Also, many people fail to realize that there are now limits for how long you can get any kind of assistance…and that it's not like it was decades ago when you just had to keep having kids to get it. These days, in most places anyway, (kids or not, single-parent or not) you are expected to find work rather immediately. And, in my state, as well as many others, there is a lifetime limit (5 years in my state). This means that if you are on it for 1 year while getting back on your feet, but a year or two (or even ten or twenty years) later you find yourself on hard times again you only have 4 years left…and no matter how many times you have to go back to it you are not allowed to use the entire time left…you are still expected to find work again pretty much immediately. It is designed so that you don't use it all up at once and you have it there to use again if needed, because sometimes hard times fall on a person more than once in a lifetime.

The only way to get around this is to prove you have a permanent disability in which case you are still not allowed to just keep collecting the same kind of benefits. Instead, you are deferred to applying for Social Security Disability and proving your case to them…which again, though sometimes abused and/or over exaggerated, isn't as easy to do as some people think. The myth that regular people are sitting home collecting checks and living the high life for ever off the backs of working tax payers is running ignorantly rampant. There will always be a few who manage to buck the system…but for the most part it's regular, hard working people who have also payed plenty of taxes into the system that is designed to then help them temporarily when they fall on hard times. And, many people fail to realize that fact…most people who receive assistance have already pre-paid what they get through their own taxes because very few of them have NEVER worked a day in their life.

I'm not going to even get into the many things that are wrong with the idea that drug testing welfare recipients. You touched on them all and I agree with everything you wrote on that subject. I could go on for another 10 paragraphs on that one and I've already droned on long enough. I just wanted to share my experience and insight and tell you that I commend you for stating an unpopular opinion that needs to be shared. I thought it was very well thought out and well written…and showed that you really gave it some logical thought backed up by personal experience. The problem is that few people will realize this same train of thought, because the people that throw around all these strong opinions don't bother to educate themselves on the matter and often have never had any experiences with the system so they don't know how it really works. They base their opinions on what they've been told by other people, what they hear in the media, and the ever-present stigmas that go along with the need for government assistance…and they form these emotionally charged, knee-jerk reactions that don't do any good in fixing the real issues with the system. But, again, I commend you for sharing your experiences and expressing your opinion even though it is not a popular one, despite how logical it is