Playing Poker with Welfare Babies

South Kaibab Trail, Grand Canyon - photo by JoAnn Sturman

Scott Sturman
fliesinyoureyes.com

Bluffing is a necessary strategy for successful poker players; when properly played, bad cards bring in high stakes. Yet there is considerable risk when betting without a winning hand. If the bluff is called, it’s time to pay up.

Welfare moms play the obstetric game without a winning hand - no money, an uncommitted father, and few job skills. Their ace in the hole is the baby, and they are betting that society will never deny an innocent child the basic needs of life.

There is no risk for the welfare mother; the government always pays. Exploiting a system which encourages bad behavior is as easy as one, two, three, but in the long term it damages far more than helps. It’s a Faustian bargain: short term gratification at the expense of long term success. Calling the bluff and turning off the money is the only solution to breaking the cycle of poverty and hopelessness.

The following cases only scratch the surface. Taken individually may raise a few eyebrows, but multiply them by the thousands, and it is no longer a curiosity.

CASE #1
A woman delivered a child in a local parking lot. The baby dropped into her full skirts and drown in the amniotic fluid. Her boyfriend, who was with her and had a working cell phone, elected not to call 911, since he thought the call would be counted against his minutes. The woman, a schizophrenic, was poorly compliant in regard to taking her antipsychotic medications, favoring the recreational variety instead. The birth was her fifth child; her four other children are in foster care.

Given her history, this woman should not have more children. She has failed at every level, but there are loud voices in society that equate sterilization with eugenics. Depriving this person of her reproductive rights, invariably will undermine every other woman’s right to have a baby.

CASE #2
These are tough economic times. A first time mom with private insurance experiences a painful, prolonged, and difficult vaginal delivery. She chose not to have a labor epidural, because her husband was concerned about the additional costs.

A 23 year old MediCal insured patient presents to the hospital to deliver her fifth baby. Her initial demand is for a labor epidural, for which there is no charge to her.

All MediCal patients are entitled to free labor epidurals unless there is some medical contraindication.

CASE #3
While waiting for her labor epidural, a single teenage mom-to-be listened to a friend who dropped by for a visit.

“I gotta get me a baby, too. I need some money, but a lot of them guys don’t pay no child support. Ya gotta get pregnant by the right guy. Not like your stupid boyfriend. He not goin’ to pay shit.

“Yeah, but I’m gettin’ money for my baby anyways. I don’t need no man.”

“You shoulda got pregnant by an Indian guy. They’re real smart and have money. They pay lots of child support.”

It’s all about business. No love for the father of the baby or genuine concern for their babies’ welfare entered into the conversation. There’s money to be made for having babies but even more, if by a stroke of good luck, the woman gets pregnant by a man with resources and a conscience.

CASE #4
A 25 year old drug addict arrives at the hospital to deliver her sixth baby. The father of the child is in jail. The two fathers of her remaining five children have legal custody of them.

In general most females choose mates who will best care for them and their offspring. Role over in your grave, Charles Darwin. Your theories of natural selection are irrelevant in the welfare society.