OK...my bad for jumping on you. I looked at the post before Oscars...someone else jumped in with the abortion thing. You got hit by the splatter...guilt by association. Sorry.
I take this topic very seriously...more than most people. I work with this situation every day. I give of both my own time and resources. It drives me insane how much we actually give away in social programs to those that dont need it. Its painful knowing that our system enables capable individuals to do absiolutely nothign with their lives and it isnt just for a year or two...its for DECADES. Its not doing them any favors. Case in point...37 year old male...11 trips to the hospital in 30 days. Med seeking. Enabled by the system for 14 years, then dumped. Setting aside the human tragedy for a second, 8 of those visits involved ER visits and labwork to the tune of about 1400 a visit. 3 involved stays in the Intensive Care unit at a cost of about 2500 a day. My math is a little rough, but for the month of may, the taxpayers in the county will be handed a bill for unfunded services totalling about $34000.00. ANd thats just for this month. He isnt 'fixed'. He will either keep coming here or go to another county. He is 37. He has been doing this since he was denied benefits 3 years ago (so none of this includes the cost to the taxpayers for 14 years). He will continue to do this. Figuring this to be an 'average' month, just imagine what this one person costs taxpayers in a given year. Imagine that number multiplied by thousands. Its not that we arent putting money into the social services system, it is we arent monitoring it, arent governing it, and arent careful with who gets placed in it. For every one of this guy there are at least as many truly needy individuals.
Edit...for comparison, across the city there is a 54 year old male...similar circumstances...trying to get into a secure psych facility nor for the 8th time since January. He also has been in the system since his 20's. He is non med compliant, doesnt follow up with his medical state funded) provider, doesnt go to therapy, drinks his disablity checks away by the first week, then is a sad panda and needs to be housed because he cant take care of humself for the next three weeks. He has learned all he as to say is the magic words and hospitals give him what he wants. If the hospital dares to say, sorry dood...not buyin it...well then he leaves, cuts himself with a piece of glass...and sues everyone that he has come into contact with since he got to the hospital.