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Short answer: because they're told to. Hate radio and stilted TV "News" like to provide easy targets for the anger and fear of the rabid right.
Longer explanation: these assistance programs are in reality nothing more than corporate welfare. As you've stated, you're working full time, yet need assistance to get by. When that assistance is provided by the taxpayer, then your employer can continue to pay peanuts, which increases his bottom line at the public's expense. If the day comes when the minimum wage is increased to a living wage level, then these assistance programs can be reduced. But I seriously doubt that we'll live to see that day. Corporate America owns the government and the current arrangement is to their liking. Along the same lines, it's corporate America that benefits from the presence of millions of sub-minimum wage illegals in our midst, so don't look for that situation to be improved anytime soon, either.
And most of us are eating subsidized food also. The government pays farmers to grow or not grow certain food crops.
Why do some people take every opportunity to verbally attack people on assistance? I am constantly reading posts on forums and social sites that indicate that anyone one welfare or food stamps is a greedy, lazy freeloader.
That is not the case. As a single mom of two children, we are on welfare. I work 40-50 hours a week in addition to maintaining a household and raising children.
I know way more people that work full time and get assistance, then I know that do not work and get assistance. Help me understand.
Let me rebut with a question of my own:
Why did you have children if you can't afford them?
They are not my responsibility. I can't afford to feed them any more than you can.
The ones on WIC can't even be bothered to bring their own pen to the store!!! I'm so over the entitlement mentality in this country and I feel that it's not getting any better. It's disgusting!!!
A few years ago between jobs I worked as a Walmart cashier. Many using WIC could not even read English.
Last edited by Oldhag1; 04-16-2014 at 05:02 PM..
Reason: fixed formatting issue
I'll be brief. We spent several years on welfare, when we immigrated to the USA.
We are very grateful to American people that paid our bills and provided for us through those years.
We, also, went to schools and graduated, with solid degrees and jobs.
We are off any state support since 1998.
We make very decent salaries and pay decent taxes. We helped our kids and they paid most of it anyway, to get through schools and get their decent education and decent jobs.
I'd say, point to my post is - it depends. It can be a great trampoline to start you into a better future, better for all, or it can suck you in and turn you into lazy, entitled mush. YOUR CHOICE.
I have no issue in helping people for a short period of time while they work out of it.
I also don't have an issue for those who can't provide for themselves.
I have a major issue with those who make it a lifestyle.
ukrkoz, you were an INVESTEMENT. You have probably paid back the assistance you've received dozens of times over. However, many people on assistance don't use the opportunity provided by the taxpayers to change their lives.
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Originally Posted by d from birmingham
Once again painters will only take in Mexicans to train. Painters are paid jack squat.
BS.
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Originally Posted by d from birmingham
Look online the deep cleaning is an optional job for a specific thing like an oven or a fridge.
I've looked online and have called around. Show me someone who will clean my house for $30. It's not going to happen, period. We shopped around and the best price we could get was $75 for the cleaning which takes her 3 hours.
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Originally Posted by ocsid
This.
Even if it was double or triple that, it's still a minute amount of your total tax bill.
The amount of welfare fraud across the entire nation probably doesn't add up to one day's worth of waste by the military, or one tenth of some ridiculous pork barrel project some congressman brought home to his or her district. I can't for the life of me figure out why people get so worked about things like this.
I hear people say "well, it's the principle of the matter." That's nice. That and a $1.50 will get you a Pepsi out of a vending machine. Worry about something important people.
We had about 310 million people in the US in 2011 with about 25% of those not adults, giving us roughly 230 million adults. - USA QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau
So, that means you have roughly 130 million people working.
This translates to a "bill" of $575 per working adult to pay for food stamps and a "bill" of $7,700 per working adult for all of low income assistance.
$7,700 is pretty important to me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thefragile
Pedro, why are you even wasting money by hiring people to clean your house & do yardwork when you can do it yourself? Instead of complaining about people who wouldn't bother to clean for under $25/hour (and frankly, I wouldn't either), take it upon yourself to clean your own house and do your own yardwork. Then you wouldn't find the need to complain about what people won't work for.
Who is complaining? I'm simply pointing out that there are plenty of ways to earn a living wage, if you choose to not do the most basic work out there.
The complaining that's going on is, "I need to be paid a lot more for flipping a burger or standing behind a counter."
I'm putting money in the economy and helping pay someone a livable wage by hiring those things out.
The same could be said for every darn poster on here jumping to conclusions about people on assistance.
True enough and I don't look down on those who need the welfare assistance because my Mother used county welfare vouchers when I was a child a few times. She was left alone with 2 toddlers in the 1960's by my donor who decided his beer and crimes were more important than his family and he went to live in prison for a while.
When I was first married my husband and I used welfare for 2 months because we were going to go without my salary when our child was born and without that salary we would not have been able to pay our monthly necessities (no luxuries) but not able to purchase food or the special formula we needed.
Even with the amount of savings we had to help get us through it wasn't quite enough and we did not have a house payment, car payments or credit cards, we just did not make enough money.
Sometimes the circumstances are self made, other times they are not.
People attack anything which they feel will/might help others. Unless they can get a camera in their face and be labeled a good samaratian. But; America does have a good many strong supporters of our systems of services.
I'd not worry much about it. The stastical numbers related to "who uses these services", is far different than what is often published and promoted.
There is numbers which demonstrate the wide differences in media babble and facts when much inference is attached to try and make it appear as a racial things focused on minorities.
When fact is, breaking the numbers down, whites use public assistance at a rate of 4:1 , 5:1 and in some areas 7:1 above minorities.
It is public funds build over a long history of social program development in America, to do exactly what these programs do. Which is provide assistance to those who need it.
Within any program, be it for the wealthy or for the poor, there will always be some who abuse its benefits. But to focus on the abusers rather than the benefits which help many who are not abusers. We attribute too much negativity to the abusers, who number far less than the people who make useful benefit of these services and programs.
As time progresses, we have become a society with far more information, and the more information as a society we gain, the better we are able to manage our system to diminish the abuses.
I think its great we live in a nation which has services and benefits. I'd like to see benefits certainly improved for Senior Citizens and Children, and better educational accessibility and support assistance to our Vocational and Technical Skill Development centers, so all young people have options and opportunity.
If we prepare them, we may find it serves us well in diminishing the pool who are recipients of program services, as many of the young people may go on to create business and industry, as well as they will be generating a self sustaining income.
I would not give much attention to those who are anti benefits for American people. And give more focus to how we can improve our system over-all for the long terms and future of this great nation and its people.
We will always live in a penny-wise dollar foolish world, it's unavoidable!
Take away welfare, food stamps, they then commit crimes, go to prison, and then we're looking at $50k a year in prison costs!
You forgot the theft that happens. While ALL don't steal, I lived in a town where 17% of the people lived below the poverty level. Illegal drug traffic boomed the first two weeks of the month and the other two, there was a constant string of thefts. One of the arguments against drug testing and denying benefits to recipients that were suspected of and tested positive was that the people were afraid that crime would increase and instead of two weeks of thefts, it would be a full month. Sad way to look at the issue as if we are being held hostage!
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Originally Posted by malamute
I think the anger is that there are fewer and fewer of us taxpayers who have to pay for all those choosing to be single parents. More children are now being born to welfare households than to taxpaying households, it's not sustainable. Why have children you cannot afford?
The children fatten the check and food stamp benefits. Also, WIC. I have seen cases of formula being sold by welfare households.............
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Originally Posted by timberline742
Urban legend? What I see with my own eyes? I don't see filet mignon, but lots of other expensive cuts of meat and prepared foods.
I have no problem with assistance. Would rather pay that than for war or corporate welfare; both are considerably more costly. But the assistance must be for a finite period of time and personally, what can be bought should be far more restricted.
You would think that people who do not need assistance would be happy & grateful about that fact. Instead, I see nothing but grumbling, accusing, name calling & pointing fingers at the people who do need assistance. How about cutting out the constant anger in ones life? Do people need to be angry about something at all times? It's bizarre.
I think most of the anger is toward the ones that do not work and are more than capable of doing so especially the younger people that are irresponsibly having children and act like we, the working people who limit our families and often work more than one job, OWE them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clemencia53
You are right! If it was so great, people would gladly trade places - lol.
You might see them go out and get filet mignon at the beginning of the month, but the rest, its standing in line at the food pantry for weird items. Begging for money to keep the utilities on and trying to hitch a ride to a doctor's appointment.
The life of Riley - I tell ya!
Ask yourself, "What kind of people do this?" These are the bottom feeders and more likely than not, alcohol or drug addicts. Yes, I see them using food stamp cards for the groceries and WIC and paying cash for their alcohol. I think the majority of people have no problem giving help to those that NEED it. There are the disabled who cannot work or who really desire to work but can't find a job and those that work as hard as they can and still can't make ends meet. My neighbor works 3 jobs and his wife also works and they don't live in luxury. They have had only one child. A rotisserie chicken is considered a "luxury" item in our household; we don't have a big screen TV; our vehicles 1993 Van and 1995 Car; we have two flip phones our only phones and we have two incomes. Only had 2 children and don't do drugs or alcohol. As a single mother years ago, when I could not find a job after getting out of college, I worked production, 2nd shift and 1/3 of my income went for childcare. The woman next to me told me that I would do better on welfare, ah, there is something about personal responsibility. Yes, old school.
I think we need to be equally angry at the businesses who reap nice profits while we carry their employees who can't afford the basics.
Keep in mind that the OP asked "why" and is being told that and it isn't as if we went to seek her out.
Why did you have children if you can't afford them?
They are not my responsibility. I can't afford to feed them any more than you can.
One could also ask why so many go to college but cannot afford to pay for it without loans and grants.
The amount of student loan debt is staggering and the amount of student loan defaults is even more.
A lot of us have been put into positions of financial distress because of the actions of someone else and I would venture to guess that the original poster was in a different situation when those children were born.
I would be guessing though since I do not know for sure.
When one is left with no money, no job and everything that can be pawned taken so the other can go and play with their underage playmate there is no way they can take care of themselves and their child properly without some sort of help. Hopefully it can be temporary and they will stop getting the help from welfare as soon as they can manage on their own.
It doesn't go anywhere for pretty obvious reasons to me. Both sides hate it for different reasons.
I'd like to see more restrictions on what you can buy, or even a return to government stores where butter, bread, low grade meat, etc etc STAPLES can be purchased with the assistance. People that need help eating should get help, no doubt about that, but they should get staples, not prepared foods or higher end foods. That isn't a right, it's a privilege. I can't recall the last time I actually bought a steak steak, it's a special event. I can afford it, but that money is best saved.
Liberals don't like it because of the shaming factor. We shouldn't shame people that need assistance. I don't get that, I was taught to take care of myself and not to need help... if I needed it I first reach out to family, then to church, and the last place to go is to government... and that is a temporary thing and yes, shameful.
Conservatives don't like it because it is more government and they want the private sector to get the money from SNAP. It's a private business welfare program to them.
Different food makers will keep lobbying (paying off) both sides to prevent any restrictions on their goods being purchased because it is such a large portion of the food purchases.
So, in the end, both parties stick it to us. As usual.
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