|
I had heard of this program before this thread, one of my co-workers already has this phone, she got it about 2 months ago. BUT to get it she had to cancel her Lifeline home phone first. This means while she’s at work or wherever she has a phone, but her kids are at home with a babysitter without the benefit of a phone in the house. We live in a very rural community and one of her small children has severe Type 1 diabetes.
Now my understanding of this program is that there are a limited number of minutes, extra minutes are available to purchase but how many people in this situation can afford to throw money away for extra minutes? This person has used all of her minutes with socializing and has been unable to call in sick to work in a timely fashion because of her lack of phone. What happens when someone drops their phone and breaks it?
I’m fully aware that this co-worker does is very irresponsible and does not represent all of the thousands of people that are eligible for this program. But I fear she represents too many. And if WE the tax payers are paying for this service, isn’t it also our responsibility to ensure that this money is spent on a necessity rather than a luxury item?
I look at it this way: we don’t allow people to use food stamps to buy anything other than food. Things like diapers, cleaning supplies, and hygiene supplies ARE necessities but not allowed. There’s a reason the program was set up this way.
As I said before, there are many things that people in need actually NEED more than a cell phone. If the government came out and said they were going to take all of the cars that were traded in on the cash for clunker programs, make sure they were in good working condition and disperse them to needy people in rural areas (where public transportation is not available) so that they’d have reliable transportation I’d say BRILLIANT well done. You’ve seen a need and addressed it.
I see this program as a waste of valuable tax dollars with too many opportunities for misuse. I do think there should be something available to the people that Vickie spoke of that could be governed on a case by case basis, but I think the program as it stands now makes my blood boil.
__________________
I've been married for 24 years and have four wonderful children.
|