There’s nothing complicated about the lesson from that viral clip: if grown adults choose to live off EBT instead of working, shame falls on the parents who enabled that choice and on a culture that normalizes dependency. Americans who work hard and sacrifice for their families see this and feel betrayed when others treat government assistance as a lifestyle rather than a safety net. The anecdote about a blind man using braille to earn a living while able-bodied adults choose to beg is a blunt moral mirror — and conservatives aren’t afraid to hold up that mirror.
The welfare system has ballooned into something far bigger and more permanent than its founders intended, swelling from the millions who needed help to a program that now touches tens of millions of Americans each month. That growth didn’t happen by accident; it’s a result of policy choices that lowered expectations and widened eligibility until dependency became an acceptable alternative to work.
Policy fixes are possible, and some common-sense reforms are already being debated in Washington — including the reinstatement of time limits and work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents that were temporarily suspended during the pandemic. The USDA itself has been clear that states must prepare to reapply ABAWD time limits and that waivers and exemptions should be used sparingly, because the point of SNAP was never to replace steady employment.
Critics will howl that work requirements don’t solve structural problems, and you’ll find studies arguing that they don’t magically create jobs for people facing chronic barriers. Those points deserve attention; conservatives who love freedom also want policies that actually lead to enduring employment, not just punitive removal of benefits. The debate over whether work rules boost employment is complicated, but it shouldn’t be an excuse to accept intergenerational idleness as normal.
At the end of the day the solution is local and moral as much as it is bureaucratic: parents need to teach responsibility, communities need to demand work, and states should use the tools available to promote employment and training rather than enable permanent dependency. Washington can help by restoring common-sense requirements, funding job-readiness programs, and giving states flexibility to enforce work-first policies while protecting truly vulnerable people. The American dream depends on a culture that expects adults to provide for themselves and their families — anything less is a betrayal of the nation that made opportunity possible.
