Lazy cow syndrome

So this viral video is getting the hits lately.

 

It is the story of Doreen a “benefit scrounger”

I usually have a sense of humour but something about this triggers something in me.

Guess it comes from my life experience as after my parents split my sisters and I were raised by a mother on benefits.

 

Now I realise that this is a mockumentary and it is from Britain, while when I was living in poverty it was on the other side of the world. But still I just think that this reinforces myths about what life is like.

For example the whole thing about the government paying for houses, cars and sky TV, yeah right.

We were so poor that we didn’t even have a phone.

This literally could have killed me.

 

I don’t mean being a teen and unable to organise a social life.

When I was sixteen, I was home alone and had an accident. I fell and cut my leg on some glass.

With no phone I just waited until everyone came home and my mother used the neighbour’s phone. Fifteen stitches and I was fine.

But what if my injury was more serious? I know often people do the “what if” and it’s something that would never happen. But I don’t think it is that wild to imagine that the glass could have cut an artery. Then unable to summon help I would have died that day.

 

While the video says that Doreen just doesn’t want to work. I suspect that the reality of the situation for real women struggling as single mothers is that even if they do want to work did the likelihood of getting a job is slim. Critics seem to think that there are jobs out there for everyone but the reality is that there is not. Especially with that little thing called a recession going on.

Plus there is the issue of childcare which if available is often so expensive that it would cost more that she would earn.

 

This video just perpetuates the negative image of beneficiaries and creates a public hatred towards these people based on jealousy of perceived advantages that in reality they do not receive.

But why let little things like the truth get in the way of a good story?

Hell isn’t it more fun to imagine these women as slutty druggy lazy chavs who spend the rest of their spare time swimming thru piles of government provided cash like Scrooge McDuck.

 

My feelings after watching the video also reminded me of a posting I recently saw on Facebook:

OK..SO LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT ... If you cross the North Korean border illegally, you get 12 yrs. hard labor. If you cross the Afghanistan border illegally, you get shot. Two Americans just got eight years… for crossing the Iranian border. If you cross the Australian Border illegally you get a job, a drivers license, food stamps, a place to live, health care, housing & child benefits, education, & a tax free business for 7 yrs ...No wonder we are a country in debt... RE-POST if you agree

 

I pointed out that it looked like it was written for Americans and then just changed to Australia and it wasn’t even true in the USA.

 

But thinking about it more and really considering the issue I then have to ask, what is this posting saying? That countries should try to emulate the evil and be like those with brutal barbaric regimes?

That treating people poorly is the way to go?

Call me a bleeding heart liberal but I would honestly rather have my tax dollars going to helping desperate people than to start shooting them if they dare to cross my country’s borders.

 

To sum it up I’m just annoyed at things like these viral videos and posts creating more hatred for people in the lowest socioeconomic groups. These are not people living in luxury, they are people for whom every day is a struggle.

But why let facts get in the way of opinions? As it seems to me that the real syndrome is the problem of people choosing to believe things that help them to hate others.

 

Perhaps it should be called ‘I resent others I perceive to be getting an easy ride even if they aren’t syndrome’. Or ‘I’m too lazy to actually really think about an issue properly syndrome’.

It saddens me that the world seems to be awash in the output of a plague of diseased minds attempting to convince others (and I would say succeeding) to cast scorn upon those less fortunate than themselves.