I suppose it depends on one’s definition of abuse. Plus I swear that it is more common in S Cal. The stated reason that EBT was to be accepted at fast food places as so homeless folks could buy food there, but of course there’s no way the workers can prove who is or isn’t homeless.
I’d still begrudge money spent on fast food because it usually isn’t just “a bit” (that shit is expensive), it isn’t good for kids, and one can get quick to make food for far cheaper. It takes less energy to pop something in the microwave than to drive everyone to McDs.
:eek:
You can’t say anything more because you backhanded her into the fireplace, right?
Not sure $100 + in decorations really fits. :dubious:
I dunno, I wouldn’t begrudge the working poor an occasional meal at McDonalds as a treat for the family. If you see them there every day, then yes, they’re bad people. But once or twice a month? Back off.
This is really, really mini, but it pisses me off every year. It’s time to order a new calendar online - we used to get a calendar that had 12 months of cougars (our favourite animal), but they have stopped making it. I can order one of about a thousand different varieties of dog calendars, but not one freaking cougar calendar. Bah.
Why? You disagree that McDs is not good for kids? You disagree that it’s expensive? You disagree that the state thought it would only be paying for homeless folks to eat fast food, due to um the logistics of being homeless?
Or do you think that because it’s kids, they should be allowed to have whatever luxury they want, no matter who pays for it?
The whole thing is very frustrating to someone who has lived on a budget her whole life. I see people using EBT who have better clothes than I do, a smartphone they are texting away on, hair that’s been professionally done, driving a more expensive car than I’ve ever owned. I wish people would quit saying someone deserves something that is going to be paid for by someone else.
Again, why? Do you disagree that it takes about as much energy to pop those frozen burritos in the nuker as it does to drive to McDs?
You’re also assuming that the people you see aren’t wearing fake knockoffs or thrift store deals or things they owned before having a tough time in life. You’re assuming that the woman with awesome hair doesn’t work as a stylist and trades haircuts/styles with her coworkers so she can still look presentable. You’re assuming that she didn’t own the nice car before losing a previous great job and suddenly finding herself in a shitty situation.
But no, I guess if someone hits a rough patch they must immediately sell everything they own, wear rags, look unkempt, and… oh wait, that’s homeless. They’re not homeless yet.
Meat, bread, potatoes and cheese, bad for kids? I’m going to go with FUCK NO. I’m not talking about eating it every day. I’m talking about having it a couple of times a month as a treat, like I did when I was a kid.
Is it expensive? Perhaps, perhaps not. More expensive than beans and rice or El Cheapo frozen burritos? Probably. But who wants to eat that every day of their life? On my worst poor days, I did, but I also allowed myself the chance to eat “normal” every now and then, if only for the sake of my sanity and emotional health.
Should the state be paying for people to buy fast food? Honestly, the state has fuck-all to say about what kind of food people eat.
See, I have these thing called “compassion” and “empathy”. I’m also not covered in jealousy over it. Perhaps you should consider how unhealthy that is.
Thanks for the link - the calendar isn’t bad (as you say, all the same pics from the same time and place), but I don’t know if it’s worth $21.50 and $12 shipping!:eek:
Thank you for posting that. I grew up working poor, with two parents who worked even in the '70s, because they had to, and no public transit, and not always having two cars that worked so my dad would ride his bicycle 7+ miles to a hot and hard factory job, then bicycle home, and sometimes being short on food or having to wait until payday to be able to order heating oil to run the furnace. And months where my mom would be working second shift and coming home late because that’s the only job that was available. We never had public assistance - that I knew of, at least, but I’m not sure my parents knew how to get it even if they qualified.
And I still identify with the last statement in that image, where I think people will judge me for what nice things I do have, or have these terrible moments of panic where I think I will suddenly lose everything.
For the first time in effectively ever, my brother and his family were going to come here for Thanksgiving. But it looks like the weather along their route will be crappy, so they probably aren’t coming.
I was really looking forward to their visit, and used up my goodwill at work to get time off. So I can’t join the trip to visit them for New Year’s.
The aggravating part is that this is the worst Thanksgiving-week weather I recall in years.
I used to work in a convenience store. Yeah, some people occasionally used food stamps.
Other people (and one family in particular) used food stamps daily, and mostly on things like Slush Puppies and candy. The kids were apparently given some food stamps each day to feed themselves. The mother was famous for grabbing up sugar packets (for the coffee we sold) by the double handful. And she usually spent at least 90 minutes a day playing our slot machines. After she’d run out of cash, she’d try to beg money from other customers, telling them about how she had to feed her kids.
I don’t mind benefits programs when people use them properly. I DO mind it when someone is on benefits, and has a higher standard of living than I do.
(((PHS))) It doesn’t matter if you were sober or not, that was a terrible thing to hear from YOUR mother. While it would be wrong to hear that from his family, coming from your family…and here I thought I had a disfunctional childhood.
My birth mother has been contacting me recently. It upsets me so much that my husband has blocked her emails…but I’m so stupid that I dig around in the blocked file to read them anyhow. For some stupid reason, I hope to open one and hear that she loves me and is sorry about what happened. Like that’s going to happen.:smack:
Anyhow, this year, Bill and I are going to cook a turkey and stuff. I never learned how to cook and I’m really bad at it. I can’t even make chicken soup.
Bill is a wonderful and totally awesomely great cook, but he wants to stuff our turkey with sauerkraut. He says it will make the turkey tender and that the sauerkraut will taste like turkey flavored noodles. I am doubtful.
Oh well, its not like we will die if one meal is messed up.
What bugged me when I worked in a 7-11 was when Mom would send in several kids with a $1 food stamp each (back in the stone age of paper rather than debit card) to each buy a nickel piece of candy, then Mom would come in with the change and buy cigarettes.
Ah. OK, it doesn’t take any more energy to put some canned soup in a pan than it does to drive to McDs.
I just don’t get this rush to have someone else pay to give people everything somebody thinks they should have. Aside from creating a severe entitlement attitude, the money is going to run out. Here in CA - soon.
(And no, I don’t wish that had been available when I was living on popcorn and Kraft Mac & Cheese, in an unheated house very near the Canadian border. I cannot imagine taking charity and then using it to buy fast food.)
Seriously, are you serious? How many studies have there been about how bad fast food is for kids? And that’s assuming that they only get a cheeseburger and fries, and not chicken nuggets and a chocolate shake. I suppose that having it a couple times a month wouldn’t be a problem, but that assumes that the rest of the month they are eating well and exercising the rest of the time.
And you paid for it, right? That’s the whole difference there. In my popcorn and mac & cheese days, there were no “normal” meal days because there was simply no money for that, and even if I could have gotten food stamps I wouldn’t have wasted such a resource on McDs.
Well, if that were true there wouldn’t be a list of stuff that people aren’t allowed to buy with food stamps. And since the “state” is paying for it, seems that it should have the right to say “no, you cannot go buy milk shakes and Big Macs with this free money”. If you don’t want the state interfering with how the people eat, then you should also not support the state giving them money.
Jealousy? I am certainly not jealous of anyone gaming the system. And I have plenty of compassion and empathy for those who are actually down on their luck and trying to improve their lot in life. I am just very tired of people who thing everyone “deserves” luxuries.
ETA: And reading further down, I see I’m not the only one that is having trouble swallowing the idea of how food stamps get used.
