Food stamps fur coats and jewelry

amother

Royalblue

Fri, Dec 21 2018, 6:45 am

amother wrote:

It looks funny see the ladies I won’t say which neighborhood paying a big grocery bill with food stamps and theyre wearing fur and jewels.

https://www.vosizneias.com/312.....ange/

I was on Food Stamps for a short period over a decade ago. I don’t know if the system has changed but it was a use it or lose it scenario so sometimes I would buy food gifts for my Shabbos hosts with the Food Stamp money I had spare. I didn’t have a car and had a young baby with me so bulk buying tins wasn’t so feasible at that time. Not the same as furs, jewellery or bugaboos, but it did feel a little wrong at the time, like I was cheating the system. However, it made me feel more human being able to give my hosts a gift.

Perhaps these people in furs are milking the system on other people’s tax dollar. Perhaps their coats are inheritences from a parent and they don’t want to sell them. Either way, what business is it of ours? Worry about your own expenses and supermarket baskets.

OP: there’s nothing “funny” about being on Food Stamps.

amother

Jetblack

Fri, Dec 21 2018, 6:54 am

ally wrote:

Because modesty as a middah and lifestyle has gone out the window to be replaced by modesty which is all about hemlines and s-x.

I agree. I don't see the fur coats, but the jewelry comes out. I see ladies dressed to the nines with their bugaboos going in the medicaid office. The non-Jews are in stretch pants and their kids aren't dressed as fine as the jewish kids. The contrast is sharp between the darker complexioned people and the visibly frum people.

amother

Jetblack

Fri, Dec 21 2018, 7:03 am

amother wrote:

This is where you are wrong. It is our business because it is our tax dollars that pay for you to give hostess gifts to feel more human. It costs around $70,000,000,000 a year. We have 141,200,000 million taxpayers in the US that $500 per household on food stamps alone. Add up the cost of medicaid, section 8, wic, welfare. Fruad is the business of every taxpayer.

You shouldn't use what you don't need.

southernbubby

Fri, Dec 21 2018, 7:04 am

amother wrote:

Then we should also be charitable in our views of non-Jews who milk the system. Yes every child needs cake and ice cream for their birthdays and the taxpayers should cover it. It really isn't about supplemental nutrition, is it? And if a non Jew pulls her SNAP card out of her expensive handbag, we taxpayers should be happy to cover the grocery bill.

amother

Royalblue

Fri, Dec 21 2018, 7:12 am

amother wrote:

You say “we” when I explicitly said I am not on Food Stamps any more. My taxes pay for Food Stamps just as much as yours. If a bit of my tax makes a poorer Jew feel more human on Shabbos, then to me, there is nothing wrong with that. What I did wasn’t fraudulent. I was given food stamps and bought food. IIRC, I had some of it at the Shabbos table. But I guess people on Food Stamps are only allowed to live on tinned tomatoes, lentils and rice and have joyless Shabboses in your world. Be thankful you earn enough to have never needed food stamps.

amother

Royalblue

Fri, Dec 21 2018, 7:16 am

southernbubby wrote:

I accept that my US taxes get spent on things I wouldn’t personally earmark. I don’t judge how people poorer than me spend their money. Their lives are harder than mine.

I am b”h not poor any more. I went through a temporary rough patch. I have experienced real poverty and also being wealthy, living in a large house. I can tell you that when you are that low and poor, the last thing you need is judgmental opinions from richer Jews about how money/benefits should be spent.

amother

Seagreen

Fri, Dec 21 2018, 7:29 am

amother wrote:

I was in the WIC office this past month with a very well dressed African American woman and her baby in a nice and new Uppababy Vista.

southernbubby

Fri, Dec 21 2018, 7:31 am

amother wrote:

But the original post features a news report about Trump's desire to save taxpayers money by limiting SNAP. Should the government and the taxpayers have to pony up so that the not so poor could afford more luxuries? Can I cheat a bit on my taxes? I want to buy a high end carriage for the new grandson. Can you please advise me on this?

amother

Jetblack

Fri, Dec 21 2018, 7:46 am

amother wrote:

A bit of tax for one poorer Jew is not begrudged. It is the widespread misuse of the programs that hurt the average tax payer.

People legitimately on food stamps can buy whatever they want for themselves. Giving hostess gifts or sending food back home is an abuse of the system. You acknowledge you felt bad gaming the system because you know that the intention of the program is not for you to give gifts. It is to feed the hungry.

amother

Jetblack

Fri, Dec 21 2018, 7:48 am

amother wrote:

And what of jews richer than you being on programs? Are we not allowed to say fruad is wrong?

amother

Jetblack

Fri, Dec 21 2018, 7:53 am

amother wrote:

Seagreen, everyone is eligible for WIC, regardless of income. The program is to promote healthy eating.

You must have below a certain income or be on certain other pragrams to qualify. Not everyone is eligible.

amother

Seagreen

Fri, Dec 21 2018, 8:04 am

amother wrote:

So?

It was a response to a poster who claimed that the Jews show up at the benefit offices with their fancy strollers and diamonds which is a stark contrast to the other ethnicities and I was pointing out that blanket statements like that are simply false, as evidenced by my last WIC trip

amother

Jetblack

Fri, Dec 21 2018, 8:15 am

amother wrote:

It doesn't disprove anything. It is one person. In general the best dressed families are the visibly frum ones. The worst dressed are the Hispanic / black families in general.

amother

Ginger

Fri, Dec 21 2018, 8:28 am

amother wrote:

Just want to clarify one thing. We got very specific instructions from our Rav as to what we can use our FS and WIC for. He said anything that we would be paying for ourselves we can use FS. Meaning if I am making something for a Purim Seuda then I can use them. AND if its expected for me to bring a hostess gift then we can. On the flip side we are not even allowed to give someone our extra food from WIC. Certainly not send food back to the family.