philly.com — FTA: President-elect Obama's economic recovery package will create jobs. But until those jobs exist, welfare reform as we know it must be changed. People must be given adequate time to find work, and more help to shelter and feed their families. Those steps are as important to the nation's future as bailing out banks and carmakers.
Dec 26, 2008 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountDec 27, 2008
@ironhideI'm sorry but I can't get my head that far up my ass to see things from your point of view.
redgirlrisingDec 28, 2008
No. You're both wrong. Charity is MY responsibility, not government's responsibility. By feeding those in need in my neighborhood and near-by towns, I skip the pilfering of the government. By helping seniors in my neighborhood and near-by towns, I skip the pilfering of the government. By giving to efficiently run charities for kids in my neighborhood and near-by towns, THEY get almost every dime of that money.But most important, by helping others learn how to care for themselves and their family through budgeting, job hunting, grooming skills, etc. they learn how to build a life for themselves and a sense of accomplishment for their success. That is something no government can ever provide. I may be stepping back from being a part of a big government tax-and-waste machine, but MY responsibilities to serve my neighbor exist no matter who is in Washington DC.
lilamaeDec 29, 2008
Obama needs to draft all welfare recipients to work on his road and bridge building projects. Give them wages instead of welfare checks and food stamps.Article buried for stupid premise.
woodsjransomDec 29, 2008
Yeah right. I will believe that when the belief that only a certain segment of the population are the ONLY ones who are on welfare. In the meantime lose some of them buzz words Red if you want someone to believe your sincerity.
shauncorleoneDec 29, 2008
"Build a man a fire, and he will be warm for a night. Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life."
sqldiggerDec 30, 2008
Terry Pratchett?
imjgaltstillDec 30, 2008
I gave all my compassion to the federal government to redistribute.
striker101Mar 13, 2009
After we have submitted to the Force to feed "them", only then can we eat. That is, if there are any crumbs left on or table. There is much to be said for the morality of selfishness. If we cannot gain and prosper, what would we have left over to help another?There is much good to be said about survival of the fittest.
ascadianDec 24, 2009
I work in a grocery store, similar to Costco. I have been there almost 2 years, I work 40 hours per week and I have no children. I'm still walking the fence on what can be done to curb the abuse of this system, but to shed some light on what I see every day I'll share some experiences I've had with all of you....About 2 months ago a woman came in and walked out with over 750 dollars of stuff, apparently she had forgot some things and had come back the following day and she came through my check stand. She spent about 375 dollars, meanwhile she was gabbing on her cell phone and talking about all the things she needed for her son's football team BBQ. Because we are a store that deals in bulk products I'm used to seeing huge orders... but then she handed me a welfare card and I literally almost threw up. When I printed out her receipt I couldn't help but notice that she had a balance of 1798.00 dollars JUST IN FOOD. (This was after spending almost 1100 dollars) She also had funds available on the cash side of this welfare card. I was utterly shocked, enraged, and sad. It was after she had left the store that my fellow employee told me that the woman had gone through her line the day before and spent over 750 dollars. I have to say that this is the most extreme case... but here are a few more. Another woman who comes in with her little boy (always filthy) will buy 2-400 dollars in food, but she doesn't buy a single fruit or vegetable, everything is precessed and unhealthy finger food, mircowave type crap. I can tell that her little boy isn't eating most of the stuff she buys, shes using her child to feed her self and her boyfriend. They really do buy shrimp, and filet` minon, rockstar energy drinks starbucks etc etc etc... On yet another occasion a man came through the line with his """girlfriends""" welfare and bought 80 dollars in fine coffee beans. Another woman who came in about 6 months ago was bragging to the checker next to me how she was going for her weekly message after she was done shopping (on our tax dollars). Another young mother has an entire routine to shop with her card, she had 2 of her girlfriends, who also have young babies, pool their welfare together to shop like queens. They all tell the welfare office that they have have separate residences, yet they room mate together and pool the food stamps and cash credits, feeding friends, boyfriends and God knows who else. Maybe...just maybe they even shop for other people and then collect the cash. Each month these 3 women pool in more then 2500 dollars in food stamp money alone... I spend less then 100 dollars a month on food for 2 people, because that's all I can afford on my limited income. I understand that this program has all the best intentions... to feed healthy food to children so they are not hungry, or malnourished, but you Americans who work hard and pay taxes need to realize that many many women out there are learning that babies can bring in a pretty good income, I have even played "victim" in many cases and asked them how they work the system, and believe me, they are all to proud to tell me in detail how it's done. Here are some tricks of their trade... 1: they claim separate residences or claim false residential expenses 2: they have additional children for tax credits, deductions and welfare 3:They stay single instead of getting married because it's more profitable 4: when asked about how they can afford the latest cell phone, hair treatments or manicures & pedicures, new clothes, new cars etc, they tell the welfare office personnel that their boyfriends pay for it, or that they are gifts. 5: They bring in friends and boyfriends / girlfriends, shop for them, while I watch the beneficiary hand the welfare card holder cash. 6: they try and avoid any paper trail of alcohol and tobacco purchases by making cashiers do a completely separate transaction, and then use cash to pay for adult habits ( I always ring up the item and then take it off so it still shows on the receipt as an attempted purchase hoping the morons at the welfare office will "catch on" or I tell them, "oh don't worry, our registers will separate the non food items at the end and you can still pay off the balance with cash" this way they have no excuse to make me do twice the work, and hold up my honorable patrons to support their deceptive scamming of the system. The worst part of this it that my own boss, a single 27 year old women who makes over 3500 dollars per month, has full medical coverage, drives a 27,000 dollar truck (paid off), and lives in a 3 bedroom house with her "working" boyfriend is due to have her first child in January has told us the only reason she is not getting married to the father of the baby is because she will get more money from the government, and welfare. Even though he works full time, I'm sure shes the only person listed on the lease to the house they rent so she can deceptively show she bares the full burden of all the expenses. Even though he works full time also, she made sure she moved to a much more expensive home and took on as much expense as possible all while avoiding marriage to get free assistance that is so obviously not needed. This is a couple who makes a combined income of over 5,000 dollars a month, has no other children, doesn't own a home, is debt free, and planned to have this child with intention to get a free ride. I realize how expensive drug testing can be, but can it be more expensive then the abuse I see on a daily basis? I highly doubt it. The only other solution I can come up with is (1) - Welfare recipients not be allowed to stockpile cash aide or food aide, and my reasoning behind this is that if they need food so bad then why aren't they using it each month? If they can go without shopping for food for 2 or 3 months, they must not be as bad off as claimed. We need to stop making this an abuse friendly system END FOOD STAMP ROLLOVER (2) - Shorten the length of benefits to 1 year (3) - Give the parents a public service job of at least 20 hours a week instead of letting them pay for cable TV with cash aide and allowing them to sit there and vegg out when they can't even "cook" a decent balanced meal for their cash cow kids with all that time off. (4) - Create A 1-800 hot-line for merchants to report fraud without getting in trouble from employers. Here's my bottom line folks.... When your working full time, paying your bills, staying out of trouble, abiding by the law and acting responsibly yet you see that those on welfare are making more money per month then you, driving betters vehicles, wearing nicer clothes, and eating MUCH more expensive food... it's time to do something about it. I personally have calculated that I would almost increase my income by 50% by just getting fired, and riding the system...but there's something fundamentally wrong with that idea and no matter how jealous and outraged I get over working for their luxuries, I always remind myself I can take pride in my work, my ethics, my life.