America *should* have a social safety net, but in reality our system has been overwhelmingly twisted to punish the people who need it most, subjecting them to labyrinthine requirements and aggressive means testing. Reflexively defending this system will not improve it.

Have you ever applied for unemployment, or met someone who has? Have you ever tried to figure out how to renew your SNAP benefits, or spoken with a person who depends on them? The process for these things has been made complicated on purpose. Why? So you’ll quit. It’s deliberate.

Part of the problem is that we’re so used to defending what these programs *should* be that we’ve lost sight of what has already been done to them. We have a rotting jack-o’-lantern where our safety net should be, and some still fret over that being “gutted.” It’s *been* gutted.

What do we give the poor? The desperate? A fig leaf. A fig leaf, and the honor of standing in line for hours on end and filling out endless paperwork to prove you “deserve” it. And then, if the winds change even a little, they’ll take that fig leaf away. It is cruel by design.