Just then, Supreme leaps into the air. His welfare benefits have arrived, announced by a recording on his prepaid phone. He sets off to reclaim his gold teeth from the pawnshop, at a 50 percent interest rate. He will then buy new boots for the children at Cookie’s, a discount store in Fulton Mall. By week’s end, the money will be gone. Supreme and Chanel have been scolded about their lack of financial discipline in countless meetings with city agencies. But when that money arrives, they do not think about abstractions like “personal responsibility” and “self-reliance.” They lose themselves in
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