THE GREAT FOODSTAMP DEBATE, WORK FOR FOOD…..OR ELSE!

THE GREAT FOODSTAMP DEBATE, WORK FOR FOOD…..OR ELSE!

(On the Issue, The Week, the Weekly Standard)

(Wall Street Journal, Neil deMause)

(Official population clock, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Oh boy, here we go again; the hoi-polloi is making their almost annual barking noises about cutting benefits to the poor, the less fortunate, and those folks who simply can’t deal with the regions of the daily grind. Of course there are also those people who are physically, emotionally, or mentally impaired, and simply can’t hold the most menial of jobs.

 

The United States has an estimated 316,623,000 million people that live within the boundaries of what is called the United States…..according to the official population clock. The figure is a mythical, pie in the sky guesstimate that is really for governmental use only. Its how all sorts of approbations are allocated, and is a barometer for future problems and growth concerns.

 

The U.S. is in 3^rd place in the world population standings, and believe-you-me won’t replace either of the countries that are ahead of us. China is number one with 1,359,830,000, and India occupies 2^nd place with 1,233,630,000.

 

As you know I’m a statistic guy…..in the long run statistics do not lie, no matter what you might say or think…..Vance, A way to decipher who has their stuff together, the country that is operating at optimum efficiency is to look at a country’s gross domestic purchasing power, growth and per capita income.

 

All of the above listed criteria will give a clear indicator of the poverty line of a country, and how man of its population is living under that mark. In the United States that figure is 15.10%. For all the bluster and rhetoric about China and its citizens, the 1,359,830,00, only 13.40% live under their poverty limit. Conversely India and its 1.2 billion have a figure of 29.80% of its people living in poverty.

 

What do other countries do with their citizens that are indigent, living in card-board-boxes under bridges, on park benches, or in abandoned cars, or doorways during cold periods? How are these people feed, and where do they get medical attention when they need it? And who buoys their broken spirits and lets them know that they are important too?

 

Not only does the United States have a huge problem with their impoverished, destitute, and indigents, the world has the same problem to varying degrees. The United States has had a poverty issue for the entirety of its history. Sadly the malady of poverty has been dealt with in a series of completely ineffective programs and initiatives.

 

Government has always looked at any programs, benefit or entitlements to the poor as a hand-out, when in fact they should have been called, hand-ups, it’s what most people that are on some welfare program want…..a hand-up, people in the long run want to dictate their own way in life, and hand-outs don’t get them to where they want to be, self-sufficient, and somewhat in control of their lives, just like everybody else.

 

GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE

There are today in the United States between 45 and 50 million people on government assistance…..of all sorts. Medical, mental, emotional, military veterans, Section 8, a program that picks up rental charges, transportation, child care, educational help and the ever popular food stamp entitlement.

 

I know I’ve missed a whole bunch of other governmental programs designed to elevate and help the poverty ridden, but I don’t have a staff, and there are only so many hours in the day so…..this’ll have to do. The help programs that I’ve listed will serve to give you an idea of where our country is really going with the poverty line people living in America today.

 

Lead by Eric Cantor, (R VA.) there is a move to have those folks that live in poverty and would possibly parish without their Section 8, Medicaid, and Food-Stamp benefits, work for at least their Food-Stamps. Now actually I think that putting people to work for their benefits and entitlements is a good thing. I also know that Eric Cantor would enact some sort of a rating system whereby people would be graded on their eligibility for some sort of benefits.

 

However it’s really funny how whenever a budget needs to be balanced the very first place that politicians go it either to entitlements or education…..don’t believe me, check it out. Food stamps have been around since those coupon-looking stamp booklets were introduced in the 1960’s, phased out in 2004 with plastic debit cards, and the name was even changed in 2008 to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

 

The welfare programs are bigger and getting even bigger, is there fraud…..absolutely; in Pennsylvania almost 200 grocery and convenience stores were caught trading cash for food stamps. In New York, where recipients are fingerprinted, 2000 people were discovered using two names to receive double benefits!   

 

Can people live on food stamps…..well it depends on whether you like canned soup, fish, meat, or macaroni. The food stamp program does not track what people buy with their SNAP allowance card, and people can buy almost anything that can be cooked or heated through at home. There are no veggies, or fruit that can be purchased with the card, and as Josephine Gonzales, an unemployed single mother said, “It’s not making our lives luxurious.”

 

NON-CITIZENS LIVING ON THE SNIDE QUADRUPLED SINCE 2001

Jose Valenty, a Mexican has been living in the United States since 2006 when he snuck across the Rio Grande River and made his way to the upper part of the Midwest. He’s worked for a recycling company since late in 2006, is paid $7 per hour, has no benefits and goes to the local hospital’s emergency room whenever he, his wife, or their five kids get sick, or suffer injury, whether work related or not.   

 

The family of seven lives under the radar as well as the poverty line in the United States, and if you ask Jose how he likes his life in America, he’ll tell you it’s great, far better than living in Mexico where he’d be making far less, and not be able to get the medical help or other benefits that are available.

 

Would Jose make a good United States citizen…..absolutely, should he be given special treatment, no fricken way, Jose is an illegal immigrant and as such has absolutely no rights. And Jose and his family is just one of millions that take advantage every day of the entitlement programs that are available.

 

Aren’t the figures that I’ve unearthed interesting…..like those living under the poverty line in the United States, 15.10%, and those taking advantage of welfare programs…..14%. Today nearly one in every seven Americans aren’t on the dole, there on the SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

 

 

 

 

WELFARE REFORM, IT’S A WAR ON US

Let’s get one thing crystal clear right now…..near the end of today’s Blog, people do not want to be living on the snide, the cuff, the dole, or be feeding at the public trough! Of course there is a small percentage that will always be a problem, won’t want to shoulder their fair share of the burden of being a responsible citizen…..and we’ll have to support them.

 

However the vast majority of poverty citizens in the U.S. today want to be on their own, want to be productive people, want a voice in how their life is going, and want to pay their own way…..it has been the great American experiment and achievement almost since the days of George Washington.

 

If there were more jobs, better paying jobs, if the captains of industry were more humane, were a bit fairer, and cared more for their workers rights, and the atmosphere in which they worked, can you imagine where we could be as a nation?

 

Yeah we got a long way to go with regards to poverty in the United States…..everybody knows that, does governmental intervention help…..almost never. Should we depend on private food banks and church or service organizations to fill the void for our impoverished…..absolutely not, the programs and help to convolute the problem.

 

As a people we need to stand and give a hand up to our brethren, we cannot do the hand-out stuff, most people don’t want it. I believe in Americans, most want to stand, work, achieve, and dictate their own future…..we need to give everybody that chance.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!