Non-Existent Personal Responsibility

Years ago I worked in the apartment management industry.  During that time I had the fortune to work on a few ‘tax credit properties’ and I witnessed first-hand how easily the system can be cheated.  I have spoken out against the inefficiency of programs run by the government many times since but yesterday a picture floating around the internet brought all back to me.  I’m going to tell you the story of two women who lived at one property and how their entitlement mentality is part of the problem in America today.

Before I do, I want to clarify that I do not think all government assistance programs are bad.  I just think they are poorly managed.  For example, the ‘tax credit’ program for apartment community owners is not a bad program.  It allows people who are starting over in life, for whatever reason, to be able to afford a nice place to live without having their entire paycheck go toward rent.  It works by giving these owners a tax break for keeping rents at about half the median of market rents.  There are very stringent rules that each applicant must abide by and that each apartment community manager must enforce.  The problem is, the government dictates the rules and manages the program.  Therefore, it is a program that is easily taken advantage of and abused. 

Our first woman had five children and each had a different father.  She was on food stamps, received Medicaid for all of her children, collected child support through the state, was on Section 8 housing and refused to get a job outside the home.  Oh…and all five of her children went to daycare through a program paid for by the state.  Her entire rent was covered by the Section 8 program.  Her food was paid for by food stamps.  Her children attended daycare paid for by the state and all their medical needs were taken care of by Medicaid.  The only thing not covered by our government in one way or another was her utilities.  Yet every month the child support money disappeared and she was at the local TANF office applying for help to cover her utilities.  She never worked, her children were not at home for a good part of the day and everything was paid for.  Hmmmm….why couldn’t she pay her utilities herself?   Then it came time for inspection of the units.  Inside her unit I found large flat screen TV’s in the living room and all three bedrooms, furniture from Ethan Allen, a Cadillac Escalade in her parking space and a cabinet full of a wide variety of alcohol.    But because the government never came to check in on her, none of that was ever caught and her abuse of the system continued.

The second woman had two daughters and a job.  She paid her own rent, paid for her own food and utilities, and even had a nice vehicle to drive.  She wasn’t breaking any rules or taking advantage of the system.  She believed in personal responsibility and paying your own way.  At least she felt that way until her 16 year old daughter came up pregnant and didn’t know who the daddy was.  At the moment woman #2 figured out that it was the government school and the local health department who were responsible for her daughter getting pregnant since they wouldn’t give her free birth control.  It never dawned on woman #2 that the example she had set for her two daughters herself might be part of the problem.  You see, she felt that an enlightened and empowered woman of the 90’s should be able to have as many sex partners as she wanted without having to consider the consequences of her actions.  Woman #2 thought it was the responsibility of the school and local health department to keep her daughter from getting pregnant at the young age of 16 so that she could be free to engage in ‘extra-curricular bedroom activities’.  Thanks to the whole meme of ‘it takes a village to raise a child’, she felt that others should be responsible for teaching her daughters morals and that she did not have to set a good example herself.  Now we have another unwed teenager in need of government assistance because woman #2 has decided it is not her responsibility to help raise the child since it was the state’s fault her daughter got pregnant in the first place.

Both of these women were and are still burdens on society.  Their choices had and still have a direct impact on the pocketbooks of taxpayers everywhere.  The fact that no government employee ever came to verify the ‘neediness’ of woman #1 is direct proof of the inefficiency of our government to manage anything.  The fact that woman #2 felt that the state should be in charge of teaching values and morals instead of herself, is direct proof that the village raising your child is a sure way to make yourself a grandparent at a much younger age.  Our system is overburdened with abuse from the citizenry and neglect from the very people put in charge to manage assistance programs.  And the truth is, our government wants to keep it this way because it increases the voting block that keeps them in office.

It is time that we take back the country and insist that these attitudes are no longer acceptable.  We must make it clear that we are not here to support or take care of these women and their children who continue to take advantage and/or abuse the system.  We must demand that they take personal responsibility and deny their requests for assistance in any way shape or form.  Call me a cold hearted ‘female dog’ if you want, but I’d rather see them on the street than allow them to continue their rape of our pocket books.  Obama’s ‘Julia’ will only encourage the behavior discussed above and we must stop it.  We MUST make a change in November!  The only sure way to secure a woman's independence is to STOP insisting she look to the government for help and that she take personal responsibility for her actions.  The government is not your babies daddy and it certainly isn't yours!