Sally, I agree. When I was a single mother on welfare, I was really lucky and managed to get subsidized housing as well. With that and the welfare as well as some help from my parents, I was able to manage to feed and cloth myself and my son. We did not have cable or internet, we bought mainly used clothing, used furniture (just the bare bones essentials). I did not drink alcohol, nor did I go partying (couldn't have afforded that or the clothes needed to do it) and I certainly did not go on vacation. Without the subsidized housing, I am not sure how we could have made it or what kind of slum apartment we would have ended up in. I sold my car (which had been given to me by my grandfather before I had a child) because I could not afford to pay for gas, insurance and repairs (I had to claim the money I made off of the sale of the car and it was taken off of my welfare cheque). To go grocery shopping, we would walk and then have the groceries delivered. We were certainly not living the high live. At Christmas, I was entitled to a gift for my son, but I declined it as I had family who gave him gifts and I felt it was better off going to someone who needed it more. I also had to submit to the utter humiliation of having a social worker come to my home and look in my closets to see if my ex was actually gone and I truly was a single parent. And I can't tell you how many times I left the welfare office crying because I was treated like a piece of garbage and looked down upon by over-worked, over-stressed social workers. Any of you who think living on welfare is an easy life, I think perhaps you need to walk a mile in a young single mother's shoes and see how it feels. I think if we all had a litle more empathy and whole lot less judegment, this world would be a better place.