conuly

Well, the federal government took a look at his plan and said "Nope, too complicated, no can do!"

So far I've seen two articles on the subject, and the comments are going WILD. Apparently, people on food stamps should never spend one cent, of their money or "our" money, on: birthday cakes (sorry, kids!), crab, transportation (no cars for you!), cell phones (nevermind that landlines cost more and that a phone IS a necessity in the modern world....), food that ever tastes good or is easy to prepare, clothing (better go on that interview in your raggedy old jeans) or... anything.

Also, they should never get gifts, just so we KNOW they're poor.

If they get as little as $100 a month in food stamps, they should spend that on nutritious gruel, rather than spending a little on the gruel and a little on the half-price "splurge". Not even if they buy the splurge with cash! It's not sufficient to restrict what they buy with food stamps, they should not even be allowed to use their own wallets.

And none of them work either, so they have all day to go three bus rides here and back (with three kids), so it doesn't matter if the only place to get fresh food is two hours away.

Excuse me while I laugh.

Now, I'll be fair, I do see the logic and sense in putting some restrictions on what you can get with government money. And I definitely think that our government subsidizes too much "junk" foods and not enough healthy ones - there's a reason corn syrup is in everything, but organic peppers cost a small fortune!

However, I'm not ever going to take a stand that agrees with some of these assholes.

One person in the comments pointed out that soda can be helpful for diabetics if they need to raise their blood sugar level. "Oh, orange juice is just as good!" Orange juice costs three, four times as much as soda and it doesn't keep as long. You keep a think of soda in your fridge for a month (or in your cabinet!) and it goes flat. Keep the OJ in your fridge that long (forget the cabinet, it's a lost cause) and it goes bad.

Soda is unhealthy because people should drink water. No argument here - but if your water is truly nasty or contaminated, you still need to drink SOMEthing. Are you going to pay $4 for the soy milk, $2.50 for the milk-milk, $3.25 for the orange juice... or 89¢ for the soda? Maybe it's a bad choice (probably is a bad choice), but I can understand it. (Of course, this doesn't really apply in NYC unless the slum you live in has VERY old pipes, because we've got one of the best municipal water systems in the world... but then again, if you're that poor, you very well might live in a slum with very old pipes.)

Poor people should only be allowed to buy food "they'll learn how to cook!"

Sure, when they have the free time after working two bad jobs to make ends meet - or not, but walking around trying to GET two jobs. And after traveling an hour or two out of their way to do the grocery shopping. And let's not forget that in order to do cooking at home you need to have a large fridge (for ingredients and leftovers), cooking utensils (you at least need one pot or one skillet), a working stove, and, of course, the knowledge to do so. Of these problems, the lack of easy access to real food is probably the most common concern, but the others do appear. The response? "Oh, you're a typical bleeding heart liberal, you take an extreme example and make it sound like it's common!"

Well, aside from the fact that food deserts ARE common... yeah, I am a liberal. It's not an insult, it's a fact. I think the government doesn't belong in my bedroom (or yours or anybody else's - my bedroom isn't very interesting, but it's the principle of the thing!) and that it doesn't belong in my kitchen either. I also think that it IS the job of society (by which I mean the government) to take care of the members of society. Even if they really ARE lazy shiftless bums. (And we can disagree on that, but that's okay, because at least I know you guys won't start off trying to insult me!)

Aside from all this, even if these "extreme" conditions only apply to 10%, 5%, 1% of the people receiving food stamps, what, they should starve just because other people are luckier than they are? Ridiculous!

As far as "oh, they don't pay taxes" - nonsense, of course they do. Even if you redefine taxes to mean "only income taxes". (That's like saying oral sex isn't sex. The word sex is right in the name!)

You pay taxes so you can decide? I don't think so! (For one thing, we don't all agree, so... yeah.) I'm finding it hard to find out how much of your taxes go to food stamps, but here's a pie chart. This website is all interactive, but it lists food stamps under "miscellaneous mandatory programs" and so you can't see how much that one program in particular costs.

So basically it comes down to this. Some people are jerks, and also, they think they know more than they do. (Having fun with that last link, though. You can compare and contrast different nations' tax spending if you remember exchange rates!)

Care about abortion rights? Click the link.

( Text of the link in here )

As always, I'm stuck having no idea what on earth to *say* in a letter to my various legislators. Anybody writing one, give me your draft to modify?