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You don't care that the cost would increase dramatically if you paid people to deliver the food?
I honestly could accept some restrictions in what people could buy. After all, the program is supposed to be "supplemental". Recipients could still buy chips, soda, etc with their own money.
I'm not sure the cost would increase. Many social/case workers already do home visits. They can also put some thought into cost effective foods that go further to stretch the dollar that way.
They should at some point start phasing down to levels the longer you are on it. That would give people time to adjust to relying less on assistance and trying to increase their ability to pay.
Phase the program down over a period of time for an individual rather than go cold turkey.
I agree with you. I think part of the problem is that it can't be easily broken down into a semester's worth of "study".
I have two older siblings. We grew up at the same dinner table with the same mother and father (shocking, I know...lol), and my parents started the whole "financial education" thing early on. I remember being in 4th grade when these talks started. I was just getting into cars, and HATED the cars my father drove. I didn't understand why a married father of three didn't buy a Corvette. So he started to discuss the price of cars, maintenance cost of cars, insurance, etc, and turned it into a little game.
He gave me some hypothetical household budget figures (that I suspect were likely based on our own), and told me that budgeting is really at it's core one big math problem. Income in minus expenses out, and there you have it. Well, the household budget I was given didn't allow for a Corvette, so that was the start of my financial education.
I was really into it, so my parents bought me a few books, etc. on money, finance, etc. and I consumed them like crazy. I was so driven to have a car of my own by my 16th birthday (still about 4.5 years away by that point) that I created an elaborate "budget" to help me get there. Needless to say, on the DAY I turned 16, I passed my driver's license test in the morning, and when my father got home from work, I explained to him that I had a called a few people with cars for sale. He didn't look too surprised, and I bought the second one I looked at.
My kids are shocked when I tell them I bought my own car ($2000), paid for my own gas, repairs, insurance, etc at age 16 because of what I learned from my parents. They were even more shocked to learn that by the time I graduated from high school, I had owned 5 cars.
Personal finance can be taught, but in order to learn it, it really needs to be 'experienced'.
I get sick of the hyperbole. People are not dying and starving in the street. Republicans want a robust Social welfare system that meets the needs of the truly needy whether it be the severly impaired or recently unemployed. These programs are out of control with spending increases, waste fraud and abuse. There is nothing wrong with keeping a close eye on expenditures to make sure funding does the work it was intended
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppalachianAmerican
You know as well as I do that if food stamps and healthcare were not free or at least subsidized millions of people would die. Americans are selfish people unfortunately. Things aren't like they used to be when you had 2 and 3 generations in 1 home taking care of each other.The government has to help those that are helpless,I to volunteer at charities,I give food to those in need,I take my neighbors to the grocery store because they have no car, I give clothes out etc etc etc..But I do not mind the government taking part of my check to help those less fortunate than me. If people didn't have to be "forced" to help by taking it from their pockets then I doubt it would be like that. There are people worth MILLIONS and BILLIONS who could easily help eradicate poverty in this country but they would rather ship their products overseas to be made by children and literal slave labor for pennies an hour instead of paying a livable wave to Americans here in America. I have no sympathy for the rich who get rich off the backs of poor workers who bust their butts for 8 and 9$ an hour to just barely scrape by on that and need welfare to get by as well which the rich then complain about as well. The rich either need to pay higher wages and take more off welfare or stop complaining all together. Its the ole saying trying to have your cake and eat it to. They want to be rich and don't want any of these pesky poor folks taking their riches.
Personal finance can be taught, but in order to learn it, it really needs to be 'experienced'.
Exactly! That is why I think high school is too early, but I don't know when else you'd do it. Since many people go to community college, maybe they should require a course. But back to high school, kids making minimum wage or barely above in retail and fast food can't imagine $1000 rent payments and the like. They have to experience it to know it. Not to mention, except for "live within your means", the principles change all the time. One day, it's mutual funds, the next something else.
Exactly! That is why I think high school is too early, but I don't know when else you'd do it. Since many people go to community college, maybe they should require a course. But back to high school, kids making minimum wage or barely above in retail and fast food can't imagine $1000 rent payments and the like. They have to experience it to know it. Not to mention, except for "live within your means", the principles change all the time. One day, it's mutual funds, the next something else.
My parents charged me "rent" at 1/3 of my average pay check once I started working. Unbeknownst to me, that money was put into a savings account which I got access to once I left home. I was also required to pay for my own vehicle, gas, maintenance, and insurance, as well as buying my own clothes. It may have been a harsh lesson, but it taught me how to figure out a budget pretty quick, especially when I had to make a choice of putting gas in my car to get to work or buying that new album that just came out. If I wanted extra money above and beyond my paycheck, I was required to work for it either around the house for an agreed-upon pay or negotiate with the neighbors and do odd jobs for them. I made pretty good spending cash by throwing hay bales for the local farmers, as well as breaking horses and repairing fences.
I am all in favor of assisting the poor however we are KILLING them with our current SNAP system. I see no reason to allow the purchase of soda pop, candy, chips, fast food and other junk food with taxpayer money.
There should be a restriction on what can be purchased with SNAP cards.
Another thing - SNAP cards should not be allowed for high end foods. If you can afford to squander your SNAP card benefits on high end cuts of meat or brand name products when cheaper store brands are available perhaps you do not need the taxpayer to feed you?
I have a hard time believing a little bit of cutting = starving people suffer from malnutrition
Let's review the food stamp benefit, shall we?
Table 1
SNAP Cut by Household Size Beginning November 2013
ARRA Maximum Benefits Through Oct. 2013 Maximum Benefits Beginning Nov. 2013 Monthly Cut Total Cut FY 2014
Household of 1 $200 $189 -$11 -$121
Household of 2 $367 $347 -$20 -$220
Household of 3 $526 $497 -$29 -$319 Household of 4 $668 $632 -$36 -$396
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, “SNAP – Fiscal Year 2014 Cost-of-Living Adjustments and ARRA Sunset Impact on Allotments,” August 1, 2013.
Household of four monthly benefit is $668. A monthly of $36 cut will cause malnutrition?!
Let "those" people (the poor) just curl up and die. Especially the babies and little kids who couldn't work if they wanted to.
Such a fine, religious, charitable way to live.
Commendable, really.
Oh come on. A household of 4 receive $668/month just on food stamps. Even with $36/month cut, it still leaves them with $632/month. Hardly a concentration camp situation.
The "poor" in America are fat as whales; they can live off their reserves for months. Failing that if they're still too lazy to work, we can compost them after they starve and finally get something useful as a society out of our welfare parasites.
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So he started to discuss the price of cars, maintenance cost of cars, insurance, etc, and turned it into a little game.
