mdiver said:

Bless you Phil for what you and Val just did

We all know the stereotypes surrounding welfare. Lazy, opportunists, thieves. I'm sure many know these types. Many of us know others who are anything but those things. My family went on welfare when my dad left us and we were on it for 2 years. My mom just needed it to help us get by so we had food and wouldn't loose the roof over our head. My mother never stopped working that whole time and when she got a good footing again, she went to the welfare office and told them she didn't need it anymore. They told her she could stay on for another three years since she was pregnant but she said we were good and that was that.

Currently my sister is receiving food stamps. She is working but her boyfriend does not help her. He's a lazy shiftless bum. My sister works full time, contributes to society and just needs a little help to feed the kids. She isn't spending her money wildly, as a matter of fact we help her with lots of things and if it weren't for us she would be on welfare totally.

For everyone who thinks people are getting a free ride, my sister receives $118.00 per month for food stamps. This equals

• $3.80 per day for all 5 people.
  
• .76 cents per day for each person, including a baby.
  
• .25 cents per meal per person

THINK ABOUT THIS. Does that sound like luxurious living to you? To survive on .25 cents per meal? The system requires you to be in the gutter to receive proper help. My sister has been on the HUD waiting list for 6 years while the banks receive $700 billion in a matter of days for their thievery. Once a person starts doing better, assistance is more or less cut off and people need to be able to depend on it as a bridge from hard times to normal survival.

It's so easy to label people and hate them but for those that do hopefully you never find yourself truly in need because you'll find out it aint what it's cracked up to be.....

If I am correct, the total government expenditure on all domestic assistance programs for the poor, needy, and disabled outside of Social Security (welfare payments, food stamps, Medicaid) is $12 billion a year. The most recent tax break given to the oil companies earlier this year was $20 billion, all while they were recording their biggest profits in history! And this was before the most sever financial crisis hit. I find it stupefying that people who have lost their jobs and run out of unemployment benefits are being put through the ringer and having their entire background checked like a common criminal just to get $100 a month in food stamps while AIG and Citigroup get loaned $25 to $50 billion dollars from the government with virtually no oversight in how they spend the money. (BTW, this is money outside the $700 billion dollars that was passed earlier.)

I bet this will be moved to P&R soon.

WAR COSTS IN PERSPECTIVE
With $872.6 billion, the cost of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan so far, the United States could fund...

...a year's worth of health care for 117 million Americans ($7,439/person)

...one year of public elementary school for 116 million children ($7,500/child)

...four years of public university tuition for 35 million students ($6,185/student)

...145 billion mosquito nets to help stop malaria in the developing world ($6/net)

...4.6 billion laptops to promote literacy in the developing world ($188/laptop)

If you had an expense account that let you spend $1 million dollars per day...

...it would take 2,391 years to spend $872.6 billion, the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan so far.

The cost of Iraq and Afghanistan laid out end-to-end in $100 bills...

...would extend 846,157.6 miles....or just short of 34 times around the Earth's circumference.

The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost each American family of four $11,458.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

I never thought I'd ever have to consider welfare, but I will after next April. I will only get $1200 a month in child support and that will be my total income. I'm in school full time for nursing so I can get ahead, but in the mean time I'll need help.

I think the system is intended for people like your Mom, who need/use the money when times are tough. It was never intended as a source of steady lifetime income for anyone, however there are people use welfare as that. They see it as free money from the government and don't see the need to do better. I also realize that for some getting out of the ghetto and off of welfare when that's all they have known is very difficult.

I think the system is intended for people like your Mom, who need/use the money when times are tough. It was never intended as a source of steady lifetime income for anyone, however there are people use welfare as that. They see it as free money from the government and don't see the need to do better. I also realize that for some getting out of the ghetto and off of welfare when that's all they have known is very difficult.

superspaceboy said:

One of the problems inherent in Louisiana's welfare system was the "punishment" as it were if a recipient actually got a job...if your benefit was $500 (just for example), if you got a job at Burger King, your benefit would be cut to $125 immediately...if you were on food stamps, that would be sliced as well..the state wouldn't provide child-care if you wanted to take advantage of the job-training benefit, and in one case in which I personally knew the person trying to get benefits, they told her that because she KNEW and named who the father of her children was, she only could qualify for partial benefits, even though she had no idea where this dude was (turned out he was in prison)...

bottom line, many states have systems that adhere to this type of "all or nothing" mentality, where if you try to better your situation, they don't ween you off of your benefits, they yank the rug right out from under you and pretty much put you right back in the bad spot that you were trying to get out of in the first place....

superspaceboy said:

One of the problems inherent in Louisiana's welfare system was the "punishment" as it were if a recipient actually got a job...if your benefit was $500 (just for example), if you got a job at Burger King, your benefit would be cut to $125 immediately...if you were on food stamps, that would be sliced as well..the state wouldn't provide child-care if you wanted to take advantage of the job-training benefit, and in one case in which I personally knew the person trying to get benefits, they told her that because she KNEW and named who the father of her children was, she only could qualify for partial benefits, even though she had no idea where this dude was (turned out he was in prison)...

bottom line, many states have systems that adhere to this type of "all or nothing" mentality, where if you try to better your situation, they don't ween you off of your benefits, they yank the rug right out from under you and pretty much put you right back in the bad spot that you were trying to get out of in the first place....

We all know the stereotypes surrounding welfare. Lazy, opportunists, thieves. I'm sure many know these types. Many of us know others who are anything but those things. My family went on welfare when my dad left us and we were on it for 2 years. My mom just needed it to help us get by so we had food and wouldn't loose the roof over our head. My mother never stopped working that whole time and when she got a good footing again, she went to the welfare office and told them she didn't need it anymore. They told her she could stay on for another three years since she was pregnant but she said we were good and that was that.

Currently my sister is receiving food stamps. She is working but her boyfriend does not help her. He's a lazy shiftless bum. My sister works full time, contributes to society and just needs a little help to feed the kids. She isn't spending her money wildly, as a matter of fact we help her with lots of things and if it weren't for us she would be on welfare totally.

For everyone who thinks people are getting a free ride, my sister receives $118.00 per month for food stamps. This equals

• $3.80 per day for all 5 people.
  
• .76 cents per day for each person, including a baby.
  
• .25 cents per meal per person

THINK ABOUT THIS. Does that sound like luxurious living to you? To survive on .25 cents per meal? The system requires you to be in the gutter to receive proper help. My sister has been on the HUD waiting list for 6 years while the banks receive $700 billion in a matter of days for their thievery. Once a person starts doing better, assistance is more or less cut off and people need to be able to depend on it as a bridge from hard times to normal survival.

It's so easy to label people and hate them but for those that do hopefully you never find yourself truly in need because you'll find out it aint what it's cracked up to be.....

When my personal savings ran out after my contract with a company was suddenly not extended due to budget cuts and I had still not found a replacement job, I panicked. Terrified that I wouldn't be able to pay my rent, feed my child I swallowed my pride and applied for it. No one knew I did it because I felt totally embarrassed about it....but I had a child to take care of so it had to be done. I received one cheque and landed a new job like a week after getting it so I was in and out of the system in a matter of one month. My cheque (which was the maximum they give) didn't even cover my rent, btw.

But I'm very grateful for the help I received.