#59 | Were you told that welfare makes people lazy?
May 02, 2022Watch the webclass, "4-Part Roadmap to Encourage Adulting Actions."
Download, "The Quick Start Guide to STEAR Mapping"
RESOURCES
Equal Opportunity? Different starting lines... @ YouTube
Were you told that welfare makes people lazy. I was. It was part of the thinking that I was raised with. Today I'm wondering if I need to change that thinking because it has really made me reluctant to apply for benefits for my kids. And I almost missed a window of opportunity to get them the support that they need because of that thinking.
My current thinking is not that self reliance atrophies in the face of governmental assistance, as some propose, I would like to suggest that self reliance increases with the help of governmental assistance. I believe that the welfare programs that we have helped our autistic young adults work because they provide the kinds of supports they need to be able to live well, which increases the amount of energy they have available to invest in their job, which then makes them better, more productive workers.
The intention of these welfare benefits, especially the ones that help them with their food, their health care and their home situation, is that it helps compensate for the burdens of having a disability. It's a small way to level the playing field for our kids.
I don't know if you've ever had the chance to watch this YouTube video. In the corner, it says, "Equal opportunity, different starting lines..." I don't know if you've ever seen this YouTube video, but I've it really made an impact on me. I remember watching it many years ago. And when I needed to pull it up today it was still in my memory. The gym teacher who has all the kids line up on the starting line and holds up $100 bill for the person that gets across the starting line the fastest.
Then he starts asking them for various things that have happened in their life. And if they can take step two steps forward if they've had two people living in their home, two parents living in their home, they can take two steps forward if they've never had to worry about having enough to eat at cetera.
Of course, once he's done asking about the various conditions, you can see that there are some kids that are left behind and have a handicap when they're starting in the race of life as he calls it.
I wish he had also mentioned but perhaps it might have been too awkward. I don't know. It's kind of awkward, you know, all the questions he's asked but I wish he had also asked, Do you have any kind of a difference in your brain that causes a disability in the way that you learn or a difference in the way that you learn? I think that would have been just as applicable in this situation.
And it shows. His point is that if you're the one that crosses the finish line first, it's because you have been set up with certain advantages. And yes, I'm going to suggest that having a non autistic brain is an advantage. Because of the myriad reasons that thinking with an autistic brain affects our social skills affects, our ability to extrapolate lessons, it affects our attention. It affects a lot of the ways that we learn.
That's why I would argue that what the welfare programs do is help to level the playing field for our autistic adults. And yes, they were put in place by some very wise people who were very persistent. And made it possible for people who have disabilities to get support so hey could become paying members of the workforce. They could pay into the welfare benefits that they're receiving. It's really so that they can eat good food, have access to health care and live in a safe place.
That's really what I want to make sure happens should anything catastrophic occur in my life over the next five years and my kids then are required to be self reliant. I want them to have these benefits in place so that they can then go forward. They're accustomed to getting them. It wasn't easy. They're accustomed to accessing them, and I still help them in that area. I want them to be capable of doing all of this and practice doing it while I'm still here.
Everyone pays FICA taxes, including our children, when they earn wages. I really want them to be part of the working people. I think having work gives us structure. It's an incredible learning opportunity.
I know I've learned far more from the work that I've done than I ever learned getting an education, so I really want them to be working.
At the same time. I recognize that there are differences in the way that their brain operates that caused them to start at a different place on that starting line.
If you with me on this, please join me this Friday at 10 o'clock am eastern standard time for James Traylor who will help us understand how to access and maximize the federal benefits that our kids deserve.
Sign up at the link.
