[lrjohnson]

Snoop: a lot of people are eligible for low cost subsidized housing, true. In our area, it's a long, long waiting list-many many months. I've never seen anything as low as $12, but again, I'm in California, and our prices are pretty high all around for everything. If you are on aid a long time, you find over time the benefits available to you. However if you are using it as a safety net for a few months to get you through a rough patch while you actively seek to get back on your feet again (after layoff, divorce, illness, etc.) it doesn't look easy. It's sad that it's easier to be on aid a long time than on aid a short time.

I don't know if I would say overall who has it harder, the working class or those on aid. If it's just a question of getting benefits, then the people on aid have it easier. But there is a lot of sadness in some of these homes: kids in foster care, alcoholism, long term untreated mental illness, low levels of education, and an attitude of defeat. And we see the children in these families grow up to be the parents of kids on aid. (I'm taking about the families that are on aid for a long time, as in over a year. Many, in fact most, use it for a short time.) As we know from this board, some working class families with quite low incomes have very fulfilled lives. Myself, just the idea of having to tell a welfare worker all my life details is just wrong. Certainly personal responsibility would go a long way, but the lives aren't easy.

When I say I have compassion, it doesn't mean that I approve of the lifestyle decisions. It just means that I see that their choices have provided them with not as much stability and contentment as I'd like all families to have.