It's multigenerational!

We just went to Wal-Mart for a few things.  We had the pixie along, and she was a very pleasant shopper.  Everything went fine...until we got to the check out line. 

There was one family taking up two lines.  One family of about four generations.  Great grandma was in one of the fast lanes, had greasy, stringy, thin gray hair, probably in her early sixties, and was probably right around five or six hundred pounds.  She was using a moto-cart, and a SNAP card.  Grandma had slightly thicker, cleaner hair, dyed orange, probably in her late thirties or early forties, and around five or six hundred pounds.  She was also in a moto-cart.  She had a load of groceries, and a WIC voucher that her daughter laid on the baby food.  And a SNAP card and welfare debit card.  Mom was at least on her own two feet, but probably topped the scales at around four hundred.  She had about $1500 worth of tattoos (and so did Grandma and, horribly enough, Great grandma), and a smart phone tucked under a straining cami top strap.  No bra.    Mom had two babies--about two, and about six months.  Her younger sister was there, looked to be about twelve, and about 150 or so pounds, and a vacant, slack jawed look.

Four generations of dependence on the taxpayer.  The only male in the bunch was the six month old. 

I was disgusted enough, standing in line behind them.  Then, they left, and I got up to the pin number key pad--greasy--and smelled the nasty.  Seriously, it smelled like something dead. 

And this is what we, the taxpayer, is supposed to feel sorry for. 

I'm sorry.

I don't.

The only ones I feel sorry for are the babies.  They need to be removed from their biological mother and placed into a middle-class family that will teach them a work ethic, and to not be parasites upon the productive members of society.  And, given how I feel about child "welfare" programs, that ought to tell you something.

What we stood behind in line at Wal-Mart is a cumulation of stupid choices that would have been punished by reality before Johnson decided that poverty was something other than the results of stupid choices made by the people who shouldn't have offspring survive to keep the stupid choices going for another generation.

Had I control of the social programs like welfare, food stamps, and social engineering taxes, I would do a few things:

1. Nothing but beans, rice, canned veggies and fruit, hamburger meat, bread, chicken leg quarters qualify for SNAP.  If they want soda and junk, they can pay cash.

2. Only the first child counts for assistance for unwed mothers and deadbeat couples who refuse to work.  Two is a blatant grab for more money.  (It'd be a little different if the parents were working, and spending all their money on child care--which is entirely possible.)  I would also require any single, never-wed mother to have a birth control implant placed as soon as she'd given birth, if she wasn't planning to breast feed.

3. No taxes on cigarettes or alcohol.  Let 'em die.

4. No Medicaid for anyone who smokes.  If they smoke, they can buy their own insurance, or die. 

I'd be willing to bet that our national deficit would shrink by about half within about ten years or so.  And so would the group that perpetually makes bad choices, sucks the life out of the taxpayer, and votes Democrat.