My mother makes $300 a month in pension from her years as an RN. Her health forced her to retire, and as much as she'd want to, she's not well enough to work even part time. Not everyone is so fortunate to enjoy good health. With what little she gets in SSI, she can barely afford her medications and just tonight, she's on a new pill that costs an extra $100.
I wasn't trying to make a jab at people who really cannot work. I was attempting to convey that there are people on public assistance that can work, but feel work is beneath them.
My grandmother is in good health, my wife's grandmother was not. She recently passed. They would both be the same age. My grandmother can still carry around heavy objects without even breathing hard. Before my wife's grandmother passed, she was needing assistance just to stand up.
So yes, I do know that everybody is different, and everybody has different health related issues. But I also know, from a first hand, eye witness, account, that there are many people out there exploiting the system that are perfectly able bodied to work.
My grandmother is working because she wants to .. not because she needs to. That quality is very very rare these days. To add to this further, she has never, in my life at least, felt entitled to anything. She is an extremely sweet person, never gets embarrassed about anything she does, attends church regularly, prays every morning, volunteers at the local VA, and checks in on her kids, her grandkids and her great grandkids.
She also lived through the great depression - so her mentality of life was formed when she was young - that if you wanted anything in life, you had to work for it.
She is my "hero".