Makes me crazy!!

[disneyfantotheend]

Thank you to those who answered my post. Very good points. I didn't realize so many things were on access cards, but I don't judge people with them anyway. Was just interested to hear someone was using one at Mcds but now I know why.

 

[katespade]

I'm curious as to how exactly it is that you know these two men were unemployed? You do know that you can be employed and still receive aid, right? You do know that you can have insurance coverage and still qualify for charity medical assistance, right? You do know that people sometimes lose their jobs/sanity/health and are forced to go on assistance, right? Right now, I have 10 free room vouchers and a considerable amount of "slot dollars" on my account at casinos. If I lost my job/was injured and forced to go on assistance, I could still go live it up in AC for absolutely nothing. But my disability check/unemployment check arriving would mean that I'd be able to scrape the $5 bus fare together to get there.

And what were you doing at McDonald's anyway? I hope you know that your poor eating habits are driving up MY insurance premiums and causing people like me, who actually eat healthy and make the choice to live a healthy lifestyle, to pay for your inability to have a little willpower and eat a salad instead. Oh, you did have a salad? I'm sorry, it wasn't fair of me judge you based on one sentence when I don't know you or your life story.

This is why we mind our own business.

Not even going to touch the inner city part.

 

[DMRick]

For me, it goes back to my dad (who paid into the system for years, and paid his own way until the cancer treatments ate up all his money) who was on food stamps (and he wouldn't go to the store with them, so I had the pleasure to hear all the sly remarks) and the cashier and the person behind me talking (uh, I may be using food stamps but I am not deaf) about my horrible purchases. Ice cream, whipped cream, pudding, jello. How dare someone use food stamps (that's my money some would whisper) for junk. Uh, sorry, since he got meals on wheels (paid for by his food stamps) and still had cancer, that's what his doc said to eat, to get his weight up.

You never know what is on that card..a person with child support certainly has a right to use it in McDonalds or anywhere else they want. There aren't restrictions that I know of with child support.And someone talking about going to a casino means nothing unless you are privy to their lives and know what is going on with them.

Wow. I get my child support on a debit card and *gasp* sometimes I use that card at a store to buy something for ME because I've already paid for something for DD out of my checking account and it's easier than transferring the money around.

Good to know there might be someone in line behind me going on the internet posting about how some lady is using her child support money to buy lunch.

You cannot possibly know someone's entire situation because you saw them in line at McDonalds. I'm as upset as anyone about abuses of the situation but you cannot judge someone by hearing them talk for five minutes. You don't know what's going on in their lives.

 

[ModernArtist]

Soon (if Obama stays in office) there will be the majority of American's getting government checks....and there are not enough people working to pay for all those checks. !

Really? The majority of Americans will be getting government checks?. Majority? HAHAHAHAHA.......

Wait..you actually believe that don't you?

 

[sasywtch]

This isn't going to be popular but yes I do believe we have a right to question government assistance.

It is a governmental agency so if we don't question how it's spent, who will?

I worked for an AFDC (welfare) office in CA for 4 years and those who could work but didn't because they could get free money far out numbered those who were laid off and looking for a job. (ssi is not on this card). According to workers, it had been that way for years and I"m positive it hasn't changed much.

Yes there are those who need it for a short time but they are in the MINORITY. If everyone wants to put their heads in the sand regarding this, then perhaps that's why no change is going to come about.

And CA has now sent most child support cases to the local DA who puts it through the benefit card same as one poster mentioned. I was one for a few years until my ex husband established his child support payments.

There are legitimate people who are getting the benefits however, I am willing to bet that at least 50% could be out working.

 

[pat fan]

Really? The majority of Americans will be getting government checks?.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- One in six Americans is receiving help from the government.
That was in April of 2011. From CNN. Think the number is going down? Hardly. And one in six is an atrocious amount.

 

[superme80]

This isn't going to be popular but yes I do believe we have a right to question government assistance.

It is a governmental agency so if we don't question how it's spent, who will?

I worked for an AFDC (welfare) office in CA for 4 years and those who could work but didn't because they could get free money far out numbered those who were laid off and looking for a job. (ssi is not on this card). According to workers, it had been that way for years and I"m positive it hasn't changed much.

Yes there are those who need it for a short time but they are in the MINORITY. If everyone wants to put their heads in the sand regarding this, then perhaps that's why no change is going to come about.

And CA has now sent most child support cases to the local DA who puts it through the benefit card same as one poster mentioned. I was one for a few years until my ex husband established his child support payments.

There are legitimate people who are getting the benefits however, I am willing to bet that at least 50% could be out working.

 

[DMRick]

That's a long ways from the majority. And there is all sorts of different types of help..not all of it welfare. Some college tuition help/grants comes from the government.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- One in six Americans is receiving help from the government.
That was in April of 2011. From CNN. Think the number is going down? Hardly. And one in six is an atrocious amount.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

Many years ago I read an article by a doctor who had what I still think was a great idea. Instead of providing money for people in need of food, all grocery stores would be paid (at wholesale rates) to give away certain basic foods. The doctor had a list and I think they were dried beans, cabbage, wheat or oats, apples, and green peppers. Nothing fancy or expensive or imported but you could live on these foods and be reasonably healthy. They'd be available free to everyone. The doctor had calculated out that we'd actually save a lot of money this way, and people would be healthier (not buying bags of chips, etc.).


Teresa

 

[mdsoccermom]

Thinking one thing and typed another. My Bad.

Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Do you honestly believe Americans are abusing the system because the Declaration uses the words "pursuit of happiness"?

 

[leahjade]

I did not realize that the President has the power to personally issue "government checks" to the majority of Americans.

Facts are facts: In 2007, an average of 26.3 million people received food stamps every month, according to Agriculture Department figures. In 2011, that figure had climbed to 44.7 million, a nearly 70 percent increase.

 

[leahjade]

And what were you doing at McDonald's anyway

I got a cup of coffee with MY OWN MONEY. The tax payers aren't paying for my McDonalds or my casino bills (if I had any!). That's the difference. Maybe we should just throw money out of the mints and not bother to hold anyone accountable for any behavior.

 

[leahjade]

It's very naive to think that there is no abuse of the welfare system and that there are not generations of families who make it their way of life.
And for those of you who think you are helping these people, you are sadly mistaken.

When the government pays women to have out-of-wedlock children, you get more out-of-wedlock children. Statistically, these children enter the world with less opportunity for success. When you provide subsidized food and housing adequate for a subsistence lifestyle, you get more people living a subsistence lifestyle, and the government buys a growing underclass that costs more to support each year. If you pay bureaucrats based on the headcount of the number of people in a welfare program, you motivate them to keep more people on welfare.

Gordon Anderson
Editor-in-Chief of International Journal on World Peace, and Adjunct Professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies

 

[katespade]

I got a cup of coffee with MY OWN MONEY. The tax payers aren't paying for my McDonalds or my casino bills (if I had any!). That's the difference. Maybe we should just throw money out of the mints and not bother to hold anyone accountable for any behavior.

To reiterate: My snap judgment on you, based on one thing you said seems to have upset you.

Not fun, huh?

 

[DMRick]

Maybe we should just throw money out of the mints and not bother to hold anyone accountable for any behavior.

So you think not knowing anything about someone and making a snap judgement based on a purchase at McDonalds gives you the right to hold someone accountable for his behavior? You don't have a clue where the money on his card came from, what he was going to do at the casino or if you even overheard correctly or if your assumption that he was going to gamble while on government assistance was right. That's a far cry from throwing money out of the mines and not holding anyone accountable. It wasn't your job to hold this man accountable..you have no idea if all your assumptions were correct.

If you were to come to the mission where we have been serving dinners for years, it sounds like you would assume everyone there needed a handout and was prob on government assistance. Most people who come once or twice a year to do their charitable work do (they come to do their charitable work, but they also come to judge..I hear them loud and clear). But if they took the time to sit and talk with some of the people, they would find an engineer living away from home and lonely (and most people don't know that a large part of his salary went towards the building of that very dining room where we serve the poor and lonely), a young mother with several children whose husband was shot because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or the man who comes dressed in a suit, usually unpressed. He used to come because he likes to share the Word. He didn't have a lot of money, but he gave out hope to those who had very little. All of these people stopped coming because they were judged. And those judging them were wrong.

 

[Leajess99]

My co-worker and I stopped at an inner city McDonalds for coffee on Thursday at lunch not thinking it was the 1st of the month. The restaurant was packed and the two men in front of us in line were talking how excited they were that today is pay day, and they are going to the casino after they ate. We were shocked to see them use their Welfare Access card for their meal! We were talking to the cashier who told us that the first week of the month they are so crowded with patrons using their access cards. Here my friend and I were rushing to get back to work while a whole crowd of people were eating out on our dollar then some of them were even going to casino afterwards! Something is so wrong with this system.
Don't say I'm being selfish - my husband and I give over 10% of our income to charity and I know there are people out there who need help, but there is something not right with healthy young people being able to freeload while we work two jobs to support our families.

Just so you know in some states the "welfare access cards" are the same as child support cards. In Ky if you get child support collected through the state one of the ways you can get it is on the Access cards. They are the same for welfare, food stamps, child support, etc.

 

[Leajess99]

...

As pointed out, those cards hold everything, from wefare to food stamps to say, veterans disability benefits, to etc.

As not yet pointed out, even if it were welfare benefits, it's not on your dollar, it's on your couple pennies, as welfare is a miniscule percentage of the tax burden.

Also, the first is pay day for lots of people. Food stamps have nothing to do with being employed.

Ref the bolded, my Veteran's Disability Benefit comes in direct deposit or a check. The access cards are generally state level not federal level which is what Veteran's Benefits would be.

 

[Leajess99]

It's very naive to think that there is no abuse of the welfare system and that there are not generations of families who make it their way of life.
And for those of you who think you are helping these people, you are sadly mistaken. Gordon Anderson
Editor-in-Chief of International Journal on World Peace, and Adjunct Professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies

I don't believe anyone here is saying that there is no abuse of the welfare system but YOU do NOT know the situation. You ARE in fact judging them. Maybe the guy has custody of his child and gets child support that way. I do know some men in this situation that pay the bills out of their bank accounts and may use the support on themselves since they already paid out what the support would be used for.

 

[marthachick]

I used to work in a pharmacy about 15 years ago. Customers would drive up to our window in their high dollar cars, and hand us their Medicaid cards with nicely manicured hands dripping with rings. Many had loads of necklaces on. Some of them would have 4 or 5 kids, all on Medicaid. And a lot of them would bring government assistance checks for us to cash.

One woman who was on Medicaid had 4 or 5 kids also on Medicaid. She was getting fertility drugs on Medicaid. Yeah, if you can't pay for the 4 or 5 kids you already have, you DON'T need to be having more for ME to pay for!

And then we would have the elderly people who would bring their meager Social Security checks in to pay for the medicine and barely have $100 left after they paid their monthly pharmacy bill.

So, I guess you could see where my sympathy lies. It was really hard for me to be civil to the young Medicaid mamas with mulitple baby daddies while I was waiting on them on my swollen feet. (I have arthritis and I still work.) There are many that are taught to take advantage of the system at a young age. It is a way of life and a family tradition.

 

[Janepod]

The choices strangers make are none of my business.