Comic Strips

You paid taxes with it. I don't know why people would feel bad about applying for welfare benefits and food stamps if they have worked before. Are there those that abuse the system? Sure, but their number pale in comparison to those who genuinely need them. Most people who had been on social welfare do get out of it. Though I have a fairly cynical view, I still think most people do not like to stay in the rut and strive to work hard to move up in their stations. I don't know about the US but in the UK the vast majority of welfare go to pensioner, disabled and children. Only a smaller percentage of the welfare go to the unemployed despite the anti-poor propaganda.

I think one of the reasons for people feeling awkward to ask for welfare on a personal level is because as a society, we have been conditioned to please the wider society and should derive our sense of worth and happiness by working and grinding. Of course, you want to help society, and of course you can't always rely on generosity alone, but there is unhealthy level of stigma of not working and looking bad in front of others-- most of whom just go on with their own lives not thinking about you when they go to bed. But we don't realise that at all the grinding, working and trying to look productive to please others is only benefiting the billionaires whom we are ultimately working for.