Restaurants accepting food stamps

[wcladymacbeth]

If welfare stopped tomorrow you would probably be amazed by the number of people who all of a sudden can fend for themselves. But as long as we are supplying them with little effort on their part...they will continue to live a lifestyle of welfare. The ones you are talking about who truly need help, I believe would be helped by the people around them. If half their money wasn't already taken and redistributed, I believe people would be much more charitable when it's not being forced upon them. Many people are resentful that their money is giving to "poor" people to feed them so that they can spend what money they do have on big screen TYs, iPhones, video games, etc. The system encourages people to spend.

Everyone I know on assistance, gets their big check from income tax and goes out on a big spending spree, buying big screen TVs, new furniture, etc...all this stuff that we DONT have because we spend ours on bills and feeding our family, and putting money in our emergency fund. But they are rewarded for going out and blowing 5,000 that could have fed them for several months.

I used to agree with you... but I've been given a new perspective at my new job, which is basically an inner-city medicaid walk-in health clinic. I think that you would be surprised at how many people CAN'T take care of themselves without assistance. And not just because they've never had to. A lot of these people are just simply not smart enough. That's all there is to it. Whether it's because the education system failed them or what, some of them are NOT smart enough to hold a job. You're probably thinking, there's got to be SOMETHING they can do. No. Seriously. Any job they have, they have to be able to follow directions. Some of them just can't. I think a lot of it is laziness too, but I don't know how much even that would change if their benefits were taken away from them. I also doubt that the majority of people would donate money to people like this. A lot of people live in a happy bubble where less fortunate people don't exist. Plus a lot of people are too greedy to care.

When I worked at my old job, I saw a lot more people who took advantage of the system, so it was very frustrating seeing people on welfare drive away in a nicer car than mine, with their iphones and such. But I do not think that is the majority.

 

[Renee750il]

obviously I can't say for sure but perhaps this attitude has come from the fact that we are already losing a good chunk of our paychecks to pay for the less fortunate by force. Doesn't really leave a whole lot left for a lot of people who have to take care of their own families after they've taken care of everyone else's by having their money taken every week

The governments already got our "charitable" donations.

not saying that's the right attitude to have but when you make people be "charitable" by force it kind of dampens the spirit of helping others get by out of the goodness of your heart and a lot of people just don't have enough left over after to take on someone else.

Exactly! I know I would feel much more charitable if so many of the people asking weren't already getting a chunk from me via the government -- and making more than I do, working. Granted, I'm stuck right now working for a lying, cheating, thieving, ungrateful wretch of an SOB who has to be threatened with being turned in to get him to pay part of what our agreement was, but still . . . .

 

[~Jessie~]

I agree with Zoe.

People have learned to be SO dependent on the government for handouts. If you have the mentality of "oh, why should I work when I can be given food/housing, and then I can use any extra money on TVs and iPhones" WHY would you get off of welfare? Why would you have a reason to better yourself when you are living for free and not having to work?

I do agree that there are many people who ARE deserving of assistance... Logan's mom (I can't spell your user name for the life of me!) and Smkie are two people who I am happy to have my tax money go to, and I wish that everyone on assistance could be like the both of you.

I don't mind welfare dollars going to college students who aren't getting things paid for by their parents. College students are at least bettering themselves by getting an education, and I would be all for paying a little extra each semester to make sure that meal plans could be covered for people like Romy who were struggling.

But I do NOT think that cellphones/delivery/takeout/any luxury items should be covered.

You want a nice TV? Work for it. You want name brand clothes? Work for them. But, you are struggling to make ends meet and want to cook a hot, healthy meal? That's where assistance should come in.

 

[ACooper]

obviously I can't say for sure but perhaps this attitude has come from the fact that we are already losing a good chunk of our paychecks to pay for the less fortunate by force. Doesn't really leave a whole lot left for a lot of people who have to take care of their own families after they've taken care of everyone else's by having their money taken every week

The governments already got our "charitable" donations.

not saying that's the right attitude to have but when you make people be "charitable" by force it kind of dampens the spirit of helping others get by out of the goodness of your heart and a lot of people just don't have enough left over after to take on someone else.

:hail: I think this is pretty spot on.

And I'm pretty sure that most of us STILL give (above what is forced on us) when we see those in actual need. I still do food bank donations, toys for tots, children's hospitals, local needs like someone's child has cancer, their house burned, and all sorts of things that I feel do GOOD for those in need. How much more would I do if I didn't have a gun to my head? IDK But then you could ask how much harder would those NOT in actual need try to help themselves? They won't ever know either IMO.

 

[Saeleofu]

Sorry, but IMHO, the number of people who have NO WAY to heat food are in the minority.

Definitely agree. One summer when I was a kid we had no electricity for probably a month (couldn't afford it). We ate a lot of cold foods (sandwich stuff kept in a cooler wiith ice) and for hot meals we grilled. Those were actually some really good meals. Even if you have NO way of heating things, you can live off cold foods. Sandwiches and salads, to name a couple.

 

[Kat09Tails]

As long as there is a system there will be someone out there abusing that system. However IMO there is greater damage to those who truly need that system if we restrict it to death.

I personally am glad I live in a country where people don't regularly starve to death or truly has to steal to feed their kids. I like that bags of rice and beans aren't distributed in the streets to lines of hungry people. Personally I'm glad the beggars here are meth heads as opposed to the actual hungry.

I'm not sure how many of you have actually been to a food bank lately. Go sometime and volunteer and see what's there and the amount given. Then decide if you and your family could live on the quality of the food presented and the quantity. At least here the local gardeners supply a lot of fresh produce, lots of nearly expired bread, discontinued odd flavor things in cans, all the cream flavored top ramen you can gag down, and if you're lucky a bag of rice and dry beans along with the federal req of a mystery meat, milk and cheese. You can go once a month on a Wednesday or Friday between 9am and noon.

To answer the question. I do think that if someone is truly homeless that they should be allowed to eat at grocery store deli, just like if someone has had their power turned off they should be allowed to find a hot meal somewhere. Hard times are hard times. I wouldn't fault someone for finding a hot cup of coffee at AM/PM if they're living in their car.

 

[Dakotah]

Eating out is definitely a luxury IMO

EXACTLY! :hail:

 

[Romy]

As long as there is a system there will be someone out there abusing that system. However IMO there is greater damage to those who truly need that system if we restrict it to death.

I personally am glad I live in a country where people don't regularly starve to death or truly has to steal to feed their kids. I like that bags of rice and beans aren't distributed in the streets to lines of hungry people. Personally I'm glad the beggars here are meth heads as opposed to the actual hungry.

I'm not sure how many of you have actually been to a food bank lately. Go sometime and volunteer and see what's there and the amount given. Then decide if you and your family could live on the quality of the food presented and the quantity. At least here the local gardeners supply a lot of fresh produce, lots of nearly expired bread, discontinued odd flavor things in cans, all the cream flavored top ramen you can gag down, and if you're lucky a bag of rice and dry beans along with the federal req of a mystery meat, milk and cheese. You can go once a month on a Wednesday or Friday between 9am and noon.

To answer the question. I do think that if someone is truly homeless that they should be allowed to eat at grocery store deli, just like if someone has had their power turned off they should be allowed to find a hot meal somewhere. Hard times are hard times. I wouldn't fault someone for finding a hot cup of coffee at AM/PM if they're living in their car.

I can definitely agree with this sentiment to an extent. I'd much rather live in a country with an obesity epidemic than one where children are regularly born with cleft palates because their mom's don't have a regular source of folic acid in their diets, or cholera is wiping out towns, etc.

Yes public assistance uses up tax money. I'm curious what percentage of our taxes goes specifically to food stamps. The website this chart comes from lumps it into "safety net programs" but that includes everything under the sun, SSI for disability and retirees, unemployment, etc.

 

[Buckshot]

The whole food stamp idea is some twisted logic. Some of the posts in here **** me right off. Explain to me why it is my responsibility to have to work to help pay for your bad luck or bad choices. I am paying for my own bad luck and bad choices. You hate me because I don't have a charitable heart. Yet you are willing to make me work for your benefit. A slaver calling slaves evil. Parasites cursing the host because the host finds them to be a nuisance.

 

[Zoom]

There have been plenty of times in my life where either myself personally or my family qualified for food stamps. And to this day, we've never taken them. When it was me on my own and my 40 hour a week job at the pet resort didn't leave me much in the way of food money after paying for my shoebox apartment and necessary bills, I just learned how to buy things that would make multiples. If you know how to shop, you can make $20-$30 a month go quite a long ways for food. After that, I went to work part-time at a restaurant, where they would give you a free meal if you worked a double shift and half that meal would automatically go into a box to be dinner that night after I went home.

So no, I've never been on assistance. Have I qualified for it before? You bet your ass I have and that was working two jobs, with a bit of a third on the side. There are people out there that really do need something to help them along, but SO. MANY. OTHERS. are just abusing the system because they can, because they don't want to have to buy store-brand, or learn to like rice and beans and chicken quarters.