Does it upset you to see people using a welfare card, (part 2)?

Question

buying junk food...

or getting into an expensive car.....

or pulling their welfare card out of a designer purse...

I cannot believe the responses that said, do not judge...it's none of your business..

Do you not realize it is my taxpayer money paying for these people's food? I have worked hard, sacrificed, saved and done without so that I can support myself and my family. Why must I support you with my taxpayer money, when you have not made the same sacrifices? Why must I support you because you made poor choices. You chose to buy an expensive car, rather than buy food. You chose to buy the expensive clothing. You chose not to go to college, not to pursue a career...

Don't get me wrong. I do not mind giving temporary help to those who help themselves...but, I am tired of people who take advantage of the system.

When you steal from the government, guess what? You are stealing from me and all other taxpayers....

Your thoughts

Answer 1

I answered your first question regarding this issue but I have thought of another something that makes me quite angry.

Take my cousin for example. She is an unwed mother of three (had all three out of wedlock). She works a marginal job and barely graduated from high school. She's almost 40. She receives food stamps and also qualifies for other local programs that give discounts on utilities, that give out gas cards, that help pay for her childrens' school uniforms, etc.

Come tax time, this sloppy ***** receives dang near $5K back from the government because of all her children. You know what happens come tax time for me?! I ususally OWE money. If I don't I'll be lucky to get a couple hundred back. Why? I don't know. Probably because I'm a single woman with a bachelor's degree. I don't have any children. I work 40 hours per week and I support MYSELF.
I feel as thought the government is rewarding people who are in these situations. Why would they want to do better for themselves?! They have Uncle Sam to pay for everything. Again, I work in the public service sector, so I see this first hand, every day. I too am tired of folks who use the system wrongly and reap benefits that (I feel) they don't deserve.

Answer 2

Unfortuanetly, we cannot judge without proper recourse of fact in any situation. Some items could have been gifts... However, 99.99999% of anyone on public assistance probably doesn't associate with someone who would provide such gifts. We all know about the "rich uncle" somewhere. However that is far from the truth almost every single time!

I agree with providing temporary support to any qualified person in order to remove them from life's superfluities. As they say "life happens". I have a major problem with the people who, for no other reason than being lazy, decide that they can get X dollars a month to pump out three kids Vs. working somewhere to make less. I am talking second, third and fourth+++ generation recipients. They truly piss me off. But, they see not my vengence, for many know no better either. They need to become enlightened on what is right...Educasted on how to advance in life. Stumble a few times... Afterward, they would know better and realize that certain actions are in fact stealing MY tax dollars too.I would much rather invest in day care and education for now, then pay for someone's mercedes forever...

Answer 3

As far as getting mad, I try not to unless I'm sure there's a good reason.
In the case you mentioned there may be reasons for the car, purse etc. that you aren't aware of. Maybe the person borrowed the car because they don't own one, maybe they have the purse from when they were working before losing a job.
I don't agree with people who say that you shouldn't judge. Our society tolerates far to much that shouldn't be tolerated out of a misguided sense of being non-judgmental.
But, do not judge based on incomplete information. Do not assume that someone is ripping off the system just because they don't appear poor enough.
People go on welfare for a wide range of reasons, and despite the occasional sensational news story most are on it legitimately and briefly.
I once knew a woman who had several children to support and the only local jobs wouldn't come close to paying the bills. She had a choice, work and get government assistance to eke out a poverty line existence. Or go on welfare and go back to school. She went to a two year school for nursing, got a job and got off welfare. Last I heard she had finished her bachelors and was working on a masters to become a nurse practitioner.
What does this have to do with your story, before she found herself in the position I just described she had lived reasonablty well. She had nice clothes, nice furniture, in short she didn't look poor.
I think her case is probably more typical than the 'welfare cheat' we hear so much about.

Answer 4

As I said in response to "part 1", there are more cheap junk foods than cheap healthy foods.

A welfare recipient may have owned an expensive car before applying for government benefits. Or the person may not have had to pay what you think the car is worth.

Most of your taxes aren't being tossed into the welfare "pot". Where do you think the government gets the millions of dollars that are spent on pointless crap? Whose a*ses do you think are farting out the money to fund the so-called war on terrorism? Who do you think is paying to feed and house all the blacks and other minorities who were wrongly convicted decades ago when the white establishment thought that prison would be the best way to shut them up? Who do you think is paying to feed and house all the poor joes who are sitting in jail for driving on a suspended license (the horrible crime being that they couldn't afford to pay motor vehicle insurance and had no other way to get to work than to drive there)? How do you think the government makes up for the deficit spending that's created by tax cuts? By creating money out of ''thin-air-inflation'' (which robs us of our purchasing power by devaluing our money) and by borrowing (which removes productive resources from private hands and, you guessed it, MUST BE REPAID BY FUTURE TAXES). All governments raise as much money as they can so they can spend as much money as they can.

You're very presumptuous. How do you know whether or not someone else has ''worked hard, sacrificed, saved and done without''? How do you know whether or not someone else has made poor choices? The things that you see are often not what they seem.

Stealing? Yes, you're definitely the victim of theft. And the thieves are the rich, politicians, government officials, big buisness, etc...

"Don't get me wrong. I do not mind giving temporary help to those who help themselves..." ----Well, I DO mind paying taxes to support government assistance. Because it would be worthless even if it wasn't born of, and supported by, a corrupt system. The reason being because capitalism ensures that all assistance given is unequally disbursed.

Answer 5

I think the government does need to help the people of this country that cannot help themselves, but I also get very angry at all the money wasted on lazy citizens that only take and give nothing back.. I work in a prison and it would make you sick to know of all the drug addicts that get ssi simply because they are drug addicts and cannot work! There are so many young people out there that are perfectly fine to work, but would rather just take, so that is what they do. How about paying into ssi your whole life, but when you retire, there is nothing left because of the way the government wasted it .

Answer 6

What about those people who need the help? Maybe that's not really a designer purse, but a lookalike copy of designer. Maybe she got a bargain on clothes at
Goodwill.
Maybe that's not even her expensive car. Maybe someone loaned it to her so that she could get to the store.

Or, maybe she's scamming the system.

Point is, you don't know what her circumstances are. Appearances are deceiving.

My daughter, with 2 little kids, had to use one of those cards for a while. And she sometimes drove her Dad's car to the store. I know that it half killed her to pull that card out of her wallet to buy stuff, and let everybody see it. But, she had to feed her kids. She did work, and we helped her some, but she needed the card. Now, she's on her feet, & the card is a thing of the past.

Unless people know what the circumstances are, it is not a good thing to judge.

Answer 7

There's a lot of things the government spends my tax money on that I don't necessarily agree with, but I try not to get angry about things (it's not healthy). I personally have never seen someone pull a welfare card out of a designer purse or driving an expensive car, but even if I did its none of my business.Charity is charity and whatever someone decides to do with the assistance given to them is their business.Its all about how you view things. I don't see it as stealing.It does not help me in anyway to see it as stealing or to see myself as a victim.

Answer 8

Yes it makes me angry. I have worked hard all my life to support myself and my daughter and never took one dime from anyone, not even my parents. When my daughter was 3 months ol, she is 11 now, I left my husband, moved half way across the country and started over. I had no job, no money, and no place to go. Within two weeks I had a job, an apartment, and a really good daycare for my daughter. It can be done, but most people just don't want to! I feel like you do, cut them off! I am tired of supporting the drug using, lazy scum buckets of the US!

Edit: Sybil is sooooo wrong! Food stamps can buy any kind of food, even junk food! So maybe she needs to do her research!

Answer 9

Well, when I first left my ex husband and I was a mother of 2 small children. . .I signed up for welfare. . .food stamps, I had no other choice and to this day I am still very thankful that it was available to me when I needed it.

I can say that I felt eyes glare upon me whenever I swiped my card . . .I would go to the grocery store after work, so yes, I would be dressed up, had my jewelry on and a nice purse and drove a nice vehicle at the time. . .all things I had acquired before my life turned upside down.

The thing is you never know what situation the person w/ the Food Stamps is in. . .what they are going through and so be it if they want to buy a Kit Kat bar for their kid. . .sheesh.

Answer 10

Yes there are some that do abuse the sys, but there are many who don't & all of your statements can be debunked

~buying junk food-there's nothing wrong with that as stated before

~pulling welfare card out of a designer purse.
They make plenty of fake ones that look EXACTLY like the real ones

~getting into an expensive car
again you don't know all the circumstances. Maybe they owe too much to sell it, maybe it's not theirs, maybe they suddenly lost their job, or whatever. Everybodys story is different.

~choose to buy expensive clothing
again there are alot of knockoffs

~instead of choosing to go to college
College costs way more than welfare gives.