Food Stamp question

[DisneyLover98]

I get food stamps. And Im about to go to Disney world, and stay on Disney property. I know that this would make a lot of people mad, but I don't care. I work 2 jobs, and I also get eic. And yes I used part of my eic for this trip, it's my money and I can do what I want to with it. The rest of the trip, I earn in different ways. I would like to say thank you to all of you stuck up snobs, who throw everything away, because i'm the one who digs through your trash. My last garage sale I made $1,500.00 on your "trash". I also made over $500.00 on your scrap gold and silver that you decided you didn't need anymore. Oh, and those gift cards that you tossed, have come in handy. We got all of our new clothes, and will also be using part of it for gas driving to Orlando. And we won't be using our food stamps, because we have a dining plan too.

I have always come to the Disboards to get pointers on having a good time at Disney, but I thought everyone should know how I get there. Why is this thread even here in the first place, I mean what does your co-workers opinions on someone who may or may not get food stamps have anything to do at all with Disney?

P.S.
We love the Disney pins you threw in the trash, but we will be trading most of those on our next trip.



This thread is

 

[DisneyLover98]

This thread reminds me of the day I was in line at the grocery. The woman ahead of me was doing this little dance at the checkout because she didn't have enough money in food stamps to pay for her purchases. She and the cashier went around and around, putting this item back, and then that one. Finally, she got things to balance, and pulled a wad of cash out of her pocket to head to the cigarette and lottery ticket counter. I guess there is nothing worse than having to spend cigarette money on groceries for the family...But she was sticking to her budget.

How do you know she wasn't shopping for someone else? Maybe you shouldn't just assume the worst of people. And even if she didn't want to pay for the rest of the groceries, its none of your business in the first place.

 

[DisneyLover98]

How is the food stamp rates determined? It seems like that for most part the ones that don't work or have never worked get more a month than the people that have lost their jobs and are only using them till they can get a new job and go back to work.

Why I ask is because the checker at the grocery store and I were talking and she mentioned that she has never seen the likes of peoples food stamp totals as she has now. She has worked at our local owned grocery store here in town for years and she said it has gotten out of hand. She said one lady that comes in spend close to $400 yesterday in the store and her food stamp total was still at $2000 for the month. And an other lady that has been laid off from her job came in with the same about of children and they were talking and this lady only is able to get like $400 for the whole month. The cashier said that the only difference from looking from the outside is that the first lady has been on the system for serveral years and has never worked a job and the second lady is asking for a job everytime she comes in the store.

Just curious how the system works.

And here was the cashiers statement "I don't see how the country is going to survive much more of these hand outs. I work, and I do not spend near the amount of money on groceries a month as the goverment is handing out for free to these folks that havent even took the time to even look for a job"

If the cashier is telling you how much people spend and how much they have on their food stamp cards, then they should be fired. That is very unprofessional and a breach of confidentiality for a food stamp recipient.

 

[DisneyLover98]

Its better to go buy steak and Junk food for your family than to sell the food stamps and to buy drugs with the money.

 

[Hannathy]

If the cashier is telling you how much people spend and how much they have on their food stamp cards, then they should be fired. That is very unprofessional and a breach of confidentiality for a food stamp recipient.

Just like I imagine you report every bit of income you make from your trash picking right?

pot meet kettle.

If you don't want judged on what you do with government provided money, here's an idea, quit taking it and then no one will judge you.

 

[nunzia]

Well, just looking roughly at my numbers:

Before I got my graduate degree, I got about $3000--$5000 per year in Earned Income Tax Credit. The years I did go to school, I got about $160 per month in food stamps for my kids, so that would be $1920. Those years actually cost the tax payer less money than when I was working, since there was no EIC.

So then, look at the following years. My current tax rate is about $4500 per year. So compared to the years where I wasn't paying taxes, there is about a 8-10,000 dollar increase for Uncle Sam. Unless I'm missing something, getting my degree was helpful to my family, AND it ended up in the long run putting less burden on taxpayers. Usually, if you can't look at the big picture, you can't see the benefit of investing like that. In my case, however, it actually cost the taxpayer less for me to be on food stamps and in school than working low paying jobs.

Also, your idea that there is a "dwindling" group of people paying is false. Maybe in this economy the numbers are going down (I really don't know, although I had no trouble finding a job after graduation). In a healthy economy, people finish their training and become one of the payers. I think that when people use it to improve their lot in life, the system should actually pay for itself.

Yes, and if everyone, or even most, just used the system as you did..as a temporary aid, then we'd all be in a much better place. These kinds of discussions always just swing wildly down the slippery slope. NO one has ever said there shouldn't be a safety net, we shouldn't help the truly needy, we shouldn't help in temporary circumstances. But whenever these things come up there is a sudden screaming about 'judging' and 'heartlessness' instead of looking at the true issues and what really must be done..and make no mistake, something must be done. We are not that far from Greece and I for one am really fearful that 'they' will do nothing until we are there.
And really...when you have your hand out for others to give you something, then one of the conditions is restrictions and 'judging'...the goverment 'judges' that you can't buy prepared food with food stamps..maybe it is time to also 'judge' what is really needed and restrict other purchases..not allowing soda and candy for example. Some states are going through stuggles to not allow welfare cash to withdrawn in casinos and strip clubs..is that judging? Again..if you are asking (or demanding) someone else pay your way, then those that are stuck footing the bill should have some say where their money goes. In a less delicate term..."beggars can't be choosers". I don't care what people do with their money unless I'm being forced to give it to them.
Food stamps were never meant to cover all food costs, but to help stretch food dollars..and yes, tons more are on food stamps..ok, so the rule is always 130% of poverty, and yet what is called poverty keeps going up. I think it's around mid 30K a year for a family of 4. In some areas that's fine, in some that is pretty darn poor..but struggling and poverty are two different things.

 

[leahjade]

How do you know she wasn't shopping for someone else?

I just hope some of these naive comments can be forgiven by the youth of the poster. Most of the time some wisdom comes with age and experience. My dad worked in the government sector and used to complain about some misuse of the programs, and I used to tell him that he was harsh and judgmental. But after working for an assistance agency for a year, I changed my tune. My son would roll his eyes when I complained about the abuse of taxpayer funds but now that's working for a social agency and sees the light.

"If you're not a liberal at 20 you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at 40 you have no brain."
Said Winston Churchill

 

[Colleen27]

A couple of things I'm reading this morning brought this thread to mind.

First, calories in/calories out and how modern food production is changing the equation as our grandparents knew it -

Virtually all commercially-available chickens now have what many call the "obese gene," which makes birds gain weight quickly to speed up production from birth to slaughter. That, combined with no exercise and a constant supply of high-energy (caloric) food, makes today's chicken the opposite of lean: The amount of fat in modern chicken may be five or even 10 times what it used to be, according to a UK-based study published in the journal Public Health Nutrition. So if you serve a whole chicken to your family like grandma did, you may be serving them 10 times as much fat than the days of yesteryear.

(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/fat-chickens_b_1497856.html)

And second, the link between poverty and obesity explained by someone who was there -

The days were long, and meals were the only thing we had to punctuate the time. I'd try to make a little event out of each one, and I still have photos of my boys dressed in identical pajamas, sitting on the covered radiator in our breakfast nook. By afternoon, with eons still to go before their father came home (if he came home), I'd often kill two hours by having the boys help me make and decorate a yellow cake from a boxed mix. Afterward, we'd sit down in front of a video -- usually The Little Mermaid -- and each have a piece.

Stress-wise, too, this period was different. There weren't the exciting jolts of crisis. Instead, I felt a constant, heavy dread. And it made my body act in ways it never had before. My cycles were off and I got sick more often. The weight just piled on.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ann-bauer/poverty-weight_b_1500009.html

There is science that supports her observations, by the way. There's evidence that chronic stress causes our bodies to release hormonal signals triggering fat gain and metabolic efficiency, which makes sense from a biological point of view considering that starvation was a far more likely outcome than obesity throughout most of human history. And there's plenty of support for the idea that Americans are more stressed than both their foreign (developed world) peers and than previous generations in this country.

 

[leahjade]

I get food stamps. And Im about to go to Disney world, and stay on Disney property. I know that this would make a lot of people mad, but I don't care. I work 2 jobs, and I also get eic. And yes I used part of my eic for this trip, it's my money and I can do what I want to with it. The rest of the trip, I earn in different ways. I would like to say thank you to all of you stuck up snobs

Wow, you have a lot of anger towards those people who are paying for you to go to Disney World! Maybe you shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you!

 

[Colleen27]

Yes, and if everyone, or even most, just used the system as you did..as a temporary aid, then we'd all be in a much better place. These kinds of discussions always just swing wildly down the slippery slope. NO one has ever said there shouldn't be a safety net, we shouldn't help the truly needy, we shouldn't help in temporary circumstances. But whenever these things come up there is a sudden screaming about 'judging' and 'heartlessness' instead of looking at the true issues and what really must be done..and make no mistake, something must be done. We are not that far from Greece and I for one am really fearful that 'they' will do nothing until we are there.
And really...when you have your hand out for others to give you something, then one of the conditions is restrictions and 'judging'...the goverment 'judges' that you can't buy prepared food with food stamps..maybe it is time to also 'judge' what is really needed and restrict other purchases..not allowing soda and candy for example. Some states are going through stuggles to not allow welfare cash to withdrawn in casinos and strip clubs..is that judging? Again..if you are asking (or demanding) someone else pay your way, then those that are stuck footing the bill should have some say where their money goes. In a less delicate term..."beggars can't be choosers". I don't care what people do with their money unless I'm being forced to give it to them.
Food stamps were never meant to cover all food costs, but to help stretch food dollars..and yes, tons more are on food stamps..ok, so the rule is always 130% of poverty, and yet what is called poverty keeps going up. I think it's around mid 30K a year for a family of 4. In some areas that's fine, in some that is pretty darn poor..but struggling and poverty are two different things.

The move to restrict which ATMs people receiving assistance can use is actually a great example of the ridiculousness of letting public opinion dictate policy. So you can't withdraw cash in the casino or strip club... You just go to the party store across the street and nothing has changed. But for that end result we have people wanting to devote legislative time and add an extra layer of complexity to the benefit distribution system. My grandmother would have called that throwing good money after bad.

The poverty level was created relative to the cost of food back in the 60s, when it was normal to spend 30% of one's income on food, and has only been raised (and lowered - from 2008 to 2009, for example, the poverty threshold went down slightly) by the official inflation rate since then. So yes, it goes up most years but only because the cost of living goes up as well. Currently the poverty level is $23,050 for a family of 4.

 

[leahjade]

According to a 2008 study, reported by PBS, households that earn less than $13,000 a year spend a staggering 9% of their income on lottery tickets

Sorry, they are obviously not buying them for their rich uncle!

 

[wvjules]

I never really comment on these topics but this irks me. First, it is none of the cashier's business, even if she pays taxes. Two, for people who think that some of us, do note i said us, do not comparison with foodstamps you are so wrong. I comparison shop and coupon. Three, i've worked since i was 13, and right now my ends aren't meeting and foodstamps are a great help. Four, I use my foodstamps to help my mom with groceries because she takes care my niece and nephew and don't get any help. Five, we don't know if tne person got emergency foodstamps or what. Please stop assuming and being judgemental it makes everyone look bad.

So you are on food stamps but yet in a month you are going to WDW (as per your signature)? Do you see anything wrong with that pciture?

 

[wagnergirls]

So you are on food stamps but yet in a month you are going to WDW (as per your signature)? Do you see anything wrong with that pciture?

so are you saying that kids whose parents work at low paying jobs and receive food stamps to survive, should not be able to experience disney??????

 

[marmalade]

so are you saying that kids whose parents work at low paying jobs and receive food stamps to survive, should not be able to experience disney??????

 

[Marionnette]

so are you saying that kids whose parents work at low paying jobs and receive food stamps to survive, should not be able to experience disney??????

Well, if wvjules isn't saying that, I will.

If you cannot afford to feed your family, you have no business taking luxury vacations. And Disney is a luxury. It is not a birthright afforded to every person who draws breath in the United States. If you can afford to put money aside to pay for Disney World trips, then you have no need to draw on public assistance.

 

[momto2inKC]

so are you saying that kids whose parents work at low paying jobs and receive food stamps to survive, should not be able to experience disney??????

 

[wvjules]

so are you saying that kids whose parents work at low paying jobs and receive food stamps to survive, should not be able to experience disney??????

Yes, that's what I'm saying. If a person needs food stamps to survive, how in the world can they afford a vacation to Disney?

 

[Hannathy]

so are you saying that kids whose parents work at low paying jobs and receive food stamps to survive, should not be able to experience disney??????

Yep

If you can't feed your family you don't take money and use it on something frivolous. Necessities before wants.

 

[tasha99]

Yes, that's what I'm saying. If a person needs food stamps to survive, how in the world can they afford a vacation to Disney?

Maybe grandma is taking them.

 

[luvsJack]

Would you hire a person that weights 400 pounds?

If they had the skills and the ability to do the job.