My rant for the week

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04-07-2011, 07:42 PM
stratosguy

My rant for the week

I am far from perfect and try not to be a judgmental person. But occasionally
there are times that I just can't resist making a comment on.

I was at a dollar store the other day. A young boy and I assume his wife were
shopping with a small baby. They get to the check out and not being nosey
but next in line I saw the entire purchase. 1 gallon of milk, about a dozen
energy drinks, 6 bags of cookies.

Out comes the ebt card ( food stamp) and they don't have enough money.
They are short about $ 4 bucks. So they boy and girl argue about where
the change in the car is hidden then try to take the cart outside when
an employee stops them and tells them they have to finish paying for the
items. After several long minutes of both going back to the car they come
back in with handfuls of change to count out.

All the while the line is getting longer and and you could tell everyone including
myself were getting aggravated with the whole mess.

My point about this story is I have no problem with taxes helping people in
need especially for children. The big problem I have is the fact that they
can buy crap like this and not something the child needs. I mean come on
energy drinks. If they were getting real food, heck I would have paid the
4 dollars myself but after seeing that spectacle I wouldn't have loaned them
a cent.

I am just curious what others may think of this ?

I forgot to mention they were obnoxious and loudly arguing with each other
and also yelling at the baby every few seconds It's one of those you just
had to be there moments.
04-07-2011, 07:50 PM
SIMPLEMAN

i feel your pain strat..but don't get me started. :mad:
04-08-2011, 05:57 AM
poppop

I was at a grocery store a couple of weeks back. I was in line behind a beautiful young Hispanic female. She had what looked like a two year old little boy with her. She was dressed really nice, had gold braclets and several gold rings. She had gotten some items and was fumbling for her WIC card. She paid for some milk and stuff with the WIC card. By then I was disgusted as I wanted to pay and leave, and since this was the only line open I had to wait. Then some other people came up, and they to became disgusted and became a little more vocal than I. She just turned around and smiled, produced her food stamp card, paid and left. Regardless if she was Hispanic, Red, White, Blue, Black, White or Orange in my opinion she should have not displayed all that jewelry while in a store receiving public assistance.
04-08-2011, 08:31 AM
SlowToFret

Poppop, don't even get me started! I am right there with you.
04-08-2011, 09:49 AM
stratosguy

Quote:

Originally Posted by poppop

I was at a grocery store a couple of weeks back. I was in line behind a beautiful young Hispanic female. She had what looked like a two year old little boy with her. She was dressed really nice, had gold braclets and several gold rings. She had gotten some items and was fumbling for her WIC card. She paid for some milk and stuff with the WIC card. By then I was disgusted as I wanted to pay and leave, and since this was the only line open I had to wait. Then some other people came up, and they to became disgusted and became a little more vocal than I. She just turned around and smiled, produced her food stamp card, paid and left. Regardless if she was Hispanic, Red, White, Blue, Black, White or Orange in my opinion she should have not displayed all that jewelry while in a store receiving public assistance.

I totally agree on that and was probably driving a Cadillac Escalade. I do want to point out though things are not always what they seem. My wife and I were
foster parents. We had a newborn infant and we automatically qualify for wic vouchers. ( milk,formula,cheese,etc.) We definitely used the vouchers if you haven't
priced it formula for babies is pretty expensive. We would get looks once in a while too because we didn't fit the part of I guess being in need driving an suv etc.
I never felt the need to explain myself but I know you guys get the point. Food stamps however are given to low income families and it does strike a nerve when
you know they are just cheating the system.
04-08-2011, 09:57 AM
painterfish

Now you got me going my mother in law was a tuff proud lady who carried scrap medal on her back for miles to pay her bills when she got down the family tried for food stamps for her thay were told since she had two burial plots in her name she didnt quaifly just saying
04-08-2011, 02:36 PM
stratosguy

I know the story too well... My sister is a food stamp worker of all things in another county. She hates her job and knows the
system is corrupt but can't do a thing about it. The people that need it most are honest hard working people who might have
something in their name so that means an automatic no. The local con artist already knows this and makes sure anything they
own is in a relatives name to make sure they get approved. I got a mortgage and 2 car payments so no need in me ever trying
lol.
My wife is in daycare and the same story. People claim to be students who don't work nor go to school get free daycare and
sit at home sleeping all day or watching soap operas while the county pays for child care. Most drive pretty fancy cars and
they don't work so figure that one out.
04-08-2011, 08:38 PM
Igot1

I too have seen this all to often,once in a grocery store this lady in front of us argued about prices and sent the bagger back and forth to check shelf prices saying they were ringing up wrong. after about ten minutes or so the teller told her the price and she yelled food stamps and turned to everyone in the line and said yeah i'm paying with food stamps got her reciept and her hubby( we guess) pulled up in a new $50,000 customized van packed it up and pulled away everyone was shaking there heads.
04-15-2011, 09:18 AM
spotrunnin

THIEFS!!!!!!! Yep these people have a job for sure, and it is how to work the system!!!! I have deltwith a couple of these people for sometime now and it is not easy. They just take all they can where and how they can. It just makes my blood boil. In my opion these types of people are thieving big ole RATS! Glad to see there are others out there who seem to feel the same way I do.
05-22-2011, 09:48 PM
quikcarl61

Look at it this way, the guy at the local jewelry store is having a banner year sounds like, and he is probably spending it with local merchants also. While we may not like the way our tax dollars are spent, in the long run the local economy gets it back somehow, we just don't see it. Just my opinion, as I have voted for the idiots in charge and can't change it til the next election, which I have and will continue to do until someone gets it right.
05-23-2011, 07:19 PM
papadave

I know how easy it is to get fired up on about the folks that scam their way into public assistance. We see the food stamp thing at our local grocery, but what we don't see are all of the fortune 500 bail outs that have been going on for years. Yep, it pees me off that someone who can afford gold chains gets food stamps, but in the scheme of things it's actually a small percentage of the budget problem. There are thousands of examples where companies (like Exxon) get huge tax breaks while at the same time turning record profits on backs of the average fellow.
Think about this, a foot soldier in Afghanistan is taxed about 34%, but folks who live off dividends are taxed about 17%. Many of our young military families are on WIC or the like, yet we tax them at a higher rate than the folks who can sit home and watch TV, or go to the "club" for a dip or a round of golf in the middle of the day. I ain't against folks being well off, but they need to pay their fair share, just like the welfare folks need to pay theirs.
Leave out the big guys and there are still 10s of thousands of working folks, who can afford healthcare, who instead choose to move their assets to family members in order to qualify for medicaid. Now I know they worked for those assets, I know they can do what they want with what they've earned, but I was raised that you pay your bills. It isn't evading unfair taxes, it is avoiding paying their own medical bills and adding to the burden of everyone else who pays taxes. Yes, staying in a rest home for 5 years could take every penny and every scrap of property that you've earned in 60-70 years. Yes it could leave your family in debt, but that's why you earn money, so you can pay your own way!
For those that argue that the welfare scammers or lazies get medicaid, why shouldn't my mom or grandfather - here it is. When you scam the government, when you add to the burden of the taxpayer in order to avoid paying your own way, you become one of those that you claim to despise.

As fare as welfare or public assistance goes, it needs cleaning up in a major way. But I also believe that there are people who genuinly need the help. The elderly and the handicapped, families with handicapped members, need help and personally I'm glad to do it, it's part of being a community member.
There will always be folks that work the system, but the best ones are miles above the jewel encrusted Hispanic girl at the dollar store(and I'll bet she earned the gold, one way or the other).
05-23-2011, 08:11 PM
Whompus Cat

I've heard from a grocery store manager that a lot of times folks will go into a store, buy a bunch of expensive steak, lobster etc. with food stamps then return it to get cash so they can buy liqour, beer drugs etc. Then this meat/food that has ablsolutely nothing wrong with it must be thrown in the trash. This kind of stuff should be illegal, policed and for the very first offense should cut off their "aid", be charged with theft and jailed.
05-24-2011, 09:22 AM
REDBOAT

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whompus Cat

I've heard from a grocery store manager that a lot of times folks will go into a store, buy a bunch of expensive steak, lobster etc. with food stamps then return it to get cash so they can buy liqour, beer drugs etc. Then this meat/food that has ablsolutely nothing wrong with it must be thrown in the trash. This kind of stuff should be illegal, policed and for the very first offense should cut off their "aid", be charged with theft and jailed.

The grocer is also negligent then... it should show on the receipt how they paid.
05-24-2011, 10:46 PM
Kellog

If anyone sees me in the grocery store or Wal-mart using WIC vouchers don't give me any grief. DSS Foster care and adoptions just took custody of 2 of my grandchildren and placed them with my wife and me. I now have 5 grandchildren ranging in ages from 3 months to 3 years living with us. Anybody that says anything about me using WIC when I get in my 2010 F150 may get more than a mouth full. Don't judge a book by it's cover fits well in this thread. I don't post on here much at all anymore, but this topic got me fired up and I had to let loose.
05-25-2011, 04:50 AM
poppop

A lot of people have different situations. You and your wife are to be commended for taking in your grandchildren to raise instead of them being in foster care. My grandparents took me and my three siblings in when we were very young and raised us until I was 14 years old. In your case the system is working EXACTLY like it is supposed to. It evident by most of the other posts that is not the case.
05-25-2011, 06:13 AM
papadave

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kellog

If anyone sees me in the grocery store or Wal-mart using WIC vouchers don't give me any grief. DSS Foster care and adoptions just took custody of 2 of my grandchildren and placed them with my wife and me. I now have 5 grandchildren ranging in ages from 3 months to 3 years living with us. Anybody that says anything about me using WIC when I get in my 2010 F150 may get more than a mouth full. Don't judge a book by it's cover fits well in this thread. I don't post on here much at all anymore, but this topic got me fired up and I had to let loose.

Thanks for making that point Kellog. We have dozens of everyday examples of how the system is bad. Many first hand, many passed along the gossip chain and magnified along the way. It's good to have the positive side voiced by someone familiar, but most folks are too embarrassed or intimidated to do so.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whompus Cat

I've heard from a grocery store manager that a lot of times folks will go into a store, buy a bunch of expensive steak, lobster etc. with food stamps then return it to get cash so they can buy liqour, beer drugs etc. Then this meat/food that has ablsolutely nothing wrong with it must be thrown in the trash. This kind of stuff should be illegal, policed and for the very first offense should cut off their "aid", be charged with theft and jailed.

Businesses must register to accept WIC, it isn't forced on them. Most of them turn a good profit by doing so, if not they wouldn't go thru the application process. Your friend the manager probably didn't bother to tell you how much they make on the folks that don't cheat, but it's bound to be way more than they lose in cases like you were told about or the store would stop taking the vouchers or accepting ebt cards.

I am by no means supporting public assistance to those who can support themselves and their family by legal means. I am absolutely against the way that the system encourages young women to have baby after baby in order to get more $$ coming into the household. That and many other bad policies need to be fixed. But there are many good people who are helped by the programs and they shouldn't be tossed aside.

I'm not a flaming libtard any more than I'm a radical rightwing nutcase. I just wonder why being reasonable is so unpopular. I really hope that the public will be given enough reasonable choices next year to make a difference, but I guess, given the current atmosphere, that really isn't a reasonable expectation.