Yeah, over the past couple of years, I've had some nasty things said to me and my parents about food stamps. I was in a supermarket once with my father, and was playing with his iPhone (That my grandparents were paying for, along with numerous other bills so we could keep living in our house) And the guy behind us made a rude comment, saying "If you can afford to get your spoiled little brat a iPhone, you don't deserve government issued food stamps." My dad turned around and said, "Listen hear, you jerk. I was fired from the church I worked at for fifteen years, under no fault of my own. I've been unemployed for two years, and sent out hundreds of résumés, and haven't been able to find a job. This, is my phone, that my parents are paying for, until I can find work. Don't call my daughter that, and mind your own business." Any many occasions where people had to add their two cents, without knowing any of the story. I'm glad to say he now has a job, and we no longer use food stamps.
I gotta agree here. I'm not going to say welfare shouldn't exist, I've just seen it abused too many times to want to pay the tax. Thousands are hurting, yes, but millions are milking the system and hiking up the taxes. I'm just gonna say that this is one of those things where half of the people will be unhappy with, regardless of what happens.
Welfare fraud is massively over stated. According to the US Department of Labor, just under 2% of all welfare funds were use fraudulently. Corporate welfare, on the other hand, is something that should be stopped and halted.
I work for a large construction company. We won a contract to upgrade the hearing systems and water heaters in a federally funded housing project. We got to know and like some of the residents and absolutely loathe others. Some ran criminal enterprise from their free apartments and had better appliances furniture and clothing than we did. Some were severely disabled. One young widow was trying to start a sandwich business in the nearby office building. One tenant played video games 22 hours daily and drank and ate only what the pizza guy brought while urinating in the empty soda bottles, he supplemented his government handouts by selling pirated video games and movies. A family of Asian immigrants had the cleanest place, though sparsely furnished. They were saving for a house while both children were working students and both parents worked. One elderly man made coffee for us, insisted on it even though he struggled to walk. Many young black men would yell at us for waking them.
my moms currently recovering from abdominal surgery because she ripped most of her abdominal muscles trying to work a job that was way to physically demanding for her just to support us. And the nerve of some people to insult her on getting a "tummy tuck" and that she shouldn't have gotten it? she could have died, and I'm told to get over it? and these are adults telling me, a 15-yea-old girl, this.
The sad thing is, many of these people that are poor but have "nice things" are people that are heavily in debt, but wear their money on their sleeves so to speak. Some may do it because they don't want people to find out, while others may do it to emulate what they see on music videos.
I used to find it annoying to see obviously unemployed and even homeless people with things that I choose to do without so that I can save for more important things, like children and a roof to put over my family's heads. Then I realized that it's not their fault that it's been getting harder and harder to get by in the middle class pretty much since I was born, and surely before that, even.
I blame the people at the top, getting obscenely rich off the work of others, and then refusing to pay their fair share, but that's another long, un-fun subject entirely...
I've never looked at it that way. I spent 3 years living on a military base in the middle of a very "ghetto" area, and I would often see people completely abusing the system. There would be girls wearing all designer clothing with expensive manicures and stilettos while wearing as much makeup as a clown and paying for baby formula and essentials with food stamps. I always thought, if you spend that much on designer clothes, make up, and manicures, then maybe you could try to use your own money to pay for food. :/
Hate me all you want for saying this but in my personal opinion if you can't afford food for your kids etc. then maybe you should be selling the nice things you are given, as somebody who has been in this position I can say that ALL of my money went towards making me better financially stable and if I was given an iPad or something of that value I would discretely sell it for more important things because although it can bring some joy you can also get just as much joy out of a cheap soccer ball and go down to the park to kick it around for FREE
I think the first part of the post referred specifically to people cheating the system, not those who get luxuries every one and awhile. But yes, it is important to know someone's story before you judge them.
Please read this, I know it's long. This is a great story and honestly opened my eyes a little bit, but my and others tax dollars are what pay for their food stamps (My family has been on food stamps before so I understand) so why should someone who is on food stamps have expensive things like that? The way I look at it is my tax dollars are helping to buy TVs and nice cars for people, I could afford a lot more nice things for myself if my money wasn't forcefully taken by the hundreds per month out of my pay check. If people need tax dollars (which come by the hundreds from me) to pay for food, why should they have expensive TVs and cars? I've watched my dad sell hundreds of dollars of his proudest possessions just to put food on the table because he understood that as long as he personally could put food on the table, he had no right to say "I cannot afford food, give me it for free."
You may be paying hundreds a month in taxes, but very, very little of that is going to help low-income people. More of it is going to line the pockets of people in the government than to help those who need it. Then you have things like roads, education, bridges, all that good stuff that a civilized society uses to keep going. If we weren't spending so much on an ineffectual Congress and a massively overbudgeted military, you could probably take home quite a bit more of your check, whereas cutting welfare would likely not make much of a difference.
I do agree with your point, but my point was that government help does not come from a "Money pool" or anything like that, it comes from tax dollars. And I see that as being hugely irresponsible to buy big expensive things, all I know is it's not right for people on assistance to own more nice things than me when I work my ass off for all the money I get because I am able to, and there they are using government assistance to buy TVs and iPhones
This made me all warm inside. Not because so many people are ass holes, but because the others seem to have their heads on right. These kinds of stories just humble me and make the thankful for what I have. They also inspire me to want to help others, if only just to make their lives a bit easier.
And that pony one totally didn't make me cry . . . I don't know WHAT your talking about. *sobs*
I agree with some people on here. if you're having trouble putting food on the table I would sell some of the nicer things i have and provide for myself and others, given the situation. But it's not that bad to have some nice things.
Exactly, its basically saying just because people are poor they can't have nice things. Yea there are people that cheat the system and there are those who go a little overboard but there are also those who genuinely wants things to make their lives a little better. Like parents who didn't want their kids growing up with nothing, they save up all the money they can get just so they can get their kids a gameboy. It gives them hope that things will get better
To be fair, a lexus and rims don't actually cost that much. Plus, I'd imagine the person in this situation just came into a bit of money from selling drugs, and is still in that awkward stage where they have 0 taste, but want to appear affluent.
This is really heartbreaking to me. I never lived in this amount of poverty, but it was still hard. My mom didn't have a college degree. She worked in tech support, a job which caused her depression and deteriorated her mental health. My step father did whatever job he could. For the most part we lives off of my dads child support. There were times, .any times, when we had to carefully ration out our food to make it through the school week, where we had to decide between paying rent or food or hydro.. We didn't even pay all of it. We only paid just enough to get the people off our back, promising more when we could. We had mushrooms and mold in the cracks of our walls, caused by our leaking pipes upstairs. We had a bucket under our sink. My clothes were only new at Christmas and birthdays. Yes, we had nice things. I had a laptop and an iPod and whatever, but they were gifts, clever little lies to say that we weren't as poor as we really were.
Even now, still living in a tiny ass basement "apartment" without a proper kitchen and a broken bathroom sink in which we wash our dishes, were better off than we used to be. Still, I'm ashamed to receive gifts from friends, ashamed to let them buy things for me. I'm ashamed to admit I got something in a thrift store or handmedowns from a family friend. Im ashamed to recieve any form of chwrity at all. It goes to show that, no matter how you end up, living in any form of poverty damages you.
There are unfortunately lots of people who abuse these systems, but people do get things for gifts. I get that. But what I 100% don't agree with, is anyone on welfare buying cigarettes. The moment you blow money on that shit, over food or even a gameboy for your kids, you should get cut off.
While morally I agree, it isn't that simple. Both my parents smoke and, let me tell you, they've tried an endless amount of times to quit before. Smoking is an addiction, both phyaically (if I remember correctly) and mental. Often times these addictions have formed over decades. Its not that simple, just quitting, and could actually have negative effects on the body.
Buddy I hate to tell ya, but that's their own fault. I watched my mom quit smoking and my dad quit chew, it hurt them yes, but it's not impossible, and now they are stronger than ever. I hope I'm not offending anyone, just my own observations. Quitting looks hard, but my parents did. All they needed was some family support.
As did my parents. And in all honesty, my parents who are 50 knew the risks when they started at teenagers. They still tried it. The excuse of "the risks weren't obvious" barely applies. Yes it's hard to quit, but is it more valuable than a better quality of life? No.
If some people need extra money, and get it for free, others are going to do the same, regardless of need. With people dropping out of the middle class, the middle class will pay even more taxes, and more people will be put on welfare. See how this ends?
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· 10 years ago
No, I don't see this ever ending. You're right about those kind of people, but what about the people who really need it?
I lose sleep over this, but I'm my experience, they are far and between. The best we can do for them is make more jobs. Everything from military or mining, to helping to run a local ice cream shop.
So the internet thing being given from the school I can understand, it came with something else that WAS worth paying for. Everything else has a cost associated with it, not just the cost of what the actual item is, but what you COULD HAVE bought with that same money instead. Even if its a "gift" from somebody else, it still had a cost, that money still could have been used for something else. Rather than have all your relatives sending thousands of dollars to give 1 kid HUNDREDS of MLP, (seriously who needs that many? You could easily make do with under a dozen) you could instead spend those thousands of dollars on food, shoes, heating bill. Rather than let your parents, siblings, kids, friends, whoever, buy you a brand new iphone and pay for the extensive phone bill, have em buy you a cheap phone that can have a much cheaper plan and let them pay for groceries too. The only reason so many people don't is because they are too stubborn and prideful to accept those kind of things, and
yet they'll readily accept something they don't actually need because its viewed as just a gift rather than helping because your broke. Even if its the same dollar amount and the reason its being given is exactly the same. No, you DONT need a big TV and cable if you can't afford to keep yourself/family clothed, fed, and warm. It doesn't matter if thats given to you for free, SOMEBODY PAID FOR IT, that money could have been used for an actual necessity
I was in the same situation. My mom died and my stepdad was an alcoholic. He stole money that my older brother earned and used it to buy beer and all sorts of stuff to make himself pass out drunk. When my birthday came around my brother hid enough money to buy me an iPod. Almost everyone in school would come up to me and ask how I got the iPod even when I was so poor and I was constantly bullied. I hate it when people make fun of something you can't control. I didn't choose to be born into an abusive household. It sickens me. Thankfully out grandparents took us in and we don't have to live in the fear that we're going to get beat up.
People are always saying how 'us in the united states don't have it bad' and I know we don't have it the absolute worst. Obviously, I have the internet and a computer. My dad pays for both - frankly, he's doing pretty well in life - but my mother is a single mother of three and a waitress. I don't have it all that bad now, but when I was younger and my dad didn't quite have the money he has now, there were weeks every winter when we couldn't pay the gas bill and I had to use four quilts and my cat to keep warm because it would reach below zero and we couldn't heat the house. I didn't own a single new item of clothing - it was all from the DI or hand-me-downs from people my mom knew. I never went over to my friend's house, because seeing everything that my friends had made me feel insignificant. We had an old TV that barely worked back then, and my mom was kind of fat and lazy. I didn't invite friends over to my house even once until I was fourteen years old because I didn't want them
to see how I lived. I was embarrassed about what I had, and I was scared that the heating or the AC would go out while they were over, or that my mom would make me clean up everything while my friends were there, when I nearly got scolded at my friend's houses for washing off my plates. Back then, we didn't have a dishwasher, and so I would do it. It shocks me whenever kids don't know how to get onto the counters, because when I was little, if I didn't climb up on them, I wouldn't be able to get my breakfast. Now we have some nice things, and I still get looks of shock and disgust from my peers whenever I say I'm getting free lunches, because I carry around my Nexus tablet, and I have a laptop and the internet and the new 3DS - and my jacket is Aeropostale. But they don't know that my dad buys me my electronics, and my girlfriend bought me my games so we could play together, or that I've had this jacket for the last three years and it's one of four I own that we got at half off.
I still don't have friends over at my house, because at my house you can read, you can use my laptop, or you can watch television. That's really it. Our house is old and we spend less on it because of all of the bugs (literally yesterday I crushed a spider the size of a half dollar) and the horrible heating that means even though we're affording the gas bill, we're still using three quilts and a cat to keep warm. Even after we just clean my house, it looks and feels dirty because of all the cracks in the floor and walls, and all the bugs that will find their way in. Don't judge someone's position until you've lived in it.
Alright everyone. It's my turn to share my story like this. First off. I have lied before on this site and said I was older than I am to avoid judgement. I am 14 years old and frankly I don't care what people say. Anywho.
I live in a thankfully paid off double wide trailer with my mom, dad, two dogs, and five cats. A few years ago my mom had surgery on her knee because when she worked at the fire department she slid down a pole and landed wrong breaking both of her knees. It was years later and she got the surgery. We took care of her, helped her ice it and move it. But, things were healing slow.. So we went to the doc. They found fibromyalgia, arthritis, and numerous other things in her knee. My dad works a full time job at Home Depot to support us, he stands on concrete floors all damned day while he has knee and back problems. He is constantly cussed at and treated rudely by the people there. While this was going on with my parents, I started to feel depressed but I didn't want to
(Got cut off.) tell them. It got progressively worse until I got suicidal. I had to tell them. My parents took me to therapy which I beat myself up over worried it cost money. I'd even fake being ill to get out of it. Christmas would come and my mom could cry wanting to give us the things we wanted. A few Christmases ago all I wanted was one thing. A lap top. My parents knew this. On Christmas Day I woke up and opened my present. It was a laptop. I hugged my parents and asked them how they afforded it. They smiled a bit sadly and said "It's gonna come out of your father's pay check for the next 2 or so years." My mom also sold some of her jewelry so we could eat. We spent 2 and a half years waiting on my mom to get disability. I sacrificed a lot of things so we could eat. I gave my parents money friends and relatives gave me to spend on myself for my birthday or whatever. We all have iPhones, we have Internet and a flat screen TV without cable TV. We got them on discount. My mom just
(Cut off again.) started getting her Social Security. So don't say that shit unless you know the story. There's so much more I could of included. Thank you for taking the time to read. And you ass holes that agree with the OP of the Tumblr post disgust me.
I am a mum of 2 children under the age of 3, I am also an insulin dependent diabetic. I have had people ask me how I can justify having things like a LCD television, a somewhat new, if outdated mobile phone, pay tv and other 'luxuries. I tell them that I have scrimped and saved as much as I can for these items. Though I may be poor, my children are always happy and healthy, fed well with things that I can't really afford, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, so we substitute and make do with frozen vegetables and canned fruit. There have been weeks in recent times where my partner and I have actually gone without food, just to make sure that our children have the food they need for their little growing bodies. This also means that my health goes into risk because of those decisions, so why do I have these luxuries that I mentioned earlier? It is so my children, who I love so very much can live a normal lifestyle, like all of their friends......
It's not about the 'one nice thing' it's about how some families on welfare wear designer clothes (not joking), get brand new prams for their babies, have massive cars to pile their huge families into and yet somehow still can't afford to feed their children enough and still can't afford to send their child on a school trip to the museum or something.
In the UK almost a quarter of our taxes are spent on welfare/ benefits. It's supposed to be a lifeline to those who have fallen on hard times, not a way of life.
I agree that it's not okay for people who do have enough to use those things, but (and I don't know if this is true in the UK) with wages as low as they are, some people don't have the opportunity to do those things. My mom has been on welfare my whole life, but we also don't go out to the movie and do fun things unless my dad pays for it (they're divorced, but they still get along). My dad pays for our internet and all my electronics. Our AC doesn't work in our car, and we didn't turn the heat up higher than 65 degrees all winter, which is /really cold/. My mom works a lot, and it's not due to lack of effort that we're on welfare, however, I don't anticipate it stopping at least until my younger sister is out of the house as well as myself.
*are - and don't think that just because you are privileged enough to afford what you need that everyone else is. With out of control health costs, college tuitions, and stagnant minimum wage, it's near impossible to just "pick yourself up by the bootstraps" and turn your life around. Many people are stuck working 3 jobs just trying to get by, and they still aren't making it. Food stamps and welfare are a pittance compared to what these people deserve.
from what I understand, you qualify for them based on your financial situation, and then the government, or someone, (idk if they come from the gov.) gives them to you, and when you go to the grocery store, you get discounted food.
I feel the need to go out and do nice things the moment I have money.
I used to find it annoying to see obviously unemployed and even homeless people with things that I choose to do without so that I can save for more important things, like children and a roof to put over my family's heads. Then I realized that it's not their fault that it's been getting harder and harder to get by in the middle class pretty much since I was born, and surely before that, even.
I blame the people at the top, getting obscenely rich off the work of others, and then refusing to pay their fair share, but that's another long, un-fun subject entirely...
And that pony one totally didn't make me cry . . . I don't know WHAT your talking about. *sobs*
I live in a thankfully paid off double wide trailer with my mom, dad, two dogs, and five cats. A few years ago my mom had surgery on her knee because when she worked at the fire department she slid down a pole and landed wrong breaking both of her knees. It was years later and she got the surgery. We took care of her, helped her ice it and move it. But, things were healing slow.. So we went to the doc. They found fibromyalgia, arthritis, and numerous other things in her knee. My dad works a full time job at Home Depot to support us, he stands on concrete floors all damned day while he has knee and back problems. He is constantly cussed at and treated rudely by the people there. While this was going on with my parents, I started to feel depressed but I didn't want to
In the UK almost a quarter of our taxes are spent on welfare/ benefits. It's supposed to be a lifeline to those who have fallen on hard times, not a way of life.