It seems I’ve by accident discovered a way to cut down on wasteful social services spending, and I’m truly surprised nobody else seems to have thought of it.
Today I learned that despite I am too weak and too fragile to do anything else, the single fact that I can step outside to put out food and water for the cats, is enough to insist I’m not “homebound.”
Just that, and I’m not “homebound.”
And hence not eligible for all sorts of services for those too crippled to do many of their daily chores and routines.
Well, okay then. I accept, and shall adapt and move on.
But this seems an excellent way to cut down on wasteful social spending, to squeeze the primitives—slowly and in increments, tighten up the restrictions for public assistance to where no one at all qualifies for them.
And if no one qualifies, well…..
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Now, being a fiscal and social conservative, I suppose I’m in an embarrassing position here, like so many of the primitives dependent upon social services, especially medical.
I don’t like it any more than I used to, but at least unlike the primitives, I feel guilty living off the sweat and toil of other people…..and even more importantly, am grateful to God for it.
Some might point out that I “earned” it, from all the social security and medicare taxes I’ve paid in my life, but that’s true only to a tiny, nearly nonexistent extent.
People generally have an exaggerated notion of how much they’d paid into social security and medicare—especially primitives, who suppose they’ve paid tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars into those fund over their working life.
I paid a good amount in such taxes, but because of constant increases in benefits, by the fourth month I was on social security disability—and even before being put on medicare (I’m under 65 years of age)—I’d already gotten more back than what I ever paid in.
So yes, I paid into it, but I’ve long depended on the largesse of the taxpayers since then.
While I take it, it’s with a great deal of private embarrassment…..and gratitude.
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But really, I think budget cutters, instead of enduring the onus and ire of the primitives for taking away their free rides, ought to use this approach. Rather than cutting a budget, quietly raising the minimum standards so that after a while no primitive qualifies for it.
