Letter to the Editor; Too much assistance?

I have watched closely how the number of people on various government assistance programs has expanded at an almost unbelievable rate. I have a friend who lost his job and applied for unemployment. Almost immediatley, he started getting applications for food stamps, free cell phone, SNAP, etc. He had not applied for the programs and he was surprised to basically have these things offered again and again when he didn't apply. He had too much pride to accept even one program.

I understand that human nature being what it is, most people figure that if it is free, I might as well take it, especially when the free offers keep coming and bills need to be paid.

Also, we need to look at the figures for when disability numbers started to skyrocket. It was just when the unemployment started elapsing. That also coincided with the number of large national law firms that started to advertise that they were offering their services to obtain disbility payments. Does anyone else see this as enlarging the feeding trough?

Gerald W. Ray

Spokane