Food Stamp Recipients Outnumber Populations of 24 States Combined

Originally posted by lee anoma

Originally posted by OccamsRazor04

Originally posted by MisterMarbles
Would you rather have 50 million people stealing your food at gunpoint?

I would rather have them working and feeding themselves.

Oh well that's simple then.

Hire them.

- Lee

Maybe if we did not lose 9 million jobs under Obama and millions more did not go from full time to part time I wouldn't have to hire them, they'd have a job.

I just zeroed one of my bank accounts before I applied for food stamps after months of looking for work, even though I qualified prior.... I'm going to read this thread in its entirety, and if I see anyone complaining how we are a bunch of "useless eaters" I'm going to flip out.

Alright, so...

How much food do all of the stores in the US throw out in one night -DESPITE- that many people being on SNAP benefits?

How much produce goes to waste when we have millions of starving people?

You are thinking in terms of profits and trying to maintain your belongings... yet, when so much goes to waste, it seems unwarranted, no?

Originally posted by MisterMarbles
Are you really telling me the billions of dollars that have been donated to charity has been wasted? Do you really think our society would be a better place if no one donated anything to the needy? I hope not. If so, I have nothing more to say to you.

In the context of this thread, we are talking about who pays for the basic necessities of life for those who can't afford it while living in the wealthiest country on the planet. Since the OP is clearly not even a multi-millionaire and has such a huge problem with a fraction of his taxes going towards feeding poor people, I proposed shifting the fiscal responsibility to people who should feel a lot less "taken" than the OP and his supporters.

In other words, unless you're a really greedy person with an 8 or 9+ figure net worth, my proposals don't hurt you, the OP or people like you at all. They would actually help you and people a lot poorer than you.

You are trying to solve the problem of too many people living off handouts by....them receiving more handouts. Not such a brilliant idea. A better idea is to reform education in a way that gives the lower classes of society more self-confidence, skill and knowledge to help themselves and not depend on handouts quite as much.

In your conversation with me you have blamed the rich as well as picked out George Bush and Ronald Reagan as people to blame. How is that kind of partisan blaming going to help the poor?

Have many decades of financial aid to africa helped africa become a 1st world country? No.That aid would have had to been invested in infrastructural growth and schools. If you hand every of the 47 Million people a 1000 dollars it does nothing for their self-confidence, skill, knowledge, empowerment.

Your proposals reflect the ideas of most people on this Forum and, unfortunately, most people in society. But they are a recipe for stagnation. When you give someone money they have to know how to make use of it in a way that it multiplies, otherwise you are only adding to their suffering. Its like giving them a jug of water without showing them the river.

Billionaires know this, thats why their charity donations are going more and more into infrastructural projects and to teachers and schools...to those institutions that can most help the poor.

Instead of accusing us (people who think like me) of being greedy, acknowledge that we are looking for better, more progressive ways of helping than handouts. Ways that will not demean a poor persons sense of dignity.

"Power to the people" can only come about when those people no longer have to spend all their energy on bare survival and have teachers, mentors and social workers that take the time and patience to extend a helping hand. It does not come about by throwing money at the problem. Money in and of itself is useless without the skill to make money for oneself.

Originally posted by SymbolicLogic
I just zeroed one of my bank accounts before I applied for food stamps after months of looking for work, even though I qualified prior.... I'm going to read this thread in its entirety, and if I see anyone complaining how we are a bunch of "useless eaters" I'm going to flip out.

Let me save you some time. On page 9 I said,

I think the biggest misconception people get is that conservatives, libertarians, aren't against people who have to use foodstamps.

We're against the conditions, the policies that precipitated the use.

reply to post by Skyfloating


I was once invited to join the Golden Key Society, Mensa, and the local equivalents for my region. I couldn't pay for school lunch. Now, who do you think employers want to hire? Some young guy with no college degree, or someone with a family, a degree, years of work experience in the right field, and a massive amount of debt?

I USED to think that it was the potential workers. Now, I see that is both the potential workers, the stigma that gets attached to ALL parties involved, the potential employers (upper management and lower management), and, most of all, the political bull# on all levels.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000
The elderly are not the problem! The people claiming Social Security who never paid into the system are the problem. The people who are drawing Social Security who have no actual right to it are the problem and the Government who keeps "permanently borrowing" from the fund are the problem.

Originally posted by curlygirl
reply to post by MisterMarbles

 

I'd like them to try and they would be facing my gun point. My tax dollars are being used inefficiently to feed people that should be feeding themselves. If the government stopped handing out free food, these people might get off the couch and find something more constructive to do like start a business, work, etc. The past twenty years of government have been failures. America is no longer the empire it used to be and as citizens we have given up, done nothing and watched its decline.

Not everyone on food stamps is sitting on the sofa. Ever hear of the working poor? If the govt ever halted food stamps, I guarantee you that once hoards of starving people go into a hunger crisis, the rich people will be begging the govt to feed them. It would be chaos.

Isn't it arrogant to believe that you can't ever end up in a bad situation in life? would you want to be mistreated and told you don't deserve to eat because life handed you a bad deal?

I recieved EBT (food stamps) for about 4 months while living in the LA area. i was working at starbucks where no one was getting full time except the shift leads. so making minimum wage for less hours than i wanted/needed, left a serious gap between what i could possibly earn to support myself as meagerly as possible. The best place we could find/afford had roaches, typical, and had a bare rafter ceiling that only served for small yet bold spiders to slip in and out down their silky mission impossible lowering ropes to tickle and nibble at my face. this apartment payment was 1100, seedy, and had to be split three ways (two bedrooms so we made it work). I would get 150 dollars a month for groceries, and i am an economical shopper and a capable cook. This still burns up in two weeks tops. Being on welfare because you need to feed yourself and loved ones, working and everything, is not shameful. It also isn't even half enough. I can't stand the people who work the disability system with completely fraudelent reasons and get away with it, set up with checks every month they did a slimy thing to obtain. I "sucked on the governments teet" because i was developing brittle bones from uncle sams canned meat dinner and i will do it again if that's how i have to get through a time.

reply to post by LizardSlicks


I'm about ready to start growing weed and dealing drugs, if that's what it takes... but I guess joining the military for the express intent of killing citizens is preferable. Navy, here I come.

Originally posted by Skyfloating

Originally posted by MisterMarbles
Are you really telling me the billions of dollars that have been donated to charity has been wasted? Do you really think our society would be a better place if no one donated anything to the needy? I hope not. If so, I have nothing more to say to you.

In the context of this thread, we are talking about who pays for the basic necessities of life for those who can't afford it while living in the wealthiest country on the planet. Since the OP is clearly not even a multi-millionaire and has such a huge problem with a fraction of his taxes going towards feeding poor people, I proposed shifting the fiscal responsibility to people who should feel a lot less "taken" than the OP and his supporters.

In other words, unless you're a really greedy person with an 8 or 9+ figure net worth, my proposals don't hurt you, the OP or people like you at all. They would actually help you and people a lot poorer than you.

You are trying to solve the problem of too many people living off handouts by....them receiving more handouts. Not such a brilliant idea. A better idea is to reform education in a way that gives the lower classes of society more self-confidence, skill and knowledge to help themselves and not depend on handouts quite as much.

In your conversation with me you have blamed the rich as well as picked out George Bush and Ronald Reagan as people to blame. How is that kind of partisan blaming going to help the poor?

Have many decades of financial aid to africa helped africa become a 1st world country? No.That aid would have had to been invested in infrastructural growth and schools. If you hand every of the 47 Million people a 1000 dollars it does nothing for their self-confidence, skill, knowledge, empowerment.

Your proposals reflect the ideas of most people on this Forum and, unfortunately, most people in society. But they are a recipe for stagnation. When you give someone money they have to know how to make use of it in a way that it multiplies, otherwise you are only adding to their suffering. Its like giving them a jug of water without showing them the river.

Billionaires know this, thats why their charity donations are going more and more into infrastructural projects and to teachers and schools...to those institutions that can most help the poor.

Instead of accusing us (people who think like me) of being greedy, acknowledge that we are looking for better, more progressive ways of helping than handouts. Ways that will not demean a poor persons sense of dignity.

"Power to the people" can only come about when those people no longer have to spend all their energy on bare survival and have teachers, mentors and social workers that take the time and patience to extend a helping hand. It does not come about by throwing money at the problem. Money in and of itself is useless without the skill to make money for oneself.

The first problem is the assumption behind notions of "first world country" and "third world country", terms that were discarded by economists long ago for their discriminatory connotation that somehow people live in different "worlds" than on the small planet with limited resources we all must share. The second problem is the also-discarded "bootstrap" theory that if you give a starving child a checkbook they will magically benefit from a manufactured "work ethic" that ignores the anomalous 1% who own 97% of the world's wealth through inheritance, not by wearing boots of any kind at all. In spite of all the hype about their donations to charity, it is a fact that for the past 50 years, those in the U.S. middle class and working poor give more per capita to charities than anyone in the U.S. making more than a million per year. This is just a fact. Since you are a moderator I am not going to risk disturbing you any further.

reply to post by SymbolicLogic


No judgement coming from here, and i share your sentiments exactly. The distinction between "right" and "wrong" is so distorted...giving the gift to the people of finely grown crops is a serious no-no, yet arbitrarily killing innocent people based upon your masters orders is honorable and noble. we shall overcome.

Originally posted by MisterMarbles
The number of states is an irrelevant form of measure which you have cited repeatedly in this thread.

It's only 'irrelevant' to those who want to downplay the numbers.

The FACT is that food stamp recipients outnumber populations of 24 states combined.
That's a HUGE number of people on federal assistance.
That means that something is seriously broken in DC .. and it needs fixing.

Those are the facts ...

reply to post by SubTruth


THAT is what I was thinking about .... Is it a failure of the government or is it all planned?? Control over the population?? If a huge chunk of people are on food stamps and are depending on the US government for the basics of life, doesn't that make the government a VERY powerful entity?? So is it the government screwing up .. or is it all planned for something more nefarious??

Originally posted by sealing
If your saying Obama did this, nope.

Read the thread. I said this is the fault of both the democrats and republicans.
Either that ..or it's planned out by someone HIGHER UP then they are ...

Originally posted by lee anoma
It's only been four years.

Obama said he could fix this in four years 'or I'll be out of a job'. He said he'd cut the deficit in half. Instead ... MORE people are on food stamps and the deficit is much, much bigger. He is to blame as much as anyone else is.

Originally posted by MisterMarbles
the Republican party has plenty of brilliant people with some really good, but very anti-Democratic ideas.

DITTO the Democrats.

Originally posted by muse7
This is outrageous! How dare they give people free food!
This money could be going toward building MORE BOMBS!

Predictable muse7 post. Dude .. you missed the entire premise of the thread. Its' not that people are getting help .. it's that they need it to begin with. It is a massive failure on the part of the US government that food stamp recipients outnumber populations of 24 states combined. That's HUGE. That means something is WRONG.

reply to post by NorEaster

Did you even read the thread???
My 'problem with that' isn't the process that gets people the food they need and $$ to stores.
My 'problem with that' is that there are so many people who need the food stamps.
This many people shouldn't require federal aid ... they just shouldn't.
Something is wrong ...

Originally posted by Merinda
If low income earners try to fight for higher wages, they are evil communists. If they are on foot stamps, they are lazy slobs that cost me money. What the heck...

As I said ... many times ... it's not the fact that they are using food stamps that is the problem. It's the fact that they need it to begin with. That many people on food stamps??? In the USA??? That's a major breakdown of some kind with US policy. Both the democrats and republicans have had a hand in it. Either that, or it's been planned this way by TPTB to gain control over the people. If you have a death grip on their basic needs (in this case food), you can control them in a massive way.

Originally posted by F4guy
Apparently the originator of this thread thinks the triple amputee vets who get a few hundred dollars a month as a disability pension should starve to death. Or maybe the single foster mother who takes in 9 abused children should let them starve.

Apparently you don't know how to read. I've said over and over ... this isn't about the people who are on the food stamps. It's about how policy in Washington DC has FAILED the American people and that has caused so many people to need them.

(And a single foster mother shouldn't be taking in 9 abused children. That would be absurd)

Or maybe he's just some cowardly troll, who would neither fight for his country nor help its neglected children, while he sits in mommy's dark, dank basement reading Ayn Rand and hating anyone "not like him."

1 - I am a female .. not a 'he'.
2 - I am no coward. You know nothing about me.
3 - I am a veteran of the US Army so I would indeed fight for my country.
4 - As for helping neglected children .. not that it's any of your damn business but we donate to charity on a regular basis and we actually adopted an abandoned child.
5 - I don't live with my mother .. I don't have a dark dank basement.

As for trolling ... you'd best go look in the mirror.
Now get on topic ... and I"m not it. :shk:

Originally posted by Starchildren
For people who are against those receiving food stamps:

I'm not against people receiving food stamps. Heck .. when I was a kid in the 70's we had to have free lunches and were on welfare for two years. I get that people need it in hard times. Really. What I have a problem with is that the policies of this country have failed so badly that we have so many people in need of food stamps.

Originally posted by th3dudeabides
Get rid of foodstamps and you have 47 million going hungry.

I didnt' say get rid of foodstamps. I said that there is a problem with the way the US government is working because so many people are on foodstamps. Foodstamps are needed in the USA. Same with unemployment insurance. But we shouldn't have this many people requiring federal assistance. Either something is wrong OR it has been planned this way by TPTB ... as a control device over the people. IMHO