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My old baby sitter and her family has been on food stamps, section 8 housing for several years now. She dropped out of school and her husband cannot keep any job he gets. In the last coupe of years he has been fired from 3 different jobs. Right now he works for McDonald's. So his 8.50 and an hour is supporting 6 people. His paycheck and the food stamp money. They also only pay $150-200 dollars a month for their apartment. They had their 4th child 2 years ago. Every year around February they manage to get thousands of dollars back from the federal government. If you were to walk into their house you would see a large, 50 " plasma TV, surround sound system. They pay over $100 a month for Comcast cable. I can keep on going.
This kind of behavior is very common and it is a lifestyle. Im not saying everybody on food stamps and government aid are like this but too many are.
Many people, and nasty commentators repeat stories like this over and over to justify villifying the working poor. Who knows how he got that TV, maybe it was a gift, a holdover from his single days, or he may get money through criminal behavior. The hard working family I mentioned in my above post have no such luxuries, they have given up cable, internet and every other luxury.
They know a large number of other families in their community who have it just as bad as they do. They work two full time jobs and struggle every day to support their family. I believe they are the much more common reality of the working poor. They aren't as exciting to talk about as the abusers, but they are the ones who are truly hurt by this culture of constantly basing on the working poor.
stigma??what stigma??? it's more like entitlement...the more they can get, the more they will take.....food stamps, medicaid, section 8, cash assistance (stupidest damn thing I've ever seen...they just buy gum and get $50 in cash as change and buy smokes and beer)
the whole system needs revamping..no able bodied single person should ever get a govt handout. If you have a child and get food stamps, you should be going to a food bank and they decide what you're going to get...not YOU.
What kills me about your post is that you're from one of the poorest states in the union. If Foodstamps or any type of government assistance stopped in YOUR state, then life as you know it would cease to exist.
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And you should be on mandatory birth control and any child born while on assistance doesn't qualify you for more assistance.
They already DON'T qualify.
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the card here in Florida has a picture of the American Flag..( all stores that take EBT have a large pic of the card) it's easy to tell the EBT card from a back card.
So? Was there a reason you felt the need to disclose this to us?
As a cashier in a big box store I deal with people who use EBT cards every day. I'd say it's mostly young people with kids, the elderly and the disabled. I read, all the time, people claiming they see people using food stamps that are dressed to the nines and take their stuff out to their expensive vehicles. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are just ordinary people who need some help. I also read that people think food stamps goes for high dollar things like steaks and lobster.
The people who say this are liars and are perpetuating the Ronald Reagan "Welfare Queen" falsehood. It's been proven this mythical Welfare Queen NEVER existed and Reagan made it up to win the election. The same way Bush Sr. did his Willie Horton act to prove how tough on crime he'll be. Both of those faces were of course black. If you want to scare white folks into doing what you want just make sure you add a black or brown face to whatever agenda it is you're trying to push and you'll win with a landslide vote. Sad, but so true.
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Another fallacy. Most of the people I see shop frugally, get the most for their money and, yes, they DO buy things like soda and junk food. Just like everyone else.
They don't want them to buy "like everyone else". They want them to get the cheapest most horrible stuff in the store, so that they can feel superior with themselves. Like, how on earth can you be jealous of someone getting some meager foodstamp benefit?
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There are a lot of 'assumptions' floating around out there and mostly by people who don't know what they are talking about. They hear things and believe it without research.
Nope. They pull any kinda bull outta their butts and paint is FACT. Idiots.
Where I got my ideas about food stamps? Partly from a father who would have NEVER accepted public assistance of any kind. He figured if he had a family, it was his job to support them. We were poor, but we didn't know it. We always had food to eat. My dad worked a full time job plus worked for a landowner doing farm work - planting and harvesting fields, baling hay, feeding horses, shoeing horses, keeping the barn clean. In exchange, we got a rent free house. My mom and dad always had a garden. And if he hadn't had that situation, he would have found another way to support us, because he didn't consider it anyone else's job to support his family but his. I'm proud that those values were instilled in me.
Fast forward to adulthood, and I personally know of three people who are alcoholics/drug addicts and just don't want to work. One was laid off and liked not working so much that when his unemployment ran out, he didn't look for another job. He signed up for food stamps and a free cell phone. Two others get disability (their disability is alcoholism) and section 8 housing and food stamps and a free cell phone. All three sell their food stamps for 50 cents on the dollar to buy alcohol; have even tried to sell them to ME and there is no way I was going to be a party to that. It absolutely disgusts me that taxpayer money is supporting people like this. And yes, they have been reported but it doesn't seem to make any difference. All three are 50-ish year old male alcoholics, not married and no dependents.
Did that person but only one bottle of water? It seems possible that he might have needed it for some reason, and it wasn't a usual purchase. I almost never buy water as I have filters, and refillable mugs, but occasionally I will buy a bottle if I'm going somewhere and need a disposable bottle. I have even bought a water because I was thirsty, and knew I had a number of other errands before I could get home.
No, they don't sell single 8oz bottles of water, only packs of 24 I believe, 2 packs exactly, +soft drinks + juice in small packages, waste, waste and more of the needless waste (it doesn't matter how you pay for that). I don't imply that there should be bottled water police but some people do have less than stellar judgement. It's especially inexcusable for the older guys in their late 50s, the guys who are unlikely to climb out of the hole.
That's the thing about modern poverty, I grew up in "poverty" as they would say today, but it was different sort of poverty, it taught us to survive, to grow food, to preserve, to save, to cooperate, to have fun, to do all sorts of things. And I look at some modern American poor (and up) and I'm scratching my head in disbelief, how it's possible to raise such a dependent and deprived of knowledge, street smarts and common sense, etc., etc. people who do despise wetbacks and rednecks, btw, speaking of the urban poor . The sheer depth of depravity they suffer should rule out "personal responsibility", you have to manufacture people like that, you have to have systems in place for that.
Lastly, I wouldn't have paid much attention to the guy if not for a pretty cashier, darn, where are my younger years.
Many people, and nasty commentators repeat stories like this over and over to justify villifying the working poor. Who knows how he got that TV, maybe it was a gift, a holdover from his single days, or he may get money through criminal behavior. The hard working family I mentioned in my above post have no such luxuries, they have given up cable, internet and every other luxury.
They know a large number of other families in their community who have it just as bad as they do. They work two full time jobs and struggle every day to support their family. I believe they are the much more common reality of the working poor. They aren't as exciting to talk about as the abusers, but they are the ones who are truly hurt by this culture of constantly basing on the working poor.
The family I am referring to, I know them personally, so I know their TV and other what to me is luxury items are not gifts or left over from single days. This particular family is exactly what pisses people off about the whole food stamp, snap program. I am not saying that they are bad people. They are not criminal, they don't steel, they are loving parents and good to their friends and family but they are using the system. There is nothing wrong with their intelligence. They are not sick or disabled. They are just lazy. They have over the years become so used to government aid that they don't think they can survive without it. I think her husbands confidence is so low that his has basically given up. It is just sad.
By snitching what exactly did you want to happen to them?
Why don't you mind your business and worry about your own family's lot and stop snitching. It's not like there's any financial reward in being a fink, so why do it?
It is my business. I am a taxpayer. "snitching"? Why would I be looking for a "financial reward" anyway? All I want is what is right - for people who are fully able to work to pull their own weight instead of taxpayers supporting them.
And worry about my own family's lot is exactly what I have done. I have never taken one dime from anyone to care for my family. When I had children, I knew it was MY responsibility to support them, and that is what I have done. Why should taxpayers also support the families of people who don't want to work?
Yes, you do. It bothered you that this person purchased something that YOU don't approve of. WHO ARE YOU in the scheme of things? NOBODY, that's who.
Nah, if I remember something for a couple of days it doesn't mean it bothers me to type in caps about. Do you know how 44,000 lbs of 8 oz bottles of water look like? I do, it's mostly plastic. As I wrote before, I started wondering who's buying this stuff way back in Indianapolis where they bottle 8 oz water. So, naturally, a happy customer stuck in my mind. So exactly who has a right for an opinion in your world?
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WTF???? How do you know what these people are doing to try to survive??
And what they are doing exactly, educate us? You can't do much on $1000/month of disability and such. It's ridiculous to say that all the poor are all bad, lazy, addicted an so on, but it's even more ridiculous to pretend that they are saints working tirelessly to get out. Again, I don't think we should police anyone, they beg for help, we give, the rest should be up to their consciousness.
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You haven't a freaking clue of their personal life. Who the hell is going to grow food in 2013 AMERICA??? Not everyone comes from the sticks like you.
Here is the winning attitude of the modern poverty, right there. No matter how poor you get in America there are things, jobs, places and people way beneath you. Growing food is beneath them, living in sticks is beneath them, working vetback jobs is beneath them .... I tell you that the poor living in sticks don't grow food either for the "image" sake, or they simply have no clue, total dependence.
The family I am referring to, I know them personally, so I know their TV and other what to me is luxury items are not gifts or left over from single days. This particular family is exactly what pisses people off about the whole food stamp, snap program. I am not saying that they are bad people. They are not criminal, they don't steel, they are loving parents and good to their friends and family but they are using the system. There is nothing wrong with their intelligence. They are not sick or disabled. They are just lazy. They have over the years become so used to government aid that they don't think they can survive without it. I think her husbands confidence is so low that his has basically given up. It is just sad.
I don't know how it is in Illinois but in Arizona people on food stamps HAVE to work, if at all possible. I've gone to school with mom's working toward their degrees, they get food stamps, health insurance for their kids and child care. The parents who can, and do, work still get the food stamps, but a little less, and insurance for the kids and child care. They don't get health insurance for themselves once they get jobs. They are only allowed X number of years to do this though. I believe it's five. And that's it. How people can get away with it for years and years, unless they are disabled or elderly, I don't know. Most don't, here, but five years is plenty of time to get with it. The ones I know were on it for about three years, through school, or until they got better jobs. None of them were "lazy".
I don't know how it is in Illinois but in Arizona people on food stamps HAVE to work, if at all possible. I've gone to school with mom's working toward their degrees, they get food stamps, health insurance for their kids and child care. The parents who can, and do, work still get the food stamps, but a little less, and insurance for the kids and child care. They don't get health insurance for themselves once they get jobs. They are only allowed X number of years to do this though. I believe it's five. And that's it. How people can get away with it for years and years, unless they are disabled or elderly, I don't know. Most don't, here, but five years is plenty of time to get with it. The ones I know were on it for about three years, through school, or until they got better jobs. None of them were "lazy".
I don't know about Illinois either. The family I'm talking about lives in Mississippi. And he did work all the time, but minimum wage jobs. Meanwhile they were producing children, one after the other.
I'm not sure how they can get away with it year after year. Good question.
A few years ago the husband was going to go back to school. Great! But what happened? He dropped out after a semester. Zero drive.
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. The sheer depth of depravity they suffer should rule out "personal responsibility", you have to manufacture people like that, you have to have systems in place for that. 
Why would I be looking for a "financial reward" anyway? All I want is what is right - for people who are fully able to work to pull their own weight instead of taxpayers supporting them. 
