Food stamp cuts and other things we don't like about poor people

            I’m not a big fan of voices in the wilderness, crying out for Lord only knows what. I understand that no manna from heaven will be falling any time soon. And yet, even though a scant few people read this blog, why the fu-k are we cutting food stamps? Why is it a viable or tenable opinion to have that we should further be disenfranchising poor people? Why do people have this opinion? I know that the Atlantic and any number of other outlets are probably writing up short stories that confirm why people develop the biases that they have, education, social class, birth order, whatever, but seriously, why is being an as-hole to poor people a tenable position for a party to take? Why is it plausible for the other party of “liberals” to accept any cuts?

            I’m the type of person who doesn’t want to get into the nitty gritty of monetary policy, which is a weakness, yes. However, I’m interested in the latent thoughts that are expressed when people do things like advocate for cutting funding to the less fortunate. Is it because they believe that everyone in the world is created equal, given the same chance, endowed by the creator or the natural order of things with the same brain and four limbs with which to hew their way through the jungle of the world. That has, for the majority of human history, been pretty much a bullshi- argument that blatantly ignores the long scope of history, which points to things like your parent’s social class, the availability of a good education, a social safety net, encouragement to pursue goals etc. To make the argument that we’re all born into the exact same situation, in less you’re making it from religious perspective and relying on C.S. Lewis to get you through some of the wonkier parts, is to be putting for an argument rooted in ignoring human history. We are not, economically, health wise, opportunity wise, created equal.

            Strangely, that idea seems to have taken root in small portions of Christianity where you’d think the proliferation of Biblical and Christ given commands to aid the poor and sick would have made it impossible to bear.  And yet, bringing up an idea of universal health care, or suggesting that poor people don’t only remain poor because they lack get up and go can get you in arguments with people. It turns out that your health and well-being are only partially in your control. Catastrophic accidents, or routine blood work that turns out to be cancer can actually turn your life upside down, and I think we owe it to other people to help bear that cost. We are 32^nd in quality of care and 1^st in expense. Why is that the case? Oh, because we’re all happy with our current health plans? Too damn bad. I’m sure the feudal lords were happy pouring pitch down on the poor that doesn’t make their position morally defensible. It just makes them selfish.

            And I suppose that’s where my real root irritation with cutting aid to very poor people lies: it’s selfish. We, and I say we, because I am absolutely including myself in the imperfect here, find it more convenient to worry about our own health and well-being and our close family members, (yay biologically adaptive) than those of other people in the world, who are, you know, other. My irritation is first, self-directed, but I suppose I’m irritated writ large as well. If you’re a secular humanist then you should care about everyone getting good access to services. If you’re a good Christian who honestly believes that people can be redeemed you should desire their health and nutritional needs are being met.

We are not good Christians, nor good secular humanists though. We are tribal sob’s who can’t see past the ends of our noses. I have a gd degree in creative writing for shi- sake. I’m guilty. But I think I just need to write down for once that it irritates me. It irritates the hell out of me. We, and I’m talking the United States here, still spends 10x more than the next nation in defense spending, and yet we’re unable to continue to offer aid to people who need it. Why? Well, capitalism. Because we somehow believe that if we all just work hard enough, have enough ideas and connections that everything will work out, or could work out, and so we’re willing to continue living in an increasingly stratified system in which, for the first time in our history, more than half the members of Congress are millionaires.

The point is, stop cutting food stamps or trying to pretend like universal health care is some communist system of government. Stop pretending like higher tax rates that start to even out some of the discrepancies in wages are geared towards ruining the world and hurting job creators. Stop pretending like having a functional minimum wage is a bad idea. Start trying to think of ways to enfranchise people, to fight back against systems like globalization that just keep shipping jobs to countries for lower prices won’t create a long term solution for our economy or be good for the world in general, maybe all content shouldn’t be free (Jared Lainer). Let’s be creative and transformative rather than reactionary. Rant ended. Conscience discharged. I’m going to write a poem about a snowflake now.