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Food stamps
- Thread starter Vinny1
- Start date
One of my favorite bars is a dive bar on the wrong side of the tracks in downtown San Diego. If you can get past the sight of crawling insects and the odor of urine, downtown dive bars are a great place to meet interesting fringe characters. Many of the regulars there receive government assistance, and there are many different types of it in addition to welfare or food stamps. Ex-military people are eligible for special benefits, and I know of one person there who is trying to get as many of them as he can, but it's difficult because there is a screening process and an indifferent case worker can dismiss you at his whim. The different types of aid I've heard talked about are SSI, (not entirely sure what this is, but I think it has something to do with disability), then there are disablity payments, section 8 to help with rent, food stamps, welfare payments, (pretty much impossible for a single male to get). Some of the ex-military guys are trying to get additional benefits base on PTSD but they are bitching about how hard it is to get.
BTW, as you've seen in this thread, people bitch about other people who are on the government dole. So did you ever wonder what people on the government dole bitch about? They bitch about each other. They believe that someone else is getting payments they don't deserve by scamming the system. Recently I overheard one applicant complaining that he knows a half dozen people who are getting $1000 a month in benefits and they don't even need it, implying that he does indeed need it and is having too much difficulty getting it.
For you guys who are enraged that your tax dollars are going to support "bums", get over it. Living on the government dole is it's own punishment. These people have nothing. They're underweight from malnutrition, they wear ill-fitting clothes bought at thrift stores and they live in rodent infested flop houses.
Just an aside - some of you may remember the Robert Blake murder trial a few years back. The victim's brother was a regular at the bar I mentined, in fact the bartender there used to help him fill out his paperwork for keeping his benefits up to date because he was illiterate. He always claimed he had the evidence to "prove" Blake's guilt and he used to bring envelopes stuffed full of it to the bartender. The bartender kept all of it, but never looked at it. He showed me the pile of envelopes at his house, but we never looked at what was inside. I wondered what it was, but knowing the guy it was probably full of comic books. Who knows?
BTW, as you've seen in this thread, people bitch about other people who are on the government dole. So did you ever wonder what people on the government dole bitch about? They bitch about each other. They believe that someone else is getting payments they don't deserve by scamming the system. Recently I overheard one applicant complaining that he knows a half dozen people who are getting $1000 a month in benefits and they don't even need it, implying that he does indeed need it and is having too much difficulty getting it.
For you guys who are enraged that your tax dollars are going to support "bums", get over it. Living on the government dole is it's own punishment. These people have nothing. They're underweight from malnutrition, they wear ill-fitting clothes bought at thrift stores and they live in rodent infested flop houses.
Just an aside - some of you may remember the Robert Blake murder trial a few years back. The victim's brother was a regular at the bar I mentined, in fact the bartender there used to help him fill out his paperwork for keeping his benefits up to date because he was illiterate. He always claimed he had the evidence to "prove" Blake's guilt and he used to bring envelopes stuffed full of it to the bartender. The bartender kept all of it, but never looked at it. He showed me the pile of envelopes at his house, but we never looked at what was inside. I wondered what it was, but knowing the guy it was probably full of comic books. Who knows?
Quote from Sushi:
Mentally Ill only. Dog food not cheap and the homeless I see all hve dogs cats so how do you know they eat it?
Opened the can and ate it right in the store to prove they should be able to use food stamps to purchase dog food. I would hope this is no longer the case, as I said it was quite some time ago.
How in the world does one person eat on $112 per month?
When you apply for food stamp benefits, the government calculates how much they think you should be able to afford to spend on food based on your income, and then they give you food-stamps to make up the difference between how much money they think you can afford to spend on food and how much money they think you need to spend on food.
Since most, food stamp recipients have some income that can be spent on food, they don't recieve enough food-stamps for the entire amount of food they need to buy. They are expected to spend some of their own money buying food.
Therefore, the average of 112 a month isn't intended to be enough to buy 100% of the food that is needed, since the average recipient can afford to buy some of their own food themselves.
(CBS) Since the recession began at the end of 2007, jobs in this country have been vanishing at an alarming rate - more than 11,000 a day.
More than 13 million Americans are now officially unemployed, and as CBS News correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, that's putting some in an unfamiliar and difficult position: turning to the government for help.
Andrew Balzer never thought he would be standing in line for food stamps.
After working in the corporate world as a staff recruiter, he was laid off in November. He had a six-figure income. Now he has a case worker.
"The household income is just unemployment: $950 every two weeks," he told the case worker recently.
That's the limit for unemployment: $1,900 a month to support his wife Michelle, and daughters Brandi, Bailey, Shasta and Skylar.
He's already six months behind on his $3,100 mortgage, and one of his two cars has been repossessed.
"It's been very tough," Balzer said. "Can't lie. It's been very stressful."
The family is hopeful they'll get the full $800 a month offered through the food stamp program.
It's hard to get help, being in the middle class. It really is," Michelle Balzer said.
Throughout Los Angeles, public assistance offices are overflowing with the newly needy. In one suburban location, there are now more than 3,000 requests for help every month. That's a 20 percent increase over this time last year.
"These are mostly people who are really hard working people. They don't want to depend on the system but don't have a choice," said welfare worker Tina Kolgian. "They want to survive."
While applications are up, so are rejections. The county denied more than 18,000 food stamp applications in February, up 14 percent from a year ago. Current rules make qualifying for help almost impossible if you own a car or have a small amount of savings. There are calls to loosen those rules temporarily.
"We're looking at corporations, banks, insurance companies that have gotten a bailout that have been doing very well," said L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina. "What were saying here - let's help the middle class. They need a bailout right now."
After four trips, fingerprinting, hours of interviews, and mountains of paperwork, Balzer got a food stamp card, but only for $393 a month.
"It's very nice to have. It definitely would help," he said.
Meanwhile he's home working at the hardest job he's ever had - finding one.
He gets 1900 in unemployment and 393 in food stamps for a total of 2293 a month.
If he had a forklift certificate and got a job in a warehouse at $10 an hour, 40 hours a week, he would earn $1920 a month. And if he worked a second part time job a McDonalds 20 hours a week it would bring in an additional 640 a month for a total of 2560. Under this plan he would only get an additional 300 buck a month and he wouldn't even have time to look for a new job. He's actually better of with his unemployment and government assistance then he would be out working menial jobs.
Quote from DynamicHedge:
Maybe that's a result of throwing 44.4% of the USA Budget for the military war machine:
http://theburningplatform.com/economy/war-pigs---cost-of-a-global-empire-1
Ah, do not forget we are dealing with an extremist radical American/Israeli society here. The kids are brainwashed with constant violence on the news, TV, and movies. They hold a particulary radical set of beliefs of superiority and 'chosen-ness'.
Of course they make war against those perceived to be lesser and 'sinners'! America hates freedom and occupies and tortures at will.
The churches and ministers teach hate, isolationism, 'us vs/ them' and division and whip up the frenzy of war and fear.
Radical Americanism led by the rabid Israli-firsters who occupy most top spots in the government is the biggest threat to freedom today
Here is in example of how to eat cheaply and healthy:
This week at a Toronto supermaket chain named Loblaws (it's not a discount chain) I bought the following:
(all prices in $CAD)
- a large cantaloupe melon for $2.99
- two large containers of fresh strawberries for $5 total
- two large english cucumbers for $2 total
- a med. bunch of bananas for $2.
This is enough fruit and veg. to last one person for a week.
Grand total was $12 $CAD, or about $10 USD.
Who says you have to rich in order to eat healthily?
You could spend 4 hrs begging and take in $10.
Instead of buying 2 packs of soda, or 2 packs of smokes, or 12 beer of something, buy good food for cheap. $10!! I have no sympathy for obese and lazy americans.
This week at a Toronto supermaket chain named Loblaws (it's not a discount chain) I bought the following:
(all prices in $CAD)
- a large cantaloupe melon for $2.99
- two large containers of fresh strawberries for $5 total
- two large english cucumbers for $2 total
- a med. bunch of bananas for $2.
This is enough fruit and veg. to last one person for a week.
Grand total was $12 $CAD, or about $10 USD.
Who says you have to rich in order to eat healthily?
You could spend 4 hrs begging and take in $10.
Instead of buying 2 packs of soda, or 2 packs of smokes, or 12 beer of something, buy good food for cheap. $10!! I have no sympathy for obese and lazy americans.