hey Becca here and today on a life learned i really want to clear up a
misconception about these memes I've been seeing about government assistance
and particularly this particular meme stating things about how it's not the
rich supporting the government assistance program but rather those in
the working class which is very true but then it goes on to say that those on
government assistance earn more than those who are working and I really want
to discuss that with everyone today
Ideas are merely as useful as what we do with them
An idea can escape!
Ideas are bulletproof!
So this meme here basically indicates that those who are
supporting the government assistance program
aren't those with the tons of money but the middle class the ones who are
working the hardest and that is very true but it then goes on to express that
somehow those on government assistance are earning more than the working class
and this is where I want to clear up the misconception because there's a lot of
really kind good-hearted people who are posting this mean to their social
network because they're genuinely angry about this idea. They think that there's
all kinds of people just sitting on there but doing nothing and earning more
money than them while they go out and work their butts off and that's not a
fair thing to think so i really want you guys to understand that that's not true
that is not what's happening! I was born and raised in ontario so that's the only
place I can really speak of in regard to their welfare system but in regard to
that I can definitely say that it does not provide more than those who work
every day. I've been on and off the system throughout my life. I was a child
on the system because my mother use the system to support herself and our family
and then when I tried to get away from her because of abuse situations i ended
up using the welfare system to help me finish getting through school and then
after that I got off it for a while and I was working and going to school but
then I came to find myself physically and mentally ill and once again back on
the system. I've only ever been trying to heal so that I can get back to work and
contributing but the poverty that's created by the welfare system has been
making that incredibly difficult and this is the case for many people but the
main thing I really want to show you guys is the numbers the fact that those
who are working 70 hour weeks here in Ontario, even at minimum wage, are earning
way more
than anything that's provided on the assistance that we get. So just doing a
little bit of math you can see that the minimum wage right now is $11 multiply
that by 70 hours before taxes you've got over seven hundred dollars. Now that's
just in one week by the way one week of hours not a month in one month one full
month a single person at maximum can only receive 656 dollars when they're on
Ontario Works which is the welfare system in ontario. Now put into
perspective the costs of living with that 656 dollars they actually will only
provide 375 for your rental so if your rent happens to be anything under 375
the amount that you get is thus less than the full amount of 656 and in a lot
of people's cases you can't find living places that are less than 375. I actually
pay for 455 for all of my living expenses which only leaves me with what about a
hundred and seventy dollars every month to cover all of my living expenses
that's all of my food all of my toiletries anything if I ever have any
clothes that i need to buy anything at all
that's all I get every month and on top of all this all extra expenses that you
experience when you're on welfare are not helped with. They're a reimbursement
system so you have to initially somehow find the money for this extra expense
and then once you have a receipt then you provide that to them and they will
provide you the reimbursement back for your money but when you only have a
hundred and seventy dollars or maybe two hundred dollars to work with for all of
your living expenses every month
how are you supposed to find this extra money for expenses that you don't expect
which happens in life! I was looking up things like should to get a fire
detector or now they've mandated carbon monoxide detectors - you can't actually
get them to help you pay for that you have to go find the money to pay for it
yourself and then they will reimburse that money for you and I've heard many
people make the argument that well okay maybe a single person doesn't earn that
much but when you have a family they give you tons
money on welfare. No they don't! If you have a child they give you a $63 more if
the child's under-17 and if the child is over 18 basically a dependent adult then
they'll give you a hundred and eleven dollars more
that's it and that's not very much for a single person to live off of in terms of
food and overall living expenses. So back to the initial numbers I'm basically
stating that those on welfare get basically as much as those on minimum
wage are capable of getting in 70 hours in one week. One week! Now this issue
expands out into the fact that we have a lot of employment issues a lot of people
can't get 70 hours a week and so they obviously can't make that seven hundred
dollars a week. That was actually something I was facing right before I
had to go on to Ontario Works was having a really hard time getting hours in my
crappy kitchen part-time job in order to pay my bills. But that's honestly another
video about employment issues and about how pretty much all the systems within
the government are structured poorly and basically need to be completely revamped
I'll get into that for another video but the main point I want you guys to
understand is that I know you have good hearts in you and you don't mean to be
inconsiderate in posting these means about government assistance because I
know they annoy you but the point is they're wrong they are pointing the
finger in the wrong direction
It's right the rich aren't the ones supporting the welfare system and you
know what, why aren't they!? They're the ones with the extra! The middle class
they're getting by okay but they don't necessarily have extra. Why are they
being the ones that are made to support the system? It doesn't make sense!
it's basically a ridiculous scenario of three people trying to eat a bunch of
french fries one person gets the french fries at the bottom of the bag - the person on
welfare - another person gets themselves a nice little box to themselves - the
middle-class working-class and then someone gets 20 boxes for themselves
that would be the one percent - the rich - Why is everyone getting so upset at the
guy eating the fries at the bottom of the bag?
are you actually going to eat them? I mean we're talking about money yes of
course you're actually going to want to spend it but that's not what I'm talking
about. On the grand scheme of things you're pointing the finger in the wrong
direction. Those on welfare don't want to be on welfare the majority of people on
welfare are not these welfare queens that you see where they say that they
earned so much money and you see them on these pleather couches beside fur coats
that is totally set up! That's not real!
anyone who was an actual assistance recipients who is trying to get by in
life
trust me they don't want to be on welfare it's that or the streets and
it's even been acknowledged that welfare in some cases isn't better than the
streets. This video here will tell you all about how they're perfectly aware of
how messed up the welfare system is. How it basically explains exactly what I'm
trying to say in this video and that is that the government is demonizing people
for the simple crime of hardship for the simple crime of being poor and they're
not allowing them opportunities to get out of that poverty. They're doing them
to constant endless poverty with the way the system perpetuates mental health
issues and does not address the actual help that is needed. So to all those who
have gotten really upset thinking about all of those welfare bums that aren't
doing anything and are just sitting on there butt, earning way more money than
you - I promise you they are the absolute minority and they aren't earning more
money than you! If there are any welfare bums, they have psychological issues
they're not just bums they have a lot of things that they need to work on and
they appear lazy because no one is helping them; And above all anyone on the
welfare system is most definitely going without and starving in some slight way
relative to someone who is earning a working wage. So please point your anger in
the right direction! Get mad at the one percent for being so goddamn greedy and
stop hating the poor for suffering because trust me if we could stop
suffering we would I swear!
anyways I hope you learned a few things from my video and please feel free to
comment below about your experiences with the welfare system in canada or in
whatever country or in. I know a lot of them are pretty messed up and there's a
lot of people suffering so feel free to share your story below and please join
me again next week where I try again to share a little something I've learned in life