It’s incredibly easy to just not care, or be happy for them.
I talked to someone on the bus whose cousin in Iowa was miserable and busting their ass collecting recycling (Iowa being one of just a few states that does bottle deposits) every day before they ripped off the government and now they’re the closest to happy they’ve been in a long time. I don’t care about anyone’s tax dollars. I would not have cared back when I used to have a job and was paying taxes. “Your tax dollars” are a fucking imaginary concept. You’re paying the same amount irregardless, the federal government is paying the same irregardless, all of this is a bucket of ████ poured into the vacuum of space, it’s a grain of sand blown to the wind, it’s a pale blue dot in a sunbeam. Who the fuck cares? If you didn’t have your fucking phone or your TV or whatever or a book to read or a hobby or something you wouldn’t care because this does not effect you. Go outside. Take a walk. Look at the sky. Look at the horizon. Look at the few stars that shine through the haze. Think about something that makes you sad. Think about something that makes you happy. Talk to someone. Watch a movie. Get a fucking life.
It doesn’t effect your life, that I get close to $300 a month in food stamps. It doesn’t effect your life, that I don’t work and dgaf about working. You are angry because some fucking mook told you to be angry. This month I think I actually started gaining weight. I don’t think I went a day eating less than a thousand calories. That never fucking happens. For once I’m not near death! Be happy for me! Who cares if I do drugs and don’t “contribute to society”? That’s a made up concept. It’s a secular God who’s stolen the empathy I know you used to have.
Posted with my Apple iMeth 12 Mini™️
Think of all the people who don’t care at all about the structure of society; who see no problem with wealth inequality or climate change. Yes, it’s easy not to care.
But the people who make a stink about welfare truly believe it is a flaw in the organisation of society. They believe welfare is socially and economically harmful in the same way we might believe inequality or alienation is harmful.
Of course, we recognise welfare as subsidising social externalities. But others may believe either that these externalities should be allowed to kill people, or that subsidy encourages stasis. Or indeed they may not think of these externalities at all.