Expert on what shouldn't be in poor people's grocery carts.
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I know some people take advantage of aid programs, but I really do choose to believe that the majority of people on assistance would rather not be on it, and instead would like a well-paying job and affordable daycare for their kids. I had a lady in line behind me at the grocery store today who was obviously trying to stretch her dollars. She was buying the damaged vegetables that are 75% off, and the expiring chicken legs that are half price and the stale bread and the fake cheese slices. She also had 2 packages of Easter treats that were on clearance and a little pink unicorn toy thingie that was half off. This was a woman who was obviously trying to feed at least once child, maybe 2, the best way she could. Instead of looking at her basket and thinking "she really shouldn't be buying toys and candy and what's up with that fake cheese crap" I asked the cashier to ring her stuff in with mine, wished her a pleasant day and went on my merry way. Is it possible she took this sudden $30 windfall and bought a bottle of wine or a pedicure? I certainly hope so because I think she could use a break. Why do some people choose to think the worst of everyone in the system because of a few bad apples?
Edited to add: End of rant.0 -
I know some people take advantage of aid programs, but I really do choose to believe that the majority of people on assistance would rather not be on it, and instead would like a well-paying job and affordable daycare for their kids. I had a lady in line behind me at the grocery store today who was obviously trying to stretch her dollars. She was buying the damaged vegetables that are 75% off, and the expiring chicken legs that are half price and the stale bread and the fake cheese slices. She also had 2 packages of Easter treats that were on clearance and a little pink unicorn toy thingie that was half off. This was a woman who was obviously trying to feed at least once child, maybe 2, the best way she could. Instead of looking at her basket and thinking "she really shouldn't be buying toys and candy and what's up with that fake cheese crap" I asked the cashier to ring her stuff in with mine, wished her a pleasant day and went on my merry way. Is it possible she took this sudden $30 windfall and bought a bottle of wine or a pedicure? I certainly hope so because I think she could use a break. Why do so many people choose to think the worst of everyone in the system because of a few bad apples?
End of rant.
I agree.0 -
I used to know someone that literally milked the system for all it was worth. HE made excellent money working as contract labor (and, yes, I can say for a fact, without a doubt, that he had plenty of work), but his girlfriend was on welfare/food stamps and lived in low income housing. Rather than finding an apartment together (with his credit? Yea, totally doable), he chose to live with her in the low income housing, and eating off her food stamps. Someone that really, honestly, actually needed the housing was probably denied so that scumbag could mooch.I could probably give Ms. Carol a run for her money. I used to work for the state as a case worker and nothing irritated me more than when one of my clients a came in for an interview, carrying her coach hand bag, texting on her iPhone, while her kidos played on iPads. Then she would tell me that her engagement ring was just for looks and the kids dad didn't live with her. He just stopped my sometimes.. but he didn't eat there. Lol the good ol' days. Totally ruined being a bleeding heart for me.
Best part? He bought his girlfriend AND his DAUGHTER (from another relationship obviously) breast implants for Christmas one year... and he only got them for his daughter so she could be an exotic dancer and be confident about taking her clothes off in front of a room full of paying customers.
...anyone else seeing the problem there?
I think the worst of it was when he and the girlfriend broke up. He sued BOTH the girlfriend AND his daughter for the cost of the implants and freakin WON.
THIS guy was living in low income housing, eating off another woman's food stamps. Drove a brand new dodge 4x4 dually, had a top of the line cell phone, expensive clothes he had dry cleaned. Don't know HOW he got away with it but he did.
People like him...yea.0 -
The Onion is here, among us.0
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...anyone else seeing the problem there?
Yes. Singular negative anecdotes to discuss entrenched systemic issues beyond the scope of this website.0 -
...anyone else seeing the problem there?
Yes. Singular negative anecdotes to discuss entrenched systemic issues beyond the scope of this website.
Ya. What she said.0 -
I feel what people choose to buy are none of my business. We have a l few families in our area who really could use help but refuse to get help. My heart breaks when I see them in the store because I know how hard it is for the children. At Christmas we adopt a family instead of buying for each other. Nothing is more gratifying. We don't know how some people get into a situation but I believe it's not there fault. My mom used to say "cut the grass in your own back yard" meaning not to me to get in someone else's business.0
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The only thing that bothers me is when somebody in the grocery line buys a few junk, name brand items and then uses the change from the food stamps to buy two cartons of cigarettes.
I've actually seen this, more than once.
Unless you're living in the 20th century somehow, that's really not possible any longer.
I agree...huh? Food stamps are now done via debit card-like systems pretty much everywhere. You don't get change.
You can if your card has both food/cash.0 -
The only thing that bothers me is when somebody in the grocery line buys a few junk, name brand items and then uses the change from the food stamps to buy two cartons of cigarettes.
I've actually seen this, more than once.
Unless you're living in the 20th century somehow, that's really not possible any longer.
I agree...huh? Food stamps are now done via debit card-like systems pretty much everywhere. You don't get change.
You can if your card has both food/cash.
No, you can't, because there is no "change." You'd have to get the cash when making a purchase. Then yes, cash is cash and it can be used to buy other stuff--but there's no "change" from anything to speak of.0 -
You can if your card has both food/cash.
And this is where people minding what others are doing with their money get it wrong.
The cash that comes from those cards is NOT from the recipient's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps). That would be their TANF or TDAP cash assistance, formerly known as welfare, or possibly unemployment, SSI, or SSDI benefits.
It's money--their money--to be spent as they see fit.
People with cash benefits can pull their cash assistance from grocery store debit, ATM machines, etc. in addition to swiping their cards like anyone else does to spend cash from an account.
What they do with that cash is for them to decide.0 -
HA. I LOVE the onion, but it's sad that some people actually think like this.
I have been on food stamps in the past. And I have an iPhone, so I'm *sure* people were judging me.
I was working, had to have an iPhone for said job, and then was laid off from that job. I wasn't getting any bites for employment, so I applied for food stamps until I got an income. I was only on them for 3 months, but they helped me *so* much.
It's there for people who need it in times of need (as I was) and people shouldn't be ashamed.
BTW - Here in CA you get SNAP benefits which is FOR FOOD ONLY. You can't even get away with buying pre-made food (like mashed potatoes or chicken salad) at the deli section of the grocery store. ONLY groceries.0 -
I think it's a case of people being more aware of the bad apples than the ones who are truly and honestly deserving of the help. I personally work in social housing, and I know that many of my tenants actually need the help. For those people I agree, people need to back the **** off of judging them - they're doing the best they can, and most are not in bad situations due to their own fault.
However, I also know a lot of people who DON'T deserve the help. I have some extended cousins who are on welfare, and they're the 3rd or 4th generation to be on it. And it's not because of some family genetic disease, or inability to work, etc. It's because they've decided it's simply easier to live on welfare and never have to work for a living - they get paid more on welfare than they would working minimum wage jobs, and they can take jobs on the side and get paid under the table when they feel like it. Meanwhile they have plasma televisions, nice cars, take vacations, etc. Now normally I don't care how people live or manage their money, etc. BUT I do think there's a certain amount of leeway for people to comment on this kind of abuse because they money they're taking is taxpayers' money - it's OUR money. It could be going to other deserving people, or into other deserving programs. They're living in rent-geared-to-income apartments (often with rents as low as $85 a month for a beautiful 3 bedroom townhouse) for which there is a 3-5 year waiting list of people who desperately need those places to live. And instead these people are living there their entire lives, never working a single day and living it up on taxpayers' dollar. That's not right, and that's an injustice I think it's everyone's duty to comment on.
That said, I do think people need to be careful and aware of the differences between the deserving and the abusers. It's sometimes hard to tell the difference based on nothing more than a single encounter out in public - as other posters have said, maybe the reason they have a nice phone or their kid has an iPad is that it was a gift, etc. The only reason I feel comfortable to criticize the lifers I mentioned above is because I know them personally and have myself heard them talk about how they abuse the system - I know 100% that they're not deserving. Unless you feel you have that kind of knowledge, no one should be able to judge someone on welfare - you don't know the whole story enough to make a judgment.0 -
Sadly, there are people like this. I am on food stamps. During one online conversation I was talking about making pepper steak. I was told that if I were on food stamps, I didn't deserve to have steak. Never mind that it was the kind of steak that you get in the 5 meats for $20 bundle . . . I was poor and should be relying on eggs and 70/30 hamburger, with the occasional can of tuna and commodity cheese for my protein. I think he would have had a stroke if I told him I bought the $5.99 bag of frozen shrimp, too--but the way I measure it out, those shrimp last for six meals. It's sad--people complain if poor people buy packaged food, they complain if we buy fresh veggies, they complain if we buy meat, they complain if we buy a gallon of milk . . . and Heaven forbid if you buy cans of soda or potato chips because you're going to be driving longish distances and it makes more sense to do that than to buy them at the gas station when the munchies hit.
I had a friend who was on food stamps. She was disabled and could not work or do much of anything. Her aunt bought her a really nice cell phone and paid the bill for almost four years (until my friend died) because she never wanted my friend to be out of contact (due to her health issues) and she wanted her niece to have something to do other than sit and watch television. You'd be amazed at the nasty looks and comments she got on the rare occasions she went out.
People just need to mind their own business.
I hate when people say things like "How are you poor? You wear nice clothes!"
Psst, it's called "Goodwill."0 -
Screw what's in people's carts, I'd rather they stopped being lazy and put the damn things away in the cart returns. Stop inconveniencing other people because you can't spare the 15 seconds and 1 calorie it would take to walk 30 feet to put it away.
/end rant0 -
The only thing that bothers me is when somebody in the grocery line buys a few junk, name brand items and then uses the change from the food stamps to buy two cartons of cigarettes.
I've actually seen this, more than once.
The $50 mani-pedi with arcrylic nails and designs are also a bit over the top.
I used to work at a free clinic where folks were really poor but didn't have government assistance. I had to admire the tenacity of these people, many were older illegals that came to live with there kids. Also a lot of them came from Africa and had spent time starving and being assaulted in refugee camps.
I had some people who had lost their entire families in Africa. Very sad.
I always tried to help them with healthy food shopping because so many had diabetes. They all saw our diabetes nutritionist,too.
I didn't need to do all that and it certainly ate up a lot of my day, besides doing all the social work needed to get them necessary medical resources.
I've spent a lot of my life being quite broke and I'm pretty creative with the food and clothing for this reason. We still eat a lot of beans and garden greens because my husband has been a full-time student for 8 years and I've been out of work for a disability.
We are basically living on my VA disability check and some extra money that my husband gets for a forum that he owns.
I work in International Humanitarian Aid and develop nutritional Aid Programs for WHO affiliated organizations in many countries. I am not American and do not live there, but I do know that no one in the US gets change in cash for their food stamps, because people use a kind of debit card that is issued for exactly that purpose. These changes from vouchers that might require change in cash were changed to non-cash transactions ( in quite a few countries ) to exactly avoid that kind of fraud. I am not accusing you of making this up, but wonder how long ago ( a couple of decades maybe ? ) you had that experience ?0 -
...anyone else seeing the problem there?
Yes. Singular negative anecdotes to discuss entrenched systemic issues beyond the scope of this website.
I apologize for not comparing it to the positives of the welfare/food stamp program- of which there are several. No one's forcing you to read what I write, so.
And if I managed to misinterpret the tone of this response then I blame the two monitors and thousands of pages of technical coding between us. I also work outside in the sun, and northeast Phoenix isn't exactly overcast and cool right now.
I wasn't discrediting the system, as you could probably see when I stated that he was a mooch and most likely screwed someone that actually could have used the program to better themselves, whereas he was a mooch.
Do you feel particularly smart when you sass people over the internet?0 -
I find it difficult to believe that we can individualize poverty and determine from singular examples who, or which circumstances, are "deserving."
I certainly can't single out categories of individuals in our society who are deserving of extreme hunger, homelessness, untreated mental and physical illness, family estrangement, or the like.
And just ask yourself what it means about our culture IF--and I say IF with extreme skepticism, cash benefits add up to the earnings from a full-time minimum wage job. Minimum wage earnings to support a family is a joke. Most full-time minimum wage workers ALSO qualify for public assistance. But back to freewheeling cash-aid lifestyles: You have to have an extremely large household to get over $1000/month in public cash assistance. Here's an example of the phat income gained by households that qualify for public cash assistance: http://www.massresources.org/tafdc-benefits.html.
7-8 people living on $1037-1097 a month. To include transportation, clothing, utilities, basic hygiene, etc. Food, let's suspend belief and assume that SNAP benefits actually suffice to feed an entire family for an entire month.
That's hardly a rich life. And let's not forget that no matter how much people may want to frolic in the sweet comforts of subsistence aid...there is a lifetime cap of 60 months on cash assistance. Period.
That people have become mired in entrenched poverty and all of the social systems that rely on economic stratification is not evidence of a character flaw. It's evidence of a sick society.0 -
Do you feel particularly smart when you sass people over the internet?
Probably says little about me that you feel "sassed." Not that I know what that means, but I honor your experience.
Having said that. I acknowledge that you made some concessions about the uniqueness of that case. But that's the thing--everyone's unique until generalizations are made.
Hence The Onion piece, and all of the comments that followed.0 -
And this is where people minding what others are doing with their money get it wrong.
The cash that comes from those cards is NOT from the recipient's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps). That would be their TANF or TDAP cash assistance, formerly known as welfare, or possibly unemployment, SSI, or SSDI benefits.
It's money--their money--to be spent as they see fit.
People with cash benefits can pull their cash assistance from grocery store debit, ATM machines, etc. in addition to swiping their cards like anyone else does to spend cash from an account.
What they do with that cash is for them to decide.
That.0 -
Do you feel particularly smart when you sass people over the internet?
Probably says little about me that you feel "sassed." Not that I know what that means, but I honor your experience.
Having said that. I acknowledge that you made some concessions about the uniqueness of that case. But that's the thing--everyone's unique until generalizations are made.
Hence The Onion piece, and all of the comments that followed.
Oh he was unique, alright. Still is.0
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