I know a multi-millionaire who lives in a huge fancy house. He is working on selling his old house, worth about $800,000, but in the meantime his dad lives there. Dad doesn’t have any income so he has been getting taxpayer-funded heating oil to keep the five-bedroom place toasty (but maybe not for the pool heater?). Now it turns out that the taxpayers are spending $7,500 on insulation work due to the fact that the resident qualifies for heating fuel assistance.
I asked what will Dad do once the place finally sells? “I have him on a wait list for public housing in 18 towns.”
Related:
And Europe is supposedly the social welfare centre of the world!
Well deserved. Glad to see at least his dad is getting some benefits from all the taxes the multi-millionaire presumably paid over the years.
My grandma gets free senior day care seven days a week at a center where she gets to socialize with other seniors. She gets picked up from my uncle’s multi-million dollar mansion daily and gets a free lunch catered by local restaurants. She brings home the leftovers.
It’s a bit silly, but I don’t see how it could be prevented without the welfare state applying a police-state level of scrutiny and a failed-police-state level of discretion on the part of whomever would make decision about the benefits.
similar to being at an Ivy League college at which several of my classmates were on full financial aid (in one case, hailed from Manhattan, mother a socialite and father a never-published writer; read: “no taxable income”), and yet were in the Virgin Islands or London over spring break, thanks to largesse of a wealthy grandparent.
I don’t know why only poor people should get free heating oil from the government. Isn’t it discrimination to only give welfare to the poor? I say welfare for all!
Thankfully I plan on retiring early and paying very little tax. Its definitely my goal to abuse the system in any way possible like this guy.
Sounds like the American Dream to me: Work the system as long as it benefits you, screw everybody else!
This type of behavior is contemptible.
Getting on the welfare system: $0
Gaming the welfare system: Priceless
Phil,
How is this elderly man getting materials and labor performed on a home he does not own? Also, most Federal and state guidelines state if a house is sold, within a certain time limit after government provided housing repairs are made, the seller must reimburse.
@Robert,
A large non-profit here in Virginia has recently completed a total makeover of a former medical center, transforming it into exactly as you described: an elderly daycare center. They pick em up, bus em in, then bus em back home…all on our dime.