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Slate Interview: Its hard living on food stamps

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by poindexter, Nov 14, 2013.

  1. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    ...but it sure as hell easier than actually working.

    Slate: Have you considered re-entering the workforce?

    Debra: Yes, I’ve thought about it, and my daughter is also considering it. But my food stamps, rent, VA compensation, and social security would be affected. I’d have to make a lot of money to overcome all the reductions, something like $15 to $20 an hour.



    http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/11/snap_reductions_food_stamp_cuts_impact_47_million_americans_here_s_one_of.html
     
  2. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Goddamn moochers.

    Of course, pretty much all the social safety net programs are designed to reduce benefits by specific percentages of part-time or low-wage employment, because the "I DON'T WANNA GIVE AWAY NONE OF MY TAX MONEY" people DO NOT WANT recipients of benefits (disability, unemployment, food stamps, etc) to patch together a 'full-time income' with their government checks and the proceeds from low-paying shit jobs. They want them to get off their asses and go out and get real jobs.
     
  3. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Isn't that supposed to be the fucking point?
     
  4. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    yeah, so I kinda don't get what the big news flash is.
     
  5. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    A safety net should be just that --- a net when you are falling so you do not die immediately.

    It should not be a lifestyle nor a life support system. You should be so miserable living in that net that you spend every available hour trying to get out and willing to take any job to get out.
     
  6. StaggerLee

    StaggerLee Well-Known Member

    We went through a rough stretch when I was a kid where my family had to rely on government assistance in the form of commodities (govt. cheese, peanut butter, powdered milk) and food stamps. I've never felt more shame in my life than when I was sent to the store to buy some bread or bologna and had to produce that food stamp to pay for the groceries.

    Luckily, we were able to get back on our feet and haven't had to rely on any govt. assistance since then. I went out and got a job that summer to help make ends meet and I've held a job ever since. That brief period of being on food stamps was enough motivation to last a lifetime. I'll bust my ass to keep my kids from having to experience that.

    That being said, I'll offer the polar opposite of that mindset. My wife is a teacher at a school in a poor neighborhood. 100 percent of the kids at the school are on free lunch. The only kids that aren't on government assistance in the school are the teachers' kids (the ones that actually bring their kids there instead of sending them elsewhere). The sad thing is not that their families are on government assistance, it's that these kids have no aspirations and don't know a life without government assistance. As long as they've lived (they're all 11, 12), they've had government assistance. Hell, for that matter, as long as their parents have lived, they've been on government assistance. What's more is that it doesn't seem to bother the kids. They've come to expect it, and I suspect their kids, when they start having them, will also come to expect it.
     
  7. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    It's become a lifestyle to them --- and that's the problem. Nobody should be able to go from cradle to grave on government assistance. The assistance needs to be lowered over time for anybody of able body and able mind.
     
  8. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    If I could make more money on welfare and food stamps then working, guess what I'd be doing? That's fucking capitalism, baby.
     
  9. britwrit

    britwrit Well-Known Member

    The interviewee says she's a veteran, and disabled enough to get a compensation check from the VA every month. A little more background in the article would have gone a long way towards supporting (or trashing) the author's point.
     
  10. Jack Burton

    Jack Burton New Member

    (Posting under a new name for extra anonymity ...)

    Just depends on individual circumstances. One person interviewed in one story does not mean it's how everyone does it.

    After all my hospitalizations and termination, I absolutely took every advantage of unemployment. Why not? I had held a steady job in one form or another since I was 15. I paid into the system. While I was on unemployment, I kept looking for work, both in my town and across the country. I applied, I interviewed, but I never got an offer. I went to workshops and job fairs. I applied to financial assistance for re-training but was denied because I already have a bachelor's degree and $20,000 in unpaid student loans. I applied for vocational rehabilitation training/job placement because I figured a spinal injury would qualify. Application denied. I charge my co-pays for my chiropractor and other doctors to a medical credit card I know I'll never pay off. My wife makes too much money for SNAP. I freelanced when I could, but I never made more than $200 bucks for the year. So, I took the full 99 weeks. It ended six months ago. I still applied, interviewed when I had the chance, but still couldn't land anything.

    I finally started a seasonal retail job, two weeks ago. I can't stand for more than five hours, and I have to take a break midway through a shift to take medication. I can't life more than 25 pounds. I'll probably be laid off at Christmas. If there's any way to use that period of work to re-qualify for unemployment. It doesn't mean I'll quit looking for work. I have no choice. I don't know how some people perpetually stay on government assistance, because that certainly hasn't been my experience.

    We're not all lazy bastards. Many of us are trying, but we just can't catch a break. It's also hard for me to watch my wife work as hard as she can to support us while I look around and ask, "What the hell is wrong with me? Why can't I find a job?" I've wondered if I can find a way to off myself without disqualifying her for the life insurance she has for me through her workplace. At least she'd be able to use the money to climb out of some of the debt. Just throw my body in a ditch for all I care. I'm tired of being a burden on her because of my spinal injury and incompetence in job hunting.
     
  11. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Nobody? What about physically or mentally handicapped people?
     
  12. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    Before we generalize to much based upon that article it would have been nice to see some numbers. How did the recipient get back to $30,000-$40,000 a year of benefits, which is the sum of the annual benefit she said she receives. Her food shopping habits did not seem to be consistent with someone making $30,000-$40,000 a year. And how many benefits would she receive if she went to work at nine bucks an hour, for example. HOw much would her government subsidies fall?

    AS for the kids on subsidized lunches my Mom long worked at a school where many students received subsidized lunches. At her school most of the parents whose children received these lunches did work. The parents just did not make enough money. In inflation adjusted terms the bottom has fallen out of the lower end of the labor market and wages have not risen as fast as prices.
     
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