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pj's avatar
Dec 29Edited

I shamefully admit to being a reddit user. The other day, I started seeing all these posts on my feed about an upcoming change for food stamps. It's a topic the mods must be promoting. Anyhow, the gist of the story is that the federal government is abruptly ending EBT "theft reimbursement" at the end of 2024. Program participants could previously apply to be reimbursed for alleged theft of benefits. Of course, the recipients are claiming it's a card security problem, or a card "skimming" issue, but it's pretty obvious that it's due to widespread fraud among the recipients themselves, selling their benefits for cash, and then having them replenished by the government. This is so repulsive. The government announcement states that Congress failed to "extend" the program, so they were aware of the situation.

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Jon Miltimore's avatar

This wild. Had not heard of it. Do you have any links?

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TC Marti's avatar

You definitely got it right with why I have issues with welfare. While I'll concede and say that it CAN help, the potential harm it injects supersedes the potential good. The so-called incentives that basically bribe people to stay on welfare, such as making less money than their peers so they can keep getting "free" stuff, is the problem I not only have with it, but have seen it numerous times first-hand, considering the school district I went to where 52 percent of the demographic was labeled as "economically disadvantaged."

Plus, churches and charities, just to name a couple of outlets, would factor in as outstanding alternatives. Should our tax dollars and, as I don't doubt, inflation, stop paying people to stay home and undercut their ambitions, we would likely see more donations to such churches, charities, and any other outlets that may spring up more than we already do.

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Charlotte Pendragon's avatar

Have you ever been on welfare? If so, then you have to know getting “free stuff” is a big fallacy. You get a good allowance just enough to barely cover your meals a month, and some receive $100 a month to cover incidentals. No one wants to live in Section 8 housing, but it’s better then being homeless for everyone! People are seriously misinformed about welfare.

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TC Marti's avatar

So, instead of getting "free stuff," they're getting "free money" that covers food and incidentals? That's about the same thing in my book, unless I'm missing something.

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Charlotte Pendragon's avatar

Well, your the author of your own soul. 😉

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TC Marti's avatar

Haha, very, very true!

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Lynne Morris's avatar

Welfare disincentivizes intact families too. But the only real "punching down" I see fairly routinely is northerners and West Coasters denigrating the South.

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THE END OF THE WORLD SHOW's avatar

This is the same crew that are against a minimum wage of $15 an hour because our takeout food will be oo expensive and the fastfood joints will have to shut down. Not so much it turned out where it was done. Guaranteed annual income will probably be the final solution. Everyone gets it and if you earn a lot it gets taxed back. I just see yours and a lot of other people's opinion. The plural of anecdote isn't data. And a C&W song isn't even an anecdote. For instance, what year was that Cadillac? Would be ionic if they were living in a 1965 Cadillac and using the building to cover the bookstore and extra food.

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