tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5827968588643415787.post2566014991342781231..comments2024-03-27T06:58:00.659-05:00Comments on Balancing Jane: I Was on Food Stamps; I'm Not LazyMichellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07801229525416203656noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5827968588643415787.post-20632509889254644782012-07-12T12:56:35.805-05:002012-07-12T12:56:35.805-05:00I am definitely not suggesting that there's no...I am definitely not suggesting that there's no fraud or freeloading in the system; there is. But I also think that it's a lot easier to see the ten people sitting on welfare that don't need to be than the many more who are using it the way it's intended to be. For one thing, people who are on it for a short time and only using it to get back on their feet are much less visible to people outside of their own homes. <br /><br />You say "Now-a-days, unfortunately, that is the case." But did you look at the statistics? Fraud in SNAP funds is at an all-time low. You cannot base broad-scale analysis off a handful of personal observations. <br /><br />The article may have been inspired by the few who are working the system, but it was definitely meant for all. There's no room for nuance in boiling things down to a blanket statement that says "feeding the animals" (ridiculously offensive in itself) makes people on assistance dependent. That's insulting and aimed at everyone who uses assistance. It doesn't say that it's fine to feed the bird with the broken wing but not the bear who's being lazy. It says "don't feed the animals." <br /><br />Maybe you personally don't mean to aim criticism at everyone on assistance, but that's exactly what the original news article does.Michellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07801229525416203656noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5827968588643415787.post-90660529628510151932012-07-12T12:20:03.610-05:002012-07-12T12:20:03.610-05:00While I feel your pain & understand your story...While I feel your pain & understand your story - i personally know of about 10 people that are sitting on welfare that do not need to be<br />Now-a-days, unfortunately, that is the case.<br /><br />The few that need it suffer for the majority that dont.<br /><br />When I was younger & needed to get on my feet (single mom with a child) - I did have to receive food stamps.......<br />However, I did do what needed to be done to be on them only a few short months. They were not my main income for years/decades<br /><br />I know that you take that article to heart...but - I truly believe it was not meant for all - just the lazy lifers working the system.<br /><br />I hope that this helps....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5827968588643415787.post-40259865075222654572012-07-10T17:36:22.020-05:002012-07-10T17:36:22.020-05:00I remember once talking to a conservative seminari...I remember once talking to a conservative seminarian (nice fellow, usually, though he thought priests should be able to trade on the market) and we had just read about a woman who had lost her legs because she'd been denied Medicaid & a state funded kidney transplant, and he STILL thought the state of Missouri had made the right decision. A hundred years ago, President Grover Cleveland, the one who had the mistress and little bastard, denied seeds to drought struck farmers, for the reason he didn't want them to be dependent. It's scary stuff. I am on Social Security Disability, and I got one of those things in the mail the other day "Does your doctor say you can work yet?"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5827968588643415787.post-6721694900655413652012-07-10T16:39:11.197-05:002012-07-10T16:39:11.197-05:00I've never read your blog before, but a friend...I've never read your blog before, but a friend of mine posted a link to this page on her Facebook, and I'm SO glad you wrote this. My mom and I got food stamps when I was little, too, after she and my father divorced and while she was going to trade school. It made me so mad when I saw that mean little newspaper scan going around FB that I just wanted to spit.<br /><br />Thank you.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5827968588643415787.post-40237210587830222012012-07-03T08:18:21.312-05:002012-07-03T08:18:21.312-05:00Great post! I have always thought the rhetoric aro...Great post! I have always thought the rhetoric around laziness and foodstamps unfair if not really strange. As you point out yourself with statistics, people are not on welfare for very long time and fraud is all time low. People have to *qualify* for welfare, it is not just something that appears in your mailbox one day. Thanks for the personal angle to the story.Louisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00199642489918949988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5827968588643415787.post-45886448714845544152012-07-03T05:12:35.490-05:002012-07-03T05:12:35.490-05:00My family and I live on food stamps. They give us ...My family and I live on food stamps. They give us $200 a month for three people, because apparently college students don't need to eat. Both my sister and I work, but everything we make goes to bills and college fees, despite our grants, so we never have much left over for food. My mom is currently climbing a similar steep learning curve as your mom did, only she's turning 60 this year, after a 15 year absence from the work force, so the curve is extremely steep indeed, and finding work at her age is proving difficult. None of us are lazy. <br /><br />It is tiring to the bone to constantly have to defend our need for food stamps and other "socialist" programs like (laughable) low-income health care. I am tired of being called names by ignorant, privileged jerks who don't know what it's like to spend the last two weeks of every month looking in an empty fridge and counting down days until either pay day or food stamp reload. We live in a broken system where the cycle of poverty is self perpetuating no matter how hard you work, and the only way out is half grinding yourself to the bone, and half luck. Better hope you never get sick or injured on the jobs you can get right now (if you don't have a "decent" degree yet) or else everything you've worked for until now will be flushed down the toilet.<br /><br />Thanks for this article, it's nice to see someone who understands what it's like.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5827968588643415787.post-62707855858553806622012-07-02T09:29:10.264-05:002012-07-02T09:29:10.264-05:00Thank you Michelle!Thank you Michelle!Amandahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15141094744899597670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5827968588643415787.post-53754644542832301312012-07-02T09:08:00.487-05:002012-07-02T09:08:00.487-05:00Great post. I was not on food stamps as a kid, but...Great post. I was not on food stamps as a kid, but we did get WIC assistance, which is similar, and we only used it when my brother and sister were infants. I love the statistic you gave of people only using welfare assistance for 2 years. I agree that most people only use it when they have to in order to get through a tough time. Partly, I think this is because there is an element of shame involved in using welfare. People are not proud of it, and it is often a last resort. I never used any welfare assistance in my personal life and have always had a strong work ethic as well. <br /><br />But, to the person who wrote your opening picture that sparked this issue, I did go to college for free with a large portion of my tuition covered by a Pell Grant. So, you could say that I did take a government handout for 4 years. Does that make me lazy too?Amanda R.https://www.blogger.com/profile/08321763390879484704noreply@blogger.com