[MD] Down the road of mediocrity

[Case]

To all fans of mediocrity,

Just a bit of a reality check on what you guys appear to be talking about.
"Welfare" is virtually unavailable to single lazy males. There are no
federal programs and I doubt if there any state programs aimed at this
group. The biggest federal "welfare" program is Social Security. It covers
in addition to the elderly, those with disabilities. This can include lazy
males but their numbers are relatively low as it is very difficult to
qualify for these programs.

The federal programs most commonly referred to as "welfare" include Food
Stamps and Aid to Families with Dependant Children. As the name implies AFDC
is not available to lazy single women either unless they have children.
These funds are not provided to assist slothful parents. They are provided
to make sure that our youngest citizens do not go to sleep at night hungry
in the streets. The average woman receiving these funds has about two small
children.

Food Stamps are awarded on the basis of income. These funds can only be used
directly for food and while recipient can buy expensive cuts of meat they
can't buy many of them.

Reagan once offered up an example of a Cadillac welfare mom signing up dead
relatives and making $150,000 per year. Like so much of Reagan thinking this
was fantasy. There was no such woman.

Lazy freeloaders, the ones Platt thinks have their hand in his pockets,
receive very little in direct aid. They are general entitled to stay in
emergency shelters which, at least in the south, typically limit them to 14
days every six months. The rest of the time they live on the street. They
can receive daily meals at soup kitchens. This generally provides a pretty
subsistence diet. Life on the street is no picnic. Everything you own you
have to carry with you which is not much of a problem because if you set it
down or fall asleep it is likely to get stolen. Then you don't have to worry
about carrying it. If you decided you wanted to get a job few places other
than day labor outfits will hire you if you have no address.

The biggest taxpayer expense for the individuals Platt thinks are typical
comes through emergency room visits. The very poor are forced to seek the
health care through emergency rooms because that it the only place they can
go. Because they live on the street and because they lead a fairly
disgusting lifestyle they are subject to all manner of disease and violence.
In Athens, Ga. a homeless shelter tracked 900 clients' access to health care
in the local hospital. They found that these individual accounted for 700
ambulance trips and more than 2000 hospital visits. The total cost to the
community: $27,000,000. 

The Department of Housing and Urban Development just released the first
federal report on homelessness: 

http://www.huduser.org/Publications/pdf/ahar.pdf

The one of the statistics they used was a count of the number of homeless
people on a single day in January 2005. They reported about 400,000 homeless
people using shelters or transitional housing and about another 350,000
people who were not accessing services. Thus they indicate that on any given
day there are about 750,000 homeless persons in the United States. They also
suggest that based on rough estimates from the past this number has not
change much over the past decade.

Using a different counting method they reported on person receiving shelter
between Feb. 1 and April 30, 2005. They reported 704,000 individuals. Of
those 242,000 were in families with children.

Sorry but that's all I can come up with off the top of my head but if you
want more numbers just ask. By the way Malcom Gladwell of "Blink" fame wrote
an extraordinary article for the New Yorker earlier this year. I highly
recommend it.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/02/13/060213fa_fact

Case