"I didn't believe it, she said. They make so many mistakes."

I get Disability through Social Security. I recently received my lump sum settlement for the four-plus years they took. Then in September they stopped my monthly check. Only last week was anyone able to tell me why: they forgot to withhold my lawyer's fee. Rather than ask for a check back, they just stopped the checks until that amount is diverted, but without telling me nor leaving any indication in the database so workers could see when I phoned them.

Social Security now is also claiming that fom 1988 to 1996, my employer (who just happened to be the federal government) withheld too much for Social Security and my monthly disability payments were too high because they were based on the wrong figure. So I owe them back that, but they also owe me what I (may or may not) overpaid. SS expects straightening this out will take about six months, but in the meantime I will receive a half-benefit beginning in February.

Welcome to the bureaucracy.

I was going to chime in with the same point. It's absolutely true that these bureaucracies are an absolute misery for anyone who has to navigate them. I'd really like to see those agencies cleaned up and streamlined. They're an embarrassment.

That article is touching. The things people did with their money - not woo-hoo, scratch tickets and booze (though probably some will) but buying a ham so delicious and luxurious it makes you cry; planning to "take care of everyone" for Christmas, buying a bag of groceries for the neighbor because yours was full.

People can be very, very good.

Thanks for the link, Lassie; I just posted it to the discussion board for my class on food, politics, and culture. After reading so much doomsaying misery (food-borne pandemics, industrialized foodstreams, food insecurity), it's cheering to have a bright note to pass along.

The flip side, Miko, is the number of people who needlessly died or got sick(er) in the meantime waiting for the government to get its shit together. Each of those people suffered so they could finally buy a ham now. This is not a happy story in any way but a highly polished turd, and only those of us who have survived such a nightmare are likely to see its reality.

When I was a kid, my Dad brought over a frozen turkey once, not realizing the gas was off and we couldn't cook it and wouldn't have had any of the fixings if we could. I can't remember if my mother dropped it on his foot or not. (He made up for it later, taking me in and raising me when my birth mother couldn't.)

Years later, on break from college, I remember bringing my mother turkey dinner from the diner. It's not like I could invite her to my father's house, given she'd been his mistress and all. She was on Social Security Disability and got a little money from my father. Her refrigerator never had much, though. Deli packages of bologna and cheese. A lemon meringue pie. Some milk. Domino's was a big treat. I helped when I could, but I should've done more.

I still always feel shy about taking food. Any kind of spread at somebody's house gives me this weird, sick feeling of shame and desperation in my gutt. I remember hiding under the table at my aunt's house when I was seven or eight, taking my plate under there to eat in private. Wow, I hadn't thought about this stuff in awhile.

I'm glad those folks will have a plentiful holiday. I know some of my students won't. Some of them are like me when I was a kid. I wish I could change that for them. The need is overwhelming.

My entire work life is devoted to getting benefits for people like the ones mentioned in this article, so I know well the frustration associated with negotiating with these particular government bureaucracies -- I do it for a living. Justice delayed is often, as Ardiril suggests, justice denied. However, I guess I shared this article with you all because it's about some poor people finally getting some money so they can buy food right around a holiday that's traditionally associated with eating well, and I thought that was kind of cool. Nothing more. As such, I don't agree, Ardiril, that "This is not a happy story in any way but a highly polished turd." I suspect that not all of my clients who benefited from this class action (admittedly in a very delayed fashion) feel the same way as you do.

That made me feel happy and very, very angry in about equal measure. As Miko points out, most people (in the story) wanted to help others or just luxuriate in those things many of us take for granted. But as Ardiril says, this is polishing a turd. That people should be so impoverished and so used to poverty in a society that can suddenly find billions for wars and bailouts is quite sickening. (Even though some people are glad that their turds have been polished, which we can all understand).

Good on the Urban Justice Center though. I'd volunteer if I lived in NYNY.

It's undeniable that this story is, at its base, one of abject poverty and of a bureaucracy's failure. (I'm positively shocked at the allowances mentioned in passing: $107 a month? I could just squeak by on that if I had all day to cook and unlimited free fuel, but not otherwise.)

No, the joy is twofold: seeing some people in need actually get the benefits they had long ago given up hope of receiving, and (as Miko points out) seeing how many of them are willing to share what they've received.

It's amazing to me that, living in grinding need, the first impulse of many upon receiving a bounty is to spread it around. I'm not sure I'd have such a generous impulse in those circumstances.

I'm not sure I'd have such a generous impulse in those circumstances.

You would. When you're actually that hard off, IME, you become highly aware of anyone who is suffering even more than you.