Slate Interview: Its hard living on food stamps

[poindexter]

...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

 

[Starman]

******* 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 **** jobs. They want them to get off their asses and go out and get real jobs.

 

[Armchair_QB]

Isn't that supposed to be the ****ing point?

 

[Starman]

Isn't that supposed to be the ****ing point?

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

 

[BTExpress]

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.

 

[StaggerLee]

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.

 

[BTExpress]

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.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

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

 

[britwrit]

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.

 

[Jack Burton]

(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.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

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.

Nobody? What about physically or mentally handicapped people?

 

[LanceyHoward]

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.

 

[da man]

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.

Nobody? What about physically or mentally handicapped people?

 

[da man]

Because 89 percent of its students received free or reduced priced lunches last year, the Dallas school district has thrown in the towel on charging for meals. It is now giving every student free lunch AND free breakfast.

http://educationblog.dallasnews.com/2013/10/all-dallas-isd-students-will-now-get-free-breakfast-and-lunch.html/

 

[Baron Scicluna]

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.

Nobody? What about physically or mentally handicapped people?

Not everyone's handicaps are apparent to everyone else. Some people may appear physically fine, but have debilitating ailments, for example.

 

[Bob Cook]

Billions of dollars is funneled by government in sweet corporate tax incentives and money for enormously profitable companies who don't need them but have the political clout to get them. That bothers me a lot more than someone electing to remain on food stamps because they otherwise can't find a job that pays enough to
allow them to afford food and rent, in part because many of those same companies tell us the economy will collapse if people are actually paid a living wage.

 

[BTExpress]

Not everyone's handicaps are apparent to everyone else. Some people may appear physically fine, but have debilitating ailments, for example.

That wasn't what I said.

I didn't say anyone who APPEARS to be of sound body and mind. I'm not judging people based on some arbitrary appearance. I'm judging someone who ADMITS she will not even bother to look for work . . . because the pay would lower her government assistance. A completely unacceptable excuse 100 percent of the time.

 

[Boom_70]

At the end of the day if you look at all assistance programs it's just not a big piece of of the pie. Cutting out a portion is not
going to do much in the way of deficit reduction. The way I see it is that most of the money spent is helping people
in need so it's not worth worrying about those gaming the system.

It's become a bigger issue now because those who are actually holding down a job have been vilified and have
been asked to pay more. We are now seeing the blowback.

Anecdotal but I have a close friend who is a cop in The Bronx. He claims that a good portion of the precinct where
he patrols is on some kind of public assistance, yet are able to qualify for luxury car leases due to the fact that all of
their day to day living expenses are covered down to the cell phones. As a result he will only eat at deli's that have a
sign in window reading "no EBT cards accepted". His reasoning is that with so many assistance programs available, one hand does not know what the other is doing.

 

[Morris816]

The problem I see with the Slate article is that it doesn't give us enough details on the woman's background. For example, she explains why she gets VA benefits (served as a nurse in the military) but it doesn't appear that the writer asked the woman if she once held a job in nursing... and if she did, what happened that kept her from continuing that job.

Or was it because she was married and her husband worked, but then he was killed in an auto accident and she tried to find a job, but either had no luck, or found out about a condition that classified her as "disabled" and thus prevented her from taking jobs?

And what is her "disability" anyway? I don't ask this to pick on her, but simply so I can understand her situation and what jobs she would be able to take.

That's the real problem with the Slate article. The writer appeared to only ask questions about her current situation but didn't get into the details as to how she ended up in her situation and what routes she may or may not have tried to take before going the government assistance route.

Burton's post earlier in this thread is an example of the information that helps one truly understand how somebody got into that situation.

 

[Boom_70]

The problem I see with the Slate article is that it doesn't give us enough details on the woman's background. For example, she explains why she gets VA benefits (served as a nurse in the military) but it doesn't appear that the writer asked the woman if she once held a job in nursing... and if she did, what happened that kept her from continuing that job.

Or was it because she was married and her husband worked, but then he was killed in an auto accident and she tried to find a job, but either had no luck, or found out about a condition that classified her as "disabled" and thus prevented her from taking jobs?

And what is her "disability" anyway? I don't ask this to pick on her, but simply so I can understand her situation and what jobs she would be able to take.

That's the real problem with the Slate article. The writer appeared to only ask questions about her current situation but didn't get into the details as to how she ended up in her situation and what routes she may or may not have tried to take before going the government assistance route.

Burton's post earlier in this thread is an example of the information that helps one truly understand how somebody got into that situation.

Those questions would not have fit the narrative.