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Food Stamps / EBT cards

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  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Are there people who abuse the system. Of course there are. We all here the horror stories. I have several pharmacist friends and family memebers to know that. My favorite people are the ones on welfare who ask if their medicade (or whatever it is) covers fetrility drugs. You can't make stuff like that up. But then you have to step back and think about those stories. How many people on welfare did the pharmacists I know see that day, week, month, who were on those programs and used them legit? The system is abused constantly, but it's abused at the other end of the spectrum with fraud on Wall Street.

    While I do get annoyed when I hear stories of people getting one over on the system, I tend to not get as upset at poor con men and women as I do at people who think that a 36% tax on the wealthy is socialism, so they hide their cash in other nations, or outsource american jobs to other nations because they wanted the super deluxe mansion, not the crappy regular mansion. I think we concentrate too much on the wrong things in this nation. Instead of trying to figure out more and more ways to regulate idiots at the bottom of the social latter who are just scamming us, we should try and figure out how to produce things in this nation again and pay a wage decent enough that government assistance isn't needed. It would be alot easier to monitor abuse of food stams and EBT cards if less people needed to be on them.

    I agree more with you, but I also understand the other reactions as well. Like you, it's not that I approve of fraud, I just rate different kinds of fraud worse than others on my personal scale. Other people have a different "scale".

    Where I do have a problem is when people use anecdotal "evidence" of "welfare fraud" to make sweeping, unfounded generalizations and then use those generalizations to promote/perpetuate harmful and unfair stereotypes.
  • fbmandy55
    fbmandy55 Posts: 5,263 Member
    It's almost impossible to have a massive government program of that nature without some abuse. I would guess that 99% of the people receive food stamps aren't living an extravagant lifestyle with them.

    This seems to be the common perception in this group. On the other had, I have an extreme different opinion.

    I believe assistance is GROSSLY abused and would lean the opposite direction in saying that I think the 2% are the ones who don't abuse it. Then again, my view is that there are too many people capable of working, but honestly qualify because the CHOOSE not to work and let the government support them. Or they may choose to work the minimum requirement to still qualify. Then you have those who sell their leftover balance for drugs, electronics, alcohol, etc...

    I would like to live in a world where you qualify regularly only if physically disabled, if you are capable of working, you must WORK for your food stamps in some way...If you maintain a legal job, you are waived from having to volunteer time for the assistance. I also think their should be a time limit. There is NO REASON any one should ever be on assistance for 4-8 years. I say a 14 month max.

    :Edit to add last paragraph:
    We were never on FS but at 1 time we were on WIC. At that time I also had a lot of designer clothes, drove a 2-3yo car we bought brand new, and regularly wore some very nice jewelry. I was also a stay at home mom to a 2/3yo and a 5/6yo. I got some snide looks occasionally when I'd pay with WIC coupons. Only 1 person ever really commented nastily to me about it though. She made some comment that she hoped I appreciated her hard earned tax dollars paying for my food so that I could afford jewelry and designer clothes. I turned, looked at her, and said "The jewelry I got when I was single with no kids working as assistant manager of a jewelry store and got a 50% off employee discount. The clothes were all purchased at Goodwill or garage sales. The ONLY reason I am using WIC is because my husband took a 75% pay cut when he was activated with the military reserves and sent to Iraq where he's been for the past 6 months and will remain for another 8 months. If you have an issue with military pay being such that a family has to suffer a 75% income loss and qualifies for WIC I suggest you take it up with your Congress person. In the meantime, we've paid MORE than our fair share into the system and I will not be made to feel guilty for using some of that while my husband is in Iraq fighting for your right to be rude and judgemental."

    So, yea, I was an able bodied adult on government assistance and I didn't have a job and wasn't looking for one either. However, IMO our kids were going through enough stress having their dad gone for 14 months without having to throw them into daycare all day on top of it. Their little world was already in enough upheaval. If using WIC for 14 months was enough to help us get through that while maintaining as much stability for them as possible then it was absolutely completely worth it and given the situation again I'd do it again. That doesn't mean I was abusing the system in any way, shape, or form.

    You are better than I am. To me the appropriate response would have been much shorter.

    Right, because your natural reaction to disagreeing with someone is to insult them.
  • macpatti
    macpatti Posts: 4,280 Member
    Right, because your natural reaction to disagreeing with someone is to insult them.
    I may not always agree with Azdak, but I can't recall him insulting others when debating.
  • fbmandy55
    fbmandy55 Posts: 5,263 Member
    Right, because your natural reaction to disagreeing with someone is to insult them.
    I may not always agree with Azdak, but I can't recall him insulting others when debating.
    I'm sorry, I should have said " insults you without actually using an insult."

    For example his response to Bahet here, assuimng that was direct at me. Several times in past discussions, especially in regards to welfare or abortions, if you take a conservative stance on those topics.
  • macpatti
    macpatti Posts: 4,280 Member
    For example his response to Bahet here, assuimng that was direct at me. Several times in past discussions, especially in regards to welfare or abortions, if you take a conservative stance on those topics.
    Ahhh. Gotcha. A passive-agressive "insult". I usually take a conservative stance on most topics!
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Right, because your natural reaction to disagreeing with someone is to insult them.
    I may not always agree with Azdak, but I can't recall him insulting others when debating.
    I'm sorry, I should have said " insults you without actually using an insult."

    For example his response to Bahet here, assuimng that was direct at me. Several times in past discussions, especially in regards to welfare or abortions, if you take a conservative stance on those topics.

    I looked back through all the comments to find your reference. You are choosing THAT as an example of me insulting you? Wow. In this case, it was just a situation where you press the "quote" button and all the comments in the thread are included. Had I not been lazy, I would have edited your comment out, since in this case it wasn't relevant.
  • asnarkysquirrel
    asnarkysquirrel Posts: 1 Member
    fbmandy55 wrote: »
    It's almost impossible to have a massive government program of that nature without some abuse. I would guess that 99% of the people receive food stamps aren't living an extravagant lifestyle with them.

    This seems to be the common perception in this group. On the other had, I have an extreme different opinion.

    I believe assistance is GROSSLY abused and would lean the opposite direction in saying that I think the 2% are the ones who don't abuse it. Then again, my view is that there are too many people capable of working, but honestly qualify because the CHOOSE not to work and let the government support them. Or they may choose to work the minimum requirement to still qualify. Then you have those who sell their leftover balance for drugs, electronics, alcohol, etc...

    I would like to live in a world where you qualify regularly only if physically disabled, if you are capable of working, you must WORK for your food stamps in some way...If you maintain a legal job, you are waived from having to volunteer time for the assistance. I also think their should be a time limit. There is NO REASON any one should ever be on assistance for 4-8 years. I say a 14 month max.

    :Edit to add last paragraph:

    TN has to renew every year
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