Re: Food snob?

Siobhan Perricone wrote:

On Sat, 18 Mar 2006 22:25:39 -0500, ~patches~ <noones_home@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


But they aren't spending someone else's money. They are spending what the govenment give them to which they are entitled. If you don't agree, change the government <shrug> And don't assume everyone here is American with American values. I have no idea what food stamps are and really don't have the inkling to go searching.


*hug*

Food stamps was a program that came around because people got the idea that
the poor who were receiving government money were using that money to buy
cars, or other luxury items, instead of buying food or other necessities.
So they made a form of currency that could only be used on food and a few
non-food items in a grocery store to control how the money was being spent.
Those are called "food stamps" because back when they first started they
were actual stamps that came in a booklet that people had to hand over to
the cashier like coupons.

Thanks Siobhan for expaining. So they actually have to stand in line at a grocery store and hand over these stamps while others watch them do it? Talk about humiliating! I can't imagine how they feel having to do this.

The problem you're running into here is that most middle class Americans
don't get the idea that the poor are entitled to this money. Factions of
the government and the corporations have a vested interest in them not
getting that idea, or agreeing with it.

There's a real psychotic break in our country about the poor. We don't
like it when they steal to survive, or sell drugs because that's the only
job available to them, or join gangs because they don't have any other
choices, but we also don't want to pay to get them out of the mud (even
though, in the long run, it's in the best interest of the middle class for
them to do so, and studies show time and time again that programs that
actually get people out of the welfare cycle WORK).

Here, I don't know if it could be a called a psychotic break about the poor. True we have some uppities that snub their nose and no one really likes the drunks begging for booze money on the city streets but for the most part we are very cheritable towards our poor. We have geared to income housing where everything except cable and phone are paid for but there is a pay phone downstairs in the apartment complexes for emergencies. Families with kids on geared to income get either a duplex or row housing with greenspace. This likely differs a little in larger centres. Churches play a huge role in helping out the poor as already mentioned in previous posts. Schools at least here also run free home economics classes. Those on socail assistance are entitled to a social worker who must work on their behalf to get them into programs to help them become a functional member of society. The biggest problem we've had is the closure of mental facilities that turned out a lot of people that don't have the skills to help themselves.

The subisides we currently pay the poor aren't actually enough for them to
subsist. Most of the poor in our country who get subsidies are still one
illness away from being homeless because the money they get doesn't even
really pay enough for them to survive. They are consistently running in
debt and having to make serious, difficult choices about whether they can
put the landlord off another month so they can buy some food, or if they
should just hope that the kids can get a hot meal in the school lunch
program so they don't end up homeless (school lunch programs are
notoriously unfunded, so poor children can't even count on one hot meal a
day any more, like they could twenty years ago).

For an example of this psychosis in action, just read Wayne Boatwright's
posts.


I've been rather saddened at some of the responses on this thread :(

A few years ago, we noticed a trend where some kids were coming to school without having breakfast. After a bit of work, we got a breakfast program up. The program is open to all students regardless of income of their parents. Parents are asked to donate breakfast food if they are able and they are asked to do it anonymously. Volunteers run the program and do any cooking. Churches and other charitable societies donate. The program has been such a huge success it was adopted thoughout our county and is now spreading. See, we as a group, could have turned our heads or made snide comments instead we chose to make a difference.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Food snob?
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  • Re: Touch Tone Grocery Shopping - Promise Never Realized?
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