hey dadchamp. its a real bum deal when you have to get social welfare, but at least you can, whether its fair or not, the hoops they make you jump through. someone who has led a privaleged life, and has never ben unemployed with no family to help them out, wont understand how crap it is. on the up-side, you wont totally starve, like what happens in quite a few countries. but then you wont have anything like quality of life you were used to.

but hey, what do you pay taxes for? .....well, in comparison to a lot of countries, you pay very very little taxes. so its right to expect crapy public health and social welfare. we pay a lot more tax here in ireland, but we get a lot more out of it. my GF could go on at length about it. she studies social science. according to her, sweden, denmark etc. are the models of a working social system, and america is the model of one that doesn't work. between the adversarial democracy model that america calls democracy, and the worship of capitalism as if it were a rightious cause rather than a business model, and the shunning of socialistic ideas as if they were a moral blight, its my view (mine as opposed to any view i would claim as a true view of things. i am looking at things very much from the outside) its a case of, on a national scale, "reap what you sew".

not much help to the man on the ground, having to jump through hoops and be made feel like a second class citizen, i know. my feeble advice would be, expand the dyversity of work you are looking for, and even consider relocation to somewhere with a stronger economy. also, get in touch with various organisations that can tell you how to get the most from what you are entitled to. also, become politically active. talk to your local political representatives. if something is wrong with the way the system works, change the system. after all, it is your system. 

if this sounds like another "america sucks" rant, it isn't. so those ho may fel a little offended by my views, just accept they are the view of a rambling mad man and leave it at that. being relagated to the bottom rungs of society, either by disability, or just bad luck, is not nice at all. (my mom has M.S. and i have been on social welfare plenty enough to know what its like) sometimes the hardest thing to do, is to dig your way out of the hole of poverty. the slopes are quite slippery.

for me, it puts things in perspective a bit. when i start working now this summer (i am a student, living off of my grant) i will be paying between 20 and 40 percent of my income to various taxes. thats pretty high. but i at least know where some of it is going. and can feel a little better about it.

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