Gripe : ‘I’d Love to Pay Taxes Again’

Lydia Duncan, 39, of Los Angeles worked for four years for a major Downtown hotel before she was fired over what she calls a misunderstanding with her supervisor. With her education and work experience , she expected the time between jobs to be short. Instead, she’s been unemployed for two years. Despite vigorous efforts to find work, Duncan’s search has proved fruitless and she has been forced to support herself through a general relief program that pays $212 a month for six days of labor with a county work crew. She was interviewed by Times staff writer Kevin Baxter:

Tax time is a burden on those who have to pay taxes. Everybody dreads April 15th. But I’d like to know what it is to pay taxes again. I’d like to feel that again.

For two years I’ve been looking for a job. And I believe there are jobs. But this is ridiculous! I never thought I’d be on general relief for two years.

I work six days a month. It gives me a reason to get up and not be lazy and just take something from the taxpayer. For that, I get $212 a month plus food stamps. But I’m looking for a real job. One that pays you every two weeks. I’ve even been to McDonald’s.

I’ll bus tables. I’ll sweep. I’ll go outside and wash down the windows. Just give me a little dignity, give me a little respect and let me have a job. That’s all I’m asking.

I’m articulate. I’m intelligent. And I know how to follow instructions. I mean, who takes a resume to McDonald’s and Taco Bell? I do. Because I want those people to know that I’ve worked, I know what work is, and I have experience.

But now, as if things aren’t tough enough, I find out I can’t get hired because of my credit rating. I applied for one job and got a form letter back saying they couldn’t consider me on the basis of a consumer credit report. They were talking about a student loan I had back in 1988 for a computer school that folded.

I don’t know how long that’s supposed to stay on your record, but it feels like modern-day slavery. They want you to pay the bills before you can get a job, but you can’t pay the bills until you have a job.

Right now it’s easier to stand out on a street corner and beg than it is to do things honestly.

You know those panhandlers you see out on the street every morning? If they can get up early enough to meet you in front of your office to beg for that quarter, then they can get up early enough to go out and look for a job. They’re eating better than I am. Which makes me wonder whatever happened to welfare reform. Gov. (Pete)Wilson and President Clinton keep talking about it, but when’s it going to happen? I know I’m ready for it.

I’d like to ask our elected officials where they they think these crack babies come from. Do they think they just fall out of the sky? The welfare mothers, what do they do with their checks? They either go buy drugs with it, or they go get their fingernails painted, or go get their hair done. They should be doing the same thing we’re doing--getting up early and going to work for their money.

Any reform would help. Open up some training centers. Take these aerospace workers, the highly trained people who have been laid off, and turn them into instructors. Open up centers and have them teach us.

I feel sorry for the people in Bosnia; their life is hell. But stop for a little while and look in our own back yard. Let those people take care of their problems for one year and let’s clean up our back yard first.

I don’t want to go out and live a life of crime. I’ve never been in jail and I don’t think I want to go there. But I feel like going out and looking for the biggest drug dealer around and offering to sell drugs or something. Maybe with my luck, I’ll get shot by one of the gangbangers.

Where is the justice? Instead of pouncing on me because I’m on relief, pounce on the government for forcing me to stay there. Give me a job and let me pay taxes instead of taking your tax dollars every month.