Most people in this country go to banks or credit unions to get a loan to buy a home, but the unlucky have to go to a place called General Assistance to get help with their rent or utilities at least once a year. Many of us have been there at least once in our lifetime. In theory, I find General Assistance a great idea. My problem lies in the unfair practice of banks prying into the privacy of its clients.

When you go to a bank they ask your income and your basic bills and run your credit. Nothing too invasive there. Now, going to General Assistance you are asking for a loan and making a payment plan with them. Yet they still demand to know where all your money went in the first pace and might refuse you based on the answers. This is despite the fact they are supposed to be a Social Safety Net.

And despite the fact that they are going to help you build a better budget for the following months, they need to be paid back at the same time. For that, they really only need to know what your bills are. But instead, they demand to know what you spent your money on even though they are demanding you pay the money back. No bank does this when giving you a loan to help buy a home or consolidate credit or debt. The banks just determine your bills and if you can pay.

All General Assistance needs to do is form a budget going forward with the ability to pay them back something each month. The goal is that the person never needs assistance again. Instead, they punish the person needing assistance with the humiliation of exposing their personal spending that month. They also sometimes even force them to sign over their financial freedom by getting a payee for one isolated incident for those on disability.

It’s no wonder people are scared of having to go there. Or why some people don’t spend money on anything but the bare necessities when they are poor. They fear it being held against them if they end up having to go to General Assistance for help. It seems disabled poor people are not supposed to have any luxuries at all, except maybe cable and internet, if they are lucky. And, even then they are not supposed to have a good computer to use it on. God forbid we have the same electronics as everyone else or the same cars as everyone else. Nope, when it comes to cars we are required to have those of which are as used as possible since it is an asset that can be sold. It is an asset to be sold instead of another bill when you revamp the transportation system to make it so that it is more efficient to get around on public transportation than by car.

Stop trying to make everyone sacrifice necessities in this day and age just because they are poor by punishing them for being poor. Every time the poor try to get ahead and make one mistake, they are hugely punished for it and it has to stop. When did being poor become a crime in this country? I ask because it seems lately that is has become a crime and it continues to be one when it shouldn’t be. It should be a rallying cry to help these people to bring them forward not backward.

*Tips his hat and kicks open the door walking out what’s left of it*.