There's No Such Thing As Free

Stories like this one make me so angry. It's bad enough that government squanders our tax dollars on unnecessary projects, committees, and waste. I do believe that we should provide help for those who truly are in need...but nothing is free.

People who need services like government housing end up victims to the very system they need. Many of these people in need already feel powerless. Some have mental disabilities. Others physical or psychological. Fighting the bullies who get positions of power over them generally results in a loss for them...and apparently a subsequent gain for the government bullies.

Francine Dorrance, a single mother, was already broke, unemployed, and struggling to recover from a nervous breakdown in summer 2006 when the Chelsea Housing Authority moved to evict her over $276 in unpaid rent.

After a judge approved the eviction, Dorrance became homeless. It would be almost five years before she would again have a permanent address.

But Dorrance’s misfortune was a boon to the housing authority official who oversaw her eviction. Five days after a constable removed Dorrance’s belongings, Jacqueline Matos, a housing manager for the authority, moved into the vacant apartment. Matos still lives there, continuing to pay just $25 a month in rent, a small fraction of what Dorrance paid.

I don't know what the answer is to avoiding these types of abuses. Government is made of humans and humans have seemingly limitless faults. While there are many good people who work in government, there are obviously horrible, bullying people as well. Those people need to be removed from "serving" the people they take advantage of and wield their power over.