Raise the Hammer

Grassroots, we've talked in person about how there's a bit of a generation gap in the people that we work with, and we often tend to speak of apples and oranges when we talk about the poor or those on assistance.

You tend to campaign and work with older people who worked in the past and really don't want to be on ODSP or welfare. They've got legitimate reasons to be where they're at, and I understand from the people I know in the same situation that they deserve more.

For me, however, I tend to see a lot of younger people who learned from their peers or family how to navigate and cheat the system, whether that's tossing $200 from your welfare cheque in to live with six friends and spending the rest on booze and pot, or finding every way possible to claim you have a "disability".... When what you really have is/are (a) permissive parent(s) who think there's no way their 30-year-old should be working because he saw a big scary bug in the bathtub when he was six (or because he got bad marks in a class in high school, or because some aspect of life was tough and so they keep bailing them out and yelling at anyone who thinks they have to work...)

Sure, those are HUGE generalizations (I know many people who deserve to be on ODSP or the like) --- but 'those who struggle' and those on welfare or disability aren't two groups with 100% overlap.

Given that, I get a bit frustrated when you claim everyone who doesn't share your views has no insight, or no moral compass... we're often speaking about apples and oranges.

Solutions like Cooke proposes, like giving kids a chance by sending them to mixed-income schools (regardless of whether their parents deserve to be receiving money or if they're system cheaters) has apparently proven to be a good solution to some of these problems elsewhere - would you agree on that?

(edited for spelling - and to say Moylek is hilarious.)

Comment edited by Meredith on 2010-05-19 16:14:44