The lady who drove a Mercedes to pick up food vouchers.

[Ryantology]

Oh, IDK, my wife and I were on assistance for a few years after a particularly bad year for my business. No man's an island, and there's no shame in admitting that you reached - and ultimately faltered. It's a rough world out there. Chances are you aren't really "taking care of yourself" quite as much as you think you are anyway. I can say with certainty that if you're an american, a great many people are subsidizing every level of your existence.....so any pride you have in that, and any shame you feel is appropriate when one fails to take advantage of that; shaky - at best. Downright shitty, at worst.

QFT.

I've had assistance (SNAP) myself, for a brief period. I didn't feel the slightest bit of shame because I've been a taxpaying worker since the age of 16. I am entitled to benefit from what I've been paying into for half my life, and all the more when you consider that most of that tax money has gone to corporate welfare, which is unjustifiable, and the military, which gets vastly more than it needs.

I absolutely do not agree that people should feel shame. The vast majority of people don't choose to be poor and starving. Those who would shame the poor needing help should be far more ashamed of themselves than those who are getting the help. It's a lot easier not to be an asshole than it is to change your economic status.

And, I do absolutely agree with the idea of a guaranteed minimum income, because who deserves to have basic necessities is not a question we have the luxury of asking when we clearly have enough for everybody.