A Different World

[warbirdlover]

This just struck me as WRONG...

I was watching local Milwaukee news tonight after supper and they had an article on "a food stamp crisis" and "how people are going hungry" blah blah...





so I'm getting pictures in my mind of all these skinny, poor starving people (like in the Nazis death camps).... and then they show this room full of








HUGE, fat women!! Hundreds of them all "jammed" into that little room waiting for their food stamps. I mean these women would have made sssmokin proud!! There wasn't an underfed one in that room. Now, maybe their husbands and children looked like the death camp victims.. because these babes ATE ALL THE FOOD!!!

This did just not COMPUTE in my head....

Oh well....

[Clugnut]

America. The home of the fattest poor people, who also have two cars and three TV's. I know there are people out there who really need help, but people who game the are out there, too.

[chemboy2]

[Bignose]

There is one small aspect that does need to be taken into account here, and that is the fact that the foods that are the worst for us are all too often in the "largest number of calories per dollar" category.

I'm not trying to give them excuse, because there aren't any excuses, but it is a fact that fruits and vegetables are often far, far more expensive per calorie than a bag of Doritos. And, it usually isn't even close. Usually it is many, many of the not-so-good-for-you foods that are the cheapest.

Like I said, it isn't an excuse. It certainly doesn't excuse the lack of exercise and other aspects of general health that most of them probably don't follow. But, there is something wrong when if money is exceptionally tight, the cheapest calories are the emptiest calories.

[mont86]

We're hooked on empty calories...And no exercise.

[warbirdlover]

I know there's reasons for all this fat etc etc...

I just had to put this in because the picture of these huge, fat babes didn't jive with the starving, needy image painted right before they showed these hippos.

Was just supposed to be funny but my sense of humor might be too "advanced" for the rest of you guys....

[SiberianDVM]

Originally Posted by chemboy2

Here ya go.

[slickpitt]

Well... there are those that really need the help and are down on their luck. But, there is a very high percentage of people that are in need of getting off their fat ass and getting a job and stop being a drain on the economy.

[Eracer]

I remember 1986, when hurricane Elena was headed towards the coast on a track that took it over Gainesville. I was at the supermarket, stocking up on batteries, water, canned food, etc., and there was a huge hippo in line ahead of me, with five kids in tow, each pushing a shopping cart full of food. Most of it was frozen food - ice cream sandwiches, Hot Pockets, pizza, steak, etc. - and as she pulled out a wad of food stamps to pay for it all I wondered: How the hell has it come to this? Can she afford a generator to keep all that stuff cold? Or is she just plain stupid? And how stupid are we to keep paying for that?

[Fairway_CY]

Originally Posted by Eracer

I remember 1986, when hurricane Elena was headed towards the coast on a track that took it over Gainesville. I was at the supermarket, stocking up on batteries, water, canned food, etc., and there was a huge hippo in line ahead of me, with five kids in tow, each pushing a shopping cart full of food. Most of it was frozen food - ice cream sandwiches, Hot Pockets, pizza, steak, etc. - and as she pulled out a wad of food stamps to pay for it all I wondered: How the hell has it come to this? Can she afford a generator to keep all that stuff cold? Or is she just plain stupid? And how stupid are we to keep paying for that?

No doubt it was the end of the month and those specific stamps were going to expire anyway.

I used to work at a grocery store, and the end of the month was the worst. $600 orders paid for entirely by food stamps. Don't get me wrong, a lot of the people with the stamps needed it... but when I had a $600 order, and a large roll of stamps (before they went to the cards) was handed to me by a woman wearing a 2 karat diamond and holding a set of keys to a BMW... I had to roll my eyes and wonder WTF was up.

When we had our first child, we needed help and could not get it. By the time we COULD get help, we no longer needed it. The system doesn't work as is and needs to be reviewed, quickly. We struggled for a good 15 months... we ate macaroni and cheese, peanut butter sandwhiches and canned soup the entire time so we could afford the formula for our son. Some nights, we decided not to eat so we could eat the next night. When I finally got a job that paid me a little more, then our application was accepted for the WIC program. I wrote a letter, explained that I was appreciative of the offer, but it needed to go to a family that needed it more. I also made sure I let them know of the struggles of the prior year-plus.

I've seen it too many times and it frustrates me to no end. Indian people who own the corner stores in our town purchasing good to sell in their stores with food stamps. How is that ANY different than stealing?

Ugh.

CY