One of the arguments against welfare is that it encourages idleness. After all, if you can do nothing and receive income, why would you work? Most of us are not wired to accept that kind of existence. However there are a lot of people who will do whatever they have to to remain on the government teat, which is really your wallet. The NY Times recently r
an an article that showed an example of this issue.
A few miles away in another wooded suburb, Emilia DiCola, 28, an aspiring opera singer who scrapes by with gigs at churches and in local theaters, has no such complaints. She qualifies for Medicaid — free government health insurance that millions more low-income Americans have gained through an expansion of the program under the Affordable Care Act.
She's an aspiring what? Why should the taxpayer subsidize her dreams of becoming an opera singer rather than doing whatever [else] she can to not be on the government teat?
Though roughly the same age, Ms. DiCola has followed a different course. She dropped out of the Manhattan School of Music in 2009 after her freshman year because she couldn’t keep up with the tuition. Now, to supplement the scant income she gets from singing gigs, she drives for Uber and Lyft a few nights a week, sometimes more, in Boston. She earned about $15,000 last year, making sure she stayed under the threshold to qualify for Medicaid.
“I feel like it’s no different from what corporations do all the time, taking advantage of tax breaks and that sort of thing,” Ms. DiCola, a soprano who talks animatedly about Verdi and Puccini, said of being on Medicaid. “Frankly, if they’re allowed to do it, why shouldn’t I?”
"Making sure she stayed under the threshold to qualify for Medicaid."
Incentivizing behavior.
Then there's this comment about corporations. One big difference between this chick and the vast majority of corporations: They create jobs (The quality of which is not a topic of discussion here). This woman's life goal creates no productive jobs. Meanwhile...:
“I’m totally happy to pay my fair share,” she said, “but I’m also paying someone else’s share, and that’s what makes me insane.”
Ms. Hurd finished college at the University of Massachusetts, with her parents paying for it, and has a master’s degree in communications, which she got tuition-free while working in admissions at Southern New Hampshire University. She’s been working about 30 hours a week at the outlet mall and a small remodeling firm while looking for a job with good benefits in communications or marketing.
Her husband, Matt, started his contracting business a few years ago and is finishing his undergraduate degree with the help of a loan. They bought a 1750s farmhouse just before they married; Ms. Hurd returned to work when their son, Harry, was eight weeks old.
This is what pisses people off. It's one thing to provide help for those who have fallen on hard times. But when people choose to be unproductive, specifically to stay on the government teat, that is unacceptable. What this DiCola person needs to be told is:
Glad you want to be an opera singer but see here, you drive that Uber till the wheels come off. You do part time school to get a degree in something that pays or learn a trade and get off the government teat.
