Detroit Suffers Another Hit to the Head

Government waste is nothing new to the world. Indeed, even egregious government spending hardly raises an eyebrow anymore, so common is the, uh, practice. Still, that doesn't mean that we should not make ourselves aware of it, and fight it the best we can. Just the same, it does become tiresome. Especially when yet another instance of glaring stupidity is discovered in Detroit, a city which really doesn't need any more adverse piling on to its poor reputation.

Detroit's Department of Human Services over the last few years has spend money meant to help the poor, some of them dead, by giving them gift cards. The trouble with gift cards is that they can be, and often are, used to purchase things not allowed under the block grant which funds the program. Things you would not think of when giving to the poor, such as big screen TVs.

What it goes to prove is that government workers, the keepers of our tax money, think little about when and how to spend it. It shows too that the poor aren't necessarily a group of well intentioned and virtuous people merely down on their luck. It appears as though many of them took the money and ran, to buy luxuries which most any rational man would agree should not be the main concern of the truly impoverished. It would be interesting to know how many if any of them returned the cards with an explanation something like, 'Well, thanks, but I'd really like job help or to have my prescriptions paid for.'

Mayor Bing has promised an immediate investigation. In the meantime, Detroit suffers another blow to her reputation. Only now, it is not only the slacking government workers who have delivered it. The uppercut came from that segment of society which is supposed to need the greatest help.