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With the time and energy it takes to jump through the various administrative hoops (not to mention covering your tracks if you're cheating the system), most employable people could probably devote that to a second job and make way more than $200 a month. That's not really a big enough payoff to entice many people to commit fraud.
yeh, it bothered me for about .00053 seconds and then I moved on.
I think it's a failure of our system that people like you make good money. There's clearly something missing in your mental abilities when I read what you have to say about this issue.. Your arguments for taking away LINK cards make about as much sense as 1+1=3. How and why are idiots in economic power? Clearly you didn't get where you are in life by saying the kind of stupid s*** you're saying in this thread, did you?
Yeah but if you work for cash, (not reported earnings to the govt), people supplemnt their criminal lifestyle with foodstamps... like that surfer dude on tv who is living the "ratt life" and going to the store choosing lobsters and proud of his lifestyle and thanking america for paying for his foodstamps and surfer lifestyle where he proudly admits he does not work, does not want to work and plays in a band and bangs chicks all day.. it was on the news this week. (check out Drudge report for example or Google)
well, then he's committing fraud. In order to receive benefits, one must provide proof of all income and employment (several consecutive pay stubs, basically) as well as proof of living costs (a lease, basically), and a copy of phone bill and all utilities. So, if your surfer dude is bumming and mooching around, he must have provided fake documents. As far as I know, you cannot just work under the table and receive benefits.
So, yeah. If you think there's just a line where anybody can stand in and there's a clerk handing out envelopes of cash no questions asked, then you're wrong. Or if you think the surfer dude example is somehow a typical example of someone on food assistance, then you dont know what you're talking about whatsoever.
I think it's a failure of our system that people like you make good money. There's clearly something missing in your mental abilities when I read what you have to say about this issue.. Your arguments for taking away LINK cards make about as much sense as 1+1=3. How and why are idiots in economic power? Clearly you didn't get where you are in life by saying the kind of stupid s*** you're saying in this thread, did you?
Meh, I apologize for this post. Not because I don't think it's true but because nothing positive can come from it..
Location: Cleveland, OH USA / formerly Chicago for 20 years
4,069 posts, read 7,321,711 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JacksonPanther
You brought this up, so now you need to defend this apocryphal story. I don't know what to search for on Google - "Surfer Dude ripping off the government?"
Google the name "Jason Greenslate".
He was featured on a FOX News report last week titled "The Great Food Stamp Binge". It's not clear that he is committing any actual "fraud" as it is legally defined, but he appears to be an able-bodied young man who does not want to work, is not looking for work, and has no intention of looking for work, and is collecting $200 a month in SNAP benefits. He spends his days goofing off, surfing, playing and singing rock songs, hitting on "chicks", and buying sushi and lobster and cooking it up outdoors for him and his buddies.
The report wasn't clear as to whether he was receiving any other type of public assistance, be it disability or welfare benefits. The report said he didn't have a home or apartment of his own, but just bummed around alternating between living with family, friends, girlfriends, etc.
His only aspiration, it appears, is to play in a rock band and make it big. He was signed on to a record label, but hasn't made any money yet.
He had gone to school to learn to be a music producer or something along those lines, but decided he wanted to be a rock star instead of doing grunt work for other rock stars.
I don't think the point was that he was committing actual "fraud", but that he's figured out how to legally game the system and that it means that these public assistance benefits are too easy to get.
Now, other reports show that only 1 percent of SNAP recipients are abusing the system in this manner, but given that 47 million Americans are on SNAP, 1 percent of that is still an awful lot of people.
I think it's a failure of our system that people like you make good money. There's clearly something missing in your mental abilities when I read what you have to say about this issue.. Your arguments for taking away LINK cards make about as much sense as 1+1=3. How and why are idiots in economic power? Clearly you didn't get where you are in life by saying the kind of stupid s*** you're saying in this thread, did you?
Show me where I advocated for taking away link cards? I never said that. All I did was ask what is the criteria needed to get a link card, how long can you have one, who qualifies, etc.
I'm not this heartless ba$tard that some of my posts make me seem. Granted, I rarely give money to panhandlers and I don't have much sympathy for those able to work but are too lazy to do so. Nor do I have a lot of tolerance for those who point the finger at everyone and everything else for their problems but never look in the mirror.
And how do you know whether I make 'good money'? Just like the homeless guy who probably thinks minimum wage is 'good money', I can look at people well above my pay grade and think I'm not doing so well.
Show me where I advocated for taking away link cards? I never said that. All I did was ask what is the criteria needed to get a link card, how long can you have one, who qualifies, etc.
I'm not this heartless ba$tard that some of my posts make me seem. Granted, I rarely give money to panhandlers and I don't have much sympathy for those able to work but are too lazy to do so. Nor do I have a lot of tolerance for those who point the finger at everyone and everything else for their problems but never look in the mirror.
And how do you know whether I make 'good money'? Just like the homeless guy who probably thinks minimum wage is 'good money', I can look at people well above my pay grade and think I'm not doing so well.
But I think what many people who look at the poor fail to realize that most poor people have jobs. Many have two or three. And the working poor are hard-working people. Yeah, there are people who don't want to work and want to leech of others, but there are more poor people who work than there are who don't have jobs out of sheer laziness.
But I think what many people who look at the poor fail to realize that most poor people have jobs. Many have two or three. And the working poor are hard-working people. Yeah, there are people who don't want to work and want to leech of others, but there are more poor people who work than there are who don't have jobs out of sheer laziness.
I applaud those who are willing to go out and work a low paying job. But, when low skilled labor is all you're qualified for, that's how you're going to be paid and to think you deserve more simply because a company is doing we is a sense of wrongful entitlement.
I love nothing more than to read stories about people who start at that bottom and rise up through a company. It's inspiring.
Believe, me, I've got working poor in my family (uncle who's a janitor and addicted to scratch off lottery tickets) and I won't be surprised if one day he comes to me asking for help with the rent.
I applaud those who are willing to go out and work a low paying job. But, when low skilled labor is all you're qualified for, that's how you're going to be paid and to think you deserve more simply because a company is doing we is a sense of wrongful entitlement.
I love nothing more than to read stories about people who start at that bottom and rise up through a company. It's inspiring.
Believe, me, I've got working poor in my family (uncle who's a janitor and addicted to scratch off lottery tickets) and I won't be surprised if one day he comes to me asking for help with the rent.
It's wrongful entitlement to be a working adult who wants to make enough money to survive? Any adult who works should be able to fully support themselves regardless of what they do. No one is saying someone working at McDonald's should make $100k a year. But if they are working and have responsibilities, they should be able to pay their rent and buy food. People should not be working making someone else rich but have to get welfare to supplement their income. That's ridiculous.
It sounds to me like you want there to be a clear and defined group of have-nots because fast-food workers work jobs you deem as "unintelligent."
A person working deserves more if they are working and still can't survive. As I've mentioned, I took a restaurant job after being laid off. It wasn't McDonald's but it was the hardest, most demanding job I ever worked. Harder than any office job I ever had--and believe me it was tough to go from sitting behind a desk for many years to doing that kind of work. That restaurant job did require a level of skill and stamina not required in any desk job I ever had. It was a highly demanding job which required employees to be very skilled in restaurant procedures, very sharp and quick, and if you weren't you were fired. Many new people who came to work there either walked off the job literally or got fired because they could not meet the demands or could not develop the skill fast enough that were necessary to prep the food and run the restaurant according to company specs.
The place I worked was a very popular quick-service, high-volume restaurant where we made almost everything from scratch and it had to be done quick and exact; and for all of your talk about how food workers have little skills, I bet money you couldn't handle the working at the restaurant I worked at. A lot of people couldn't and quit or got fired. And as hard as I worked and as much skill that was indeed required to do that job, I could not pay my rent and I worked 40 hours a week. You must have never worked in a restaurant before for you to assume that those jobs require little to no skill and should not be paid a living wage. What about the people who worked with me at the restaurant who had master's degrees and couldn't find work otherwise?
And talk about entitlement, the customers who came in loved to make it point to talk down to us, curse us out, and let us know that we restaurant workers were nobodies and that we were stupid because we worked there, not realizing that many of us they were talking down to had either gone to college or had degrees and couldn't find other job because there was no other work out there. I can't tell you how many customers called me names and told me that I must be stupid just because I worked there. Of course they didn't know my background or how I ended up there. They just made assumptions about my level of intelligence because I worked in a restaurant. Americans are classist and have a deep-seated hatred for the poor or for those who work service jobs.
A person sitting behind a desk is no more intelligent than a person who works with their hands or on their feet all day. Just as any person could work at McDonald's, any person can get a college degree if they have the opportunity and dedicate to study. Anyone can study, do homework and pass exams if they put their mind to it. As humans we all have the same capabilities. It all boils down to resources and opportunity as to who gets to become more educated and skilled and who doesn't.
Maybe you think that because your uncle is a janitor who buys scratch-off tickets that everyone else who works service jobs is just like him. You are mistaken.
Edited to add: It sounds like your uncle has a gambling addiction and that has nothing to do with what he does for a living. Anyone of any occupation or education level can have a gambling addiction.
Last edited by Atlanta_BD; 08-16-2013 at 07:58 AM..
What kind of successful happy person gets all worked up over poor people and link cards?
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