Sometimes I Just Really Hate People

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Ever find yourself reading people's comments on news stories and immediately regretting it? You'd think I'd learn by now to just not read the comments section but no, I always have to go and get myself riled up. This morning I was reading about how Congressman Steve King wants to take funding from Planned Parenthood and the SNAP (food stamps) program to pay for that stupid border wall. Because it makes sense to take funding from the most vulnerable members of society to pay for something frivolous, right? But that's not even what's gotten me so riled up. No, it's the hateful comments agreeing with him that has made me really hate people. I have never understood the hatred aimed at the poor. I experienced it first hand growing up in a poor family that relied on welfare and food stamps assistance in order to survive. I grew up knowing that my own relatives thought that I and my siblings should not exist. I grew up being shamed by school teachers and classmates who came from middle class (or upper class) families. And I grew up knowing that a person's financial situation does not define them as a person. None of us has the right to decide who should or should not be allowed to exist on this planet. Poverty does not equal worthlessness. But the way non-impoverished people seem to view it -- people who have been privileged by never experiencing poverty first hand -- all of us poor folk are just leeches to society and we're living high on the hog while sucking from the government teet that THEY pay for with their hard-earned taxes. Taxpayers only contribute about $36 a year toward welfare programs, and you pay those taxes even if you're poor. Most people on assistance nowadays work and are taxpayers too. So I don't know why folks with higher incomes seem to think that only THEIR taxes count. I am just sick of all the hate geared at poor people. Nobody in their right mind chooses to live in poverty. There are so many factors that contribute to it. It is harder to get ahead in life when you start out with a bad hand of cards. I don't know how many privileged people I know who can just go out and get offered a good paying job when they're not even looking simply because they have connections, while non-privileged people have a hard time even landing a job interview because they don't have those connections. Privileged people think that because it was easy for them that that's how it is for everyone I guess. Too bad our government representatives don't know what it's like to live in poverty at least once in their life -- then maybe they wouldn't aim so much hatred at the poor. People who have never had to experience poverty should count themselves lucky rather than resenting the poor for needing assistance.