Reply #22 geoduck's post
This is a letter from a bloke in Cleveland part of the "Getting out of Dodge" series that mirrors your thoughts on the welfare mentality taking hold in much of the developed world.
A few years ago I lost my job of 31 years at a mid-size bank, and, to carry me over to retirement, I took a job as a store cashier. It was my trip to the real world. I live and work in Cleveland and the clientele flowing through our store daily is enough to give one pause. A large number of customers are on the food stamp card. Or, as I prefer to call it, the Junk Food Card. The big game is for two people to live together - one with some income and the other drawing unemployment or welfare (or even both drawing welfare). It is very common for food card purchases to consist entirely of pop, candy, ice cream, etc. Then out comes the big wad of cash for the beer and cigarettes. With most of these people it seems very likely that they have no inclination to work at all, and gaming the system is how they wish to live.
Then there are the folks drawing disability. Most of them look quite healthy enough to be working - maybe not at a job they had been doing previously, but still capable of gainful employment. Many of our other customers are older people on fixed incomes. People who are working steady jobs are in the minority.
The problem here is obviously that the failure to maintain entitlement programs - which truly cannot continue to be funded given today's local, state, and federal government deficits - will almost certainly result in anarchy. The thought of where Cleveland will be in a few years is absolutely frightening. Making things worse, the intelligencia has all fled the city, leaving opportunists to run the government. Every week the news reports are highlighting another local politician that is under investigation for fraud in office.
I don't think I'll be moving to a foreign country, but I'll definitely be selling my house in Cleveland and moving to some small town somewhere that has all the amenities I require - with more favorable demographics. And I can understand that moving to a foreign country could be an even better alternative in the long run. So, basically, I'm all for "getting out of Dodge"! | |
