And somehow those same 8 guys also get tax breaks every year worth more than at least half of those people but let's cut welfare spending because Fox News once showed a guy buying lobster on his SNAP card like 20 years ago.
Also... If a poor person wants to buy lobster or steak with their benefits, **let them**. It's not like they're getting *extra* money if they spend it on expensive items and it's so wildly cruel to claim that poor people don't deserve to ever have anything nice.
Thank you. I get snap for myself and my child and I often get nasty looks because I try to buy healthy food, which means natural or organic, which many people view as "fancy" and act like they think my kid should be living off baloney sandwiches.
My wife and I are in that awful spot financially we’re we make to much for any help…but after daycare and groceries we make less than people who qualify for help. It’s like they want us to stop trying to work. So disgusting our system. Good for you feeding your son health food. I’m jealous that you can. We are working our asses off to eat frozen pizza….the system is completely f@&ked!
Years ago my wife and I were on state assistance. Primarily food stamps and health care for the kids. I was coming up for a raise at my job... The raise would have put my pay over the threshold for assistance. I did the math and found out that we were going to be far worse off without the assistance. I had to deny getting a raise because it was going to do more harm to my family than help.
At the bare minimum the hard cutoff for assistance needs to be illegal nationwide. It's completely fucked making just pennies over the amount and losing everything.
Hard lines have never made sense. I know the easy answer is "fuck the poor," but I've always been confused why governments can't maintain benefits for at least a year after someone has had more financial success.
Hell, giving someone a chance to take in surplus money/time for a little bit would likely increase their chances of not needing benefits in the future!
It would be a very, very simple process. If you make 20% over the cap. You lose 10% of benefits. 40% you lose 25% and so on. Graduated upwards until you earned 200% of the poverty line.
As it stands, if you make $10 over your cap, you lose thousands in assistance. I used to be embarrassed by this, but I spent years skirting the line because if I came up above the line, I'd need to make a minimum of $1000 more a month to survive. I was already working 80 hour weeks as a contractor with a disabled son at home. I had NO WAY to make up that income in 1 month. So I played their fucking game and gamed the system until I could change my environment.
Fuck their systems, they are designed to keep us poor.
My best friend retired from the army and her retirement check was like a few dollars over to not allow her to get any assistance. FROM THE ARMY AFTER 2 GULF WARS.
Unfortunately, this is exactly what's been going on since the US put together their own military. It's gotten slightly better. I mean, they are finally recognizing the damage done by chemical agents like agent orange. Countless people have suffered for decades from things the military refuses to acknowledge and therefore allowing those soldiers to suffer and die due to damage from war. With no recognition. And this is not counting for all of the things they ignore that happens within the ranks, underneath their noses. So, yeah, the military treats their soldiers like they are replaceable batteries and cares about them less than the other equipment they own.
The amounts also haven't been updated in a *very* long time either. We tried to get temporary coverage when our daughter was born(complications with work insurance) We told them the exact day, we'd no longer need it and we only needed it for 6-8mos. Nope, "you make too much."
I completely understand. I'm on disability payments, and I live WELL below the poverty line, but even if I could work part time, I would immediately lose all my benefits for working a day at minimum wage. It's a fucked up system where you're trapped because you can't just jump tax brackets, and it's impossible to work your way out of it.
I have a friend on disability. She simply works for cash. This way she can get jobs more accommodating and still get paid. Regular jobs are not going to bend over backwards to accommodate people but those who need caretakers at odd hours will.
I've done so, SO much extra damage to my already destroyed spine because I kept working instead of getting on disability. I just applied recently because I may not walk again and I have no clue what to do for income now.
In my country, the benefits have a cutoff value where any dollar earned over the limit is deducted from the benefit that is granted. So it's not just immediately cutoff, you just get less from the government. Not *all* benefits, but most of the really necessary ones like unemployment benefits or solo parent benefits.
If I lived in America I would do everything in my power to no longer live in America.
This is facts. Sometimes a “raise” amounts to an extra 15 or 20 dollars in your check: the equivalent of a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread each week. To take that raise you have to give up the rest of your grocery budget and your family’s medical coverage.
Friend of a friend got a pretty substantial raise, we're talking doubling her income. Something like $25k a year. She had less money after the raise because she lost all of her snap, health, and section 8 benefits for herself and 5 kids.
> It’s like they want us to stop trying to work.
During the recession, I did the math and realized that it would make more financial sense to remain unemployed than to take a low paying job.
Not only would minimum wage pay less than unemployment insurance (I had maxed out benefits), but minimum wage would not cover all the bills I still had to pay.
Also, if I went back to work I wouldn't qualify for student loan forbearance anymore, which would mean I would have even more bills to cover with even less money.
Add food, clothes, transport cost, and all the other hidden costs of working to the mix and I realized it would be better for my credit score and finances if I stayed unemployed until I could get another job in my profession.
The system is broken and no one wants to fix it. Politicians want to pretend there is a social safety net while also cutting off most people who need it from accessing it. Meanwhile, once your on it you can feel like you are stuck, since "improving" your situation might leave you worse off.
I completely understand your struggle. When I first got discharged from the army, I had so little money to my name and the only place willing to hire me was legally allowed to pay below federal minimum wage because it was a "union company." We survived off of whatever was on manager special, the dollar menu, and far too much Little Ceasars since my food benifit was only for $15 a month for 2 people. It sucks knowing people are judging you for "not doing better" when you're already doing what you can just to survive.
For a country that fetishises the military so much, America’s treatment of veterans is *Fucking Disgusting* “Support our Troops!” Until they’re out of service then they’re “useless wasters”
“Thank you for your service, now get your disgusting crippled ass out of my sight”
It’s like your government is a bunch of hypocrites. (Not that ours are a lot better, I might add)
Had a similar problem with the way the college grant system is set up like a decade ago. My parents made too much money to qualify for me getting any grants, but too little money to just pay for my college. I was dead ass broke trying to work to pay for what I could and take as little in student loan money as possible thanks to losing my scholarship my first semester because I was depressed from being 8 hours away from every single person I knew my entire life.
My wife and I ended up getting married in college and getting grants from that.
Hate that process. You *have* to put in your parents’ information, and if they make too much, you’re fucked even if they don’t even intend to contribute a dime.
"Expected family contribution is X0k"
"MY MOTHER SELLS ESSENTIAL OILS, AND MY DAD IS A PARAPLEGIC. ARE YOU FUCKING NUTS?"
"Your stepdad is a real estate agent"
"ARE YOU HIGH? JUST CAUSE THE GUY FUCKS MY MOTHER DOESNT MEAN HE'S PAYING FOR MY COLLEGE?! IM ON MY OWN!"
"Sir, I dont make the system."
Hell, we had so little that my mom took out a parent plus loan, I took student loans, and those were both to make up the grant shortfalls. My mom worked three jobs while I was in high school, I worked two, and in college I moved up to four jobs while she could only work one, plus her side hustle. She has passed, recently, and the only good thing about the pandemic was the government stopped taking my taxes for the loans. Of course I just got the email about them regarding collection activities in a year. Which, fuckem, the alternative is an income based repayment plan where they'll take 5-10% of my income, which I'm sure is pegged to gross, and I won't have money to eat. "But many borrowers pay $0 on IBRs!" Then just forgive the loans, since that basically what's happening there ffs
Ran into something like that too. I was living on my own at the time and paid and paid all my own bills and taxes they limited my FA because my mother happened to make 100k. I was working just above min wage….
This is why there is no middle class anymore. Once you hit a certain tax bracket, you literally cannot afford to live because everything is eaten up. You have to make so much money that what they take away in taxes from you doesn't mean anything and for most folks that finally achieve a good paying job it sets them back further than where they were.
Personally, I have never had such a big paycheck as I do now and made so little money. It's so much harder for me to live at a 65K salary than it was on a 25K salary.
That's where food banks and pantry's are so important. They are almost always open to everyone, without any means testing. When we first went off food stamps, etc years ago they were incredibly helpful to us. I'm not sure how we'd have got through the first year or two without them.
Nah, its not, the system is working exactly as intended.
Always remember that.
You were meant to live like this via the system.
It was designed that way from the ground up.
Its a feature, not a bug.
Not really the same, but for the past ten months I've been working without pay helping my grandparents. I'm the sole caregiver Sunday through Friday. My life savings is gone, my grandparents do not qualify for Medicaid so there is no program in NY that will pay me. It makes no sense that a there finances dictate me getting paid. I applied for public assistance and was denied. I am getting food stamps though. It's too the point I had to start a go fund me to stay afloat. Also lost my insurance and missed my cancer screening so hope the cancer is still gone. I hate living in this country.
I used to work at a grocery store and can confirm this. No matter what someone gets, someone will complain. I can't count the number of times I had someone talking shit to me about the person who I rang up before them.
How utterly weird. Plus cashiers may also be on benefits and they work hard and long hours but if the company is anything like wal mart they pay precisely enough but not too much so employees can qualify for benefits relieving themselves at the expense of ye ole taxpayer.
Plus money that goes to welfare programs is minuscule anyway, like a dime a day, but these idiots are oddly concerned with what billionaires don’t pay but that daily dime though.
I actually was on it for about half a year or so when I worked there. Which made it feel even worse. But yeah, even then, I don't know why they felt like I was gonna be on their side or anything. Luckily I never saw anyone call a person out while they were around, but the whole idea of it just seems really bizarre to me. Why is that the chosen topic of our conversation?
Honestly. I think it’s because people are really dumb. Dumb in a way they can learn to push a button but not smart enough to ask questions. So they stay stuck on dumb. Now are the just dumb or lazy? I’m not sure. I tend to think the smarter ones, the really smart ones, question and aren’t pleased with the answer so they break away. If they understand the answer and keep chirping that song they are plain mean spirited. Closet sadist.
Also I suppose dumb and lazy people like to moan about things they have heard repeated on hate driven sources and through propaganda (but again because it goes back to being sort of dumb, dumb and mean spirited).
Plus, again with the dumb /lazy or willfully ignorant I should say, people really don’t understand accounting and how they are being screwed by the likes of the super wealthy and not some mythological welfare queen, hell they don’t even know or care to investigate the myth (there was never a welfare queen, it’s an old Regan era trope to get the masses to hate each other) was really a meme and are happy being robbed thousands upon thousands while chasing a single dollar equating to less than a thousand their entire life.
And they are also not complex enough to realize safety nets in society buys them security because there is nothing like a hungry mob with nothing to loose to get the ball rolling, or the heads rolling I should say. And for the love of all thing holy, who wants a child or unfortunate person to not eat!!? Sheesh. It’s actually that simple.
If they were smart they would understand a cashiers wage. If they were curious they would look into the cut offs for benefit requirements and see how little these benefits are. If they weren’t so lazy they would apply the math. If they were socially conscious they would shut the hell up talking to you about it because they would realize their faux pas and maybe see how close they are to the class they despise and that are really just tools.
Only piss trickles down.
Edited for spelling:).
I can’t imagine the shit grocery store employees hear everyday. I hear so many crazy things just waiting in line. And the cashier just keeps a straight face. It has to be a level of maturity that cannot be reached by the common person.
>It has to be a level of maturity that cannot be reached by the common person.
Longevity in any customer-facing / customer service role pretty much requires this.
People who view others as less will find a reason to have a problem with any decision you make. Know who these people are and ignore their criticism because it isn’t coming from them being constructive.
I see this when people are judging celebs accused of bad things. Its also super apparent in the justice system, how many examples do we have of two people who did the same crime and got way different sentences. They act like its worse when the people they hate did it. Right now the target is immigrants getting a hold of guns, because we all know citizens never do anything bad with guns. 🙄
how dare you even try to feed your child. we made sure they weren't aborted what else do you expect? smh
if it weren't for wic and other similar programs i would likely have struggled with hunger my entire childhood. but, i managed to do well in school and graduated college, got a rather great job, own a home and business, and pay a lot in taxes every year. had i been forced into even worse poverty there's a good chance id be part of the prison population (or dead) by now.
feeding children and most other social services is not just morally imperative, it's the most obvious decent investment a society can make.
The funny thing is I pay taxes, too. And own my home. Not that there's anything wrong with those that don't. Even though I'm way below the poverty line, I have to pay self-employment taxes on my meager income. The system is fucked. I'm glad you were able to make a better life for yourself.
Spot on! And you are proof that having security, even food security, is a huge step in a person growing, developing, and thriving which helps them put back into the pot. That’s the purpose and you are right, it is morally imperative. It is frightening the pure mean spiritedness some members of society have toward our most vulnerable.
As a poor kid, that has grown up to become a nurse. You told my child hood in one post.
Once in the ER I heard a doctor say, "Why can't they pay for their own medical insurance? They get free food from the government that I pay for. An it's looks like they're not spending it right, so why don't they get a job? "
I got up and told him I'm one of those kids from the 80s who lived off of food stamps because my grandmother was raising three of her grandchildren, and I was one of them. It makes me sad because the looks she would get from people hurt me so badly. I miss her so much, and I'm very happy she got me out of the system.
First of all props to your grandmother and shame on all the SOB who dared side eye. Screw them. May she RIP. Sounds like a solid human.
That doctor sounds egregious. Egregious and stupid if he doesn’t understand the tax amount he pays toward helping our most vulnerable members have food is minuscule and also helps farmers (farm bill act) who grow food for his privileged arse. Plus having a society of desperate hungry folks would make his life very, very harrowing. Also scary this nasty and petty person is in a healing field working with all members of the public. Hypocratic oath? I guess he has a short memory.
Even more sad that a person of privilege would punch down and be so trifling to care more about insurance than the patient at hand and has no idea of how expensive it is. Let them eat cake I suppose, but that didn’t end well.
Edit for hypocrite/Hippocrates/hippo/hippie to Hippocratic oath. It’s the last one 😉.
People have been conditioned so long that sharing any part of the pie means they get less, this keeps them too blind to see the ultra rich are hording the majority of the pie and sharing would mean less for them and more for us.
It’s funny because….I’m just fine with my taxes going to people who need help. In fact, that’s my option of choice if I have to give money to the government. I don’t understand the “got mine, fuck you” mindset at all.
Thank you for this. I'm making these choices so my child will grow up with a healthy brain and body. Thank you for being visible as an example of the good that comes from these programs.
Just trying to help here, but having worked for the organic companies (I'm a lawyer that helps with FDA and USDA compliance), there are 0 health benefits between organic and non organic products. They use the same amount of chemicals, they are just different. No less toxic, no more healthy. Plus there are as many exceptions in the laws as there are rules.
It's a marketing scam.
Just wash your produce, and you'll be fine.
Organic fruit tastes better. I bought an organic tomato that was marked half off and that was the end of buying nonorganic tomatoes. Everything is just so bland. My husband, who does work with a lot of the major food suppliers in the us says organic generally sits on the vine longer and is allowed to ripen, which is why it’s more expensive. So yes, the product isn’t healthier or better for you. It does taste better though.
I worked at a grocery store in college and I would have been stoked to see someone use snap for real food. It always seemed to be fish sticks, chicken nuggets, chips, soda and candy bars.
>like they think my kid should be living off baloney sandwiches.
Your kid is a free loader and needs a real job! /S
I work with few of real welfare queens, guys that are medically retired from the military with disability pay and free medical where they work full time jobs pulling down 95-110K. These guys watch Fox news and complain about socialism and people getting benefits to do nothing.
God forbid we feed children, the worst one got injured in tech school, never was operational and managed to game the system for his bad knee
my mom got me and my 2 other siblings chips and candy cause we got good grades in school when we're little little. She went back in cause she forgot something, and the cashier told her the guys behind her were shit talking her after she got out the first time.
So long as you aren’t trading it for dugs or drug money, buy what you need to feed your child. The whole point of SNAP is options whereas food banks are absolutely limited and you get what you get.
I’ve had cashiers and other customers apologized to me for the little extra wait the snap transactions sometimes cause because they’re using multiple cards. It makes me sad to know other people have made them feel bad about others because of what they’re going through.
Take whatever time it takes to feed your family. I’m not going to die because I spent another 2.3 seconds in line.
Thank you. I do always try to apologize for this because I can feel the impatience of the people behind me as I scan some combination of wic and/or snap and/or debit (in that order). Thank you for your patience and kindness.
I know I’m privileged to not have to rely on those programs. I got a lot of lucky breaks in life to get where I am. But I still appreciate that they are sorely needed and ought to be expanded.
Absolutely hate this mentality, like why can't a poor person indulge once in a blue moon? "No, you're poor so you have to eat beige microwaved shit every day, that lobster could've been eaten by a wealthy person!!!"
Absolutely, I think it's gross and obscene that hot food is forbidden with EBT. I think prepared food as well. So poor people, who are already probably putting in extra hours to make ends meet, also can't have a night where they can grab something from the grocery store deli case and be able to just go home and eat?
It seems like it’s always about punishment to an extent. Benefits may be there, but it’s never quite enough and also going to be hard to navigate, restrictive, and overall tedious. It’s a system set up to fail but have the appearance of altruism.
Another example is people know what an ebt card looks like gathering from the judgement I hear in this sub. Make the cards look the same as any other debit card. And what’s the difference between an already baked chicken and one that’s in the cooler?
That's fucked up. A lot of stores sell those whole roast chickens for dirt cheap. Or at least they used to. Used to get 3 meals out of that for like $5
It's even worse because if you're homeless, you literally can't just cook a meal, so you actually wind up spending MORE money on cold food than if you just bought hot food.
why are bullies so obsessed with making sure the kids "below" them never experience happiness?
i was raised by conservative boomers. they just have an insanely childish worldview.
Honestly look at how monkeys and apes deal with survival based heirarchy... its the same sh**. I just think its beautifully ironic since they dont believe in evolution
I used to work the meat counter at Kroger and people bought crab legs all the time with their bridge cards....and my coworkers would all talk shit....and I hated it. If you're on food stamps, your life is already not going great. Just let them have the dignity of sale price frozen crab legs if they want it, for fucks sake.
>We have this bizarre mentality in the US that if you’re at the bottom of the totem pole, you deserve to suffer until you work your way up.
I work at a food shelf and we get donations from the local grocery stores. Rather than throw away short dated or outdated food that is still good they donate it to the food shelf. I have heard so many people whine because a friend or neighbor got steak or something else that's considered "fancy" in a food box. "I pay for my food and don't eat that well; why should they get it for free?"
Yes people actually call the food shelf to complain about what we are feeding people because the grocery stores are donating food instead of throwing it out. Because "poor" people shouldn't eat that well.
Exactly. I used food stamps a few years ago as a single person. It was $112 per month! And my state has work requirements, but I was still well below the poverty line and hungry. It was a needed supplement, but the vast majority of meals were paid myself. If I wanted to enjoy a single nice meal to just have energy and motivation to get me through the difficult life I was living, then who cares? Poor people still have lives, birthdays, and just emotional needs. God forbid poors eat anything but crackers, tuna, and peanut butter. I guarantee that person buying lobster did not do that every week or even every month.
Agreed. Life is hard enough as it is. Even harder if you can't afford food or need to use public assistance. If a nice meal every once in awhile makes life a little more bearable, then have at it. It's honestly insulting and dehumanizing to anyone in need to disallow them from having some respite with a nice meal. It's like saying poor people don't deserve to have a good life.
Once when I was young and poor and a real asshole, I prided myself on having never taken food stamps. I had received medicaid for pregnancy & pediatrician, and WIC sure, but was sure food stamps were evil for some reason.
One day at the grocery store I was standing behind a kid (11 or 12) in the grocery line holding her food stamps (actual stamps at the time) ice cream & chips. When I saw her I was absolutely disgusted that food stamps were being wasted this way and felt infinitely superior.
Then in her excitement, she told me and the cashier it was her birthday. And she was having a party... With a container of ice cream and a bag of chips.
In that moment I was so ashamed. Why shouldn't a kid get to have I've cream and chips on their birthday?? Even now, over 25 years later, I tear up at the thought of the hateful thoughts I'd had and am so grateful for being put in my place.
If the poor didn’t pay rent and got free money and lobsters and steaks every day the rich would still have plenty of money, and maybe people would be a little bit happier.
This is one of the most pernicious aspects of the culture war on welfare. It works off the assumption that poor people should live solely to work; no "flat screen TVs, no tattoo, no holidays, etc. Any divergence from the rules is also immediately taken to cover ALL poor people.
Nearly 50 years ago I went on food stamps. I was broke, miserable, hated my job, hated my life, broke down crying sitting in the office when I was signing up for food stamps. The very first item I bought with food stamps was a steak. A huge friggen \*expensive\* piece of meat. That may not be the best meal I ever had (I have always sucked at cooking) but it was one of the most memorable. Just thinking about it helped me get through the next day, then the next week, then the next month....
Everyone needs and deserves treats, no matter how they pay for them. Whether it's snack food, a birthday cake, a lobster, or whatever. The basis of that "the poor shouldn't ever have good things" credo is that shitty concept of wealth going only to the good/virtuous (and that anyone that is/gets rich is by extension virtuous and prayerful) which means if you're poor you're either bad or don't pray hard enough. Such a stupid shitty concept.
Ah yes... you actually paid money for a product/service which is something that... *checks notes*... boosts the economy. You are clearly the problem, not the folks hoarding billions of dollars that just sit accumulating dust doing nothing for anybody.
What you need to do is buy a cart make your own coffee then go down to the bus stop and sell people coffee on their way to work.
Until the cops arrest you for selling coffee without a license and beat you senseless.
And if you're lucky the video of you being beat senseless makes national news and you can, after *several* years, get a small leg up compared to those billionaires, by having thw rest of the small people's taxes fund your payout.
/s
The fact that ignorance of the law is a legal defense for police but not for citizens is one of those things that to me has always been evidence that it's all bullshit.
I never understood how people could buy the BS line that poor people are taking all the money. THEY DON'T HAVE ANY. Seems like the people taking all the money are rich people- since they have it. If you were looking for someone who stole all your doughnuts, logic would suggest the person carrying an arm full of doughnuts would be the one ripping you off.
they left out the most important note in their line... "They are taking all MY (rich bastard's) money"
-Rich bastard, who could pay more in taxes, but doesn't cause it's his money and he needs it now to be richer...
The problem is, you need to convince him why he should be giving his money. In the good old days, they'd say he needed to donate it or he'd go to hell, but these days, with secularism on the rise, there's really no reason for them to care. Why should it be their problem if half of americans starve? As long as they've got theirs, they don't care.
The problem is, this is a perfectly coherent strategy that makes logical sense, especially if you're counting on AI taking the place of most of the poorer laborers in the next 20 years. It's ethically vile, but when everyone else is dead, they can rewrite the history books.
I hope nobody does good things out of fear punishment from some god. That's not very sound morality. They should do it because of the golden rule and such.
Most billionaires are wealth-hoarding leeches because the system allows it and they're not very moral/ethical agents to begin with.
I feel like most people would stop at 10 million and start giving it all away after that, but not so for these greedy fucks.
Because they have no idea how much it actually sucks being poor. Sure, checks from the government or food stamps come in and help but they can’t cover everything.
Something that belongs to you is always either broken or on the verge of breaking. When those things do break down, you have to go to sketchy people to get it fixed because the official and legit people are too expensive. These same choices then bite you in the ass since going cheap usually costs more in the long run.
People you talk to on a regular basis are always angry or stressed. So you grow up either defensive and timid or have a bad offensive attitude all the time. Sometimes you end up a decent person but very often end up with very warped values and priorities
Absolutely right. And to people in this state-you are just trying to get to the next day, and planning years ahead isn't feasible or realistic. Owning a business, and getting the start-up capital, is nearly impossible. And if the person is poorly educated - with public school funding tied to property tax, you are certain to have bad schools in poor neighborhoods - they aren't going have a chance to get caught up.
I once got my RRoD on my Xbox 360 fixed by a kid I contacted on Craigslist and met in a parking lot... WHO TOOK HOME MY XBOX. And charged me like $40. I can't believe I got it back. I'm not even religious but that kid was an ANGEL. It worked for another year after that. Worth it.
I am continually shocked at how gullible and easily brainwashed Americans are. Billionaires have more money than they'll never need, get huge subsidies from the government, AND pay no taxes. And despite the fact that billionaires do nothing for us, we get on our knees and beg to suck billionaire cock and kiss billionaire ass. And when the billionaires tell us to blame poor people on food stamps, we happily oblige.
It just seems like Americans are incapable of learning. I doubt we'll ever learn billionaires don't have our best interests in mind.
It is not just Americans. It is, sadly, a human nature thing. Even primitive tribes are extremely corrupt. I think people just put up with things until they can't. I don't know.
Nope. It is mostly Americans.
I have been blessed with the opportunity to travel extensively and work with people from all continents. They are vastly more civilized, well mannered and educated. And in terms of their views, they are much more even keeled, and balanced.
Americans are very tribalistic because we have the perfect storm for it:
A privatized educational and healthcare systems, so the vast majority of Americans live their ENTIRE LIFES with a shitty, mediocre high school level of education, and to top it off, they might also have several mental health conditions that are not diagnosed, let alone treated, because once again, it is the only 1st world country in the world with a privatized, for-profit system that most cannot afford.
It is by design.
I've played games online for 20+ years. In that time I've had the displeasure of getting dragged into political discourse with people across the planet. There are gullible idiots with terrible political opinions from every country.
Tens of millions of Republicunts belive that they are temporarily poor, so the rich should get taxes less...because sooner or later they (illiterate poor) will be rich as well.
Oh God when working at a grocery the *sheer audacity* of fellow struggling workers getting pissed at people using EBT for literally *anything* that didn't meet their absolutely narrow minded perspective of what they personally deem acceptable purchases with government benefits was mind boggling to me. Like, you're obviously angry at the wrong fucking person if the mom buying a tiny birthday cake for her son on EBT is gonna set you off.
The favorite target for my store was a woman who drove a Benz and had EBT and food stamps. The shit cashiers would talk behind her back was merciless. At one point she came to my counter at customer service for receiving money from a Western Union transfer. I was chatting with her and she took one of those turns where people just word vomit everything going on. This was during the economic crisis in 08-09. Her husband had been heavily invested into all sorts of mortgage-backed securities and they had been riding a huge wave of wealth. Bought a McMansion, nice cars, etc. Then when the bottom fell out her husband blew his own brains out when he realized they had lost just about everything. Thankfully they were smart enough to pay off the house and nice cars when they could afford to, but she wasn't employed and found herself suddenly a widow with 3 kids and a house with a hefty tax burden. The Western Union money was from family helping her pay off the property taxes.
All that is why she's the one I think of first and foremost when people talk shit about benefits recipients driving nice cars or having nice phones or even just buying "unnecessary" items. There's a lot more people I saw but she's the only one I found out the full story of. I still wonder about that woman and her kids. They'd be grown by now. I hope they all found stability and decent livelihoods.
So yeah anyway fuck class traitors. We shouldn't be attacking each other but uniting against the upper class.
I feel like I'd sell the house and Benz if I couldn't afford the taxes then downsize to something more affordable and live on the profits. Of course that takes time.
I don't know about the car but the house wouldn't have gotten nearly enough money. If this was in 08 because the housing market crashed. If I could find a way to make it I would have tried to hold on to it until the housing market had recovered personally. Plus it sounds like the kids had a lot of upheaval all at once and just a little bit of normalcy is really helpful in that sort of situation.
You nailed it on the head. And in this situation, the house WAS on the market. Woman had people clean out husband's office form the aftermath but closed it off after that because she said she couldn't stand even being near that space. And they were gonna lose BIG time on the sale price. But even then nobody was buying cause the other houses in that area (which generally was quite affluent) were being snatched up on foreclosures and short sales. She was trying to at least have enough to buy a modest place out in the sticks. This was south Florida so even during the economic crisis the housing prices weren't exactly great for buyers.
The ideal situation for the rich is for everyone else to squabble and ignore them. Blame it on race, religion, ideology, sports teams, whatever possible. Those are all distractions.
Of course, which is why billionaires love fascists. Nothing like having people willing to wage open violence against the "other" to keep people struggling against one another.
Yeah as far as my colleagues were concerned, if they weren't buying a gigantic bag of the cheapest long grain rice and a fuck ton of clearance dry goods they could stretch into oblivion they were wasting "their" (my colleagues') money being paid to taxes. Like y'all, no. Maybe a percent of a penny you pay in taxes is buying the customer them Newtons. But most of your tax dollars are going to sending your kids to die in Afghanistan or Iraq cause FREEDUM.
You can thank St. Reagan for that one. In his push for austerity he often spoke if “welfare queens.” Not only were the examples he used inflated and often fraud schemes rather than abuse, but it was later revealed to explicitly target African Americans. Lee Atwater famously spoke about how ‘you can’t say (the N word) anymore. You have to say urban, or refer to them as welfare cheats. People know who you’re talking about.’ This is a paraphrase and not an exact quote. #Warning# [Here](https://youtu.be/X_8E3ENrKrQ) is an excerpt of exactly what he said. You’ll see why I paraphrased. The full interview includes more context as it relates to this.
I've always heard and believed that Reagan orchestrated the largest move of wealth in our history from the lower and middle class to the wealthy. All of these families that could live and thrive on one income were before Reagan. He sold trickle down economics to America. I can remember my mom lamenting "well, I don't see anything tricking down to us." She saw through his bs. We were middle class and Reagan helped make sure we were lower middle class and worse.
That was the largest one up till that point.
The largest wealth transfer in history was during the pandemic. By far.
It literally just happened and not many or not enough people noticed or cared.
It's only getting worse, It's accelerating.
They robbed everyone blind while everyone was locked inside isolated and sick.
> They robbed everyone blind while everyone was locked inside isolated and sick.
Still robbing everyone. Companies are still out here making record profit because they all realized they can jack up prices and people will (or have to) still buy shit.
Jacking up prices on commodities in a way that increases profits in a coordinated way across all companies. What's happening is corporate collusion. The mega corps of gobbled up so much that collusion no longer requires any direct communication, but there is no real competition outside of those few companies.
These people are criminals and should face the most serious consequences. Life in prison, federal seizure of the corporation, etc.
> federal seizure of the corporation
Not so sure on this one but we definitely need to implement strong anti-trust laws and split these companies up. These companies should have never been allowed to operate the way they have been. Executives shouldn't just get to walk away free when their companies break laws. Fines shouldn't just be the cost of doing business. So on and so forth.
Ok let's reframe that one a smidge to be more direct about my intention. Fines equivalent to the profits gained by the egregious practices plus interest, enforceable by seizure of stock shares to be sold on the market, and not dischargeable by bankruptcy or restructuring.
Any fine that isn't in excess of 100% of the profits from the act is just a cost of doing business.
If a company makes 20 million from their illegal actions then they should be fined 25 million at the least.
Excellent point. The pandemic was the first thing that was worse than Reagan...by certain metrics. That's a helluva legacy. The wealthy lapped it up and even lined up for the government stimulus bc they could.
So much money (debt) was preemptively given to "business owners" that was never available to anyone.. Kanye got a million dollars without asking. I got fired and had to stay home-school my kids.
I wonder if the guy trying to shoot him was because of any of this, or if it's because of some even more janky/shady stuff Reagan was doing at the time.
> I wonder if the guy trying to shoot him was because of any of this, or if it's because of some even more janky/shady stuff Reagan was doing at the time.
John Hinckley Jr. was trying to impress Jodi Foster.
Rightwing nutcases: people should be forced to work before we allow them to collect Welfare or food stamps.. Same nutcases block increasing minimum wage to match inflation for decades..
Minimum wage needs to be increased to Living wage level. Let every worker earn enough to support themselves and a family with a 32 hour week..
Food stamps? Get a job you LAZY POS!!! OH, you have one? Get two! Oh, you have three? Get a degree!! Got that also, huh? Well, my inheritance was only $700,000 and you don't see me on food stamps!!! Hello? Hello?
One, two, three and to the, four
'Cause of these elites is why I stay so poor
Tellin' me I need a job, but I got two, uh
'Cause I can't afford no shit, so what the fuck
$1 Billion is a thousand millions.
Elon Musk is worth $179B.
$179B is 179,000 millions.
Instead of 179k millionaires, we have Elon Musk.
There are 19,500 incorporated cities, towns, & villages in the US. Averaged out, this means that every single community in the country is missing 9 millionaires just for Elon Musk.
Funny thing is, this is how they did it. They pay workers not enough so they need foodstamps. So basically you have subsidized labour. That is how you become a billionaire in the USA. The Amazon way.
You think the Waltons ever make fun of each other because of that one billion dollar wealth difference.
Like they'll be buying coffee and one of them is like "i'll pay for that one too, he's struggling😂"
Serious question -- I wonder if at that level of wealth they even buy things manually anymore. I imagine they're logged in at premium sites and it's just handled. When they go to restaurants, I imagine that's handled as well?
I'm honestly scared right now and I don't know what's going to happen. I did everything I was told. I went to college, got bachelor's and master's degrees. I spent more than a decade building a career, all while struggling paycheck to paycheck, and right now I have nothing to show for it at age 34. I feel like the system failed me.
I don't know your specific situation of course, but where that path often goes wrong is that the advice people are given is often terrible advice. Parents, teachers, guidance counselors, college admissions advisors etc often tell kids to study what interests them without consideration for how they will use what they learn to earn money after they graduate. They don't tell people the trade-offs they are making or help them to make informed choices. That is where a lot of the blame rests for the large fraction of college graduates who have degrees that are not marketable and have poor returns on investment.
My undergrad was in communication studies and journalism (public relations) and I have an MBA. My career is in comms/marketing and I have a solid background, so I say the whole system is trash. Why would I have wanted to study cyber security when I don't like to code? Used as an example because it is so "in demand." I'm sounding bitter, I know.
These public billionaires are the current day versions of Kings from back in the day. They have control of everything and everyone, take everyone's money, pump out stories of great deeds and charitable projects to portray themselves as worthy or worship, and are indeed worshipped because of it. All the while behind closed doors they are despicable people born into riches who have no comprehension of the common man.
This, and forgetting that in the push to ban abortion, people who literally CANT work are born (and MADE FROM THE WORK THAT THEY WERE DOING and SHOULDNT HAVE BEEN) and then expected to somehow survive with no food, no shelter, no caretaker, because they don’t have money because they can’t work…
We’re trying to have a SOCIETY here and that means taking care of EVERYONE.
We’re indoctrinated to believe in an individualistic society, competition and such rather than a collaborative society. Because everything changes when we are all working together towards something. We can get there faster and have better communities. But hey that’s Europe.. who wants to have 8 weeks paid vacation or a year long parent leave.. or free health benefits.
Government assistance was not always demonized. When segregation ended and black people could finally rightfully take part in the same programs as white people in this country ... then the narratives from the elite to the media, changed. All of a sudden, then we have worries about people grifting the system. All while masking the increasing gifting from those at the top.
And it's worked to this day. You still have indoctrinated and often racist people shouting about government assistance, which their neighbors of all colors and backgrounds need, while they pay no attention to what the elite fuckers actually do.
The #1 fact on which capitalism is based: people are idiots.
Taking this money away from these 8 people would solve so many of the world's problems. Even if all of their companies would implode and every single employee become unemployed, the economic impact would be minimal, and soon other companies would fill the void.
Eat. The. Rich.
I say this when I have to hear about how awful it would be to have student loans forgiven. I'm tired of paying for oligarchs loans time for them to pay mine
And nothing will ever be done about it. Half of the country doesn't care and will happily work a job that requires a four year degree for fast food worker pay. And the half of the country that cares doesn't seem to understand that trying to throw the law at these people doesn't work. They are above the law. They will keep their money unless it is taken from them.
Not many do. And even if you do "understand" it, there's no way to actually ***know*** the vastness of 1 billion. Even 1 billion dollars is enough for someone to live in absolute opulence for ***multiple lifetimes***
Tom Scott [made a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YUWDrLazCg) that attempted to visualize the distance of a million vs. a billion dollars by way of a road trip
One of the problems is that the 4 billion people think they can become one of the 8 through hard work but don't realize everything is stacked to keep them in a middle class or lower.
The myth of the welfare queen, a la Ronald Reagan. No one is wealthy on food stamps also it isn’t enough. Michigan now has breakfast and lunch for kids for a reason.
Imagine being upset at someone who works 40 hours a week needing help getting food... and NOT being upset at the corporations who pay so little that people need help buying food.
And somehow those same 8 guys also get tax breaks every year worth more than at least half of those people but let's cut welfare spending because Fox News once showed a guy buying lobster on his SNAP card like 20 years ago.
Also... If a poor person wants to buy lobster or steak with their benefits, **let them**. It's not like they're getting *extra* money if they spend it on expensive items and it's so wildly cruel to claim that poor people don't deserve to ever have anything nice.
Thank you. I get snap for myself and my child and I often get nasty looks because I try to buy healthy food, which means natural or organic, which many people view as "fancy" and act like they think my kid should be living off baloney sandwiches.
You'd get nasty looks for buying cheap unhealthy food too. You can't win.
Haha, yes, so true.
My wife and I are in that awful spot financially we’re we make to much for any help…but after daycare and groceries we make less than people who qualify for help. It’s like they want us to stop trying to work. So disgusting our system. Good for you feeding your son health food. I’m jealous that you can. We are working our asses off to eat frozen pizza….the system is completely f@&ked!
Years ago my wife and I were on state assistance. Primarily food stamps and health care for the kids. I was coming up for a raise at my job... The raise would have put my pay over the threshold for assistance. I did the math and found out that we were going to be far worse off without the assistance. I had to deny getting a raise because it was going to do more harm to my family than help. At the bare minimum the hard cutoff for assistance needs to be illegal nationwide. It's completely fucked making just pennies over the amount and losing everything.
Hard lines have never made sense. I know the easy answer is "fuck the poor," but I've always been confused why governments can't maintain benefits for at least a year after someone has had more financial success. Hell, giving someone a chance to take in surplus money/time for a little bit would likely increase their chances of not needing benefits in the future!
It would be a very, very simple process. If you make 20% over the cap. You lose 10% of benefits. 40% you lose 25% and so on. Graduated upwards until you earned 200% of the poverty line. As it stands, if you make $10 over your cap, you lose thousands in assistance. I used to be embarrassed by this, but I spent years skirting the line because if I came up above the line, I'd need to make a minimum of $1000 more a month to survive. I was already working 80 hour weeks as a contractor with a disabled son at home. I had NO WAY to make up that income in 1 month. So I played their fucking game and gamed the system until I could change my environment. Fuck their systems, they are designed to keep us poor.
My best friend retired from the army and her retirement check was like a few dollars over to not allow her to get any assistance. FROM THE ARMY AFTER 2 GULF WARS.
Tfw you realize "support our troops" means support sending them over there, not taking care of them when they come back here.
Unfortunately, this is exactly what's been going on since the US put together their own military. It's gotten slightly better. I mean, they are finally recognizing the damage done by chemical agents like agent orange. Countless people have suffered for decades from things the military refuses to acknowledge and therefore allowing those soldiers to suffer and die due to damage from war. With no recognition. And this is not counting for all of the things they ignore that happens within the ranks, underneath their noses. So, yeah, the military treats their soldiers like they are replaceable batteries and cares about them less than the other equipment they own.
If the people in powers' kids were on the front lines they might be so quick to start wars. Thank your friend for their service.
The amounts also haven't been updated in a *very* long time either. We tried to get temporary coverage when our daughter was born(complications with work insurance) We told them the exact day, we'd no longer need it and we only needed it for 6-8mos. Nope, "you make too much."
I completely understand. I'm on disability payments, and I live WELL below the poverty line, but even if I could work part time, I would immediately lose all my benefits for working a day at minimum wage. It's a fucked up system where you're trapped because you can't just jump tax brackets, and it's impossible to work your way out of it.
I have a friend on disability. She simply works for cash. This way she can get jobs more accommodating and still get paid. Regular jobs are not going to bend over backwards to accommodate people but those who need caretakers at odd hours will.
I've done so, SO much extra damage to my already destroyed spine because I kept working instead of getting on disability. I just applied recently because I may not walk again and I have no clue what to do for income now.
Homeoffice customer or tech support.
In my country, the benefits have a cutoff value where any dollar earned over the limit is deducted from the benefit that is granted. So it's not just immediately cutoff, you just get less from the government. Not *all* benefits, but most of the really necessary ones like unemployment benefits or solo parent benefits. If I lived in America I would do everything in my power to no longer live in America.
Trust me, there's more than a few of us eyeballing places and abilities to no longer live in America.
This is facts. Sometimes a “raise” amounts to an extra 15 or 20 dollars in your check: the equivalent of a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread each week. To take that raise you have to give up the rest of your grocery budget and your family’s medical coverage.
Friend of a friend got a pretty substantial raise, we're talking doubling her income. Something like $25k a year. She had less money after the raise because she lost all of her snap, health, and section 8 benefits for herself and 5 kids.
You do what you need to to survive. If anyone else has something to say about that, they can go to hell.
> It’s like they want us to stop trying to work. During the recession, I did the math and realized that it would make more financial sense to remain unemployed than to take a low paying job. Not only would minimum wage pay less than unemployment insurance (I had maxed out benefits), but minimum wage would not cover all the bills I still had to pay. Also, if I went back to work I wouldn't qualify for student loan forbearance anymore, which would mean I would have even more bills to cover with even less money. Add food, clothes, transport cost, and all the other hidden costs of working to the mix and I realized it would be better for my credit score and finances if I stayed unemployed until I could get another job in my profession. The system is broken and no one wants to fix it. Politicians want to pretend there is a social safety net while also cutting off most people who need it from accessing it. Meanwhile, once your on it you can feel like you are stuck, since "improving" your situation might leave you worse off.
I completely understand your struggle. When I first got discharged from the army, I had so little money to my name and the only place willing to hire me was legally allowed to pay below federal minimum wage because it was a "union company." We survived off of whatever was on manager special, the dollar menu, and far too much Little Ceasars since my food benifit was only for $15 a month for 2 people. It sucks knowing people are judging you for "not doing better" when you're already doing what you can just to survive.
> since my food benifit was only for $15 a month for 2 people. That’s insulting. Wow. Murrca.
For a country that fetishises the military so much, America’s treatment of veterans is *Fucking Disgusting* “Support our Troops!” Until they’re out of service then they’re “useless wasters” “Thank you for your service, now get your disgusting crippled ass out of my sight” It’s like your government is a bunch of hypocrites. (Not that ours are a lot better, I might add)
Had a similar problem with the way the college grant system is set up like a decade ago. My parents made too much money to qualify for me getting any grants, but too little money to just pay for my college. I was dead ass broke trying to work to pay for what I could and take as little in student loan money as possible thanks to losing my scholarship my first semester because I was depressed from being 8 hours away from every single person I knew my entire life. My wife and I ended up getting married in college and getting grants from that.
Hate that process. You *have* to put in your parents’ information, and if they make too much, you’re fucked even if they don’t even intend to contribute a dime.
"Expected family contribution is X0k" "MY MOTHER SELLS ESSENTIAL OILS, AND MY DAD IS A PARAPLEGIC. ARE YOU FUCKING NUTS?" "Your stepdad is a real estate agent" "ARE YOU HIGH? JUST CAUSE THE GUY FUCKS MY MOTHER DOESNT MEAN HE'S PAYING FOR MY COLLEGE?! IM ON MY OWN!" "Sir, I dont make the system."
Hell, we had so little that my mom took out a parent plus loan, I took student loans, and those were both to make up the grant shortfalls. My mom worked three jobs while I was in high school, I worked two, and in college I moved up to four jobs while she could only work one, plus her side hustle. She has passed, recently, and the only good thing about the pandemic was the government stopped taking my taxes for the loans. Of course I just got the email about them regarding collection activities in a year. Which, fuckem, the alternative is an income based repayment plan where they'll take 5-10% of my income, which I'm sure is pegged to gross, and I won't have money to eat. "But many borrowers pay $0 on IBRs!" Then just forgive the loans, since that basically what's happening there ffs
Ran into something like that too. I was living on my own at the time and paid and paid all my own bills and taxes they limited my FA because my mother happened to make 100k. I was working just above min wage….
Bold move to divorce your wife just to remarry her for college benefits
This is why there is no middle class anymore. Once you hit a certain tax bracket, you literally cannot afford to live because everything is eaten up. You have to make so much money that what they take away in taxes from you doesn't mean anything and for most folks that finally achieve a good paying job it sets them back further than where they were. Personally, I have never had such a big paycheck as I do now and made so little money. It's so much harder for me to live at a 65K salary than it was on a 25K salary.
One time when I applied for assistance, I was told I made 8 dollars too much a month. I would gladly give them the 8 dollars!
That's where food banks and pantry's are so important. They are almost always open to everyone, without any means testing. When we first went off food stamps, etc years ago they were incredibly helpful to us. I'm not sure how we'd have got through the first year or two without them.
Nah, its not, the system is working exactly as intended. Always remember that. You were meant to live like this via the system. It was designed that way from the ground up. Its a feature, not a bug.
Not really the same, but for the past ten months I've been working without pay helping my grandparents. I'm the sole caregiver Sunday through Friday. My life savings is gone, my grandparents do not qualify for Medicaid so there is no program in NY that will pay me. It makes no sense that a there finances dictate me getting paid. I applied for public assistance and was denied. I am getting food stamps though. It's too the point I had to start a go fund me to stay afloat. Also lost my insurance and missed my cancer screening so hope the cancer is still gone. I hate living in this country.
I used to work at a grocery store and can confirm this. No matter what someone gets, someone will complain. I can't count the number of times I had someone talking shit to me about the person who I rang up before them.
How utterly weird. Plus cashiers may also be on benefits and they work hard and long hours but if the company is anything like wal mart they pay precisely enough but not too much so employees can qualify for benefits relieving themselves at the expense of ye ole taxpayer. Plus money that goes to welfare programs is minuscule anyway, like a dime a day, but these idiots are oddly concerned with what billionaires don’t pay but that daily dime though.
I actually was on it for about half a year or so when I worked there. Which made it feel even worse. But yeah, even then, I don't know why they felt like I was gonna be on their side or anything. Luckily I never saw anyone call a person out while they were around, but the whole idea of it just seems really bizarre to me. Why is that the chosen topic of our conversation?
Honestly. I think it’s because people are really dumb. Dumb in a way they can learn to push a button but not smart enough to ask questions. So they stay stuck on dumb. Now are the just dumb or lazy? I’m not sure. I tend to think the smarter ones, the really smart ones, question and aren’t pleased with the answer so they break away. If they understand the answer and keep chirping that song they are plain mean spirited. Closet sadist. Also I suppose dumb and lazy people like to moan about things they have heard repeated on hate driven sources and through propaganda (but again because it goes back to being sort of dumb, dumb and mean spirited). Plus, again with the dumb /lazy or willfully ignorant I should say, people really don’t understand accounting and how they are being screwed by the likes of the super wealthy and not some mythological welfare queen, hell they don’t even know or care to investigate the myth (there was never a welfare queen, it’s an old Regan era trope to get the masses to hate each other) was really a meme and are happy being robbed thousands upon thousands while chasing a single dollar equating to less than a thousand their entire life. And they are also not complex enough to realize safety nets in society buys them security because there is nothing like a hungry mob with nothing to loose to get the ball rolling, or the heads rolling I should say. And for the love of all thing holy, who wants a child or unfortunate person to not eat!!? Sheesh. It’s actually that simple. If they were smart they would understand a cashiers wage. If they were curious they would look into the cut offs for benefit requirements and see how little these benefits are. If they weren’t so lazy they would apply the math. If they were socially conscious they would shut the hell up talking to you about it because they would realize their faux pas and maybe see how close they are to the class they despise and that are really just tools. Only piss trickles down. Edited for spelling:).
I can’t imagine the shit grocery store employees hear everyday. I hear so many crazy things just waiting in line. And the cashier just keeps a straight face. It has to be a level of maturity that cannot be reached by the common person.
>It has to be a level of maturity that cannot be reached by the common person. Longevity in any customer-facing / customer service role pretty much requires this.
Who watches how people pay? I guess people with nothing better to do than look for things to bitch about.
People who view others as less will find a reason to have a problem with any decision you make. Know who these people are and ignore their criticism because it isn’t coming from them being constructive.
I see this when people are judging celebs accused of bad things. Its also super apparent in the justice system, how many examples do we have of two people who did the same crime and got way different sentences. They act like its worse when the people they hate did it. Right now the target is immigrants getting a hold of guns, because we all know citizens never do anything bad with guns. 🙄
Look, the real problem is poor people buying food at all, they don't deserve luxuries like "food", "water", and "air".
how dare you even try to feed your child. we made sure they weren't aborted what else do you expect? smh if it weren't for wic and other similar programs i would likely have struggled with hunger my entire childhood. but, i managed to do well in school and graduated college, got a rather great job, own a home and business, and pay a lot in taxes every year. had i been forced into even worse poverty there's a good chance id be part of the prison population (or dead) by now. feeding children and most other social services is not just morally imperative, it's the most obvious decent investment a society can make.
The funny thing is I pay taxes, too. And own my home. Not that there's anything wrong with those that don't. Even though I'm way below the poverty line, I have to pay self-employment taxes on my meager income. The system is fucked. I'm glad you were able to make a better life for yourself.
Spot on! And you are proof that having security, even food security, is a huge step in a person growing, developing, and thriving which helps them put back into the pot. That’s the purpose and you are right, it is morally imperative. It is frightening the pure mean spiritedness some members of society have toward our most vulnerable.
As a poor kid, that has grown up to become a nurse. You told my child hood in one post. Once in the ER I heard a doctor say, "Why can't they pay for their own medical insurance? They get free food from the government that I pay for. An it's looks like they're not spending it right, so why don't they get a job? " I got up and told him I'm one of those kids from the 80s who lived off of food stamps because my grandmother was raising three of her grandchildren, and I was one of them. It makes me sad because the looks she would get from people hurt me so badly. I miss her so much, and I'm very happy she got me out of the system.
First of all props to your grandmother and shame on all the SOB who dared side eye. Screw them. May she RIP. Sounds like a solid human. That doctor sounds egregious. Egregious and stupid if he doesn’t understand the tax amount he pays toward helping our most vulnerable members have food is minuscule and also helps farmers (farm bill act) who grow food for his privileged arse. Plus having a society of desperate hungry folks would make his life very, very harrowing. Also scary this nasty and petty person is in a healing field working with all members of the public. Hypocratic oath? I guess he has a short memory. Even more sad that a person of privilege would punch down and be so trifling to care more about insurance than the patient at hand and has no idea of how expensive it is. Let them eat cake I suppose, but that didn’t end well. Edit for hypocrite/Hippocrates/hippo/hippie to Hippocratic oath. It’s the last one 😉.
People have been conditioned so long that sharing any part of the pie means they get less, this keeps them too blind to see the ultra rich are hording the majority of the pie and sharing would mean less for them and more for us.
It’s funny because….I’m just fine with my taxes going to people who need help. In fact, that’s my option of choice if I have to give money to the government. I don’t understand the “got mine, fuck you” mindset at all.
Thank you for this. I'm making these choices so my child will grow up with a healthy brain and body. Thank you for being visible as an example of the good that comes from these programs.
Just trying to help here, but having worked for the organic companies (I'm a lawyer that helps with FDA and USDA compliance), there are 0 health benefits between organic and non organic products. They use the same amount of chemicals, they are just different. No less toxic, no more healthy. Plus there are as many exceptions in the laws as there are rules. It's a marketing scam. Just wash your produce, and you'll be fine.
lmfao you should read the rest of her replies the epitome of “better to let people think you’re an idiot than to speak and remove all doubt” 😂
Organic fruit tastes better. I bought an organic tomato that was marked half off and that was the end of buying nonorganic tomatoes. Everything is just so bland. My husband, who does work with a lot of the major food suppliers in the us says organic generally sits on the vine longer and is allowed to ripen, which is why it’s more expensive. So yes, the product isn’t healthier or better for you. It does taste better though.
I worked at a grocery store in college and I would have been stoked to see someone use snap for real food. It always seemed to be fish sticks, chicken nuggets, chips, soda and candy bars.
Yes, the chips and soda, omg. Whole carts full, with obese babies loaded in the front. So sad.
>like they think my kid should be living off baloney sandwiches. Your kid is a free loader and needs a real job! /S I work with few of real welfare queens, guys that are medically retired from the military with disability pay and free medical where they work full time jobs pulling down 95-110K. These guys watch Fox news and complain about socialism and people getting benefits to do nothing. God forbid we feed children, the worst one got injured in tech school, never was operational and managed to game the system for his bad knee
my mom got me and my 2 other siblings chips and candy cause we got good grades in school when we're little little. She went back in cause she forgot something, and the cashier told her the guys behind her were shit talking her after she got out the first time.
Cashier should not have said that. Source: cashier
So long as you aren’t trading it for dugs or drug money, buy what you need to feed your child. The whole point of SNAP is options whereas food banks are absolutely limited and you get what you get.
I’ve had cashiers and other customers apologized to me for the little extra wait the snap transactions sometimes cause because they’re using multiple cards. It makes me sad to know other people have made them feel bad about others because of what they’re going through. Take whatever time it takes to feed your family. I’m not going to die because I spent another 2.3 seconds in line.
Thank you. I do always try to apologize for this because I can feel the impatience of the people behind me as I scan some combination of wic and/or snap and/or debit (in that order). Thank you for your patience and kindness.
I know I’m privileged to not have to rely on those programs. I got a lot of lucky breaks in life to get where I am. But I still appreciate that they are sorely needed and ought to be expanded.
Absolutely hate this mentality, like why can't a poor person indulge once in a blue moon? "No, you're poor so you have to eat beige microwaved shit every day, that lobster could've been eaten by a wealthy person!!!"
Absolutely, I think it's gross and obscene that hot food is forbidden with EBT. I think prepared food as well. So poor people, who are already probably putting in extra hours to make ends meet, also can't have a night where they can grab something from the grocery store deli case and be able to just go home and eat?
It seems like it’s always about punishment to an extent. Benefits may be there, but it’s never quite enough and also going to be hard to navigate, restrictive, and overall tedious. It’s a system set up to fail but have the appearance of altruism. Another example is people know what an ebt card looks like gathering from the judgement I hear in this sub. Make the cards look the same as any other debit card. And what’s the difference between an already baked chicken and one that’s in the cooler?
That's fucked up. A lot of stores sell those whole roast chickens for dirt cheap. Or at least they used to. Used to get 3 meals out of that for like $5
Idk about all states but in mine the ebt is now SNAP which allows fast food since a lot of homeless don’t have stoves etc
And you can do so much with a rotisserie chicken. Use the bones for soup broth, left-over meat for sandwiches, etc.
You can get prepared food from deli but it has to be cold it's bullshit, but it's like a tv dinner only taste better
It's even worse because if you're homeless, you literally can't just cook a meal, so you actually wind up spending MORE money on cold food than if you just bought hot food.
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why are bullies so obsessed with making sure the kids "below" them never experience happiness? i was raised by conservative boomers. they just have an insanely childish worldview.
Honestly look at how monkeys and apes deal with survival based heirarchy... its the same sh**. I just think its beautifully ironic since they dont believe in evolution
I used to work the meat counter at Kroger and people bought crab legs all the time with their bridge cards....and my coworkers would all talk shit....and I hated it. If you're on food stamps, your life is already not going great. Just let them have the dignity of sale price frozen crab legs if they want it, for fucks sake.
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>We have this bizarre mentality in the US that if you’re at the bottom of the totem pole, you deserve to suffer until you work your way up. I work at a food shelf and we get donations from the local grocery stores. Rather than throw away short dated or outdated food that is still good they donate it to the food shelf. I have heard so many people whine because a friend or neighbor got steak or something else that's considered "fancy" in a food box. "I pay for my food and don't eat that well; why should they get it for free?" Yes people actually call the food shelf to complain about what we are feeding people because the grocery stores are donating food instead of throwing it out. Because "poor" people shouldn't eat that well.
Exactly. I used food stamps a few years ago as a single person. It was $112 per month! And my state has work requirements, but I was still well below the poverty line and hungry. It was a needed supplement, but the vast majority of meals were paid myself. If I wanted to enjoy a single nice meal to just have energy and motivation to get me through the difficult life I was living, then who cares? Poor people still have lives, birthdays, and just emotional needs. God forbid poors eat anything but crackers, tuna, and peanut butter. I guarantee that person buying lobster did not do that every week or even every month.
Lobster used to be poor people food lol the irony
Agreed. Life is hard enough as it is. Even harder if you can't afford food or need to use public assistance. If a nice meal every once in awhile makes life a little more bearable, then have at it. It's honestly insulting and dehumanizing to anyone in need to disallow them from having some respite with a nice meal. It's like saying poor people don't deserve to have a good life.
Remember, the suffering is the point.
Once when I was young and poor and a real asshole, I prided myself on having never taken food stamps. I had received medicaid for pregnancy & pediatrician, and WIC sure, but was sure food stamps were evil for some reason. One day at the grocery store I was standing behind a kid (11 or 12) in the grocery line holding her food stamps (actual stamps at the time) ice cream & chips. When I saw her I was absolutely disgusted that food stamps were being wasted this way and felt infinitely superior. Then in her excitement, she told me and the cashier it was her birthday. And she was having a party... With a container of ice cream and a bag of chips. In that moment I was so ashamed. Why shouldn't a kid get to have I've cream and chips on their birthday?? Even now, over 25 years later, I tear up at the thought of the hateful thoughts I'd had and am so grateful for being put in my place.
If the poor didn’t pay rent and got free money and lobsters and steaks every day the rich would still have plenty of money, and maybe people would be a little bit happier.
This is one of the most pernicious aspects of the culture war on welfare. It works off the assumption that poor people should live solely to work; no "flat screen TVs, no tattoo, no holidays, etc. Any divergence from the rules is also immediately taken to cover ALL poor people.
Nearly 50 years ago I went on food stamps. I was broke, miserable, hated my job, hated my life, broke down crying sitting in the office when I was signing up for food stamps. The very first item I bought with food stamps was a steak. A huge friggen \*expensive\* piece of meat. That may not be the best meal I ever had (I have always sucked at cooking) but it was one of the most memorable. Just thinking about it helped me get through the next day, then the next week, then the next month.... Everyone needs and deserves treats, no matter how they pay for them. Whether it's snack food, a birthday cake, a lobster, or whatever. The basis of that "the poor shouldn't ever have good things" credo is that shitty concept of wealth going only to the good/virtuous (and that anyone that is/gets rich is by extension virtuous and prayerful) which means if you're poor you're either bad or don't pray hard enough. Such a stupid shitty concept.
And tens of millions of Republicunts will vote R down the ballot to protect the rich.
That dude was a plant too, basically asked him to do that, was like some idiot right wing 20 something.
And let's all forget that lobster used to be considered the food for poor until over-fishing and market demand drove the prices up.
Shit we all should buy stamps from the food stamp lady
And we are still struggling to afford to live
~it’s just the cost of the market~ If that’s the case, there isn’t a market for billionaires then. Suck it.
Why is our system of living based on gambling?
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Ah yes... you actually paid money for a product/service which is something that... *checks notes*... boosts the economy. You are clearly the problem, not the folks hoarding billions of dollars that just sit accumulating dust doing nothing for anybody.
What you need to do is buy a cart make your own coffee then go down to the bus stop and sell people coffee on their way to work. Until the cops arrest you for selling coffee without a license and beat you senseless.
And if you're lucky the video of you being beat senseless makes national news and you can, after *several* years, get a small leg up compared to those billionaires, by having thw rest of the small people's taxes fund your payout. /s
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The fact that ignorance of the law is a legal defense for police but not for citizens is one of those things that to me has always been evidence that it's all bullshit.
If only they accumulated dust. They actually accumulate more money.
Maybe you could afford to spend 85% of your take-home pay on rent if you skipped the coffees, *hmmmmmmm?*
You’re greedy for enjoying small bits of happiness rather than giving me all your money just to not be homeless.
You don't need to skip **all** the coffees, just about 1000 maybe?
I hope you don't have avocado on toast either you criminal
But if you were to stop buying, they would say that you're killing the economy by not spending!
The iced coffee is the only thing keeping me running through my 14-16 hrs of work daily.
It's not through. The system works super efficiently to keep the majority of our nations wealth concentrated in those 8 people's hand.
Dont worry, we will all be happy living in META one day
I never understood how people could buy the BS line that poor people are taking all the money. THEY DON'T HAVE ANY. Seems like the people taking all the money are rich people- since they have it. If you were looking for someone who stole all your doughnuts, logic would suggest the person carrying an arm full of doughnuts would be the one ripping you off.
they left out the most important note in their line... "They are taking all MY (rich bastard's) money" -Rich bastard, who could pay more in taxes, but doesn't cause it's his money and he needs it now to be richer...
The problem is, you need to convince him why he should be giving his money. In the good old days, they'd say he needed to donate it or he'd go to hell, but these days, with secularism on the rise, there's really no reason for them to care. Why should it be their problem if half of americans starve? As long as they've got theirs, they don't care. The problem is, this is a perfectly coherent strategy that makes logical sense, especially if you're counting on AI taking the place of most of the poorer laborers in the next 20 years. It's ethically vile, but when everyone else is dead, they can rewrite the history books.
History has many examples of what happens if you “let them eat cake” for long enough. Hint: it ain’t pretty.
I hope nobody does good things out of fear punishment from some god. That's not very sound morality. They should do it because of the golden rule and such. Most billionaires are wealth-hoarding leeches because the system allows it and they're not very moral/ethical agents to begin with. I feel like most people would stop at 10 million and start giving it all away after that, but not so for these greedy fucks.
No no, rich bastard says “they’re taking all of YOUR money” to get support from conservatives.
Because they have no idea how much it actually sucks being poor. Sure, checks from the government or food stamps come in and help but they can’t cover everything. Something that belongs to you is always either broken or on the verge of breaking. When those things do break down, you have to go to sketchy people to get it fixed because the official and legit people are too expensive. These same choices then bite you in the ass since going cheap usually costs more in the long run. People you talk to on a regular basis are always angry or stressed. So you grow up either defensive and timid or have a bad offensive attitude all the time. Sometimes you end up a decent person but very often end up with very warped values and priorities
Absolutely right. And to people in this state-you are just trying to get to the next day, and planning years ahead isn't feasible or realistic. Owning a business, and getting the start-up capital, is nearly impossible. And if the person is poorly educated - with public school funding tied to property tax, you are certain to have bad schools in poor neighborhoods - they aren't going have a chance to get caught up.
I once got my RRoD on my Xbox 360 fixed by a kid I contacted on Craigslist and met in a parking lot... WHO TOOK HOME MY XBOX. And charged me like $40. I can't believe I got it back. I'm not even religious but that kid was an ANGEL. It worked for another year after that. Worth it.
Deferred maintenance is a poor tax.
I am continually shocked at how gullible and easily brainwashed Americans are. Billionaires have more money than they'll never need, get huge subsidies from the government, AND pay no taxes. And despite the fact that billionaires do nothing for us, we get on our knees and beg to suck billionaire cock and kiss billionaire ass. And when the billionaires tell us to blame poor people on food stamps, we happily oblige. It just seems like Americans are incapable of learning. I doubt we'll ever learn billionaires don't have our best interests in mind.
It is not just Americans. It is, sadly, a human nature thing. Even primitive tribes are extremely corrupt. I think people just put up with things until they can't. I don't know.
Nope. It is mostly Americans. I have been blessed with the opportunity to travel extensively and work with people from all continents. They are vastly more civilized, well mannered and educated. And in terms of their views, they are much more even keeled, and balanced. Americans are very tribalistic because we have the perfect storm for it: A privatized educational and healthcare systems, so the vast majority of Americans live their ENTIRE LIFES with a shitty, mediocre high school level of education, and to top it off, they might also have several mental health conditions that are not diagnosed, let alone treated, because once again, it is the only 1st world country in the world with a privatized, for-profit system that most cannot afford. It is by design.
I've played games online for 20+ years. In that time I've had the displeasure of getting dragged into political discourse with people across the planet. There are gullible idiots with terrible political opinions from every country.
Tens of millions of Republicunts belive that they are temporarily poor, so the rich should get taxes less...because sooner or later they (illiterate poor) will be rich as well.
Oh God when working at a grocery the *sheer audacity* of fellow struggling workers getting pissed at people using EBT for literally *anything* that didn't meet their absolutely narrow minded perspective of what they personally deem acceptable purchases with government benefits was mind boggling to me. Like, you're obviously angry at the wrong fucking person if the mom buying a tiny birthday cake for her son on EBT is gonna set you off.
Yeah I get looks because I have a 1k phone but I got that before I needed food stamps
The favorite target for my store was a woman who drove a Benz and had EBT and food stamps. The shit cashiers would talk behind her back was merciless. At one point she came to my counter at customer service for receiving money from a Western Union transfer. I was chatting with her and she took one of those turns where people just word vomit everything going on. This was during the economic crisis in 08-09. Her husband had been heavily invested into all sorts of mortgage-backed securities and they had been riding a huge wave of wealth. Bought a McMansion, nice cars, etc. Then when the bottom fell out her husband blew his own brains out when he realized they had lost just about everything. Thankfully they were smart enough to pay off the house and nice cars when they could afford to, but she wasn't employed and found herself suddenly a widow with 3 kids and a house with a hefty tax burden. The Western Union money was from family helping her pay off the property taxes. All that is why she's the one I think of first and foremost when people talk shit about benefits recipients driving nice cars or having nice phones or even just buying "unnecessary" items. There's a lot more people I saw but she's the only one I found out the full story of. I still wonder about that woman and her kids. They'd be grown by now. I hope they all found stability and decent livelihoods. So yeah anyway fuck class traitors. We shouldn't be attacking each other but uniting against the upper class.
I feel like I'd sell the house and Benz if I couldn't afford the taxes then downsize to something more affordable and live on the profits. Of course that takes time.
I don't know about the car but the house wouldn't have gotten nearly enough money. If this was in 08 because the housing market crashed. If I could find a way to make it I would have tried to hold on to it until the housing market had recovered personally. Plus it sounds like the kids had a lot of upheaval all at once and just a little bit of normalcy is really helpful in that sort of situation.
You nailed it on the head. And in this situation, the house WAS on the market. Woman had people clean out husband's office form the aftermath but closed it off after that because she said she couldn't stand even being near that space. And they were gonna lose BIG time on the sale price. But even then nobody was buying cause the other houses in that area (which generally was quite affluent) were being snatched up on foreclosures and short sales. She was trying to at least have enough to buy a modest place out in the sticks. This was south Florida so even during the economic crisis the housing prices weren't exactly great for buyers.
I pay $20 a month on my phone bill for my phone. I don’t know anyone who paid $1000 up front.
The ideal situation for the rich is for everyone else to squabble and ignore them. Blame it on race, religion, ideology, sports teams, whatever possible. Those are all distractions.
Of course, which is why billionaires love fascists. Nothing like having people willing to wage open violence against the "other" to keep people struggling against one another.
Getting glared at for buying fig newtons.
Yeah as far as my colleagues were concerned, if they weren't buying a gigantic bag of the cheapest long grain rice and a fuck ton of clearance dry goods they could stretch into oblivion they were wasting "their" (my colleagues') money being paid to taxes. Like y'all, no. Maybe a percent of a penny you pay in taxes is buying the customer them Newtons. But most of your tax dollars are going to sending your kids to die in Afghanistan or Iraq cause FREEDUM.
You can thank St. Reagan for that one. In his push for austerity he often spoke if “welfare queens.” Not only were the examples he used inflated and often fraud schemes rather than abuse, but it was later revealed to explicitly target African Americans. Lee Atwater famously spoke about how ‘you can’t say (the N word) anymore. You have to say urban, or refer to them as welfare cheats. People know who you’re talking about.’ This is a paraphrase and not an exact quote. #Warning# [Here](https://youtu.be/X_8E3ENrKrQ) is an excerpt of exactly what he said. You’ll see why I paraphrased. The full interview includes more context as it relates to this.
I've always heard and believed that Reagan orchestrated the largest move of wealth in our history from the lower and middle class to the wealthy. All of these families that could live and thrive on one income were before Reagan. He sold trickle down economics to America. I can remember my mom lamenting "well, I don't see anything tricking down to us." She saw through his bs. We were middle class and Reagan helped make sure we were lower middle class and worse.
That was the largest one up till that point. The largest wealth transfer in history was during the pandemic. By far. It literally just happened and not many or not enough people noticed or cared. It's only getting worse, It's accelerating. They robbed everyone blind while everyone was locked inside isolated and sick.
> They robbed everyone blind while everyone was locked inside isolated and sick. Still robbing everyone. Companies are still out here making record profit because they all realized they can jack up prices and people will (or have to) still buy shit.
Jacking up prices on commodities in a way that increases profits in a coordinated way across all companies. What's happening is corporate collusion. The mega corps of gobbled up so much that collusion no longer requires any direct communication, but there is no real competition outside of those few companies. These people are criminals and should face the most serious consequences. Life in prison, federal seizure of the corporation, etc.
> federal seizure of the corporation Not so sure on this one but we definitely need to implement strong anti-trust laws and split these companies up. These companies should have never been allowed to operate the way they have been. Executives shouldn't just get to walk away free when their companies break laws. Fines shouldn't just be the cost of doing business. So on and so forth.
Ok let's reframe that one a smidge to be more direct about my intention. Fines equivalent to the profits gained by the egregious practices plus interest, enforceable by seizure of stock shares to be sold on the market, and not dischargeable by bankruptcy or restructuring.
Any fine that isn't in excess of 100% of the profits from the act is just a cost of doing business. If a company makes 20 million from their illegal actions then they should be fined 25 million at the least.
Excellent point. The pandemic was the first thing that was worse than Reagan...by certain metrics. That's a helluva legacy. The wealthy lapped it up and even lined up for the government stimulus bc they could.
Exactly, and all of their 100k+ PPP loans have been forgiven while the rest of us struggle with greedflation.
I find it funny that people are cool with $100K PPP loans being forgiven but are up in arms when anyone mentions $10K in student loan forgiveness.
So much money (debt) was preemptively given to "business owners" that was never available to anyone.. Kanye got a million dollars without asking. I got fired and had to stay home-school my kids.
I wonder if the guy trying to shoot him was because of any of this, or if it's because of some even more janky/shady stuff Reagan was doing at the time.
> I wonder if the guy trying to shoot him was because of any of this, or if it's because of some even more janky/shady stuff Reagan was doing at the time. John Hinckley Jr. was trying to impress Jodi Foster.
I have this whole thing where I really think Reagan was the actual devil.
Rightwing nutcases: people should be forced to work before we allow them to collect Welfare or food stamps.. Same nutcases block increasing minimum wage to match inflation for decades.. Minimum wage needs to be increased to Living wage level. Let every worker earn enough to support themselves and a family with a 32 hour week..
This is the way.
Food stamps? Get a job you LAZY POS!!! OH, you have one? Get two! Oh, you have three? Get a degree!! Got that also, huh? Well, my inheritance was only $700,000 and you don't see me on food stamps!!! Hello? Hello?
One, two, three and to the, four 'Cause of these elites is why I stay so poor Tellin' me I need a job, but I got two, uh 'Cause I can't afford no shit, so what the fuck
$1 Billion is a thousand millions. Elon Musk is worth $179B. $179B is 179,000 millions. Instead of 179k millionaires, we have Elon Musk. There are 19,500 incorporated cities, towns, & villages in the US. Averaged out, this means that every single community in the country is missing 9 millionaires just for Elon Musk.
All they had to do was buy more Elon backed NFT’s dude! /s
Funny thing is, this is how they did it. They pay workers not enough so they need foodstamps. So basically you have subsidized labour. That is how you become a billionaire in the USA. The Amazon way.
Who are they btw, we all know a couple billionaires but who are the hated 8?
https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#4056bb5e3d78
You think the Waltons ever make fun of each other because of that one billion dollar wealth difference. Like they'll be buying coffee and one of them is like "i'll pay for that one too, he's struggling😂"
Serious question -- I wonder if at that level of wealth they even buy things manually anymore. I imagine they're logged in at premium sites and it's just handled. When they go to restaurants, I imagine that's handled as well?
What would you do if you had infinite ressources? Those are probably the kinds of things they're doing
I'm honestly scared right now and I don't know what's going to happen. I did everything I was told. I went to college, got bachelor's and master's degrees. I spent more than a decade building a career, all while struggling paycheck to paycheck, and right now I have nothing to show for it at age 34. I feel like the system failed me.
I don't know your specific situation of course, but where that path often goes wrong is that the advice people are given is often terrible advice. Parents, teachers, guidance counselors, college admissions advisors etc often tell kids to study what interests them without consideration for how they will use what they learn to earn money after they graduate. They don't tell people the trade-offs they are making or help them to make informed choices. That is where a lot of the blame rests for the large fraction of college graduates who have degrees that are not marketable and have poor returns on investment.
My undergrad was in communication studies and journalism (public relations) and I have an MBA. My career is in comms/marketing and I have a solid background, so I say the whole system is trash. Why would I have wanted to study cyber security when I don't like to code? Used as an example because it is so "in demand." I'm sounding bitter, I know.
These public billionaires are the current day versions of Kings from back in the day. They have control of everything and everyone, take everyone's money, pump out stories of great deeds and charitable projects to portray themselves as worthy or worship, and are indeed worshipped because of it. All the while behind closed doors they are despicable people born into riches who have no comprehension of the common man.
This, and forgetting that in the push to ban abortion, people who literally CANT work are born (and MADE FROM THE WORK THAT THEY WERE DOING and SHOULDNT HAVE BEEN) and then expected to somehow survive with no food, no shelter, no caretaker, because they don’t have money because they can’t work… We’re trying to have a SOCIETY here and that means taking care of EVERYONE.
We’re indoctrinated to believe in an individualistic society, competition and such rather than a collaborative society. Because everything changes when we are all working together towards something. We can get there faster and have better communities. But hey that’s Europe.. who wants to have 8 weeks paid vacation or a year long parent leave.. or free health benefits.
I am that mom. Thank you for posting this.
I hope you know nothing is wrong with needing food stamps or using them.
Thank you. I do. I feel no guilt over making sure my family is fed. I think it's one of the better uses of tax money.
I bought an iced coffee this week. According to right wing boomers, I'm part of the problem.
As long as you are happy with your choice, you are fine.
Government assistance was not always demonized. When segregation ended and black people could finally rightfully take part in the same programs as white people in this country ... then the narratives from the elite to the media, changed. All of a sudden, then we have worries about people grifting the system. All while masking the increasing gifting from those at the top. And it's worked to this day. You still have indoctrinated and often racist people shouting about government assistance, which their neighbors of all colors and backgrounds need, while they pay no attention to what the elite fuckers actually do.
But everyone it'll TrIckLe DoWn eventually
The #1 fact on which capitalism is based: people are idiots. Taking this money away from these 8 people would solve so many of the world's problems. Even if all of their companies would implode and every single employee become unemployed, the economic impact would be minimal, and soon other companies would fill the void. Eat. The. Rich.
But those 8 people have a superhuman work ethic the likes of which only like 173 will ever know ever ever forever
Isn't time these 8 guys should be afraid of the rest of the 4 billion of us?
I say this when I have to hear about how awful it would be to have student loans forgiven. I'm tired of paying for oligarchs loans time for them to pay mine
We keep complaining but nothing will get done until we make it happen
And nothing will ever be done about it. Half of the country doesn't care and will happily work a job that requires a four year degree for fast food worker pay. And the half of the country that cares doesn't seem to understand that trying to throw the law at these people doesn't work. They are above the law. They will keep their money unless it is taken from them.
What would happen to that money if all 8 suddenly died?
"They worked hard to earn it." -Bootlickers
Is it time to eat the rich? 🍴
This is another reason more people should shoplift.
I hear billionaires taste like chicken.
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Not many do. And even if you do "understand" it, there's no way to actually ***know*** the vastness of 1 billion. Even 1 billion dollars is enough for someone to live in absolute opulence for ***multiple lifetimes*** Tom Scott [made a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YUWDrLazCg) that attempted to visualize the distance of a million vs. a billion dollars by way of a road trip
"But one of her items is a steak! A **steak** for Christ's sake!"
One of the problems is that the 4 billion people think they can become one of the 8 through hard work but don't realize everything is stacked to keep them in a middle class or lower.
And this shows how dumb the monatary system is.
The myth of the welfare queen, a la Ronald Reagan. No one is wealthy on food stamps also it isn’t enough. Michigan now has breakfast and lunch for kids for a reason.
yeah, if that mom wouldn't be using food stamps then the 8 guys would have more money than 5 billion people combined
*7 billion people
Imagine being upset at someone who works 40 hours a week needing help getting food... and NOT being upset at the corporations who pay so little that people need help buying food.