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

[stateofbeasley]

Its called personal responsibility. Count your calories.

I think you have a personal responsibility to educate yourself about the subject of hunger before posting in this forum.

 

[Hacp]

I think you have a personal responsibility to educate yourself about the subject of hunger before posting in this forum.

I think you should stop making yourself look like an idiot. For now, you are ignored.

 

[stateofbeasley]

I think you should stop making yourself look like an idiot. For now, you are ignored.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out!

 

[Sinsear]

Don't for one single minute think that our government is interested in saving money. They'll spend every dollar they get, every dollar they're going to get and every dollar they can borrow.

What's relevant is that our Chairman has now realized that there may be some importance to job creation. He's scheduled a look into that in the near future.

Barack Obama announces jobs summit


It's encouraging to see he now thinks there may be a problem.

Nancy Pelosi has publicly stated that she feels that Americans are ready to take on more debt to create still more jobs. Pay no attention to recent discoveries of fraud by our government concerning job creation. Don't pay any attention to the man behind the curtain, actually, pretend there is no curtain at all.

So brace yourself to take on still more debt. We may just tap out all the funds that the Chinese are willing to throw our way.

Google the "cloward-piven strategy".

History is being made right before your very eyes.

What's amazing is that we need this "job" summit.


Where are the millions of "green" jobs Obama promised the last time around the bailout table.

 

[Slew Foot]

Stop whining. Move to a state with lower taxes.

Stop whining, go to a better law school. Idiot.

 

[sandorski]

Fail OP is Fail

 

[JSt0rm]

I think you should stop making yourself look like an idiot. For now, you are ignored.

lol. How about you just ignore everybody. I will always vote to cancel out people like you. amazing.

 

[stateofbeasley]

Stop whining, go to a better law school.

Too late! Graduated several years ago and am working. Loans nearly paid off.

Idiot.

Jackass :biggrin:

One of the food banks near where I went to law school has an interesting interactive on the problems facing the hungry:

https://www.philabundance.org/whowehelp/hunger101.asp

You can choose from several roles (single mom, retiree, working man w' family) and learn about the difficulties they may face when trying to put food on the table.

The reality is that there are people, like the electrician in the linked article in the Original Post, who hold down decent jobs, but are having trouble due to circumstances beyond their control. The electrician had no control over rising fuel costs or skyrocketing health insurance premiums. He works full time and plainly says he doesn't want to be on Food Stamps. Hell, he skimped out on meals for himself so his kids could eat before he decided to accept help.

I'd rather the government help this guy buy decent food for his children. It is better for them to have milk, fruits, and vegetables rather than dirt cheap processed starches and sugars that have little or no nutritional value.

 

[Darwin333]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/us/29foodstamps.html?hp

I quoted Americans because we still don't know if they are all American citizens or if they are illegals. They pulled the same trick with the healthcare debate, saying 45 million "Americans" didn't have healthcare when a large portion of those 45 million were illegals.

However, going back to the main theme of the article, maybe this is why we're in a recession. We're spending billions of dollars so people can get fresh vegetables, fruits, and meats. NO! If you're on food stamps, you should be restricted to rice, beans, and multivitamins. No luxuries like milk and cheese for you sir. Get off the taxpayer dime, get off your lazy ass, and go find a job.

On one side of the coin, hungry people are really bad for society. Hungry people tend to do violent things and letting children go hungry is just plain wrong.

On the other side, I live outside of NOLA and the abuse of the food stamp program is so widespread and blatant its absurd. You can't go to a walmart without seeing someone with half a dozen steaks and a basket full of junk pay with their foodstamp card. Then as you walk outside you see them loading up the rather expensive food we just paid for into their new (under 3 years old) Cadillac. If you go to the right Walmart on the 1st or 15th you can buy the foodstamps for .50 on the dollar. They even go shopping with you so they can swipe the card (at least you used to, I don't go to Walmart anymore). Now that is some serious bullshit.

I am definately not one of those that thinks we should just let people starve but if you can't afford to purchase your own food I don't think you should be able to use my money to buy better steaks than I eat. And after a certain amount of time your choices should become more limited. I am even willing to go to the extreme and say 10 years. After 10 years instead of being able to choose your own food you are provided with the necessities for decent healthy meals. No card or stamps, just a box of food delivered once a week.

Same thing goes on with the "crazy checks". People will drag their kids from doctor to doctor until one of them diagnoses them with ADD or something just so they can get a check from Uncle Sam (I think its SSI). I have discovered that you can lead a pretty darn good middle classish lifestyle if you learn how to work the system and it pissed me off. I am still not willing to starve people because of it... gotta be better ways to fix it. Another problem with that situation is when the wheels eventually come off and we are forced to live within our lifestyles, there are gonna be a lot of really pissed off people that are completely dependant on the .gov money to survive. Hell, look at all the anger over SSI not getting increased (not a decrease, simply not increasing it either).

 

[Jhhnn]

Yeh, all those lazy losers should just run out and get a job...

Except that un- and under- employment combined are at 17.5%, largely the result of American capitalists trading in the American workforce for a Chinese workforce. Americans are, however, expected to consume at first world rates and pay first world overhead, to, uhh, stimulate the economy, so that the Capitalists can get enough money to finish the job, offshore everything but debt creation, financial flim-flams, and real estate development.

Well, we'll probably continue raw materials extraction as well, but won't get to do anything with 'em- that's reserved for cheaper labor elsewhere...

In case nobody noticed, that dashing and attractive supply-side capitalist turned out to be Count Dracula, sucking out your life-blood while holding you in a hypnotic trance...

Of course you didn't notice- you're in a trance, after all...

 

[Jhhnn]

Yeh, all those lazy losers should just run out and get a job...

Except that un- and under- employment combined are at 17.5%, largely the result of American capitalists trading in the American workforce for a Chinese workforce. Americans are, however, expected to consume at first world rates and pay first world overhead, to, uhh, stimulate the economy, so that the Capitalists can get enough money to finish the job, offshore everything but debt creation, financial flim-flams, and real estate development.

Well, we'll probably continue raw materials extraction as well, but won't get to do anything with 'em- that's reserved for cheaper labor elsewhere...

In case nobody noticed, that dashing and attractive supply-side capitalist turned out to be Count Dracula, sucking out your life-blood while holding you in a hypnotic trance...

Of course you didn't notice- you're in a trance, after all...

 

[Darwin333]

I am confused by your post. Are rice, beans, and multivitamins available at no cost, thus alleviating the funding problem? Perhaps the issue is not as simple as you portray.

Not that I agree with his solution, but it would definately help with the abuse. A ton of people use their food stamps to buy a few very expensive meals a pay period or sell them. One of our employees wouldn't marry his finace' because they would lose benefits such as food stamps and he even bragged about how he was working the system. People who didn't actually need the food probably wouldn't go through the effort for rice and beans.

 

[Darwin333]

Too late! Graduated several years ago and am working. Loans nearly paid off.



Jackass :biggrin:

One of the food banks near where I went to law school has an interesting interactive on the problems facing the hungry:

https://www.philabundance.org/whowehelp/hunger101.asp

You can choose from several roles (single mom, retiree, working man w' family) and learn about the difficulties they may face when trying to put food on the table.

The reality is that there are people, like the electrician in the linked article in the Original Post, who hold down decent jobs, but are having trouble due to circumstances beyond their control. The electrician had no control over rising fuel costs or skyrocketing health insurance premiums. He works full time and plainly says he doesn't want to be on Food Stamps. Hell, he skimped out on meals for himself so his kids could eat before he decided to accept help.

I'd rather the government help this guy buy decent food for his children. It is better for them to have milk, fruits, and vegetables rather than dirt cheap processed starches and sugars that have little or no nutritional value.

That reminds me of another problem we have with our entitlement programs. For the most part we will help you if you have no or very low income but if you DO try and better yourself often small pay increases can lead to getting completely cut off of some programs. I have no problem helping people that can't help themselves. That leaves those that can and try and those that can and don't try. We treat the ones who can and don't better than those that can and do, something is wrong with that.

 

[IronWing]

Hey Hacp! Food stamps keep our farm economy going. The farm lobby and farm state politicians are the biggest promoters of food stamps. Why do you hate farmers?

 

[WhipperSnapper]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/us/29foodstamps.html?hpHowever, going back to the main theme of the article, maybe this is why we're in a recession. We're spending billions of dollars so people can get fresh vegetables, fruits, and meats. NO! If you're on food stamps, you should be restricted to rice, beans, and multivitamins. No luxuries like milk and cheese for you sir. Get off the taxpayer dime, get off your lazy ass, and go find a job.

OK, but before we implement those kinds of draconian measures on adults who are physically and mentally able to work, could the advocates of doing that please first advocate and implement economic policies that will lead to job creation and/or open up jobs for Americans, preferably middle class jobs?

What are the advocates of individual responsibility doing to make it possible for people to be able to take responsibility for themselves? Are these brave advocates calling for an end to foreign outsourcing? Are they calling for an end to the H-1B and L-1 visa programs? Are they calling for an end to illegal immigration and a moratorium on legal immigration?

It's easy to say, "Those people should get off their fat lazy asses and work," but it's much harder to say, "We're going to implement an Americans' first economic policy and bring middle class jobs back to America."

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Also, 99% of Americans own a TV. That means 99% of the 1/8 on food stamps own a TV. Maybe they should pawn the TV first before they get food stamps?

Are you crazy? Without TV and drugs to placate all of these poor people, what will keep them from taking up pitchforks (or guns more likely) and marching to the upper class neighborhoods to begin exterminating the middle class and the rich? What will bottle up their desire to hang CEOs, banksters, and politicians from lampposts?

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Whats really depressing is that 1/4 of the children are on food stamps. What does that mean? It means that low/no income families account for 1/4 of all the children in the US.

It means that the Republicans and the Conservatives and the serious Christians are morons and that the government and society should advocate abortion and fund abortion and free sterilization for the poor and lower classes.

 

[Fear No Evil]

It means that the Republicans and the Conservatives and the serious Christians are morons and that the government and society should advocate abortion and fund abortion and free sterilization for the poor and lower classes.

Why abortion? Wouldn't sterilization prevent the need for abortion? Or does the left just like the slaughter of babies for no reason? Maybe we could just kill all poor people regardless of age?

 

[spittledip]

It is true that the food stamp program lacks the regulation that it needs- the rice and bean suggestion provides that regulation. However, rice and beans isn't enough- people need whole grains and vegetables/fruits and dairy (meats are not necessary). To provide anything more than rice and beans would be too much overhead- and cost us and the govt too much more money I am guessing. The food stamps program is a cheaper way to give people the option to eat healthily if they so choose, without the expensive overhead of a govt managed food distribution program. Adults need to make adult decisions. If they don't choose to use the food stamp program wisely, that is their own fault.

There are incentives for program participants to eat healthily it seems. If you want to read about it, look to this link: http://www.fns.usda.gov/FSP/

 

[fleshconsumed]

I'm just surprised, saddened and a little frightened at the same time that so many Americans need help getting food they need to survive.

 

[Fear No Evil]

I wonder how many of these people who need help getting food are able to pay for cable, flat screens, xbox's, etc.

 

[spittledip]

I wonder how many of these people who need help getting food are able to pay for cable, flat screens, xbox's, etc.

Although a valid point, it is close to impossible to monitor, so in a sense, it is irrelevant. You can't not give people food just b/c some other people might be abusing the program.

 

[xj0hnx]

If they don't choose to use the food stamp program wisely, that is their own fault.

Which would be all fine and dandy if they were using THEIR money.

 

[spittledip]

Which would be all fine and dandy if they were using THEIR money.

Yeah, I hear you and agree to a certain point. But I also think that you can't starve people b/c they are ignorant or have foolish eating habits. I am willing to bet that more than half the people on this forum have horrible eating habits but think they "eat healthy." If people are given money, they can spend it on any food they want. It takes oto much money to monitor that type of stuff. Also, like I mentioned, there is an incentive program for the people to get healthy food.

 

[cmf21]

Earlier this month I decided to finally try applying for food stamps after about 2yrs of being unemployed. They made jump through so many hoops trying to find every reason to deny me that I finally gave up out of frustration. My mother and father also tried going on food stamps (no pay from work for about 5 months) but they were making them out like they were some type of crooks and this and that so my mom just threw up her hands and said forget it.


Not trying to pick on anyone in particular but when I was at the local office trying to apply, there were so many people there (mostly hispanics). They were driving around in nicer cars then mine, had these fancy cell phones, 50 kids, wearing name brand and expensive clothing, etc. Just sitting there, I could tell most of them didn't deserve any help and probably never had a steady job in their lives. These people were all sitting around telling each other how they can work the system, use each other as contacts, etc.

After i gave up, i ended up turning in someone I know but don't really like for cheating the system. They were claiming 2 extra kids that don't even live with them, plus this guy was working another job that he didn't tell them about, so he was getting all this extra help that he didn't deserve. If he reallly needed help, he would sell $30,000 worth of atvs, boats and cars he has sitting out his house.

A few days after I gave up, I saw a news report that the federal government is really upset with some states because they are making it impossible for some people to qualify for assistance, including me.