The Trump Card...

RoadTime

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
The move to a card over stamps was done in part to help remove shame.

Maybe, but it sure made it a lot more convenient for everyone. Recipient, cashier, customers waiting behind for right amount of stamps to be tore off.

When ever I saw someone was using stamps I would pick another lane if possible.

I used to have to take my cousin shopping with her stamps, she was terrible at math and the process took forever with her.

I was very happy when they went to a card :)
 
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cheri1122

Veteran Expediter
Driver
The move to a card over stamps was done in part to help remove shame.

98% of people on here have no problem with people who really need help getting it. The problem is today everyone from the college student to those who have a few struggles can get a card.

Here is my personal first hand knowledge of an ebt card user and it is much more common than I think you wish to admit. Mid twenties couple, one child, mom worked dad went to college and worked part time. They were on food assistance , did they have cable, yeap, cell phones, yes, two cars, again yes. Family that helped uh yes again, grandma also babysat for free. Birthday parties and holidays with lots of gifts, check and trust me when I say their clothes weren't from goodwill.

Want some section 8 stories? I have first hand accounts of a few of them too.

Every one of us has some anecdotal stories like that [some more than others], we all see it, nobody thinks it doesn't happen. And we all know someone who is ripping off the system, faking disability, whatever, and we have nothing but contempt for them, because we work for what we have, and wouldn't even consider any other way. Those incidents are memorable, because we like feeling superior to scum - it feels good, makes us think we are good.
But - even if the frauds are as prevalent as some believe, the constant drumbeat of demands to cut benefits is troublesome. First, because it's been done many times already, for years now [like raising the price of cigarettes], and there's not much left to take from people who need food stamps. Second, because the majority of those people are children, and elderly, not able bodied adults who 'don't wanna'. Third, because it distracts from the benefits that are routine at the other end of the income scale, such as farm subsidies, [the corn subsidy for biofuel, combined with NAFTA, flooded the Mexican markets with cheaper American corn than they could grow. It prompted a huge migration north, but you don't hear anyone mention that in the debates over illegal immigration], money given in huge amounts to 'big pharm', private contractors, developers - just a million people collecting 'free money' from the government that we applaud because it's 'for business'.
Last, it bothers me as part of a trend toward devaluing the working class [most of the people on food stamps have a job!] that is as bad for society as the current income equality. We need to value work and the people who do it. And most of all, we need to question the motives of those who shape and spin the 'news', because so much of it is just deflection from what we should be talking about, and finding solutions for.
 
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xiggi

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
You just never give up lol. There was no fraud involved they fully qaulified. No I did not look at them as scum they were related through the ex and overall very good people. I thought of it as how things have changed in peopled veiw of assistance compared to how it once was. It's sad really that so many share your point of veiw. This couple now make good money through education for him and a small biz for her. They weren't the poor us we are underpaid crowd, they knew what needed done to better themselves and did just that. Not by whining but by using the same avenues available to everyone in this country.
 
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skyraider

Veteran Expediter
US Navy
If you go into the projects and live there for a week, you just might gain more insight to life ....
 

xiggi

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
There is story after story of people growing up in the projects and becoming a success. Without question it might be tougher but it is completely doable.

I've lived a lot in my life and have seen and experienced a lot. My dad passed when I was 10 and mom had five kids left in the house. Trust me we sure weren't middle class.
 

cheri1122

Veteran Expediter
Driver
There is story after story of people growing up in the projects and becoming a success. Without question it might be tougher but it is completely doable.

I've lived a lot in my life and have seen and experienced a lot. My dad passed when I was 10 and mom had five kids left in the house. Trust me we sure weren't middle class.

For every one person who succeeds coming from 'the ghetto', hundreds don't. If it were "doable", there'd be a lot more success stories.
You [like me] are old enough to have grown up when a job was something different, entailing security. People worked hard, and companies rewarded that - they didn't throw a large number of workers out simply to save money on labor, as they do now. They didn't engage in the many ways companies use to keep wages low artificially, like part time, 'on demand', independent contractors, moving to 'right to work' states, union busting, keeping increased profit due to increased productivity rather than share with the producers/workers, shifting health care & retirement costs to workers, changing pension plans to shift costs to workers, unpaid internships, hiring PR firms to decry wage increases - there's a million ways employers can and do stack the deck against people who work for a living, all to keep more for themselves.
Successful people generally become that because they want more [if they weren't born into it], and that's fine - we need people to lead companies [and I sure don't wanna do it, lol]. But over the last 4-5 decades, the leaders' attitudes have changed. Gone is the responsibility to look out for anyone other than themselves [workers, community, country] unless there's a PR advantage involved. Investors have changed, too, becoming 'entitled' to a profit, demanding it, even. We read the financial news, we see where investors force companies to increase profits, whatever it takes.

Abraham Lincoln said that without labor, capital could not exist, which makes labor much the superior of capital. Somehow, that's been turned around 180, which makes no sense. It also makes for a grim future, which we already see. 5 decades ago, people were happy, and the US was a great place to be in [or get into] the middle class, but we are not so much anymore. If the rich keep getting more and more of all the profit made, and the rest of us keep getting less, where does it end?
 

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
Speaking in the context of the structure of government, Lincoln said...

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights."

But again, that's in the context of the structure of government. When you remove that context and apply it to a different context, like, say, the private sector, it no longer applies.
 

xiggi

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
For every one person who succeeds coming from 'the ghetto', hundreds don't. If it were "doable", there'd be a lot more success stories.

If there was more desire and drive there would be more success stories. I don't understand the constant need to point out failures rather than success. I guess it's just a part of some folks programing. If we as a country would start doing a better job of telling the story of those who improve their lives rather than those who continue to struggle we would see more success stories. It's really no different than that one Debbie Downer in an office that corrupts the attitude of the entire place. Positive thinking really is contagious in both small and large settings.
 

skyraider

Veteran Expediter
US Navy
I guessing here, ......I have not seen any other race that seems to be in such trouble as the blacks. Surely the Chinese here have not had it so great, the American Indian not so great, the Filipinos not so great, Mexicans not so great, and a lot more. So this one race is upset in colleges, the work place, and seems to shoot each other to pieces in Chicago every week.........2014 , killed in

Chicago
2014 Chicago Murders - Explore Data

Maybe its just a lifestyle??
 
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OntarioVanMan

Retired Expediter
Owner/Operator
For every one person who succeeds coming from 'the ghetto', hundreds don't. If it were "doable", there'd be a lot more success stories.
It would be a lot more do-able if there was a REAL effort to change things up....But as long as resources are WASTED worrying about refugees and the rest of the world instead concentrating on the citizens that are here legally. There is absolutely no reason other then neglect for the present domestic conditions.
 
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OntarioVanMan

Retired Expediter
Owner/Operator
Yes blowhard....but the GOP should examine WHY he is so popular?....The GOP have their own credibility problems and can't seem to find the acceptable candidate because they preach the same ole tired party line with no substance.
 
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jjtdrv4u

Expert Expediter
just as the repubs finally got tired of joe mccarthy's antics back in the fifties, they are now exposing trump's own brand of fascism now...oh, oh, trump has to go, so sez the real repubs...
 

coalminer

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
I guessing here, ......I have not seen any other race that seems to be in such trouble as the blacks. Surely the Chinese here have not had it so great, the American Indian not so great, the Filipinos not so great, Mexicans not so great, and a lot more. So this one race is upset in colleges, the work place, and seems to shoot each other to pieces in Chicago every week.........2014 , killed in

Chicago
2014 Chicago Murders - Explore Data

Maybe its just a lifestyle??


OMG you are such a racist!!!!! But I agree with you, it's their culture.
 
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