They’re scared to death because they look just like me

I am a well-educated woman with 2 engineering degrees. I graduated at the top of my classes and I have excelled at almost every job I have had. Five years ago I bought a house with a nice big yard. By most measures, I have been successful.

I also spent two years on Medicaid and SNAP (food stamps).

When making the mistake of chatting about entitlements, I’ve heard things like:

“Most of those people are just too damn lazy to get off their asses and get a job like the rest of us. Why should they have it easy?”

I’ll often step forward and say, “I’m one of those people.”

Sometimes, people don’t know what to do with that. I don’t fit their picture of someone on welfare, because I am just like them. I went to their rival college, I dated their friend, or I graduated from the same school. People with Draconian views on poverty don’t like that. To them, the poor are Other People.

Image: drawing of one hand thumb up that says, “Us”, and another thumbs down that says, “Them”. The hands are surrounded by a word cloud including words like: attack, isolate, protect, dominate, loser, and wrong. Image is by John Hain via Pixabay.com, CC0

Sometimes, people let me know I am a special case. They tell me I’m not like those Other People.

They’re wrong. I am one of the Other People. I am not an exception. There are millions of Americans who are one layoff, or one medical emergency, away from needing public benefits.