Buying dolls with social security/welfare money?

And here's the exact issue with the topic, people are going to make assumptions. Regardless of your take on the issue, the very fact you mentioned it is going to make people think you are looking down on people, even when you're not... It's just that kind of topic.

 

Well here is one assumption which seems to me, is made by those well-off in the society. Why is it wrong for a person who has to use welfare to make herself/himself happy with luxury items?!?!? If you are able to buy the necessities and you can still afford to save some for a doll then what is wrong with that? It's your money, not the tax payers money, so you can use it as you please. You know poor people are still people that deserve to enjoy their lives, even though they have the misfortune of being poor.

It's another thing if you have kids and you use the money that is for them to buy dollies for yourself. This I don't understand at all. But if you have the money to take care of your children AND save a bit every month to eventually buy a doll then go for it, where ever you get the money, since I'm sure you deserve it more then those to whome things come more easily.

I also think that this question gets many different answers since there are people from different countries. Also not many people even know someone on welfare unless they themselves are on it as well. Since the idea in many places is that a person on welfare is al less of a person because of lesser income then others. Dollies bring h appiness, and everyone needs a littlebit of it at least, especially those who don't have the luck of having a job etc. (Can you tell I'm a social worker XD).

Steph6467: You are so right on this issue!!! We cannot know how people use their money or where they got their dolls etc. Lets just allow people to enjoy their lives even though they are not exactly like us! Or how we think they SHOULD be. And nobody really takes welfare just for the fun of it. To go on welfare is a big deal and nobody does it out of spite or fun, even though many well-off people seem to think so.

Dollies for everyone I say!!!

 

Yes, I agree, bluetooth earpieces from as low as $1.99+shipping certainly aren't cheap

Even if you were thinking of some other bluetooth product, technology is almost universally cheap as long as you aren't beholden to brand names. Almost all technology is made (in some form or another) in China, and Chinese imports are not expensive.

 

"Dolly/Luxury money should be earned otherwise (and if you can't earn it, you're out of luck for dollies"

As a disabled person who is unable to work and earn money this statement is quite offensive. I receive disability benefits, once I have paid bills, rent, bought food etc anything left over is for me the same as people who are able to work. Why should I not spend this money on dolls? Other people use their money for going out, cars, fashion, alcohol etc. I can't drive, find it hard to socialise, don't buy expensive clothes etc but I do like dolls, the money would otherwise just be sitting there. It isn't my fault that I am disabled and it's sad that people seem to think that disabled people don't deserve any joy in their lives.

 

There was a lady I knew, intimately, that lived up the street. She worked the system to her advantage. She had a little boy and her job was running around taking photos for foreclosed houses. I know this because I rode with her on several occasions, and had to help her with Excel and Microsoft programs. She was on food stamps and everything.

Though, her husband brought in a good income. She never claimed him on the forms you need to sign. Nor did she use her married name. I know this too, because he was Polish and needed me to come along to a court thing so I could explain what his wife had done.

She didn't buy dolls, of course, but she did do a lot of "shady" things with whatever earnings she got from the county. She took advantage of a lot of things.

This, I think is wrong.

I lived with "friends" a couple years before. They did the same thing, bought fancy game systems, pilfered charities and food banks. Took whatever they could out of the system, and didn't lift a finger to work for it.

This I also think is wrong.

Once again, I knew these people intimately.

This does indeed happen.


I do know of people who have indeed gotten dolls, and have tried to urge me to do that same thing mentioned above. I don't know why people would openly say such things to me, as well as refer and advise me to do the same, but they do. ((I get told a lot of weird and strange things from people in general...haha makes for an interesting day...))

For me, that sort of thing makes me feel dirty.


Now, I have been on a temporary social disability program. It was a very bad back injury. The money I got from that, went directly to bills and doctors, and medications. What little I had left, picked up the tab for food and gas. I believe it was somewhere around $900 or something, like an above poster said.

I was in too much pain to even think about getting new toys or dolls. It was also a hassle, and I was determined to get up and move about and "get better" at least to a point where I could bend and lift enough to work light duty.

The system is cruel, at least out here. The attitude is very condescending and you get jerked around a lot.
The welfare system is the same. You're getting jerked around. If I could land a secure job, I'd be much happier struggling that way! Since I am on food stamps, I do my best to only use what I need, and file my reports like an honest person. I do not trade for money, I don't try to make money off of it either.

I live with my Grandparents, so I know about the whole medicaid/medicare/aarp/pension/social security deal.

Now, if you worked into a program to get money to have things, I do not have a problem with that at all! You worked for it, it's yours. Have fun with what you have earned.


These are just things I have witnessed, in person. I know not everyone on welfare or disability is abusing the system...but there are people who are. It makes me angry.

 

This is getting into more of a moral debate about peoples beliefs about benefits in general rather than dolls and has been done before more on topic.

As has been concluded before, its no one elses business what people use their money for.

 

Agreed, it really isn't anyones business where someone gets doll money (or what they do with their doll when they get it)

 

This, really. In a super duper ideal world, no one would abuse the system, and we could stop the people who do. But because there's no way to prevent this without screwing the good people over, we just have to accept the bad with the good (unfortunately).

 

I agree with this to a point. If it is something like benifits for not working when you are physically capable then, no this money is not for luxaries, it actually makes me feel uncomfortable when people how get benifits for not working spend money on such things as alcohol for hosting a party. I understand times are hard so jobs are few and far between, if you do volunteer work and actually do un paidwork while on benefits and you have money after necesities, you go buy yourself a doll because you have made the effort to work when you could otherwise sit at home doing nothing. I think it that situation a person has earnt the money so they should be allowed to spend it how they wish.
Similarly with disablity allowance for people who cannot work then I think they should be abel to have access to the luxary of things that I have if they have money left over.

 

I won't pass judgments on people who own BJDS and are on some sort of government aid. I don't know the circumstances, and it's none of my business. Admittedly though, I do think that using types of aid like welfare checks to buy luxury items kind of...isn't right. That's money given to you so you can survive and try to get on your feet, not for you to use on something you WANT rather than NEED.

 

(EDITED to be less hostile and to clarify. Sincere apologies for it-I'm just getting quite sick of debates like this and can sometimes type before I think.)
I had to add something else: It's really not likely anyone is buying dolls or other large items with benefit money in the first place. Most people who are receiving ANY kind of government assistance need it and are unlikely to be spending it on dolls. That said:

Anyone can dislike it all they want. You (And I should clarify, this is a general you) can be uncomfortable all you like, but that doesn't really make it much of your concern, especially if you are someone living in the US. Here, those who've needed to access unemployment benefits, worker's comp and social security, among others have every right to do whatever they want with them. We/our employers paid into the fund from which those benefits are drawn. Those benefits have ALREADY been earned by virtue of having worked before being laid off/otherwise rendered unemployed or retiring, or having paid into them as a citizen. I don't know why someone receiving those or any benefits should be required/expected to do some sort of unpaid work or volunteering to "deserve" something they've already qualified for.

Even if the taxpayers are the ones paying money into the pool from which certain benefits are drawn, the person who's receiving those benefits, has, presumably, paid into them as well and is thus entitled to do what they want with the money they are receiving even if you personally dislike it. It's not really your money once you've handed it over to the government, and it's no longer the government's money once it's passed on to the recipient of the benefits. If they haven't, it's still pretty much theirs to do what they want with. You may not like it, and that's fine, but nobody ought to be telling someone they're wrong for using it as they see fit if they're not doing something illegal with it. Of course, people shouldn't be abusing any system of benefits, but that issue isn't the fault of the people who are using it to buy the occasional luxury and isn't going to be resolved by anyone making judgments about all people who are receiving some sort of benefit.

I suppose it may be my problem and not others', but I'm really, really sick of the attitude that poor people/people below certain income levels somehow are less deserving of the ability to have luxury items or treats of some kind. It boggles my mind that people anywhere (but mostly in the US, as I've seen) honestly, truly believe that people below X income should only be buying absolute necessities. There's more to life than just surviving. :/ (And really, the idea of there being masses of people who are just sitting around and taking piles of cash from their government is mostly false. Of course there people taking advantage. There always will be. Are they a majority? No, and we need to stop with the idea that they are or even might be.)

 

Personally, I agree, particularly if it's for an able bodied person who could/should be working. These systems are abused all the time and it sucks for both those who genuinely need benefits (such as the disabled) and those paying the taxes to fund benefits. I don't really want to be paying for other people's dolls if I'm honest -shrug-.

 

Bear in mind that the person you're replying to is from England, where the benefits system is very different, and is therefore not deserving of your accusatory tone because you're addressing him/her from an American-centric viewpoint. In the UK, the person receiving benefits has made no contribution to it at all, and neither has their previous employer, so what Akiko said is perfectly valid. It comes entirely from the taxpayer. And so it IS our concern, because technically it's our money. If my taxes are going to the deserving poor - people out of work through no fault of their own, trying hard to get back into a job, who really need money - then yes, fine, I totally understand that. But there are people who abuse the system, who sign on the dole and sit around all day drinking and smoking weed, not making any effort to get a job at all. There are PLENTY of people like that. Over here the system is much softer and more "socialist" than the American system, where there is hardly any social safety net at all. Perhaps find out where a commenter is commenting from, taking cultural differences into account, before lashing out at them.

 

Right, sorry. I'll go fix that post. The problem is that the attitude here is pretty much exactly the same, despite the difference in the system. Editing definitely needed there.

 

Oh god >< I meant no offense and I'm really sorry if it came across hostile I didn't mean it to
I do live in England so our benifit system as said is different, I know that it's not a lot of peoples choice to be on benifits. Escpecially in the economy the world has at the moment. I didn;t mean it to attack everyone on benifits. I meant thoose who make the active choice not to look for work and just surf off the money the government gives them which is sort of what happens here, so many people can just go from education to benifits without thinking about work or training etc. Again I am very sorry.

 

Just to fully round off your latter-day education about the European experience of life: not really. This not accurate either, as if you qualify for benefits (Job Seeker's Allowance is the usual one), you do not have to pay taxes. It is entirely possible for a 16-year-old to leave their parents' house, move into a council-paid flat, sign on the dole, and receive money without ever having paid a single tax in their life. Many people in Britain are against this system, saying it's an easy ride for lazy drug-addicts, and I can see where they're coming from (just watch a few episodes of the British version of the Jerry Springer Show, called the Jeremy Kyle Show, if you don't believe me), but I'd rather there were a handful of people effectively stealing benefits from a system that gives too much, than a vast number of people living below the poverty line in a system that gives hardly anything at all, as in America.

ETA: There was a recent scandal here in the UK about MPs (members of parliament, elected government officials who are supposed to have their constituencies' best interests at heart) using tax payers' money to buy completely frivolous things for their own personal use, including the cleaning of a moat, special houses for ducks, and, memorably, an MP's husband buying porn. Not to mention all the buying and furnishing of second homes. As it is, I consider the money I pay to the government to still be my money, and expect it to be spent on building hospitals and schools, rather than duck-houses and Busty Asian Beauties!

 

No, sorry, that was my stupidity. There's a lot of very...off thinking regarding people who receive benefits (and not only those abusing the system, but most or all of them) over here, especially right now. I shouldn't have forgotten that other countries aren't quite as skewed in their thinking.