We went over exactly these issues in this thread
I figured you may not have seen it due to your newness…
That thread made me sad.
I’m right there w/ you RGG; after all the years I paid taxes into it, someone tried to make me feel bad about using a Pell grant because it’s ‘government assistance’. Why not complain about people speeding on government maintained roads??
Maybe someday soon people who aren’t in need will stop devaluing those who are! Having less $$ is not an indication of lacking morals or worth, and I say to hell w/ any of those people who look down their noses at folks who expect their government’s help after it has accepted their support in the form of taxes.
I can almost always tell when people are going to pay with an EBT card. Warning signs include:
- Lots of processed junk food, and often the most expensive brand of it
- A lot of frozen prepared meals
- Significant lack of fresh vegetables (or Hi Opal!)
I too have found that, if I take notice of the people who conform to my prejudice while disregarding those who don’t, almost all of them do!
You forgot to mention that she drove off in a Cadillac.
Wouldn’t this apply to most American families (or at least most poor American families) with or without assistance?
Interestingly, government assistance programs are accepted at our city’s Farmer’s Market. This is widely popular and the merchants at the market bear huge signs advertising that they accept it. One of my temporary employees was mentioning it, that she can’t wait to use it to get fresh green beans and things like that for her and her kids.
Why would someone make you feel bad for using a Pell grant to go to school? It’s not like the government gave you a check for nothing.
This term, I was fortunate to have Pell and state grants cover all of my tuition and fees. I don’t see it as a handout, I see it as a means to better myself and get a better-paying job. The money I got in grants will be repaid within five years out of my taxes, and I have to repay all of my loans with interest, so the government isn’t out anything at all.
If anyone insists that an education grant is “government assistance” or a “handout”, that’s their own ignorance showing.
Robin
That’d be “Cause he was a jerk who used his version of Republicanism to belittle anyone not on his financial level.” In his world, all it takes is lots of hard work and one is guaranteed success. Failure or difficulty means laziness or weakness of some kind. This was someone who’d gone from poverty to upper middle-class and believed you don’t buy anything w/o having the $$ for it first, even college.
Maybe the beer helps with let down and helps Mama relax a bit. It certainly doesn’t hurt the baby at all, and I can’t believe that one beer upon occasion would adversely effect lactation.
What is this thread about? Are poor people not supposed to consume beer? Who decided that? Are they not entitled to a cold frosty one on a hot summer day because they get government assistance?
What kind of an attitude is that? I am just full of questions!
As for the custom manicure and the sheet cake–you don’t know what this woman’s priorities are. Maybe that cake is all the Bday that kid is having. Maybe they rented out Disneyworld–my point is that you don’t have enough info to make a final judgement. Maybe the manicure is the one luxury the woman allows herself ( I think custom nails are tacky as hell, but that opinion is not shared by all). Who the hell knows or cares? What does FUBU mean?
I don’t understand why people get so mad about welfare and the “wasting” of “our tax dollars”–like it would better to have these people begging on the streets?
In an ideal world, people would consistently make nutritious choices etc–but I don’t see how anyone can judge another’s diet choices in situations like this. Maybe they have a veggie garden out back and so don’t need to buy any produce…who knows?
Don’t you have more important things to do than report people for “fraud”(that most likely isn’t fraud at all?).
So on the one hand you have a guy using his cash assistance (and does anyone know the total off the top of his/her head? Something like $220 a month to buy soap, toothpaste, laundry detergent, dish soap, all clothing, transportation (be it gas for the beater, bus passes, or subway tokens), bedding, kitchen utensils, etc.) to buy beer.
On the other hand, there are two guys in Washington, DC, whose sole job is raising a flag, holding it for five seconds, and lowering it so you can give it to your best friend on his 4th of July birthday. The office of the president sends out hundreds of birthday and anniversary cards. There are hair dressers whose sole purpose is to cut and style the hair of congressmen. There’s a guy who wanders around the Capitol and fills up snuff boxes. And the largest government contractor has managed to lose something like a billion dollars in Iraq.
And you’re mad because someone bought a six pack?
I suppose I would have surprised you then. I looove fresh fruits and veggies. One thing I did splurge on, once, was a DiGiorno stuffed crust pizza. I was craving it, and it had meat and veggies and filled me up just as well as my standard chicken dinner…and cost about the same.
Most of the time we eat simple: meat, a couple veggies and a starch. If I crave a candy bar or something like that we run next door to the gas station. I don’t even know if they take the EBT card; we usually get change from the cusscan.
Maybe I’m not your *usual ** FS recipient though. I could still qualify for them now, but I declined recertification. Six months was all I’d allow myself. I only took them as part of Families First so I could get on insurance while pregnant. Heck, I’ve never been much above poverty level; I imagine I could have gotten them at any time in the past sixteen years.
*usual meaning the welfare queen generalization I always see.
So on the one hand you have a guy using his cash assistance (and does anyone know the total off the top of his/her head?
I received 277 in FS, 142 in cash for 2 people.
You know, I just realized that I don’t know many of the rules regarding EBT benefits. Do you have to be employed? Do you have to be unemployed? Is there a maximum length that you can receive benefits? How is amount per month determined? Does all of this vary from state to state so that my questions are pointless?
And haha yeah, I know I shouldn’t have gotten myself pregnant when I couldn’t afford to. At 34, you’d think I’d know better!
(I just felt like a comment might have been made somewhere later. I’ll admit my irresponsibility before anyone jumps on it!)
I wasn’t required to be employed because I was pregnant. I think you get a year after where you’re not required to work or attend classes, but you still have to sign a Personal Responsibility Plan. Mine included filing for child support and showing how I paid my bills, and showing that my baby got her shots and well-baby check-ups.
With Families First, if you’re not pregnant you either have to work or attend classes (I hear they offer college classes but I love my job when I can perform it…reallly looking forward to going back to work soon).
I think the maximum is sixty months, but I’ve also heard there are exceptions; I guess for folks with disabilities.
I think the amount per month goes by the maximum amount you can get paid at a job in some sort of formula with how many people are on it in the household.
I am pretty sure it varies state to state, but I’m really no expert on that part.
I have no problem with the poor consuming beer; I just don’t think the govt. should pay for it.
It’s quite obvious what the lady’s priorities are. She appears to have a “beer budget”, but she wants the govt. to give her enough means for her “champagne tastes.” In other words, she either takes the money that she would have spent on food and spends it on luxuries- custom manicure, designer clothes (that’s what FUBU gear is), designer purse, etc; or takes the money and spends it on expensive food- -full sheet cake with picture (which isn’t cheap), lobster, steak, crab legs (which I did mention was part of the Bday celebration), and so on.
Helping the destitute is the way it should be, and if it was that way I would be happy. Don’t get me wrong, welfare reform under Clinton’s admin went a long way to fix an overly abused system, but there is still work to do. Unfortunately in the current system assistance money is going to fund someone’s luxurious lifestyle and someone else who needs it is being denied. IMHO, this is a wasting of my tax dollars.
Well, they do give you cash, as food stamps don’t cover things like toilet paper, tooth paste, shampoo, etc. Some people just get food stamps and some people get both. At least I did, back in the 70s when I did a brief stint on the dole.
You could buy a truckload of Cheetos with the food money if you so desired. At least in Colorado you could. As long as it was food, it was legit.
Oddly enough, here, you can’t buy energy drinks with EBT food stamps. The computer doesn’t consider it a food item, and we can’t override it to be “foodstampable”.
Anyone know why?