Fleecing the poor because it’s the holidays

Yes, it happens.  The poor do get fleeced.  Prices skyrocket, and then a few days before the big day you start to see some small sales.  It’s only after the holidays that you see the dramatic mark downs in prices.  While the rich don’t seem to mind, the poor make judgment calls.  Can I put off the electric bill until next month?  What about the heat?  If it’s snow country, well, heat is expensive and putting off the payment offers other problems.

That is why good charities do what they can with holiday food baskets and toys for children.  Some criticize these programs for making the poor jump through hoops.  Others have strings attached.  If you want a present, you have to volunteer.  Wait, what?  Most charities you show proof of income.  While volunteering is asked, the workers understand that the poor cannot always contribute time.

One mother works a seasonal job, the worst hours possible (middle of the night).  She knows once the holidays are over, she will end up on the public dole again.  She comes home from work, sends off the kids to school and gets some rest.  Her father, who has spent the night with the children, goes off to his job, also seasonal.  Divorced, never sees a dime of child support, the mother struggles to provide for her children.

She dared to ask for some help and was denied because she did not have time to volunteer.  Guess she should have been a lazy welfare bum, the way they treated her.  Now the local band-aid solutions that the group scoffs, well that was a different matter.  These groups have their rules, they have their connections, you must have your card, one offers food baskets, another offers toys, yet another offers clothing.  Yes, you have to make the circuit.  They, at least deliver.

This is not the first time we received a report from a member denied benefits because they did not volunteer or “volunteer enough” to qualify for the benefits.  One can only speculate that volunteer recruitment is at such an all-time low that the group is choosing not to serve its membership unless the members put in what it deems enough time.  Such is the way of it.  Reasonable people walk into the offices, sometimes there’s no heat or the roof is leaking, etc.  It’s a big turn off, so they form an opinion that it’s a bad thing to invest in and move on to something else.

There are some people who can afford to volunteer, but choose something that at least has some professionalism.  Maybe they make an effort to clean up a little.  It’s their time to try to bring in the big dollars, not one cent makes its way to the membership.  Sometimes, the dollars don’t even pay the bills, siphoned out of the area to support administrative offices.  Yet the problem is a membership that “doesn’t volunteer enough.”

For some of the older offices that boast membership bases of 40,000 members, just imagine the revenue collecting the $7.44 per year annual dues.  It’s close to $300,000 a year, enough to sustain the office.  Yet we know that doesn’t happen.  The membership numbers are inflated, compiled based on if an entity is doing what it should be, it signs up at least 1,000 members a year.  Attrition figures are not factored.  People die, move out of the area, etc.  The membership number is artificially inflated to impress potential donors.

The mother will never walk back in the doors.  She already tore up the membership card that entitles her to nothing.