I have physical, mental and developmental differences that have so far made me unmarketable to the aboveboard taxable American economy. I am 59 years old. I get Social Security payments. SSI. 

Before i was deemed worthy to recieve your precious redistributed tax dollars at age 40, i was a bardic sort - trading words and music for food & lodging. Living on the edges of the economy, not quite self-employed in the legal sense. A soundtrack for sinners. Drinks included.

A bout with marriage, that one fluky 3-year job and then...... mama sez, my girl's gettin to old to depend on that shit. After discovering the Right Words for What's Wrong, it was time to string up the safety net. It took her 8 years, even though her pre-retirement job WAS Federal paperwork.  But she proved the case, her weird kid won the case with some doctors in tow, and now i get enough to continue to live on the fringes. But now, I with an accountable paper-trail that says i'm to recieve minimal care from the Great Society that my folks paid into for decades.

Is that "assistance" or "welfare" or "relief" or "benefits" ????? 

I see it as a government grant for work to be done outside of the conventional economy!

I added up the value of my SSI, EBT and OHP, divided that by a 30-hour work week and came up with $8.55 an hour. I believe that i add at least that much "value" to human existence even if the energy transaction doesn't result in dollars earned. Not every exchange of energy can be monetized, except maybe on the internet. 🙂 

When there's nothing else productive to do, i pick up random trash from public spaces. I refuse any shame or labels about government support. I work for my society. I look forward to earning a living from my words and noises someday. But until then, i have that small but present safety net that my parents paid into all their working lives with their tax dollars. Unlike some politicians and so-called billionaires. 

A common American mental illness: Hoarding. Whether it's too many cats, Chevrolets, collectibles or sacks of garbage and jugs of pee. The truly ugly cases are the ones hoarding more money and resources than they could ever use to maintain a comfortable life while others scrape out an existence on the streets, unable to unravel the mysteries of getting into that rumored safety net because policy, procedure, paperwork, politics.

To everyone who thinks it's easy to get "welfare" and cheat the "disability" system, fuck you. Just fuck you. Fuck you right to the curb until your brain breaks and your bones hurt. Then see how fucking easy it really is to get any help.  You told them to grab those bootstraps. How does it feel now to have no boots? How does it feel to have your feet rotting off your body? Just fuck you, society says.