This is the latest socio-political meme going around Facebook, that welfare recipients should be drug tested as part of getting benefits. And, of course, it's not new.
Of course, it's totally wrong in its presuppositions and presumptions.
It's the financial class-based equivalent of racism, since repeated sociological studies show that drug use, by percentage, is almost equal across all socioeconomic as well as racial boundaries. In light of that, as far as how many people benefit from federal, or state, help ...
Should we drug test would be financial planners as part of their System 7 licenses? Student loan recipients? GOP (and Democratic) Congressional candidates? State legislators? White-collar workers getting unemployment benefits? Small Business Administration loan recipients?
You get the idea.
But, in case you don't, rhetorically speaking, why stop there?
Driving on streets built with taxpayer money? Drug testing, including alcohol via breathalyzer, before you start the vehicle. Etc., etc.
As I said above, this is nothing new. Of course, it goes back to Uncle Ronnie's time, showing that nothing is new under the wingnut sun except the possibility of persuading some gullible people who don't think this stuff through.
But, it's not just the gullible. It's the politically gutless of both parties, still pursuing the "War on Drugs," who are ultimately to blame.
2 comments:
I'm as liberal as you can get, and besides that, personally, I know more white people on welfare than any minorities. But I still think people should still be tested for drug abuse when receiving Medicaid or any welfare. My work/insurance company forces me and my co-workers to take drug tests in order to work, I never thought of that as "bigoted" either.
David, part of my point is that "welfare" is no more "welfarish" than other forms of federal largesse. If the point is drug testing over federal largesse, then it is classist, if not necessarily racist, to JUST test welfare recipients.
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