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+--- Thread: Americans' Food Stamp Use Nears All-Time High (/showthread.php?tid=67113)
Re: Americans' Food Stamp Use Nears All-Time High - Black Landlord - 11-28-2008
kj wrote:Be nice. Devobill's a "he", not an "it."
I'm not sure alphadog's summary of history is really correct? Next chance I get, I'm going to do some reading on the effectiveness of "food stamps" as a program. As it stands, I'm not terribly impressed, but we'll see.
In my experience, I have seen a lot of people who continue to work, through circumstances I'm pretty sure I could not endure. On the other hand, I see a lot of people receive help who don't work, and would be a lot better off working. Some people like Devobill see a danger in people becoming too dependent on the gov't, and I can see where he's coming from. Food stamps are not the only means to accomplish the end (people not starving).
BL, I'm surprised you would use that kind of a tactic. I don't find it real cute. kj.
Re: Americans' Food Stamp Use Nears All-Time High - Greg the dogsitter - 11-28-2008
I find Black Landlord's tactic pretty much adorable.
Re: Americans' Food Stamp Use Nears All-Time High - Mac1337 - 11-29-2008
I have never figured out how in a country with 99 cents meals at McDonald's you can go hungery. Welfare system's constituency is not just the poor. It is the bureaucracy itself. The same way that a corporation needs to grow, welfare bureaucracy needs to grow, or at least not shrink. Visit your county public assistance office and look at their promotional brochures and posters. None of it is about getting off welfare.
Re: Americans' Food Stamp Use Nears All-Time High - Wags - 11-29-2008
I've seen the food stamp program abused, and it really riles me to see a well dressed person checking out at a high-end market like Whole Foods with a cart full of trendy expensive food products and paying with food stamps. The main reason is that the social workers who manage the cases are completely overburdened. Its easy to blame the government, and social workers make easy targets but the truth is the case managers are underfunded and carrying such huge case loads that any real oversight is nearly impossible.
My ex was a case manager for senior and disabled services and according to policy her case load was supposed to be 60 to 70 clients. She typically had well over 100, sometimes over 120 active cases to work with. She was supposed to do site visits at least once a month, and that was only a small part of the job. Do the math. And, heaven help the social worker who lets someone slip through the cracks. I recall my ex bringing files home nearly every evening to try and keep up on the documentation. The same is true for the food stamp program. Its not that the people who try to manage the program are incompetent. They are woefully underfunded.
Re: Americans' Food Stamp Use Nears All-Time High - DevoBill - 11-29-2008
Black Landlord wrote:
Devobill-- the graph makes it look like the need for food stamps rose steadily through the W years. I guess I don't know what you're trying to say either, although I have noticed that besides the birth certificate thing the new tack of the dying right is to accuse the democrats of making things seem worse than they are to justify . . . I don't know what. Increased investment in social services?
Anyways, more importantly, is that you in the pic? Any interest in a trip to Chicago? I'd love to chat about this with you in front of a warm fireplace over hot cocoa.
I just went through Chicago tonight, I am chatting to you from Janesville, WI. Yes it's me in the picture.
Re: Americans' Food Stamp Use Nears All-Time High - kj - 11-29-2008
Greg the dogsitter wrote:
I find Black Landlord's tactic pretty much adorable.
You would, Greg. Sorry BL, but it seems like you're assuming he's a homophobe, etc., but no biggie, I guess. kj.
Re: Americans' Food Stamp Use Nears All-Time High - Mac1337 - 11-29-2008
Wags wrote:
I've seen the food stamp program abused, and it really riles me to see a well dressed person checking out at a high-end market like Whole Foods with a cart full of trendy expensive food products and paying with food stamps.
Keep in mind that money not spent on food is available for something else. So you never know if you are really helping someone eat.
Re: Americans' Food Stamp Use Nears All-Time High - BigGuynRusty - 11-29-2008
Dakota wrote:I guess you haven't visited any in California.
Visit your county public assistance office and look at their promotional brochures and posters. None of it is about getting off welfare.
For decades they have been pushing education, instead of welfare.
Offering incentives such as daycare for folks that want to go to school.
Cutting off welfare as soon as the youngest child hits 16.
Problem is that the "System" cannot instill responsibility.
That is up to the parents, and society.
When I was growing up (sometime during the last iceage) the words "Single Mother" was a badge of shame, not an opportunity to make free money.
Also, Men/Boys did not brag about how many babies they had spread about the neighborhood, they took care of their kids by getting married and working their ass off.
It scared the crap outta us, so much so that we avoided random and unprotected sex.
Their is a million ways to have sex without getting pregnant, only one surfire way to get pregnant.
BGnR
Re: Americans' Food Stamp Use Nears All-Time High - Gutenberg - 11-29-2008
Dakota, I absolutely defy you to feed yourself on the monthly food stamp allotment. Clean out your kitchen and start with nothing, and feed yourself for a month on $162. Go right ahead and try it.
You all are talking like poverty is fun and a free ticket. It is most decidedly not. It is humiliating and exhausting. Most people on welfare have a disability. Some have screwed up. Most of us have the luxury of screwing up and not landing on the street, and one of the ways we can thank our merciful God for that is to treat these people better.
I have never been on the soup kitchen line but I have worked the other side a couple of times, and a few years ago I did stories on people trying to subsist on what our society begrudgingly allows them. It opened my eyes. Don't judge these people till you have met them.
Re: Americans' Food Stamp Use Nears All-Time High - DevoBill - 11-29-2008
Gutenberg wrote:
Dakota, I absolutely defy you to feed yourself on the monthly food stamp allotment. Clean out your kitchen and start with nothing, and feed yourself for a month on $162. Go right ahead and try it.
You all are talking like poverty is fun and a free ticket. It is most decidedly not. It is humiliating and exhausting. Most people on welfare have a disability. Some have screwed up. Most of us have the luxury of screwing up and not landing on the street, and one of the ways we can thank our merciful God for that is to treat these people better.
I have never been on the soup kitchen line but I have worked the other side a couple of times, and a few years ago I did stories on people trying to subsist on what our society begrudgingly allows them. It opened my eyes. Don't judge these people till you have met them.
Nice, but your missing the point. When you were checking the facts on your stories. Did you happen to see what was the per cent of people using the benefit? Does the community food shelf do a better job providing this service?