The short answer apparently is when the recipients are white and middle class.
At least that’s what I get from Chuck Lacasse of DePere in this story:
On June 4, Lacasse lost his job as advertising director for a company that makes nutritional supplements. He’ll soon have to pay the entire $1,500 monthly premium to keep his family covered under his former employer’s health insurance plan.
Until May 31, under Obama’s economic stimulus law, the government provided a 65 percent subsidy. That would have lowered his cost to $525.
“This really isn’t about welfare,” said Lacasse, 40. “It’s about buying people some time. In a position as specialized as mine, it would have been nice to know that I had some time to look for the right job.” He lives near Green Bay, Wis., with his wife and two children.
It should go without saying that if we had a single-payer health-care system, this all would be moot.
Beyond that I find it very disturbing that instead learning empathy and coming to a realization of the importance of government programs supporting all those who find themselves in economic difficulties, Mr. Lacasse instead wishes to distinguish himself from faceless others who benefit from “welfare.” Divide and conquer, us and them.
It is worth noting that the Social Security Act of 1935 included Old Age Pensions, Unemployment Insurance, and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (what came to be called “welfare”). All these were parts of a single safety net.
It is also worth noting that W2 payments in Wisconsin appear to max out at under $700 a month, significantly less than the insurance subsidy Mr. Lacasse desires.
In a related story, read about the long-term unemployed in Janesville.
In closing I want to make it clear that this isn’t about pointing the finger at any individual, it is about calling attention to how thinking and talking about social safety nets, the welfare state and government programs in general, have developed in ways that emphasize divisions over commonalities, as James Brown put it “I got mine, don’t worry ’bout his.”
Thomas J. Mertz
