Why??? A Rant

We aren't destitute.....yet. I have been going over our family's finances for the entire week. Over and over and over. The bottom hasn't fallen out yet, but by crunching numbers, I have determined that it will. So I started making phone calls. Don't I pay taxes that go to fund programs that help people like us? Yes, yes I do. $28K in taxes last year, to be exact. What I found is disturbing...

I have been told that I cannot receive any sort of aid because I am married, because I made too much last year, and any other myriad of poor excuses.

I am a college-educated woman who has worked. Brought home the bacon. Been the breadwinner. Yet now, unable to work, I find that I cannot get help? Yet my taxes can go to others who want to, or feel they are entitled to, sit on their butts. There is something wrong with this. Seriously. And what is most disturbig to me is that, in a matter of 12 to 16 weeks, I will be back to my old self, working like a dog and earning a salary far above the average in the U.S. This is as temporary as the definition of temporary can get.

This is what is wrong with our public assistance programs! We talk of welfare reform, and say that we want to see change that produces individuals who eventuall work toward self-sufficiency, but someone like me can't get approved. This is what we need: programs that help hard-working Amecans who, for one reason or another, cannot work. Temporarily. Not as a lifestyle choice, or as a permanent condition, but temporarily. For the permanently disabled, we have disability and social security. And don't penalize me for having a degree and being in the middle class prior to my downfall. Or for being married. Isn't the middle class supposed to be th heart and soul of America? No, being in the middle class is like a shove into the world, saying "You're on your own, kid!". We can be upwardly mobile socioeconomically. W can work and achieve education, and better our status. But don't let anything happen to decrease your income, because there is no safety net. And when you fall, you will fall hard.