|
Post by DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) on Dec 3, 2010 14:01:50 GMT
This was in the Waco Texas Newspaper November 18th, 2010. Put me in charge ... Put me in charge of food stamps. I’d get rid of Lone Star cards; no cash for Ding Dongs or Ho Ho’s, just money for 50-pound bags of rice and beans, blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want steak and frozen pizza, then get a job.
Put me in charge of Medicaid. The first thing I’d do is to get women Norplant birth control implants or tubal ligations. Then, we’ll test recipients for drugs, alcohol, and nicotine and document all tattoos and piercings. If you want to reproduce or use drugs, alcohol, smoke or get tats and piercings, then get a job.
Put me in charge of government housing. Ever live in a military barracks? You will maintain our property in a clean and good state of repair. Your “home” will be subject to inspections anytime and possessions will be inventoried. If you want a plasma TV or Xbox 360, then get a job and your own place.
In addition, you will either present a check stub from a job each week or you will report to a “government” job. It may be cleaning the roadways of trash, painting and repairing public housing, whatever we find for you. We will sell your 22 inch rims and low profile tires and your blasting stereo and speakers and put that money toward the “common good.”
Before you write that I’ve violated someone’s rights, realize that all of the above is voluntary. If you want our money, accept our rules.. Before you say that this would be “demeaning” and ruin their “self esteem,” consider that it wasn’t that long ago that taking someone else’s money for doing absolutely nothing was demeaning and lowered self esteem.
If we are expected to pay for other people’s mistakes we should at least attempt to make them learn from their bad choices. The current system rewards them for continuing to make bad choices.
Alfred W. Evans, Gatesville
|
|
|
Post by Ben Lomond on Dec 3, 2010 14:14:22 GMT
Alf has a point!!!
|
|
|
Post by june on Dec 3, 2010 15:18:31 GMT
Let's sterilise the poor! While we are at it let's do the disabled too, they are nothing but a drain, as are the old.
You can tell a lot about a country from how it treats it's poor. I am glad to live in England, where there is a net as well as obligation.
|
|
|
Post by riotgrrl on Dec 3, 2010 15:23:44 GMT
I don't have a problem with making welfare a two-way obligation. I don't have a problem with a public debate about how best to do that.
I do have a problem with authoritarian arseholes demanding that they be put in charge so that their own petty bigotries and dislikes can be implemented.
When people like this Alf pipe up, I always feel like saying 'shoosh now, the grown-ups are talking'.
|
|
|
Post by iamjumbo on Dec 3, 2010 17:34:10 GMT
there should be no objection to any of that, IF the alf chap is going to ensure that there are jobs to have. the problem with nutjobs like alf is that he and his ilk are responsible for the dearth of jobs that has put so many people in the situation to begin with
|
|
|
Post by riotgrrl on Dec 3, 2010 17:41:06 GMT
Nah, look at the food he is recommending poor people should eat . . cheese ffs. Not a mention of fruit and vegetables.
He's no nutritionist, but obviously he considers that he knows best about EVERYTHING in the WHOLE WORLD EVER.
That kind of pompous arse really adds nothing to any sensible debate about welfare.
|
|
|
Post by DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) on Dec 4, 2010 0:46:45 GMT
I think he has some good points. We often see poor people with food stamps in the supermarket checkout line. Whenever I'm behind one of them in line, I do look to see what's in their shopping basket. It's usually beer, potato chips, prepared foods like TV dinners, ice cream, soft drinks, etc. One would think they'd try to buy items that offer the greatest value for the money (eg: bags of flour, dried beans, fresh vegetables and fruts that are in peak season, items that are on sale. That's not what happens. Alf has that part right.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2010 8:05:57 GMT
Bush Admirer, like others I sometimes feel a bit disapproving of people who don't spend their money wisely by my standards. I'm only human
But the letter writer hasn't a clue. How are people to cook rice and beans if they are in bed and breakfast or for some other reason have no means of cooking it? Where are they to store these 50lb bags if they are living in a single room or shared bedsit? How are they to keep the bugs away?
Anyway, heating up beans and rice (which would have to be cooked separately) is not a realistic option for someone on their own; both have to be cooked at some length and the cost of the fuel to do so would be totally disproportionate. Unlike a pizza (and these are not expensive), neither keep, especially if you have no fridge.
|
|
|
Post by riotgrrl on Dec 4, 2010 12:09:01 GMT
I think he has some good points. We often see poor people with food stamps in the supermarket checkout line. Whenever I'm behind one of them in line, I do look to see what's in their shopping basket. It's usually beer, potato chips, prepared foods like TV dinners, ice cream, soft drinks, etc. One would think they'd try to buy items that offer the greatest value for the money (eg: bags of flour, dried beans, fresh vegetables and fruts that are in peak season, items that are on sale. That's not what happens. Alf has that part right. Alf wants them to eat CHEESE. That's his idea of a healthy diet on a low income. CHEESE.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2010 12:11:04 GMT
What's wrong with cheese? It sounds like a good complement to rice and beans - in moderation of course.
|
|
|
Post by riotgrrl on Dec 4, 2010 12:19:35 GMT
What's wrong with cheese? It sounds like a good complement to rice and beans - in moderation of course. There is nothing wrong with cheese per se. I am a fan of cheese. But it's hardly the cheapest or most nutritious food. I'm reflecting back on the individual who wrote this letter. My point (already made) was how much I despise these kind of know-it-all individuals who think they've got the solution but who demonstrate their ignorance. I'm not sure why we should celebrate such individuals. I'm particularly not convinced that using such individuals as the basis for a conversation about welfare reform is the way to go.
|
|
|
Post by june on Dec 4, 2010 15:51:28 GMT
It gets a bit tedious when the examples to stimulate debate are so far beyond normal reasonableness that you can't do anything other than dismiss.
Let's have a proper debate about social welfare as Riotgrrl suggests.
|
|
|
Post by sadie1263 on Dec 4, 2010 16:36:58 GMT
I'd be fine with food stamps supplying nutritious food.....vegetables and all that......but it ticks me off when I stand in line....and they have nothing but frozen pizzas....and all sorts of junk....pay for it with our tax money....then pull out cash and pay for their cigs and alcohol....and then when I go outside they are loading all that food into Cadillacs..and other expensive cars.......
|
|
|
Post by sadie1263 on Dec 4, 2010 16:37:58 GMT
I want some type of checks and balance on who uses the system.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2010 16:51:20 GMT
What's wrong with cheese? It sounds like a good complement to rice and beans - in moderation of course. There is nothing wrong with cheese per se. I am a fan of cheese. But it's hardly the cheapest or most nutritious food. I'm reflecting back on the individual who wrote this letter. My point (already made) was how much I despise these kind of know-it-all individuals who think they've got the solution but who demonstrate their ignorance. I'm not sure why we should celebrate such individuals. I'm particularly not convinced that using such individuals as the basis for a conversation about welfare reform is the way to go. Well, no. Or is that yes? As I said in an earlier post, he doesn't have a clue how people live. But there is a debate here; how far should the spending of welfare recipients be controlled? Should we just (as we do in Britain) give them the cash and let them spend it as they choose, even if they use it on things that ruin their health and make them more of a burden on the taxpayer? At the other extreme is the Waco Texas letter writer, who wants everyone to eat rice and beans. And cheese. Let me get my crystal ball. I see lawsuits from cheese allergy victims, and people who got food poisoning from re-heated rice.
|
|
|
Post by riotgrrl on Dec 4, 2010 17:53:53 GMT
I don't know or understand the benefit rules in the States. (On another board I heard of one unemployed American who was getting $400 + a week in unemployment benefit, which makes me think that it's nothing like the system in the UK. That's a fortune!)
In the UK some benefit recipients, such as mothers of young children, are given tokens to buy fresh fruit and vegetables and milk. These tokens cannot be used for any other foodstuffs.
They only get, what, £100 a week or so in cash (if they have children - far less if they don't.). And they're free to spend that as they see fit.
|
|
|
Post by pumpkinette on Dec 4, 2010 18:20:34 GMT
I don't know or understand the benefit rules in the States. (On another board I heard of one unemployed American who was getting $400 + a week in unemployment benefit, which makes me think that it's nothing like the system in the UK. That's a fortune!) In the UK some benefit recipients, such as mothers of young children, are given tokens to buy fresh fruit and vegetables and milk. These tokens cannot be used for any other foodstuffs. They only get, what, £100 a week or so in cash (if they have children - far less if they don't.). And they're free to spend that as they see fit. I was last on unemployment in 2003 and back then it was based on what you made at your LAST JOB, ie., the last job you had before needing unemployment. From what I remember, I got a smaller % of the wage made at that last job on unemployment. This was how it worked every time I needed unemployment. This may have changed since then.
|
|
|
Post by iamjumbo on Dec 4, 2010 23:53:50 GMT
I don't know or understand the benefit rules in the States. (On another board I heard of one unemployed American who was getting $400 + a week in unemployment benefit, which makes me think that it's nothing like the system in the UK. That's a fortune!) In the UK some benefit recipients, such as mothers of young children, are given tokens to buy fresh fruit and vegetables and milk. These tokens cannot be used for any other foodstuffs. They only get, what, £100 a week or so in cash (if they have children - far less if they don't.). And they're free to spend that as they see fit. you are thinking about welfare, which is based on need, rather than unemployment, which is based on earnings. as a rule, unemployment benefit is half of what you made in the highest quarter of the year preceding the quarter before you file for unemployment. of course, there is a maximum benefit which is usually around four hundred a week. if you made a million dollars in any quarter last year, you would still only get the four hundred a week.
|
|
|
Post by iamjumbo on Dec 4, 2010 23:59:09 GMT
also, unemployment, unlike disability, is employer funded. the employee pays absolutely nothing into it.
|
|
|
Post by DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) on Dec 5, 2010 2:30:26 GMT
I was speaking to an emergency room physician this morning. He told me that a woman in her 20’s came to the ER with her 8th pregnancy. She stated “my momma told me that I am the breadwinner for the family.” He asked her to explain. She said that she can make babies and babies get money for the family. The scam goes like this: The grandma calls the Department of Child and Family Services and states that the unemployed daughter is not capable of caring for these children. DCFS agrees and states that the child or children will need to go to foster care. The grandma then volunteers to be the foster parent, and thus receives a check for $1500 per child per month in Illinois. Total yearly income: $144,000 tax-free, not to mention free healthcare (Medicaid) plus a monthly “Linx” card entitling her to free groceries, etc, and a voucher for 250 free cell phone minutes per month. This does not even include Wick and other welfare programs. Indeed, grandma was correct in that her fertile daughter is the “breadwinner” in the family. I hope you share this story with your listeners so that they know how the ruling class spends their tax dollars. Also, many thanks for the fine service you provide in educating people about the merits of conservative thinking. Cheers, Sebastian J. Ciancio, M.D. Urologist, Danville Polyclinic, LTD. (217) 477-4766 (source: www.desertconservative.com/2010/08/01/welfare-fraud-at-its-worse/)
|
|