1 in 8 "Americans" recieve food stamps. Outrageous!

[werepossum]

Maybe I was the guy you saw buying steaks with foodstamps. Several years ago I was temporarily disabled and very poor and applied for and received foodstamps. I received $120 per month for food. The county food stamp (welfare) workers were incompetent and a couple of times they cut off my foodstamps because of their misunderstanding of the foodstamp rules. I had to petition for a hearing before a judge to argue my case, write a statement and bring all of the supporting paperwork. Each time I was in the right and my foodstamps were restored, and they had to give me back foodstamps they owed me. So I would get a pile ($300-$400) of foodstamps at once.

Damm right I am buying a steak, after eating ramen and rice for two months. I received a huge $4 per day for food. I was able to survive on the $4 per day, but just barely, and I was very careful about shopping.

Some of you think this is free money, you have no idea how many hoops you have to jump through to get foodstamps. You have to fill out tons of forms, provide phone and power bills, proof of rent, car registration, insurance, you have to be fingerprinted, etc.
Then you have to deal with the incompetence of them wrongly denying you benefits and then fight them in court. It would have been much easier to work a job than get food stamps, but I was disabled and unable to work.

I believe the food stamp program should be expanded greatly, no one should go hungry in America.

Is that the world's smallest violin I see being readied in the wings? I believe it is. Sorry, dude, no sympathy that you have to "fill out tons of forms" and such to get food stamps. Sympathy for the disability though.

I don't think many people are going to argue that people should go hungry in America. The questions are how best to feed the hungry people, and what degree of wealth people on the public dole should be allowed to retain. No one thinks T. Boone Pickens should be allowed free food stamps while he owns much of the country's natural gas leases, even if he finds himself without income for a bit. No one thinks you should have to sell your coat and last pair of shoes before we feed you. But within those extremes I think there is reasonable debate about who should qualify.

 

[Patranus]

Is that the world's smallest violin I see being readied in the wings? I believe it is. Sorry, dude, no sympathy that you have to "fill out tons of forms" and such to get food stamps. Sympathy for the disability though.

I don't think many people are going to argue that people should go hungry in America. The questions are how best to feed the hungry people, and what degree of wealth people on the public dole should be allowed to retain. No one thinks T. Boone Pickens should be allowed free food stamps while he owns much of the country's natural gas leases, even if he finds himself without income for a bit. No one thinks you should have to sell your coat and last pair of shoes before we feed you. But within those extremes I think there is reasonable debate about who should qualify.

Well said.

 

[ebaycj]

atleast 2 stores I know of are within walking distance, but there's always the bus

I'm just saying, when transportation is limited and/or not a sunk cost, you have to consider that in the cost of food as well.

You can't just go pull all the flyers and go store-to-store getting the best deals, because you are stuck going to the store you can walk to / bus to (most places don't have buses, keep that in mind). So that increases costs. Also if you have to pay $2 bus fare each way, that needs to be included as well in the cost of food.

 

[werepossum]

Well said.

Thanks!

 

[ebaycj]

Good post. That underscores one of our main societal problems, unmarried or divorced women with children. Such families are overwhelmingly poor. There are no easy solutions for this, as it's a function of society. Previously society shamed women who born children out of wedlock, so there weren't many. Now it's not much of a stigma so there are lots, but there's no way government can change that without severely punishing the children who of course had no choice in the matter. I see no way to fundamentally change the system.

My great grandfather was a miner who died young and left a widow with twelve minor children. My great grandmother worked as a washerwoman; my grandfather (the oldest) dropped out of school at twelve and went to work for a nickel an hour. There were no government programs. Each child either dropped out and went to work, or married, between twelve and fourteen, and went out on his or her own at around sixteen. It made some very strong, self-reliant people, but it also gave zero chance of any advanced education. No doctors there. That is the alternative to our welfare state. Food stamps and other welfare programs often bug me too, and we should always strive to minimize corruption and enforce a work ethic, but I don't think many of us would truly prefer the way things used to be.

Not to mention the fact that kids nowadays CAN'T just "drop out and get a job" unless they're of a certain age.

 

[ebaycj]

I'm not a fan of Wal-mart but one site has the average full time Wal-mart Associate pegged at making an annual income of $19,165. That exceeds the Federal SNAP income requirements for one person. That also exceeds it for a two person household.

And for those too lazy to click links, and because even if it has already been posted it before, it bears repeating:

It also means that 49.9999% of full-time Wal-Mart Associates make less than that.

 

[werepossum]

Not to mention the fact that kids nowadays CAN'T just "drop out and get a job" unless they're of a certain age.

Which in my opinion is as it should be. Any kid under eighteen who wishes to drop out* needs to go before a juvee judge and plead his case for emancipation.

* I did know a guy who dropped out at fifteen, went to night school, worked an apprenticeship and later a regular, skilled job (electronics technician) during the day, and owned two houses (neither of which I'd particularly want to live in, BTW) free and clear when he was about twenty-one (owned the first outright at eighteen.) He's probably a millionaire by now. But I doubt there are many like him. Or for that matter many people who'd contract to sell a house, owner-financed, to a lone fifteen year-old boy. I know I wouldn't do either side of that deal given an alternative.

 

[Red Dawn]

Thanks!

Coming from Patsanus that's not a compliment

 

[drebo]

This is what I hate about a lot of the "conservatives" here. No compassion whatsoever. Just a lot of greed and narcissism.

You're joking, right?

Hell, the liberal motto is "What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine to give to whom I please or keep for myself if that's what I want."

How much money do all of these liberal politicians make? How many of them give it back so that they're "on par" with all of their little drones? None, that's how many. They don't use their own money for the betterment of society, so why should I let them use mine? Hell, how many houses does Al Gore own now...7 or 8?

Hypocrites, all of them.

 

[stateofbeasley]

You're joking, right?

Here's what I take away when I talk to a well-off Conservative.

(1) I made all this money myself.
(2) I don't want to give any of it to 'those' people [African Americans & Hispanics] who are taking over America.
(3) Because I am doing well, I am superior to all of those below me, even if I had massive advantages in education, connections, and wealth to start.

Call it smugness, elitism, snobbery, whatever... that's what it is.

A lot of these people are full of themselves, parading their achievements as if it gave them some sort of moral authority to lord over the poor. They talk about how great they are. Emphasis all on themselves, an none for the society at large that enabled them to succeed.

Narcissism and greed at its worst.

 

[blackangst1]

Here's what I take away when I talk to a well-off Conservative.



Call it smugness, elitism, snobbery, whatever... that's what it is.

A lot of these people are full of themselves, parading their achievements as if it gave them some sort of moral authority to lord over the poor. They talk about how great they are. Emphasis all on themselves, an none for the society at large that enabled them to succeed.

Narcissism and greed at its worst.

I have met at least 40 poeple that qualify as ultra rich and have never encountered that attitude. Not even close.

 

[drebo]

Here's what I take away when I talk to a well-off Conservative.



Call it smugness, elitism, snobbery, whatever... that's what it is.

A lot of these people are full of themselves, parading their achievements as if it gave them some sort of moral authority to lord over the poor. They talk about how great they are. Emphasis all on themselves, an none for the society at large that enabled them to succeed.

Narcissism and greed at its worst.

I never said that the neocons (because, let's face it, they're the only ones who would behave in the manner you describe) were any better. The difference, though, is that they generally don't condescend anyone for not wanting to give money to those who would rather not work for their own.

The liberals are not only ungrateful, but are also condescending to people who would rather keep the money they earned for themselves...while at the same time refusing to give any of their own. That's hypocrisy.

 

[borosp1]

Wages are not keeping up with inflation and buying power of middle and lower class is getting worse as cost of food and other goods rise. Its not a surprise so many are on food stamps!

 

[bfdd]

Not to mention the fact that kids nowadays CAN'T just "drop out and get a job" unless they're of a certain age.

I dropped out, got a Good Enough Degree, got a job. Not that hard you just have to know what the fuck you can do with a minimal high school education.

 

[L00PY]

It also means that 49.9999% of full-time Wal-Mart Associates make less than that.

No, average is not median. It's hard to say what percentage of full-time Wal-Mart associates are making more than the SNAP requirements without knowing the true income distributions.

We do know that the average full-time associate made $10.94 an hour in 2008. We can also back compute that full-time associates working the same hours quoted on that site would need to be making less than $7.97 an hour to qualify for food stamps. Given that the Federal minimum wage is $7.25, I'd guess that a tiny, tiny number (possibly even none) of full-time Wal-Mart associates make little enough to qualify for assistance for a single person. Of course I'm sure there are single parents or larger households that qualify.

On a side note, two people working two minimum wage jobs, both at 40 hours a week, with two kids, will be making too much to qualify for Federal assistance.

 

[marincounty]

Is that the world's smallest violin I see being readied in the wings? I believe it is. Sorry, dude, no sympathy that you have to "fill out tons of forms" and such to get food stamps. Sympathy for the disability though.

I don't think many people are going to argue that people should go hungry in America. The questions are how best to feed the hungry people, and what degree of wealth people on the public dole should be allowed to retain. No one thinks T. Boone Pickens should be allowed free food stamps while he owns much of the country's natural gas leases, even if he finds himself without income for a bit. No one thinks you should have to sell your coat and last pair of shoes before we feed you. But within those extremes I think there is reasonable debate about who should qualify.

You can take your violin and shove it where the sun don't shine. If you never have been on food stamps you don't understand. You have to grovel and grind to get anything. This is largely because of Republican resistance to anything that would help the poor. The means testing allows you I think an auto worth less than $1000 or you don't qualify. The only reason we even have a food stamp benefit is because it benefits red-state farmers and ranchers.

Meanwhile rich people get their social security checks every month. Farmers get their payments for not growing stuff. The advantages of being poor in this country are greatly exaggerated.

 

[dmcowen674]

Kids do not need milk. You have been brainwashed.

You

 

[Ozoned]

You

Do you get food stamps Dave?

 

[werepossum]

You can take your violin and shove it where the sun don't shine. If you never have been on food stamps you don't understand. You have to grovel and grind to get anything. This is largely because of Republican resistance to anything that would help the poor. The means testing allows you I think an auto worth less than $1000 or you don't qualify. The only reason we even have a food stamp benefit is because it benefits red-state farmers and ranchers.

Meanwhile rich people get their social security checks every month. Farmers get their payments for not growing stuff. The advantages of being poor in this country are greatly exaggerated.

Thank you for that excellent example of the modern left-wing loon. You feel entitled to free stuff, yet also full of hatred that there's not more free stuff, that anyone else might get free stuff, and that you have to do something as vigorous as <gasp> fill out forms to get your free stuff. Gotcha. Wow, the horrors of someone getting back the money that was taken from them for their retirement even if the government hasn't decided they "need it"! Oh, the humanity! They could have given that money to you! No, I've never been on food stamps, but if there's a prohibition against owning a vehicle worth more than $1,000 it's certainly not enforced because those times I've actually seen the automobiles of the people using food stamps ahead of me in line, damned few have been worth less than $1,000 and most were worth more than my vehicle. (Not that that's so difficult.)

 

[umbrella39]

Same shit, different sock puppets :rollseyes:

 

[nobodyknows]

Kids do not need milk. You have been brainwashed.

I prefer my corn flakes with water too.

 

[nobodyknows]

Yep. not "reasonable" but definitely possible.

As soon as I get some pricing to my meal spreadsheet I'll see just how close I think one could come to $500 with a 2K calories per day.

ANy progress on that yet?

 

[werepossum]

I prefer my corn flakes with water too.

LOL

We're having ketchup and water! We're having ketchup and water!

 

[Zebo]

I prefer my corn flakes with water too.

To soggy to quick. I go soy milk cause I can't drink milk among other things being lactose intolerant.

 

[0marTheZealot]

Kids do not need milk. You have been brainwashed.

Technically, no one needs anything but rice and fish. Anything else is luxury.

Milk is a great source of vitamins, protein and calcium. And if you can handle the lactose, carbohydrates. And really, milk is not that expensive. To not allow food stamps to buy milk is just plain wrong.