Hellobee Boards

Do you all think that companies are wasting money by drug testing everyone who they want to hire?

@evansjamie: My SIL is the same way unfortunately. I see it too often.

@Dandelion: a company incurs that expense independently without burdening the taxpayer. I think that if a company finds the expense to be worthwhile, then more power to them... When I'm being asked to foot the bill then it becomes another matter and one which I'd like to be able to examine the evidence and weigh in on

@Dandelion: If I had a job where I drove a truck or operated heavy machinery, I would want there to be drug testing! I think it's a good investment when safety is at risk.

I work in business/computers though, and there's no such thing as drug testing.

@Mrs. Jacks: I'm wondering this too. What I see I a long line of people who's parents took advantage of the system and passing the same lack of values on to their children. I'm sure there has to be something my state is doing different, but I haven't seen other states procedures in order to determine what that is.

In the case of my SIL, she was raised the same way as DH, who is a hard worker and supports himself from the age of 16. She just doesn't want to better herself. She is fine getting away with living off benefits. She has a young child so she doesn't have to do community service, although her and her boyfriend are living with FIL and don't want to get jobs.

@Danizaur: @evansjamie: I'm just curious -- other than people you know personally, how do you know people are abusing the system? Do you spend lots of time with them throughout the day? Do they just tell you? Because the fact remains that research shows in the overall population, most people on public assistance need to be and aren't taking advantage. I suppose it could just be an odd occurrence where you live, and in that case id agree with @MrsJacks and money would be better spent looking into why that is happening than into drug testing, etc.

@Mrs. Jacks: I will answer that question. I think that a lot of the cities in the Midwest (Detroit, St Louis, etc) are burdened with high unemployment, high crime, deterioration of industry, rampant drug use and gang activity, etc. They are dying cities because the industries that kept them alive are shutting down and moving away. People are poor and downtrodden and losing faith in themselves and society. I know that has nothing to do with the original topic, but I felt like I could answer that question.

As for the original topic, Im not so sure about drug testing (im on the fence) but I don't think community service is a bad idea. I like the idea of giving back to the community who is supporting you in your time of need.

@Danizaur: yes but that's one person. Whereas all of the studies are looking at more people than you or I would happen to know or meet. Like I said there will always be some people who take advantage like your SIL, but it's not the majority.

@MrsSCB: I have spent a lot of time with people like that. I'm not saying that there aren't honest, hard-working people who have fallen on hard times, because I know a lot of them too. I used to work for a newspaper in Eastern KY, and every week we'd have stories of one meth lab after another being busted. I agree that we need to look into why this is happening, but I'm not against drug-testing either, especially having seen some of the places in the area where my husband is from where it is known that a lot of drug trafficking goes on along with the people being on welfare.

We do have politicians who are trying to get to the bottom of this, even if they may not be making progress. There are also a lot of non-profits who are working to resolve drug problems and get people back in the workforce. At some point, I'd like to go back to Eastern Kentucky and work with those non-profits (currently I live in central Kentucky) to reverse the trend and make lives better.

I also wanted to add, to everyone saying that all the people they know on welfare use drugs, play the system, are lazy, whatever....those aren't all the people you know who are on welfare. Those are all the people you know who ADMIT that they are on welfare. There are likely many hardworking people you know who are on it that would never share or volunteer that information because they are not proud of the fact that they need the help.

@evansjamie: I'm glad politicians are looking into it but I still think implementing a drug-testing procedure is a very ill-advised idea since its already been proven pretty ineffective in Florida and Utah. If other states have already tested the system and found it lacking, I would be pretty displeased if my state government spent tax dollars on trying it again.

@Mrs. Jacks: I am so against Walmart because they don't pay a living wage. There is an air of hopelessness that I notice when we visit, because there really isn't very much. There isn't a way for people to bring themselves up out of poverty, because all they know is coal. The miners aren't really given a living wage, and once the coal is gone, it's gone and you have a lot of people out of work.

@Mrs. Jacks: this exactly!

And I don't know why welfare has become this huge topic where people think its a big burden on our federal budget. Only 12% is spent on relief programs that's include :

"the refundable portions of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, which assist low- and moderate-income working families through the tax code; programs that provide cash payments to eligible individuals or households, including Supplemental Security Income for the elderly or disabled poor and unemployment insurance; various forms of in-kind assistance for low-income families and individuals, including SNAP (food stamps), school meals, low-income housing assistance, child care assistance, and assistance in meeting home energy bills; and various other programs such as those that aid abused and neglected children."

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: I agree & that's what I'm saying. If someone were required to do community service hours to keep/receive benefits I could very well see them being looked upon or treated the same, especially given the widespread perspective that people on assistance are already "abusing" the system.

I just don't see it working out well like expected.

@Danizaur: I think a lot of people would consider themselves "too proud" for public assistance until they really need it. When you're working two jobs and you still can't afford to feed your children, no one is too proud for welfare.

@luckypenny: How much do states spend on it though?

*sorry. On my phone.

@MsLipGloss: all its saying is that al of those things make ip our welfare spending. Its the same with the child tax credit, which I'm sure we all use. That's a federally sponsored government benefit. Should we e drug tested an do community service?

How do we decide who is poor enough? Our wealth gap is so enormous right now that I don't think we have an option BUT to help. And to put strings on that help doesn't seem fair. I think how we treat our poor is really unfortunate.

@T.H.O.U.: not sure

@mrbee: I work in finance and they drug test/fingerprint the heck out of us! But I guess that's more a liability thing than a safety thing.

@Mrs. Jacks: Thank you.

I thought a personal experience story might help someone understand.

My husband worked at Walmart a few years back. He had searched for a job for months, applying to everything.

He speaks three languages, he's a high school graduate (wanted to go to college at that point and couldn't afford it), he has several letters of recomendation and employee of the month awards from previous jobs - he's a great employee. Hard worker, excellent at customer service.

He was thrilled to get a job at Walmart after searching for ANYTHING for so long. He worked every hour they would give him, never turned a shift down. He was a cart pusher - he worked all day outside in 90+ degree weather in the parking lot. He frequently was denied the breaks required by federal law, but didn't say anything because he was too afraid to lose his job. He and his fellow employees were told that if the managers so much as heard them mention the word "union", they would be fired.

He made $7.25 an hour.

SNAP (food stamps) are the only reason we survived those years. It still wasn't nearly enough, and we skipped a lot of meals.

Please consider this - the people you speak of who abuse the system, use drugs, and don't want to change?

They are the minority. I know. I've sat in that office. Most of the people there are just like me.

(In reply to the original question, if DH had been required to complete community service, as willing as he would've been to do so, that would have cut in to the hours he had to work. We would have been in an even worse situation.)