did you get that? People need to suffer and work hard for their money, or it deprives them of character and creates a culture of dependency if we give them “free money”.
I doubt I will run into anyone on BMG that will agree with the Fox News Desk and Senator Sasse but I have no doubt that some reading this story can relate to conversations in the past with right wingers (and some neoliberal Democrats) who take this stand. If you do, here’s a neat little trap you can set for them:
Agree with them. Tell them you too, feel that when wealth is simply handed over to an individual, it creates a culture of dependency and robs the individual of the dignity of work; that a little suffering and hard work never hurt anyone in the long run and leads to a better person.
Now that they have started to listen to you, because you agree with them, perhaps they will exchange an anecdote or two about a welfare cheat that they heard of or the woman with three children from different fathers….it’s okay, just smile and nod your head. The payoff pitch is in your hand. It’s time to start the windup.
Ask them why so many Republicans in Congress fight to reduce or even eliminate the Estate Tax. Are these legislators not aware that simply giving the children of millionaires and billionaires “free money” creates a culture of dependency and robs the child of the dignity of work; a little suffering and hard work never hurt anyone in the long run and leads to a better person?
Your Republican friend will probably talk about family farms at this point, another myth about the Estate Tax, but you’re made your point and they know it. In truth, your Republican (and maybe your neoliberal friend) sees wealth as a sign of morality and poverty as a sign of immorality, so that is the real reason they view giving the poor “free money” as bad, but giving the rich “free money” as virtuous.
If you really want to have fun, bring up the Trump family, Don’s five children with three different women not to mention his numerous affairs with porn stars and the fact that aside from being a reality TV star and a brief stint at the White House that caused his party to lose the White House, House, and Senate, he’s never really worked. Neither he nor his children never “suffered a little” or worked hard for their money and maybe why that’s why they never became better people?
If $400 pays more than working that says more about the wages of work than the $400.
I was laid off from my job when I was 61 years old, replaced by a guy 20 years younger who was probably paid 20 grand less. A story that is commonplace. I applied for unemployment and it was approved.
The rules governing my status as unemployed were a bit strange. I was audited by the department of unemployment assistance and even the guy there confided to me that “this is all because the Republicans think you’re lazy”.
While I was not required to accept any job that was not similar to my previous job relative to wages, working conditions, hours and commute, I was required to keep a detailed accounting of my work search.
In that work search, I must show that on three different days, I made three different attempts at finding a job. If I had three job interviews on Monday, only one qualified for the report. If I had a job interview that Tuesday, that might count but the auditor told me it looks better to have a variety of activities, so instead, repot that you “networked with previous employers” on Wednesday and “searched State employment site” on Friday.
Finding a job did not seem to matter as much as spending my time looking, not going fishing or having a beer with friends (but when I did, I put that down as “networking with friends”.)
A few of my Republican relatives scolded me for not taking any job at all. One said, “Well of course you can get a job! Why are you collecting unemployment when we all know you can get a job?” When I explained that the only jobs I could find paid half of what I was making in my previous job and less than I was making on unemployment, their reaction was “Well, then unemployment is too high!”
I did get a part time job when I was unemployed and the system did allow one to make a certain amount and still collect unemployment. Even so, I was not making what my previous job paid. There was also a risk involved in taking a part time job. The rules say that if one is on unemployment, takes a part time job, and then quits that part time job, one loses unemployment assistance. This did happen to a friend of mine who did not understand the rules and quit his part time job at Home Depot after they continued to schedule him for days he said he could not work. He quit and lost his assistance. Fortunately for him, I was able to connect him with our local state government staffers who contacted Home Depot and managed to convince the unemployment assistance folks that he was essentially laid off because he could not work those hours and did put that in his employment application at Home Depot.
But there it is…..shaming the poor, the unemployed, the immoral types that are just sponging off the system….
John, I think you can boil this down a bit.
To the conservative mind, poor people are poor because they are lazy drags on society. Rich people are rich because they are industrious contributors.
So, money to the poor only rewards sloth; to the rich, only industry.
QED
I’d be interested to hear why, in your view, so many who are not rich seem to enjoy pretending that the above is actually true, in the face of fact, logic, and common sense.
I can answer that with a personal anecdote. I was one of those people, I was not rich, but I believed that the poor were morally flawed as I spent my hours in my car listening to Rush Limbaugh, G. Gordon Liddy, and Jay Severin driving around during my days a sales rep for a company that sold heavy machinery.
I was on 100% commission and did reasonably well. I won a few awards for top sales goals and hung those awards on my home office wall. My wealth, my success was all of my own doing. It felt good. It was all about me.
After a string of unfortunate events, I was unemployed, broke, and fell into depression. I blamed myself for all my failures.
It took several months, a lot of reading, and frankly, watching a video of Elizabeth Warren at Berkley for me to accept the the reality that my failures were not all of my own doing. I was able to forgive myself.
At the same time, I looked at the awards on my wall, recalled the fact that I was born a healthy white male with above average IQ in a stable family and a safe community. I worked within a network of talented and supportive co-workers and they all helped me do what I did…….and I took the awards down. I felt grateful for what I was given, humble in my accomplishments, and pledged to help others going forward. It was no longer going to be about me.
Pretending that you did it all on your own is intoxicating. It’s a difficult drug to kick, especially when so many around you are in the same way.