When I was five and a half, my brother was born.  When I was six and a half, our mother died.  Our father nearly immediately turned to drugs and alcohol, and stayed on that path for a very long time.  I'm sure he had a decent job before then, but I only recall him holding one or two jobs after that for short periods.  We lived off welfare and social security survivor's benefits.  While my dad was out looking for a new piece of tail or his latest high, I took care of my little brother.  When my dad was home, he was abusive in various ways.  I can't remember the last time I've seen anyone from our mother's side of the family.  I was probably no older than ten the last time.
 
By the time I was 13, my dad had at least 3 other children by other women in addition to me and my brother (that we know of).  The women were starting to get ticked that he wasn't handling his responsibilities.  He packed us up and we basically fled from New Jersey to his sister's place in Washington.  We were here for a month and a half, had started up school, when my dad decided to take back off to New Jersey.  He said he'd be back for us at the end of the school year.  That never happened... but that wasn't necessarily his fault.  His sister knew the abuse he was doling out and got his custodial rights removed.  My brother and I became wards of the state with our aunt as our legal guardian. 
 
Unfortunately she wasn't much better.  I lived there between the ages of 13 and 17 (I moved out the day after high school graduation).  She was nearly as bad as her brother, just with less abuse going on in her house.  She was an extreme alcoholic, and possibly was still a drug addict at this point.  She was living on welfare, claiming her two children... but forgetting to claim that her boyfriend was also living with her, and he made decent money.  The only time she held down a job was when she started her own housekeeping business.... which didn't last long when she started sending her boyfriend and us kids to do her work because she was too drunk.  
 
I have watched my aunt lie, cheat, steal, forge, sell drugs, and god knows what else.  She still doesn't hold a job, even though she's given up alcohol.  (Instead she smokes weed all the time).  Her credit has always been awful - bad enough that she used my name and social security number to obtain credit when I was a kid.  Yet somehow she has a bigger house than me, two brand new cars (at least, they were brand new when she bought them), and STILL gets money from the government.  HOW is this possible?!?!  
    
In addition to all this crap, that particular side of my family is Hispanic.  Many of them firmly believe that they're oppressed because they're Hispanic.  That they don't have a chance of getting anywhere, of doing anything with their lives.  My aunt's children didn't bother to get their high school diplomas.  My father has at least six known kids by four different women spread around the country, the youngest of which is as young as his granddaughter.   
 
Other family members aren't much better.  Of the 19 grandchildren on that side of the family, my younger brother and I are the first (and perhaps will be the only) college graduates.  We both also have been on our career paths for some time, whereas most of the rest of our family, even those of our parent's generation, don't seem to know what a career is.  
 
I don't give this as a sob story.  I give this so that people can understand why I feel so strongly about issues like welfare, or redistribution of wealth.  I have little doubt that most of my family is liberal, despite being Catholic (which traditionally meant conservative).  Yet I am strongly conservative.  This is why.  Because I have watched what leeches on society my family have been, while others work for their earnings in life, and I simply cannot abide by it.