I want to reassure everyone that no one's a burden on society. There's a modern economic consensus among academics that consumption is vitally important to an economy. In fact, in the current economy, with unemployment being high and consumption low, every dollar you get without taking up space in the employment market is actually a great benefit to the economy, to the point that mainstream economists are suggesting the state should simply airdrop cash into poor neighbourhoods.
The reason why people look down on those who receive welfare is because they don't know anything about economics, because they're jealous that they don't get free money themselves, and because they simply don't like those of us who are worse off. They assume we're lazy or otherwise morally at fault.
All that said, try not to take it personally. Few of these people are consistent enough to actually judge you as an individual; They're mostly talking in generalities. Besides, their complaints are mostly racial in scope; they probably don't judge you for being mentally ill because they're too busy judging the "illegals" or whatnot.
I'm not anyone's priest, but I urge you to avoid getting angry with people. It just makes you sound more and more like the people you hate. It makes you narcissistic, intolerant, arrogant. The same things you rightly decry in others. I don't blame you for responding to pain as you do, because it's natural, and because I did it too, but try to hold on to your compassion for your fellow human, even when it's hard. If nothing else, it'll make you less worthy of their judgment, in effect proving them more wrong than they already are.
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Do write me. I do not bite by default.
03 Nov 2014, 4:06 am
