Like I've said before, I pulled myself up out of poverty by buying property. It was extra work but it was something anybody could have done.

Beans have just as much protein as steak.

I just got a job. This $40 thanksgiving day sale phone is my only internet access.

My best friend at 20 years old was black. While I was focused on paying off a mortgage. He was living a life of nice restaurants, etc. It gave me an advantage that existed through out my life. That's where better choices come in.

Like I've said before, I pulled myself up out of poverty by buying property. It was extra work but it was something anybody could have done.

Beans have just as much protein as steak.

I just got a job. This $40 thanksgiving day sale phone is my only internet access.

My best friend at 20 years old was black. While I was focused on paying off a mortgage. He was living a life of nice restaurants, etc. It gave me an advantage that existed through out my life. That's where better choices come in.

Welfare/foodstamp recipients, by and large,
are some of the laziest oxygen thieves walking
the planet.

Personally, I have absolutely no problem with helping people out who have fell on hard times.. none what so ever. That is what welfare and its affiliated programs were designed to do. And I do not know one American who would not help another in need.. not one

The system was designed as a short term crutch to help the people get back on their feet, not a long term life choice.

it is the abuse of this system that I do not like. When you have 2nd and 3rd generation welfare recipients, people selling food stamp cards for cash and people having more kids while on welfare that is a blatant abuse of the system and a smack in the face to all the taxpayers who have to shoulder the financial burden. And to say it is not abused by segments of our population is a insult to our intelligences.

But some believe that one must be PC. One must not say what they see.. what they know... because it will offend those abusing the system. And then there are others who could care less if those folks are insulted.. like me... because I am insulted that I have to pay for them.

Chaffetz was articulating a commonly held belief that poverty in the United States is, by and large, the result of laziness, immorality and irresponsibility. If only people made better choices — if they worked harder, stayed in school, got married, didn’t have children they couldn’t afford, spent what money they had more wisely and saved more — then they wouldn’t be poor, or so the reasoning goes.

First, it’s founded on the assumption that the United States is a land of opportunity, where upward mobility is readily available and hard work gets you ahead. While grit may have ushered you up the socioeconomic ladder in the late 19th century, it’s no longer up to the task today.

To accept this as reality is to confront the unpleasant fact that myths of American exceptionalism are just that — myths — and many of us would fare better economically (and live longer, healthier lives, too) had we been born elsewhere

Second, to believe that poverty is a result of immorality or irresponsibility helps people believe it can’t happen to them. But it can happen to them (and to me and to you). Poverty in the United States is common, and according to the Census Bureau, over a three-year period, about one-third of all U.S. residents slip below the poverty line at least once for two months or more.



Third — and conveniently, perhaps, for people like Chaffetz or House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) — this stubborn insistence that people could have more money or more health care if only they wanted them more absolves the government of having to intervene and use its power on their behalf. This is both patronizing and, of course, a gross misreading of the actual outcome of laws like these.

There’s one final problem with these kinds of arguments, and that is the implication that we should be worried by the possibility of poor people buying the occasional steak, lottery ticket or, yes, even an iPhone. Set aside the fact that a better cut of meat may be more nutritious than a meal Chaffetz would approve of, or the fact that a smartphone may be your only access to email, job notices, benefit applications, school work and so on. Why do we begrudge people struggling to get by the occasional indulgence? Why do we so little value pleasure and joy? Why do we insist that if you are poor, you should also be miserable? Why do we require penitence?

Ryan and their compatriots offer us tough love without the love, made possible through their willful ignorance of (or utter disregard for) what life is actually like for so many Americans who do their very best against great odds and still, nonetheless, have little to show for it. Sometimes not even an iPhone.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/03/08/laziness-isnt-why-people-are-poor-and-iphones-arent-why-they-lack-health-care/?utm_term=.6dcb8975eb4c

we can definitely agree there. Abuse in ANY system is abuse and should be dealt with. There are laws in place just for that. It is illegal to sell food stamp cards, and it is virtually impossible to have generational cash assistance anymore with lifetime caps.


As the numbers indicate though, the idea that those who are on welfare are mostly abusers or lazy, is not true.

we can definitely agree there. Abuse in ANY system is abuse and should be dealt with. There are laws in place just for that. It is illegal to sell food stamp cards, and it is virtually impossible to have generational cash assistance anymore with lifetime caps.


As the numbers indicate though, the idea that those who are on welfare are mostly abusers or lazy, is not true.

And just where are you living? In Perfect?

I don't have to look very far to find people selling their SNAP benefits for cash to buy alcohol and drugs. Those same people are in line at food banks to get donated food for free.


I knew of a couple that did just that. They were getting rent assistance, SNAP, and money from their tribe. ( They were american Indians) Getting drunk was their main goal in life. He'd get drunk, beat her, and destroy their apartment. He never had a job, never looked for one. I was in their apartment many times, boarding up windows, fixing ripped off doors, and repairing holes in the walls. I walking in one day to find two burners lit on their stove. They weren't cooking, they were just lit. ( Just a month ago, during a heat wave) What were they doing? Sitting on the mattress on the floor, with an air conditioner on a box, running, and watching tv. It was almost 90 in that place.

(They got evicted two weeks ago)

I too have seen it countless times. It is done.. daily.. they then take the money and do other things with it. The money that was supposed to be feeding their kids is used for alcohol and / or drugs.

And the concept that the food stamps is to be used only for food.. is a joke .. to some

The corner stores in these areas are part of the problem too. I have seen people but beer, cigs, and everything in between on the SNAP card. the corner stores are part of the problem, they just key something else into the register.

ah. truth.
if you are a leftist, you trust things like reasearch and such foolishness.
if you are a rightist, you go by truths that are spread by word of mouth, and anecdotal 'evidence'.