As someone who has been on the system and knows plenty of folks on the system, I can say that it is a tremendous amount of wasted money that's only function is handicapping people.
I was on there for about a year after I had my child. I knew it was not a way of life I wanted for myself or a mentality that I wanted to pass on to my daughter(as it does tend to become a pattern). I used every resource available to me through the government(and there were tons) to go back to school and start a career.
It's flawed in the sense that as soon as I started working and trying to get on my feet everything stopped.....every dime. I don't understand why it's not set-up more to help people make ends meet than to fully support grown, able-bodied people. They give way more stamps than are necessary to provide for the families. Every person I know that receives stamps (friends and family members) sell hundreds of them every month. They're not on drugs, that's just spending money. Some states have the free cell phone, which I don't understand. I can see a discount or free landline, but a cell phone. The folks I know with those phones, give them to their kids and the mother has her blackberry or droid. There are foreign owned stores that will accept ebt for minutes on your phone, alcohol, cigs, whatever... they just ring it up like you purchased groceries. I have friends that live totally rent free,don't work but have either a drug dealing boyfriend living with them or a man working a legal job with them. The point is that there is income coming in there that is not being counted. So these people are living rent free, getting free phone service, free food, a utilty check, and free healthcare. At the end of the year, they let various folks claim their kids on their tax returns and get thousands of dollars that way. I went to a local tech school my first two years and there were people that made a career of going to school. The government puts no limits on achieving AA degrees, so you would have people that would just keep coming back because between the balance from the Pell and other programs offered for low-income families they would receive thousands of dollars each semester to spend how they pleased. I know women that are married with both parents working and have went to DSS and said their husband left them just to get benefits. The scams are neverending. The scammers don't think it's a big deal because they think the government is this entity with an infinte supply of money, they don't think about the hard working folks that are not only supporting their own family but having to support all these other dead beat folks and their children too.
And the comments about these people not enjoying living in poverty....there are some folks that truly don't have anything but a lot of these people wear name brand clothes, both them and their kids have NICE cell phones, they have nicely furnished residences, nice cars, carry $200 purses, have flat screen tvs throughout the house, computers with internet service, etc. These people are not living badly. Why would they work when they know their needs will be met by the "government"? The problem is that they have come to expect other people to provide their necessities so they can spend their money how they please.
There is no reason these people can't work somewhere, doing something. Childcare and transportation to and from work is provided. So what's the problem? If they're not working, make them do some type of community service..... I bet you'd see more of them going to work. And I think they should stop increasing benefit amounts after 2 children. Why keep having children you can't afford? I stopped at one, because I knew that's all I could afford as a single mother. Birth control is free, so there's no excuse. I don't mind helping people that are trying to help themselves but all this money being spent to keep up lazy people can be going to meet other important national needs.
That was a good one.
I get this from family all the time. They never think about all the hard work that goes into me having what I have. They expect a handout because I have more. It is especially vexing for me because I don't have children of my own, so everyone expects me to have extra to give to them. No, I worked hard to get an education, I get up every week and go to work, spend wisely and budget. They would have more too if they would odo the same. 
I can't stand people who abuse the system!!
