Maine Adds Work Requirement to Welfare Benefits

a reply to: Answer

Free money for a loan is working real well for banks, why not individuals.

Oh right, banks are good trustworthy people. They did not bring the global economy to its knees. That was all those homeowners, workers, and the poor, you know the stupid ones./s

You want to know what else the poor are HUMBLE. That is why I love them.

a reply to: retiredTxn

Right, right. God knows the poor are the country's biggest problem this election season. Well, voters like you are the crooks dream. No questions asked, just read, repeat what they say.

a reply to: LDragonFire

If these businesses need labor why are they not hiring a employee instead of volunteers?

That is a redundant and silly question cause I know the answer. Think about it people.

originally posted by: MOMof3
a reply to: retiredTxn

Right, right. God knows the poor are the country's biggest problem this election season. Well, voters like you are the crooks dream. No questions asked, just read, repeat what they say.

Never said that, nor am I anyone's dream voter. I share my own feelings and opinions here. If you can't handle that, move along.

LINK

Last year, the administration of Gov. Paul R. LePage, a Republican, decided to reimpose a three-month limit (out of every three-year period) on food stamps for a group often known as Abawds — able-bodied adults without minor dependents — unless they work 20 hours per week, take state job-training courses or volunteer for about six hours per week. Maine, like other states, makes some exceptions.

I don't understand your taking this to an insulting stage, however, it is obvious you have not read the links provided in the OP. It's quite clear. No families, or children are being removed from receiving Food Stamps. Why you refuse to accept this simple, yet all important information from the OP, is mind boggling

a reply to: retiredTxn

I don't think so. This presidential election season is too important to all to be distracted by that ancient karl rove tactic. Blame the poor. I will do my part to help voters see our real problems.

originally posted by: MOMof3
a reply to: retiredTxn

I don't think so. This presidential election season is too important to all to be distracted by that ancient karl rove tactic. Blame the poor. I will do my part to help voters see our real problems.

Blame the poor? I have never said that, nor am I implying such. Karl Rove you say? I can't stand anything about the man!

This thread is about ONE topic. This is not to say we don't have other problems. A topic was brought up, and it is, or was being discussed.

Do you really think you are the only one that knows about being poor? Are you going to ride in on your white horse and be the savior of the poor? In some way, being poor affects most everyone. My oldest daughter receives food stamps. Her 3 daughters are on Medicaid, and receive free school lunches.

I guess "voters like me" have no skin in the game. I just regurgitate some party line, and wash, rinse, and repeat.

You could not be further from the truth if you tried.

a reply to: grandmakdw
I'd guess that the primary goal here would be to get people back to work and self sufficient rather than doing volunteer work and reliant on government assistance.

Your average employer works 40 hrs a week. That means that you have a maximum of ~40 hrs a week in which to secure meaningful employment. Places that you can volunteer will also probably have restrictions on when you participate, further narrowing the hours that you can effectively look for work.

Personally, I'd rather a person spend all their time looking for work rather than doing volunteer work somewhere. I'd actually advocate going one step further, by reducing the number of community service hours based on XX number of job applications submit/resumes sent out.

originally posted by: MOMof3
a reply to: Answer

Free money for a loan is working real well for banks, why not individuals.

Oh right, banks are good trustworthy people. They did not bring the global economy to its knees. That was all those homeowners, workers, and the poor, you know the stupid ones./s

You want to know what else the poor are HUMBLE. That is why I love them.

You're very idealistic... it's kinda cute in a sad way.

Some poor people might be humble, a HUGE number of them are not. You can pretend to know the situation better than I do but you'll lose that battle. You might remember from another thread that I grew up in Mississippi, same as you. Jackson, MS to be exact and even though I grew up lower-middle class, I had jobs that put me in direct contact with a lot of very poor people.

The majority of "the poor", as you have sarcastically labeled them, blame everyone else for their problems instead of accepting that they might have made some stupid decisions like any of the following:
A) Dropping out of school.
B) Not learning a trade or getting a useful degree.
C) Not having ambition.
D) Having kids when they can't afford to put food into their OWN mouth.
E) Sticking with an entitlement mentality and choosing welfare over work.
F) Committing crimes that land them in prison and ruin their chances of finding a job because of their record.
G) Any combination of the above or simple "fu*k the system" laziness.

Their problems are due to fundamental issues with earning/handling money. Giving them a loan when they don't know how to handle small amounts of money will certainly not get them out of poverty.

I find it odd that people who don't want taxes helping the impoverished tell the poor to get a job so their taxes can do the exact same thing.

I guess I just wonder what the end game is? Government mandated jobs? Turn the food bank into a gas chamber? People talk about work ethic and ambition but if it took you this long to realize those are not in-born traits then you obviously just wish the entire country behaves and believes as you do.

originally posted by: MOMof3
a reply to: LDragonFire

If these businesses need labor why are they not hiring a employee instead of volunteers?

That is a redundant and silly question cause I know the answer. Think about it people.

I know that you're not going to really accept the point of it all because you have an agenda but it's quite simple:

Most of the volunteer work is done at a non-profit where ALL workers are volunteers.

The work that is done at private companies is mostly paid for/subsidized by the government or it is considered an internship for people who need to have experience to show on their resume.

Just like internships for people in school... it's hard to get hired into most fields without some work experience. The private companies may not actually NEED another employee badly enough to hire someone full-time but they are willing to participate in the government program and allow interns to work part-time.

In your imaginary scenario where these private companies just hire someone instead of participating in the temp-work government programs, what happens when all those positions are filled and "the poor" still need to find work/get some experience?

The fact that you and some others in this thread see this as a bad thing shows a clear misunderstanding of the situation. Tell me, what's the better solution? The businesses that NEED to hire someone will pick a qualified candidate. They won't hire an unqualified, inexperienced individual just to get them off of welfare as those individuals have indicated through their past actions that they'll likely be a terrible employee.

originally posted by: corvuscorrax
I find it odd that people who don't want taxes helping the impoverished tell the poor to get a job so their taxes can do the exact same thing.

I guess I just wonder what the end game is? Government mandated jobs? Turn the food bank into a gas chamber? People talk about work ethic and ambition but if it took you this long to realize those are not in-born traits then you obviously just wish the entire country behaves and believes as you do.

Most of the people who don't want taxes helping the impoverished actually don't want free hand outs to the impoverished.

If tax dollars were going toward training and educating people who are on welfare, you'd see an almost-universal support of that system.

The government makes it far too easy for people to get money for nothing. A very large number of people on welfare could and would be working if they weren't offered the easy way out.

I fully support helping poor people get out of poverty but giving them free money to do absolutely nothing will never EVER fix the problem. I've spoken to several people who are receiving some sort of government assistance and they see it as a joke that they can get money for nothing. They literally have the mentality "well if they're gonna give the money away, why shouldn't I take it?"

originally posted by: ArdentAngel

Personally, I'd rather a person spend all their time looking for work rather than doing volunteer work somewhere. I'd actually advocate going one step further, by reducing the number of community service hours based on XX number of job applications submit/resumes sent out.

So considering that many the people on welfare haven't worked in awhile or have no work experience at all, which businesses do you think will hire them?

I've been in positions that involved hiring and interviewing potential candidates. Gaps in employment look VERY BAD to hiring managers. Every one has a sob story about why they couldn't find work but at the end of the day, the managers will hire someone with consistent employment history over the person with gaps every single time.

I do agree that the community service hours could be reduced based on job applications and interviews BUT there has to be a system in place to verify that activity. As it stands now, a person on unemployment has to send in evidence that they're applying for jobs but the unemployment office does a piss-poor job of verifying that "Joe Smith Plumbing" actually exists and received an application.

a reply to: corvuscorrax

I don't think people want poor people to just get a job so they can share the tax burden. More along the lines of making the investment everyone's tax dollars provide, become a positive difference in peoples lives.

That's a big stretch saying the food banks could become gas chambers, don't you think?

I agree, work ethic and ambition are not a trait everyone is born with. I do believe each of us should accept personal responsibility and accountability, rather than blaming their problems on everyone else.

After I retired, I took a job with a home medical supply company. I started as a service tech. Part of my job was visiting with patients in their home, and doing checks on their oxygen concentrators and nebulizers. Most of the folks were genuinely ill and needed their equipment.

Lots of them were just gaming the system. An 18 year old girl, who never worked a day in her life, with a concentrator, nebulizer, electric wheelchair, and various other equipment. She never needed replaceable goods for her eqipment, because she never actually used it. She only got the medical devices because she could. And it helped her keep her SSI checks coming.

People like this are whats gumming up the system. Because of being eligible for one government program, they are automatically eligible for other programs, such as food stamps. These are the people everyone is upset with. Dear God, I or anyone else don't want them to tow a party line. Just take responsibility and be accountable for their actions.

Is that really too much to ask?

a reply to: Answer

Since you know me personally what is my agenda? Is that the same as an opinion?

"The work that is done at private companies is mostly paid for/subsidized by the government or it is considered an internship for people who need to have experience to show on their resume."

The "agenda" that I see here are businesses getting free labor. Give that person a paycheck so they can pay taxes instead of the other way around.

a reply to: Answer

I am kinda cute.

I am 64 and I was once those people. I made a lot of mistakes. Some people never learn, but some people do and become good citizens, like me. I am very well off now because of good luck. I never left my heart and replaced it with money. I don't like the philosophy of "throwing the baby out with the bathwater".

In 2008, I saw many of my friends have to delay retirement, lost their jobs, the fear and anxiety was bad. The bankers made such bad mistakes that they almost brought the US to its knees. The low class working tax payer, gave them forgiveness and a hand up. More money than I can even imagine. Of course, the mantra from the republicans will always be make the unwashed masses pay, cut, cut, cut off life giving programs.

a reply to: dawnstar

Welfare is for people with dependents under the age of 18. There a catch 22 here because if you earn any money, it decreases your benefit amount.

a reply to: LDragonFire

Isn't that unemployment?

I'm sure New Hampshire isn't thrilled about this news.

originally posted by: MOMof3
a reply to: Answer

Since you know me personally what is my agenda? Is that the same as an opinion?

"The work that is done at private companies is mostly paid for/subsidized by the government or it is considered an internship for people who need to have experience to show on their resume."

The "agenda" that I see here are businesses getting free labor. Give that person a paycheck so they can pay taxes instead of the other way around.

Because businesses all have extra money laying around to pay the extra employees they didn't actually need...

What part of "if the businesses really needed to hire someone, they would" do you refuse to accept? The private businesses who are participating in this program have a lot of reasons for not simply hiring someone and, you may not realize it but, if the workers do a good enough job in their government-paid internship, they WILL be hired by the companies who actually need a full-time worker. That's generally how internships work. There are tens of thousands of companies that offer internships to help students gain some experience and those intern positions are available because there wasn't an actual NEED for an additional employee.

Your "force the businesses to hire people" mindset shows that you haven't considered all the factors and the consequences. Most of those people are unemployed for A REASON. Why would a business hire damaged goods when there are other job-seekers on the market that might be better qualified and/or haven't been on government assistance for a long period of time. The internships and govn't-subsidized employment at least allows those people to get back into the swing of being employed and prove that they won't quit after 2 days, use drugs on the job, show up to work drunk, display a lack of skills or a lack of ambition, cause problems in the work place, or any of the other countless reasons why people stay unemployed long-term. Gaining a little bit of experience and having a solid reference are massively beneficial to these people's future.

I never claimed to know you personally but I've seen enough of your posts to know that you are a big supporter of social programs and you're so anti-Republican that you let it rule your opinions... often to the point of making nonsensical posts and assuming that posters are right wing even if they haven't said anything that would imply it (in this very thread, by the way). I also know that you support Hillary Clinton because she's A) A woman and B) Has a "D" next to her name. You turn a blind eye to anything that disagrees with your ideological world view because it's easier to dismiss the opposition than it is to stay informed and form your own opinion. You tend to parrot the liberal play book and the defense I've seen in other threads is basically: "well that's my opinion and I'm not going to justify it, good day sir". I don't support either party as I think both sides have a lot of idiotic ideas but you have made it pretty easy to figure out your "agenda."

Below the belt post...My Apologies grandmakdw..

a reply to: Answer

So you openly admit that if you have gaps in employment then why bother? What are these people to do?

I have gaps all over my employment record. Haven't had a job in over 2 years now. Luckily I don't look for work nor do I plan to.

But not everyone has the same support system I do.