$24 billion more in war spending for the Ukraine

[Josh]

Josh, I was not trying to "catch" you. I was trying to understand.

My Holdeman colleagues are financially well off and with your past career I didn't understand why you weren't and it's news to me that Holdeman's take government assistance.

Perhaps you don't know a lot of Holdemans, then. Before going on any state aid, I consulted with one of the deacons and also talked to Christian Health Aid. The deacon said, yes, we encourage it if it is applicable to your situation. Christian Health Aid also handles it so often that have a procedure for when someone switches from them to state aid.

Many Holdeman moms have used WIC going back for decades and I can think of several families off the top of my head in my home church who are getting WIC, S-CHIP, Medicaid for either the whole family or just their children, disability benefits, or other benefits. I can also think of families who are very well to do. State aid is just one way that needs are met. Our church's main focus is that men (or single people) remain employed full time in order to support their families, and then leave details about eligibility for state aid up to to, well, the state. We do pay into Social Security and Medicare and when people turn 62 or 65 they do take advantage of that benefit as well. (Incidentally, the state income limits for Medicaid for a married couple with 2 children are $60,000 a year. Ohio's median family income is about $61,000.)

I realise that some plain people have a stance against using any state aid at all and I respect their convictions, especially if they make sure they bear one another's burdens and support each other's needs. I am not nearly as sympathetic to witnessing people living in poverty who are shamed for accepting any state aid at all if the rest of their church is not willing to help meet those needs.

And yes it might be advisable not to divulge so much online

I have a LinkedIn. Lots of people do. That doesn't mean you need to go try and figure out who I am, look up me LinkedIn, and then share details of past employers you found here. It is basically a requirement to have a LinkedIn with your real name and your full job history on it, publicly visible for all, in order to find certain kinds of work - especially in my field. There is nothing I can do about that.