“Work Harder. People on Welfare are Depending On You!”

We’ve all seen the bumper sticker. What does it mean to you? Some of my friends on the other side of the aisle think that all Democrats would like to see a welfare state where everyone who wants welfare should have access to it, even if they don’t need it.

I’m not sure where this myth came from, but maybe it originated from the same source that believes that all Democrats are immigrant-smuggling, Volvo-driving, Ivy League wine-and-cheese eaters, who live in whimsically smug, gated communities.

About 10 years ago, I was facing a serious rent increase. I was in my mid-20s, single with no children. My options were limited. I come from a working-class family, where we all struggle to pay the bills so I couldn’t turn to them for financial help.

The only thing left to do was take on a second job. So, after working in shipping and receiving at the warehouse all day, I would head out to the local video store to work nights and weekends. I worked seven days a week for more than a year. I did it because I had to and because my pride would not allow me to seek public assistance. I have a feeling that if I had a child, my pride would have gone right out those brand new windows the landlord just put in to justify my rent increase.

I can do without if it’s just me. There are so many different things you can do with a 31-cent box of macaroni and cheese, but to be responsible for a child? What if the child had Down syndrome?

Working seven days a week leaves little time for child care. That would mean some sort of day care or some baby-sitting that would further erode my budget. Baby formula is so expensive that in some of the supermarkets I work in, it’s kept behind the counter. I probably would have had no other choice but to get some help. Having said that, we’ve all heard the stories of able-bodied people milking the system. It makes some angry enough to resort to bumper-sticker warfare, but to suggest that Democrats look the other way at abuse is wrong.

I talked to a family member, who needed to be on welfare from the late 1960s until the early 1980s. She was one of three children and her father had just left the family. Without welfare, her mother could not have provided the kids a decent life. All three children grew up and out of welfare and are OK today because they were given a chance.

That’s the way it’s supposed to work.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes, generation after generation depends on welfare, and that’s not right. You don’t think a social worker with student loan debt and a tiny salary doesn’t get angry when they walk into a welfare recipient’s home and they see a TV set three times bigger than theirs? Of course they do.

So don’t condemn the entire system because of the fraud. The welfare system is a subject as complex as the traffic pattern at the new Biddeford mall, but try and understand that there are some people who, for whatever reason, legitimately need help.

If you see abuse, don’t put a bumper sticker on your car. Report it. Nothing makes this Democrat madder than to see someone who just used food stamps at the store hop into a brand new car, while I get into my rusty 1995 Plymouth Voyager to go to my second job to pay for those tax cuts received by the top 1 percent wealthiest families in America!

Talk about welfare!

Chris Clark lives in Standish.