Dollar Store Welfare Follies

Here's a slice out of my life that should tick off anyone who works hard for every penny earned.

I took my sweet little gray-haired old mother to the dollar store the other day.  She likes their two-for-a-buck card rack, I'm a huge fan of their muffin liners, which work way better than the more expensive grocery store ones.  You get a lot more in a package, as well.  Hey, don't give me that look.  We all have to stretch a buck in this, the fourth year of the reign of President Binaca Blast, the Bankrupter. 

Well, actually not all of us are straining hard to make ends meet. 

We two penny-pinchers got in line behind a woman with, I think it was, thirty-four bucks worth of stuff.  That almost doesn't seem right because it sure seemed like she was piling up more than thirty-four items on the counter from her overflowing carriage.  Whatever, thirty-four is still a real lot at the dollar store. 

Most of the items she got I know would have been cheaper at the supermarket.  For instance, as expensive as cereal has gotten since Binaca the First was elected king of the Americas and the lesser Hawaiian Islands, it's still cheaper to buy a large, on-sale box of cereal with a coupon than a tiny five-ounce box for a buck.  Not to worry for this big spender because she, of course, whipped out...(wait for it)....a welfare card!  But, lamentably, her welfare card came up ten bucks short.  I don't know if she'd reached her limit or, frankly, if there even is a welfare limit these days.  Maybe some of her items that you paid for with your tax dollars weren't covered.  No problemo.  Our Miss Moneybags just flashed her MasterCard and paid for the balance with that. 

As my mom and I went through the line, paying for our pitiful purchases with cash, I wondered how someone on welfare could even get a MasterCard.  Years ago when I was a kid with a part-time job earning my own dough, I recall that I had a hard time getting a credit card.  I was, in fact, declined way back then.  But I guess ours is not to reason why.  I mean, welfare cheats deserve credit cards just like those of us who pay our own bills, and you're a heartless ogre who wants to push granny off a cliff if you suggest otherwise.  In the meantime... 

Sixteen trillion in national debt and counting.  Ten times that when you factor in state and municipal debt. 

Peddle to the metal, and on into the abyss.