Sorry dnc, that boat won't float. I was on the welfare rolls from 1995 - 1998 (when I got me B.S. in Finance from Indiana University.

At one point, I was working 40 hours a week (for minimum wage)and taking 10 credit hours. Our caseworker told me that I should quit school and get another part time job.

In 1997 my wife almost died dur to aburst appendix. Welfare would not give us any health benefits because we earned too much. Apparently, $ 13,000.00 a year is too much for a family of three.

Our case worker also told my wife that she should divorce me so that they could get more money.

Right before I went to Bloomington to finish school. We had no electricity for 3 weeks. We had to decide whether to have our water cut off or our electricity or our water. We chose electricity. I'm not proud of how I got the money to get my electricity put back on but desperate situations call for desperate measures. That's all I'll say on that subject.

The welfare system in the U.S is designed to hold people back, even after the 1996 "reforms" I'm part of the maybe 3 % that gets out and becomes productive. Not because the other people in the system want to be in the system. It's that the system holds them back.

And by the way, how do you figure that providing food, shelter, and health care for society gives them no incentive to better themselves? Most people naturally want luxuries like a TV. telephone, car, etc. That gives an incentive to work right there. As it stands, many have to steal or kill just to get those "luxury items."