Thread: Feed the poor?

This receipt was reportedly found in a supermarket parking lot. Chances are the angry clerk printed off another copy and didn't want to be fired for posting it. It should give you the warm fuzzies that while most families are struggling to make ends meet that the poor can eat so well.

The problem with making generalizations about people receiving welfare is the failure to separate the sad from the bad. Any system will attract scroungers but the systems are set up to help those in real need. Those who lash out in pride are worse than than the scroungers in my book.

Every system has its abusers. The vast majority of people who use food assistance do so reasonably. A little digging at Snopes.com shows that the person who made the purchase in question above did so with the intent of selling the goods for a 50% discount. He was caught and is facing jail time. It appears that the system works.

I'd really question whether the alleged shopping docket is truthful. To me, it screams fake from a mile away.

Originally Posted by Rustgold

I'd really question whether the alleged shopping docket is truthful. To me, it screams fake from a mile away.

Visit the Urban Legends website Snopes.com and search for "lobster with food stamps" and you'll find that the incident did actually happen this past winter.

If the docket is actually real, then I'd suggest that it was a 3rd party purchase & the docket wasn't found in the car park. There's so many ways on which this can be fictionalised that I wouldn't give credence to this unless they were able to present the alleged recipient/user of the dockets.

snopes.com: Food Stamps Steak Receipt

The poor have to eat steak and lobster. Thanks to the get tough anti-illegal immigration laws like Georgia's, fruits and vegetables are rotting in the fields with not enough workers to harvest them.

People, check snopes before you post things like this. You owe it to your readers and your credibility.

Those who lash out in pride are worse than than the scroungers in my book.

Where ever did you get "lash out in pride?" Is reporting abuse and recommending a way to stop it really pride or just common sense?

Snopes will send your firewall into overdrive. The story is true, it was reported to have been found in a parking lot. The truth is that this was a part of a welfare fraud to sell for 50%. But... how long has this been going on and why hasn't something been done about it? How many millions have been stolen not only from the poor but also those who provide the tax base? Why even distribute cards that are prone to theft at all? why not have an account where the funds are electronically deposited and then the recipient show valid ID to make purchases? This would really cut down on the amount of theft, I don't think they even ask for ID, at least not that I have seen just like most stores don't ask for ID when using a debit card. But then the cry would arise that the poor were being discriminated against for demanding to show ID I suppose.

And yes, there will always be abuse, but a lot of it is just ignored. Signs in a local town advertise "I buy blood sugar test strips" with the phone number boldly posted. Where do these test strips come from? Poor medicaid patients who reduce the times they test their blood sugar to make a few dollars. Food stamp cards are also sold for half price regualrly, but an electronic account requiring valid ID might just be the answer.

Originally Posted by Ditch

Where ever did you get "lash out in pride?" Is reporting abuse and recommending a way to stop it really pride or just common sense?

If that's your concern, you should have done a better job explaining that right off the bat. The OP and the thread title come off as you implying that poor people are all sitting around eating lobster and steak -- "eating well" -- when this case isn't about that at all. Where in the OP did you recommend a way to stop abuse? Of course abuse, mismanagement and inefficiency are rampant throughout government -- not exactly a news flash. So just what is the debate?

Originally Posted by Ditch

Snopes will send your firewall into overdrive.

Snopes is a legitimate site -- they do their homework. People who like to jump to conclusions when they see something that supports their general view don't like Snopes, of course. They actually confirmed the story was true, and what it was really about, as Terry pointed out.

If you have your firewall set to detect cookies, of course it will alert you when you visits Snopes -- just like a gazillion other sites on the internet. The site doesn't plant any malware -- it's rated safe by Norton. But by all means, use that as an excuse not to check things out before you post them.

People have to qualify for food stamps and they're given a certain allotment per month. If someone did do this, buy a lot of very expensive items, all that does is burn through their allotment faster. They're hurting themselves, they are not managing to tap the taxpayer any more than the tax payer already has been.

If you want to have this discussion the question should be whether social programs should exist at all, really.

Certain social programs or all of them? I can’t imagine even the most conservative or libertarian extremists recommending we have NO social programs. It’s more about what they are, who qualifies, for how long and how they're funded and managed.

The combination of using food crops for fuel and crop failures caused by unexpected variation in the climate are likely to mean the question will shortly be "Can we feed the poor?" and an awful lot of people will die of starvation very soon. I find that far more distressing.

The Snope's site has shown that this isn't a case of somebody on coupons eating lobster.
Even according to the scopes site, it's no known whether the guy selling the products at half price is the real owner of the coupons.
We have no idea of motivation, in fact we know next to nothing.
Was it a guy who stole them, was it a druggie, or was it simply a guy actually on welfare that needed to buy something coupons didn't provide for.

We don't know the actual facts, but it's painstakingly clear that this isn't as the rhetoric claims, it's not some coupon recipient eating lobster & laughing in everybody's faces.

Originally Posted by Olly Buckle

The combination of using food crops for fuel and crop failures caused by unexpected variation in the climate are likely to mean the question will shortly be "Can we feed the poor?" and an awful lot of people will die of starvation very soon. I find that far more distressing.

When the food crisis occurs, we'll simply ground the elderly and poor into Soylent Green. Two birds with one stone.