Food Stamp Etiquette: Human Kindness

Kindness is always in style. Always the right thing to do. Congratulations. I am pulling for you.

Kate wrote:

Arlen wrote: Receiving food stamps brings with it a certain amount of shame. That is as it should be.

Really? You think that someone who is down on their luck - perhaps through no fault of their own - should feel shame in asking for, and using, assistance?

Yes. There should be shame in accepting a handout. There was in my case, when I had to go on assistance due to unemployment. I was forced to turn to the government to feed my wife and kids.

I was ashamed of that. I still am. I intend to never let it happen again.

I worked any job I could get to build enough income so I wouldn't qualify for assistance. I made it. Then, about a year later I got out of manual labor and back into my career field.

Shame is a great motivator - if you are proud. It doesn't work at all if you are an entitled teat sucker.

I have to agree. Shame should be involved too. Bravo to the people who have done whatever they could to stay off the dole, including selling personal possesions.

The Liberals GOP Twin wrote: Compassionate and understanding is typically an excuse for someone who is incapable of making rational decisions. And to be proud of it is to admit defeat. There is nothing wrong with compassion, but it is not an open ended proposition. There are limits to compassion, both for the health and benefit of the one showing compassion and to the one the compassion is being given to. There is nothing wrong with making judgements. Wise men make judgements. Intelligent men make judgements.

Compassion and understanding entertained without the ability to make a judgement, without the intelligence to determine a compassionate need apart from a destructive want is the purvey of a fool. And in the long run it doesn't help anyone.

To your post, I would ask the same question I posed to Arlen - where do you get your statistics to prove your point; in your case, specifically that "Compassionate [sic] and understanding is typically an excuse for someone who is incapable of making rational decisions"? Or is that just something you made up?

Nobody said anything remotely resembling a condemnation of "making judgements", either. All "people", not just "wise men" and "intelligent men", make judgements. That's a given in virtually any society. Are you saying I don't have the "intelligence to determine a compassionate need" and keep that need "apart from a destructive want"? If so, it's rather presumptuous and condescending on your part, particularly given the fact nobody that I've seen in this thread or anywhere else has verified, though ANY reliable, trustworthy, and/or factual source(s) that food stamp fraud is, in fact, a REAL problem.

Nobody that matters wrote: Yes. There should be shame in accepting a handout.

I guess I'd rather take the opposite stance that if I can see someone is ashamed of accepting a handout, I'd want to try to help rebuild that person's confidence. I, too, have had to accept public assistance in order to be able to feed my family. I don't take any "pride" in that fact, but, as a pragmatist in that situation, I wasn't "ashamed" to do so, either. Rather, I believe I was more of a "realist" than anything else. Public assistance programs are there for, what I consider to be, very valid reasons. If someone who needs this type of assistance recognizes that fact, and chooses to take advantage to keep themselves and/or their family above water, then more power to them. It's the people who are TOO "proud" to use these resources because they are "ashamed" to do so that I feel sorry for.

As for the "entitlement teat" comment you made; yes, there are those who feel they are "entitled" and do nothing to help their own situation. However, IMO those types are in the vast minority of recipients currently receiving public assistance. If anyone out there can factually prove this premise to be incorrect, I'd be happy to apologize for my mistake.

Example: I know a couple who made some stupid financial decisions. They went into debt on a expensive degree for the wife who was totally unsuited for the industry.
Health issues, etc. They also plowed hundreds of thousands of dollars rehabilitating a home that almost anyone else would have scraped and started over with. So what did they do? They got a special below prime home mortgage loan because of the goverment.

What should have happened? Sold the house and got an apartment they could afford. Instead they are being subsidized by taxpayers. And much more than the food stamp benefit.
Compassion? Or idiocy?

FredHayek wrote: Example: I know a couple who made some stupid financial decisions. They went into debt on a expensive degree for the wife who was totally unsuited for the industry.
Health issues, etc. They also plowed hundreds of thousands of dollars rehabilitating a home that almost anyone else would have scraped and started over with. So what did they do? They got a special below prime home mortgage loan because of the goverment.

What should have happened? Sold the house and got an apartment they could afford. Instead they are being subsidized by taxpayers. And much more than the food stamp benefit.
Compassion? Or idiocy?

Guess it all depends on how YOU choose to look at it. At first glance, it would appear "idiocy" would be the order of the day. However, without knowing the full story, I choose to withhold judgement, pro or con, if and until it is disclosed as to whether this "couple" can actually be lumped into the category of being on the "entitlement teat", or not. I personally believe it is a mistake to categorically lump a perceived "group" of people into one stereotype. Call me naive, call me a fool - I don't really care. That's just my take on things.

I could go on and on and on about people I know personally who are abusing the government's welfare state- and the "food stamp" program is one of the most abused programs on the planet.

We are not doing these people any good by training them to be dependant on the state for support- in any way- in any fashion- not by one penny earned by somebody else. And this government we have now has relaxed the standard by such measures that just about any low income person can now qualify- which is why we have 50 million deadbeats on government assistance right now.

The proper way to assist people is not through government- but through private charity organizations - one of the posters mentioned a community foodbank. Yes- the abuse is rampant and out of control- and unless we get government out of this messy business of playing robin hood- things will never change.

Here's your damn evidence... I read this article back when it came out!
http://www.salon.com/2010/03/16/hipsters_food_stamps_pinched/

zhawke wrote:

FredHayek wrote: Example: I know a couple who made some stupid financial decisions. They went into debt on a expensive degree for the wife who was totally unsuited for the industry.
Health issues, etc. They also plowed hundreds of thousands of dollars rehabilitating a home that almost anyone else would have scraped and started over with. So what did they do? They got a special below prime home mortgage loan because of the goverment.

What should have happened? Sold the house and got an apartment they could afford. Instead they are being subsidized by taxpayers. And much more than the food stamp benefit.
Compassion? Or idiocy?

Guess it all depends on how YOU choose to look at it. At first glance, it would appear "idiocy" would be the order of the day. However, without knowing the full story, I choose to withhold judgement, pro or con, if and until it is disclosed as to whether this "couple" can actually be lumped into the category of being on the "entitlement teat", or not. I personally believe it is a mistake to categorically lump a perceived "group" of people into one stereotype. Call me naive, call me a fool - I don't really care. That's just my take on things.

And this is what makes the story priceless, the couple was offered a house free and clear by one of their parents but their pride prevented them from accepting it, but it is ok to take from your fellow taxpayers.

FredHayek wrote: Example: I know a couple who made some stupid financial decisions. They went into debt on a expensive degree for the wife who was totally unsuited for the industry.
Health issues, etc. They also plowed hundreds of thousands of dollars rehabilitating a home that almost anyone else would have scraped and started over with. So what did they do? They got a special below prime home mortgage loan because of the goverment.

What should have happened? Sold the house and got an apartment they could afford. Instead they are being subsidized by taxpayers. And much more than the food stamp benefit.
Compassion? Or idiocy?

Zhawke is a full blown distribute-the-wealth-I'm-entitled-because-I'm-compassionate socialist, so there is no way you are going to convince him that having almost 50 million Americans out of 300 millions citizens on food stamps is anything but good for the country.

Even if all 50 million of these people were 100 percent honest and receiving these benefits because of dire need, there is STILL SOMETHING WRONG. When there is 1 out of 6 Americans on the public dole... there is a problem.

A socialist like Zhawke see this as good, as what government should be doing, the government exists only to redistribute money from your pocket to someone else's.