I am outraged at this!

A friend of mine is in grad school for social work and has a part-time job in his field, and some of what he does is transport his agency's clients to things like doctor's appointments and free clinic open hours...wouldn't it be waaaaay more cost-effective for DSS there to make payments on, maintain, and pay a driver to drive a van or minivan to take people in? Even figuring in no-shows, if at least one of the people showed up for transport that would cost $100/day, that's a budget of $3000/month...they could get a vehicle and pay a college kid $10/hour for less than that, and if it's stuff that people routinely need they're not going to have just one person.

I need to hire out as a common sense consultant.

Whoa! That makes me so angry! People treat having children as if it's a right, but some people shouldn't be allowed to breed. I don't understand why I have to pay to maintain someone else's family when I can't afford to have one of my own.

But if they are unwell don't they need help doing their errands? Probably many couldn't take public transport or walk to the shops.

Does sound like many of the appointments should be changed to local to save money though.

Yeah right? The restaurant I work at is totaly packed the first week of every month when government checks go out. I don't have a problem with the retirees who worked and paid into the sysyem all their lives, but the welfare recipients paying with their electronic benefits cards? C'mon now, I can't even afford to eat where I work but I can pay for them to? A single parent with four kids gts over $700.00 a month in food stamps, try the grocery store and learn to cook. Something is totaly wrong. Someone I once worked with is now drawing disability because she is a kleptomaniac and practicing meth addict. Granted she can't hold a job for long because she steals something or gets too high to show up, but shouldn't treatment be a requirement for the SSI check? She'll come in and eat when she runs out of dope and like as not the salt shaker will leave when she does.

I know this isn't politically correct, but I think having children is a privilege and not a right, and like you said, some people shouldn't be allowed to breed. Nobody ever thinks about the kids.

I agree with this, and I would go so far as to require mandatory sterilization for anyone who has produced more than 2 children that they can't or won't financially support - male or female.

I hear that China does a good job of controlling reproductive rates. Maybe we should adopt their system?

Seriously, though, I would never want any government to have that kind of power over its citizens.

Holy cow...I could cook for at least six people on that, without the food coming across as cheap, or eight or nine with enough beans and rice...with growing kids I guess it would involve a bit more "here, fill up on these biscuits."

I keep getting closer and closer to thinking they should make home ec mandatory again, except, for everyone instead of just the girls. It just amazes me that people can survive without the ability to boil oatmeal and figure out a decent dinner that doesn't require meat ($$$) and sew on a button and fix the seams they rip, and really, in this economy, I'm not sure the lack of those skills is going to continue to be survivable. It's not just individuals--America as a whole has been living way above its means for a while and with the market correcting itself we basically have to adjust our lifestyles to work with what's actually available.

If they have jobs and can afford to support their kids without welfare assistance, then have as many as you can afford, but if *I* the taxpayer must support the kids, then after 2 you are sterilized! I hate reading about the deadbeat dad that has 15 kids by different women, and he isn't supporting any of them.

Maybe those receiving food vouchers should have to sit through a course on how to make the most of the food stamps and be taught simple nutritious meals that can be prepared within the allocation.

Who gets to decide what you can afford, though, or what "afford" even means, exactly? Where would you draw the line? And who on earth would you entrust with making the call?

I know a lot of people say "people shouldn't be allowed to breed" facetiously, but I find this line of thinking more than a little disturbing.

Thread hijack over!

"Afford" means not receiving taxpayer assistance! Simple!

I would think that if you are on welfare or applying for assistance then you can't "afford" to have more kids and should be required to be neutered. Ignorance is not always bliss.

I must say this topic always get me riled...

About a month ago I was grocery shopping and was in line. I am kinda nosey and I like to see what others are buying. The girl in front of me was putting prepackaged lobster tails, a few bags of shrimp, steaks, and a bunch of other things that looked like she was going to have a pretty nice party. Then I couldn't help but notice that she whipped out her trusty WIC debit card to pay for all of this "fine food". I couldn't help but be disgusted as my cart was filled with generic cost saving food to help stretch my food dollar farther.

When I got up to the cashier I commented that I wished the government would buy me such nice things and the girl at the register said something along the lines of that was mild compared to some of the stuff these people buy with their WIC cards.

There are people out there that truly need the help and use that help wisely... and then there are the people that make every single one of them look bad.

I had a friend in college who, reluctantly, went on food stamps after her husband got laid off--they had to do something, they had a kid to feed. He did a bit of hunting so they didn't use any of it for meat; instead they got a bunch of canned and dry goods, more than they could actually go through, to set up a stockpile so that if they lost their benefits for any reason (including not feeling like staying on the program any longer) they'd be able to live on what they squirrelled aside for a while.

My cousin's wife, on the other hand, has been known to spend their food stamps, when they get them, on complete junk food, got everything on her WIC vouchers whether she needed it or not (example: they were living on my aunt and uncle's farm, where the chickens lay more eggs than the humans can use, and she still always got the eggs because she could). And around the same time I saw people getting football-team-party sized amounts of lasagna ingredients and buying just a single serving SoBe drink (those dang lizard juices) on their benefits.

My brother's wife's first-marriage-spawn (7 of them) are all about 2-3 years apart, which I believe at the time kept them eligible for more programs without her having to look for work. I think anyone that has three preschool age kids and wants more any time soon should be sterilized for insanity.

Some things just should be off limits for food stamps and WIC cards - like junk food and most pre-packaged stuff. I still think they need to have a nutrition course and cooking class in how to use fresh stuff.

Agreed. It should cover things like produce, peanut butter, baking ingredients other than dessert box mixes (I really don't mind if they turn flour and sugar and eggs and stuff into a cake though because that's really cheap), milk, beans, bread...not candy bars...and since people usually are on those programs because they're either not working or working part time and not getting enough hours, they definitely should learn how to use their time to help provide for their own essentials of life.

I would also support letting people on welfare who are interested check out a bread machine since homemade bread is cheaper, often more nutritious, and a really nice thing to have access to.

I just want to say something....

People who choose to live on welfare disgust me. And I am further disgusted when I walk into the welfare office and see people with MULTIPLE kids and at least one on the way. Number one...those kids don't want to be waiting for hours in the welfare office with you, and number two.... QUIT HAVING KIDS SO YOU CAN LIVE ON WELFARE YOU LAZY ASSES.

Ugh.... And it's mostly "illegals" that come to the country, marry some poor sucker, and start popping out babies so that they can magically "become" legal citizens.

Yeah I may not know much about laws, but you don't need to know much if you just walk into a welfare office anywhere in the states.




Anyways... About buying GOOD food while on food stamps. Why is it up to you to decide how these people choose to spend their food stamps? Cody and I were recieving almost $400 a month on our EBT and we always had overlaps and usually had a ton of money that we didn't use. So sometimes...yeah we liked to buy the more finer cuts of meat, or fresh food from the deli.

Why should I have to tell myself that I have to buy the "low grade" products when I have perfectly good money to use on my EBT card and it fits within my food budget? Who is anybody to tell me that I can't buy a whole lobster or fresh salmon?



There's really nothing wrong with requiring assistance. There is something wrong with depending on assistance and needlessly wasting the taxpayers money. There is something grievously wrong with popping out a kid at least once every five years so you can stay on welfare and never have to work a day in your life.

I had foodstamps, I couldn't afford to buy my own food, Why in the world would I bring a child into this world if I couldn't afford to give a baby the life that it deserves?



Think of this....The average baby costs at the minimum 4000 dollars in it's first year. That's 4000 dollars of YOUR money taken out of YOUR paychecks every week to go towards some stupid man and woman who probably knew better than to reproduce in the first place.

Not only do I believe that people should be only allowed to have 2 children (except in the event of NATURAL multiples), I believe that abortions should be mandatory for people who are found to be pregnant that very clearly beyond all doubt cannot afford to have a baby.


I apologize for this probably long post that I'm sure makes no sense at all, that will probably spark some tempers. I'm a genuinely good and not mean person at all...

It just pisses me off that all these unwanted children get DAMN GOOD health care for FREE when I would have to HAVE a baby JUST to get into the doctors for a freaking checkup and I NEED IT.

Yeah...I don't mind people who are on welfare because crap happened to them (daddy got laid off and mommy was a SAHM because daycare for 3 would have cost more than the paycheck for the jobs she could find, for example) as long as they're doing the best they can to do something about it. People who treat it as a lifestyle, though...like my nephews' mom who went to get on WIC as soon as she found out she was pregnant, without even considering whether they needed it or not, just because "that's what you do when you get pregnant"...ugh.
Me personally? Not so much. But it's public money that comes out of my taxes and I do resent it when I see people buying more candy for their already obviously sugarhyped bratkids.
Those are nutritious things so I think that's fine. Benefit amounts shouldn't be high enough in the first place that people can eat high-priced foods all the time, but an occasional celebration or treat dinner is reasonable if the rest of the grocery budget is adjusted to allow it. The only thing I absolutely have a problem with is food with no discernable nutritional benefit.
I don't agree with the abortion thing because it's kind of hard on the fetus. I could see offering the choice between that, adoption, or no added benefits for the new rugrat though.