I'm Paying For You to Do Nothing!

It's 1PM on a Wednesday afternoon. I leave my office to grab a bite for lunch. While standing outside the eatery I began just scanning the street corner I stood near. I observed a family that consisted of a little boy about 5 years of age, a baby in a stroller, a mother, and a father. I then adverted my eyes across this busy inner-city intersection and noticed another family consisting of the same. Then a thought entered my mind as I stood gazing at 100+ people just milling around appearing to have no agenda or job and they weren't homeless… Am I paying for all these people doing nothing?

Before you lash out at me, hear my point. I know that everyone I laid eyes on where not just milling around. They could have very well been doing the same thing I was, I just happened to catch them in a moment of lull. That being said; I took into consideration their clothing. Most of the men I saw where dress in clothes that would suggest they just got off the couch and was forced to walk to the store with their wife/girlfriend. None of these men appeared to be coming or going from a job.

To avoid having an explosion of racist comments, I will forgo mentioning their ethnicity. But I will say there was a commonality among them.



I retrieved my lunch from the service window and began driving down this inner city road near downtown Phoenix. I observed an older gentlemen riding a motorcycle - to whom I classified as a retired guy deserving of cruising his motorcycle at 1:30 in the afternoon mid week. I then happened upon a woman in her front yard arranging plants while the sprinkler system quenched the thirst of her Arizona beaten lawn - I classified her as a homemaker. Up the road there was a woman wearing clothes that appeared to match in color with a light sweater over her shoulder - I classified her as a working woman going home from an early shift giving reason for the light sweater. Then a group of children, obviously walking from the school grounds just feet away, heading home in joyous celebration of there being a half day of school.

But my mind was taken back to the other groups of people that I couldn't classify as having any viable reason to be casually walking around in the middle of the work week. Especially the men.

The question I asked myself was, how are these people supporting themselves? Most people financially supporting themselves would be in the middle of their work day right now, not walking around. Sure some may participate in illegal forms of support. But not everyone appeared to posses the ability to do so successfully.

Most displayed this nonchalant way of living as to depict their support coming from sources not familiar with their ability to work. Meaning, state and federal financial aid. To which returns me to my original question, am I paying for all these people doing nothing?

I may be highly speculatory, but its astonishing this once great country is being bled dry by its own inhabitance. Even in nature, when a tree dies-crashes to the ground its process of rotting and decay gives way to needed nourishment for other plants and animals around.

This was indeed an eye opening experience for me. I've stood on this very street corner many times, but its never appeared to me the way it did this day.