[Content Note: Class warfare.]
"I'm someone that believes there's nothing more ennobling to a person than a job. And to make sure that able-bodied adults without dependents at home know that here in the state of Indiana, we want to partner with them in their success. You know, it's the old story: Give someone a fish, and they'll eat for a day. Teach them to fish, they'll eat for a lifetime. I think this is an idea whose time has come here in the state of Indiana."—Republican Indiana Governor Mike Pence, on the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration's new policy, which will go into effect at the beginning of next year, to "no longer request a waiver to the federal work requirement for certain people who use the SNAP program. Up to 65,000 single Hoosiers could lose food stamp benefits unless they are working 20 hours a week or attending job training."
Not only is this a classist, racist, misogynist, disablist policy which is being sold on the fallacy that unemployed people simply refuse to work, but it's a classist, racist, misogynist, disablist policy which is being enacted in a state where 1 in 6 people rely on food pantries and meal service programs.
A state in which 59% of households with an employed person using social services include at least one full-time worker.
There are not enough jobs in Indiana for everyone who wants one, and many of the jobs that are available do not page livable wages.
Governor Pence may believe "there's nothing more ennobling to a person than a job," but he's wrong. What's more ennobling is a job that pays enough money for the person doing it to support hirself and hir family.
What's more ennobling is treating people like human beings who deserve to live, without constant worry of how they're going to survive until tomorrow.
Shove your goddamn fish up your ass, Governor. People in need do not need Sunday School lessons. They need jobs, they need food, they need shelter, they need healthcare, and they need a robust social safety net.
And they need a governor who gets that.
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