The Human Condition: Inflation aid

By Daniel Schnee on January 11, 2023.

Though I am completely against most everything that Premier Danielle Smith says and does, I have to give her credit when it is actually due. And surprisingly, it is indeed now due, owing to the fact that the promise she made to help low-income Albertans with inflation is now being fulfilled.

Two days ago Affordability Minister Matt Jones announced that those receiving such aid as the Alberta Seniors Benefit, or Persons with Developmental Disabilities and Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) assistance will receive an extra $100 a month for six months to help alleviate the impact of inflation (gasoline, electricity, etc.). Such affordability payments are not permanent, but still represent a significant step toward further helping those who struggle enough in life as it is.

Yet unfortunately it is almost inevitable that one will read the following the next day in Ticked Off & Tickled Pink: “Get to the root of the problem, $10 per day childcare, low income/AISH increase, dental for kids, what about the rest of us who diligently saved and do what it takes to make ends meet? The abuse of the system needs to be cleaned up.”

As stated, the implication is that the elderly and handicapped didn’t diligently save and do what it takes to make ends meet. It also possibly implies that Danielle Smith abused the system by giving away all those tax dollars to the poor instead of those who diligently saved and did what it takes to make ends meet.

Therefore we can potentially assume the following: Danielle Smith is wasting your tax dollars on the disabled, and the disabled are wasting your tax dollars by not saving them. Keep in mind, those who qualify for AISH live in a state where no medical treatment, therapy, rehabilitation or training will help improve their ability to earn a living. It is the official diagnosis that marks a candidate for such aid.

As I always state, in every single system in the world there will be someone who finds a way to abuse something. Both the healthy and the sick can be good or bad people. But time and time again someone will make a point of accusing every single old and sick person in Alberta of inherently being lazy grifters because they received government money that was not possible for them to earn through physical labor or intellectual endeavours.

The developmentally disabled can and do actually work hard, even if some cannot earn a living doing so. How do I know? I am close friends with a significantly developmentally disabled man, and he works extremely hard at what little he can do, what little is possible. He tries really hard, all night and day. Hardly an abuse of anything…

On the other hand, we have a flawed premier who actually has the decency to help children and temporarily relieve the financial pain of old, the disabled, and the severely handicapped, even if that money is conveniently handed out before an election.

Whether her motives are pure or not, to put food on the table of the old, the developmentally disabled, and the severely handicapped is hardly an abuse. It is literally doing the Lord’s Work… if such a thing matters anymore.

Dr. Daniel Schnee is an anthropologist and jazz/rock drummer.

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