My goat for today

[Dolomite`s Breezy]

Went to store the other day( Dollar General)

In front of us was a younger girl.( maybe 25 or so) Had a little girl with her . The mom was pregnant also...And here she whips out her Welfare Card..Why on earth would you get pregnant again ? it just gets me so fired up,,,

That is all .. for now

[Lumber_Jack]

you mean there are measure you can take to prevent pregnancy?

[Garufa]

Mo babies = mo money.

[sigmtnman]

"It's Free Swipe Yo EBT"

[TGO David]

It could be that she was pregnant before she fell on hard times and required WIC/Welfare. As bad as the economy has been the past two years, and with people losing their jobs daily, it's really hard for me to be too judgmental without knowing the entire story these days.

There but by the grace of God, go I.

[E4 No More]

I dare say the vast marority of us on here would NOT give up sex because we didn't have the money for a condom.

[Dolomite`s Breezy]

Especially if you are on hard times.. why get pregnant?

And I was on WIC.. after I had my son.. and we where in the military and he was a low paygrade and I was working.( they offered since we didnt make that much together).. so yes we used it.. but thats way different that getting prego and on welfare.. She didnt drive an old beater car either.. nice big fat SUV..

and WIC are vouchers for you, and your baby that consists of Milk, cheese, beans and juice..NOT a welfarecard.. unless they changed it and its all on one card now.. I seem to remember not to long ago seeing people at the store with a WIC voucher..

I am just tired of seeing this crapp...And around here where I live.. I can tell you ALOT of people are on welfare..

And no..I would not give up sex either.. but there are other ways to prevent a pregnancy.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Dunno about TN, but it has all gone to cards in some places. Maybe it is easier to control fraud compared to paper food stamps (black-market selling food stamps for money, cigs or beer)? Or generally cheaper to administer?

Unless it has changed, used to be that the food stamps were on a sliding scale. If a family size was calculated to "deserve" $300 of food stamps, then a single welfare mom with no income might have to pay one dollar for the $300 of food stamps. But there was always some nominal charge. No dollar payment, no food stamps.

A working poor family very near the poverty line cutoff, might have to pay $290 for $300 of food stamps. Often clients would quit buying the stamps when it got that close to break-even, unless that $10 was a make-or-break difference.

So many folks in line using the gov handouts, for all we know they are paying so much for the food stamps that it amounts more to a "slight discount on food" rather than "free food".

Edited February 7, 2012 by Lester Weevils

[babelt]

When in doubt pull out! Thats always been a saying I've used in many aspects of life lol

[E4 No More]

When in doubt pull out! Thats always been a saying I've used in many aspects of life lol

You haven't taken human biology, have you?

For what it's worth, my wife got pregnant while on the pill...TWICE!

[TGO David]

You haven't taken human biology, have you?

For what it's worth, my wife got pregnant while on the pill...TWICE!

Marine swimmers adapt and overcome, eh?

[strickj]

I'd say that anyone shopping for food at Dollar General is truly in need. Whether her need is short term or long term is anybodys guess.Especially in this economy.

For me, I'll stick with complaining about those that abuse their assistance by shopping at high priced grocery stores, buying named brand junk and driving nice SUVs.

[Guest NYCrulesU]

It could be that she was pregnant before she fell on hard times and required WIC/Welfare. As bad as the economy has been the past two years, and with people losing their jobs daily, it's really hard for me to be too judgmental without knowing the entire story these days.

There but by the grace of God, go I.

Thankfully some common sense and reason. Thank you David.

Just because you see and EBT card, don't make ridiculous assumptions. I work, 12 hours days. My wife babysits. We have an old beater car given to us by a church member. No car payment, no CC bills and only medical debt. We have cable, the only luxary in our home. My phone has the internet which is our only other luxary. Together we don't make enough to live above poverty. I make a little over $18k a year in LE. We have a 5 yr old and a 3 yr old. We get WIC and EBT, for food assistance. And trust me, I thank God every day it is there.

My children are covered under Tenn Care because my half ass Sheriff Dept doesn't offer health/medical benefits. And there is no way I could afford to pay for my own.

So personally I would appreciate that moronic stereotypes that anyone on EBT or WIC is some ghetto, baby momma or some drug using trash be kept to yourselves.

There are some of us who in the past two years have gone from making $80-85k combined annually to making $18,200 and whatever the other can scrounge up babysitting and a few dollars an hour. Hard times have struck some worse than others and hasn't effected some at all.

I'm not crying the blues...we get by and are a happy, loving family. We've made many sacrifices and adjustments due to neccesity. I'm just tired of hearing the same sterotypes from the same crowd. Amazing how so many speak before truly thinking.

Edited February 7, 2012 by NYCrulesU

[Dolomite`s Breezy]

Well..I stand by what I said.

A lot of people take advantage of the system..And it has nothing to do with people "speaking before they think" ...I see it way to often ..I understand and support the ones that deserve it.. A few times we even paid someones grocery bill at the registers because they did not have enough for juice or milk..And no one said anything about Ghetto types or Baby momma types.. But sadly, that`s where its running rampant.People take advantage of the system.. its sad but true..

I bet you that 50 ore more % in TN just think its easier to get on welfare that find a job..

[Links2k]

It could be that she was pregnant before she fell on hard times and required WIC/Welfare. As bad as the economy has been the past two years, and with people losing their jobs daily, it's really hard for me to be too judgmental without knowing the entire story these days.

There but by the grace of God, go I.

Well said. It's easier to judge.

[Links2k]

Thankfully some common sense and reason. Thank you David.

Just because you see and EBT card, don't make ridiculous assumptions. I work, 12 hours days. My wife babysits. We have an old beater car given to us by a church member. No car payment, no CC bills and only medical debt. We have cable, the only luxary in our home. My phone has the internet which is our only other luxary. Together we don't make enough to live above poverty. I make a little over $18k a year in LE. We have a 5 yr old and a 3 yr old. We get WIC and EBT, for food assistance. And trust me, I thank God every day it is there.

My children are covered under Tenn Care because my half ass Sheriff Dept doesn't offer health/medical benefits. And there is no way I could afford to pay for my own.

So personally I would appreciate that moronic stereotypes that anyone on EBT or WIC is some ghetto, baby momma or some drug using trash be kept to yourselves.

There are some of us who in the past two years have gone from making $80-85k combined annually to making $18,200 and whatever the other can scrounge up babysitting and a few dollars an hour. Hard times have struck some worse than others and hasn't effected some at all.

I'm not crying the blues...we get by and are a happy, loving family. We've made many sacrifices and adjustments due to neccesity. I'm just tired of hearing the same sterotypes from the same crowd. Amazing how so many speak before truly thinking.

Well said. My family and I are trully blessed, but I have been down and out before and I know that it can happen again. I don't know the poster and it is not an indictment, but it seems to be the nature of the beast these days to kick someone when they are facing hard times. Everyone facing difficulties is not a system cheating bum. Bad things happen to good people no matter how hard they work.

[babelt]

You haven't taken human biology, have you?

For what it's worth, my wife got pregnant while on the pill...TWICE!

Well I see what your saying but well I won't go there, don't want to make anyone blush lol And by the way I have taken human biology.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

And in the case of Tulip's assessment, she was there. You can quite often pick

a deadbeat out of the line by what they are buying. There is a mixture of both

kinds. Besides, we go into the Dollar General Store, also, and it's just like the

Kroger on our side of town. Those WIC cards(?) can buy most anything in the store.

I saw a lady get in the Kroger Hover-round, go back to the bottled water, and bring

a case to the checkout. Paid with the WIC card, got out of the go cart and get in a

Caddy and drive off. I drew a conclusion, too.

There's good and bad examples almost everywhere you go.

[blizzard]

From what I was told the EBT card looks just like the cards gov't officials use. Both are gov't issued and loaded every month by the gov't. Albeit she probably wasn't a gov't official but in some other cases that might be the deal with the card.

[Mdunntn]

WIC doesn't issue card vouchers only

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk

[Dolomite_supafly]

Switching to EBT cards did nothing to prevent food stamp fraud. The reason I know is my drug fiend of a brother receives money on an EBT card. The store he used to go to won't allow him in anymore because he was caught shoplifting. The store said that people come in and use his card all the time. I asked why they were taking the card if my brother wasn't the one using it. The store said that according to the office that manages the program a store CANNOT ask for id. They said if a store required ID to use the EBT cards they will pull the store's ability to accept those cards. The office also said if one person has someone else's card then they must have the card holder's persmission to use that card.

I have said it before and I will say it again. There is a women who comes into our local store every month and buys a bunch of tuna using her EBT card. She said it is for her cats to eat. She said that until she was allowed to buy cat food on her EBT she would continue to buy them tuna. I am talking about good tuna, not the crap stuff most of us have to buy. This lady should be thrown in jail for fraud.

There are people who truly benefit from the system but there are those who view the welfare system as a reason to have a kid.

I understand falling on hard times unexpectedly and then needing assistance. I don't fault those people. I do fault those people who get pregnant after falling on hard times then expect the rest of us to help raise them.

We have young girls that are our neighbors. They dropped out of school and began squirting out kids as young as humanly possible. These are the types the OP is upset about most.

As I said I understand those that fall on hard times and need help. I do not fault those people but I have very little sympathy for those who bring children into the world knowing they can't support them. Children need emotional as well as financial support to grow up healthy and if you can't provide those basic needs then you shouldn't have any until you can.

Dolomite

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Thanks Dolomite

That is a good point that there is probably no way to prevent abuse/gaming of the system.

It remains difficult to believe that people would routinely "rent out" their card in trade for beer or drugs. When I worked in the field, street hustlers would have tapped out a borrowed card before selling it. OTOH, I gave up trying to understand folks' reasoning or motivations.

I don't deny that there are people who would rather keep having babies for "raises" in welfare. It is another "credibility problem"-- Unless welfare rewards have been drastically improved, the "per baby" reward was so pitifully small that it was difficult to believe that any rational person would keep having babies simply to get a few extra bucks per month. It was always difficult to understand people whose ambitions/aspirations could be so low that such actions would look rational.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Lester Weevils

[jdi731]

WIC is vouchers only and you if you want to get the whole use of the voucher, you must get every item on the voucher when you use it. You cannot get half the items on the voucher one day and turn around get the other half the next day.

My girl friend gets WIC for her and our daughter to help a little bit. With the job market the way it is, she's unable to find a job with a college degree. It's not for lack of trying to get a job, they just aren't that easy to come by. She's been filling out job applications weekly and is even considering going back to school for nursing in a 1 or 2 year program so she can find a job easier!

We are fortunate enough that our families help us a lot and we have free rent for her and our 5 month old daughter. I work part-time at FedEx and am in college so my income is very minimal. I do what I can to pay bills but without the help from our families, we would be in a very bad situation.

All that being said, do I wish things were different and we would have had the baby at a later date? Yeah, I do, but things happen and my daughter is here now. I love her more than anything in the world and don't regret it one bit. All I can do is work and continue going to school to hopefully find a job where I can provide for them by myself without having to have the help from our families. For the time being, we don't eat out, we don't go buy new clothes, we don't do much of anything unless it's very cheap or our parents give us a little money to go do something and offer to watch the baby.

[1gewehr]

All government entitlements will eventually be by card. It costs just a few cents to transfer each card payment versus several dollars or more for each check or voucher transfer.

FWIW, I'm against ALL government transfer payments. No matter how you slice it, it's robbing Peter to pay Paul and vote-buying. For every truly hard-working person receiving taxpayer money, there are at least four people just gaming the system to enable an indolent lifestyle and poor decision-making. We are paying people to do stupid things like; not work, have children they cannot afford, and believe they have a 'right' to other people's money. The problem with this is that eventually, you run out of other people's money.

We are already headed down that steep path. Almost two-thirds of our budget is transfer payments for entitlements. And almost two-thirds of our federal money comes from borrowing. That's like a family that earns $20,000 each year, but spends $60,000 per year by running up credit cards and loans. One day, it will come to a crashing halt. We are seeing that in Greece, Portugal, Spain, and other countries. And we are borrowing more money to help THEM get out of their debt problems. Who will help US? It's a tall house of cards held up only by wishful-thinking.

[Dolomite_supafly]

Another big problem I have is those who are married are penalized while those who just live together aren't.

If a man and women have a child, live together and then never get married they get more benefits than those who are married. We have made it too easy for parents to live as a married couple yet receive the beneifts of being a single parent.

If I had my way a paternity test would confirm the child's father before ANY benefits are received. And any benefits received by the parent for a child are taken from the other parent on a dollar for dollar basis unless the parents of the child are married. Also, anyone receiving any type of government benefits should relinquish back to the government any income tax refund they receive. It shouldn't matter if the refund is $1 or $5,000 it should be returned.

I know of one lady, she was a good friend of my wife's. She lived with her boyfriend for years and years, well over a decade. They lived in the same residence and shared everything as if they were married. Now during tax time only she claims her kids and receives, on average, a $5,000 return because she is a "single" mother. And this is not a rare occurance because there is more incentives for a mother to live single.

Dolomite