I have received food stamps-as a former social worker used to determine eligibility for AFDC and food stamps. You can't generalize. My ex-husband who is 100% disabled gets $750 month and does not qualify for food stamps. So I must go to the food bank for him. My girlfriend raised 4 kids by herself-no child support-worked full time nights and lived in welfare housing. Don't be so quick to condemn.

Do you really not understand that finding a job that pays enough to not need welfare is extremely difficult? This is not about laziness. I've known people to work 2 full time jobs and still need food stamps. Do you work 80 hours a week? No? Lazy.

Liberals would rather see 1000 free loaders abuse the system than see 1 family living on the street in poverty. Conservatives would rather see 1000 families living on the street in poverty than 1 free loader abusing the system. That is the difference. (IMHO)

Seems to me it is a very good thing for there to be a safety net for the poor. I personally don't mind paying my fair share towards social programs. I wish I was paying a little more and that everyone had single payer healthcare. That would be a wise use of tax dollars. I do wish I was not paying so much of my taxes for the most expensive military budget on earth however.

I take the opposite approach. Instead of focusing on those below you, focus your frustration on the 1%. they are the ones who are really getting the handouts. The 1% loves to feed propaganda that feeds the frustration that you and others have towards the poor.

I love those programs... once upon a time many years ago, I was a semi-well to do housewife. I had no job skills and 4 kids under 10 years of age. My then husband was abusive. We left and he cleaned out the accounts leaving us destitute. Food stamps and public aid saved my family. I used to be one of those dickhead republicans who said only lazy people or scammers used that stuff. I learned the hard way that this is simply not true. karma? Be careful about shunning what you might someday need. There are a few who abuse it but as a former recipient, I can tell you that those programs save lives and help many people. I wish we did more.

I'm MUCH more disturbed by corporate welfare than I'll ever be about any individual on public assistance. Even those who are defrauding the system. I think there's a lot more to be pissed off about with corporations getting all the perks they do. I don't mind people getting assistance to feed themselves and their children.
What I DO mind are corporations taking advantage of every single loophole they can find to increase their own profits at the expense of their employees and the People at large. I DO mind that many of them pollute our environment with impunity. I think before I'll ever deny any American any level of public assistance, I'll want to see all corporations paying their fair share and being held 100% accountable for everything they do.

Yeah, don't you hate all those people on food stamps and welfare getting rich on the back of your labor?

<sarcasm>

If people had the same disdain for the shitheads who REALLY cheat the system and get rich off the backs of the poor, then maybe this world wouldn't be so bad.

Congratulations! It's rantings like this that shame lazy ass fucks like me out of applying for benefits.

Trust me, I am trying to die as quickly and quietly as possible, so I won't be benefitting from things I don't deserve like taxpayer funded roads and whatnot. Too bad suicide's against the rules--learned that one the hard way!

Keep up the good work!

The idea of the welfare queen has been debunked.

Even if they are gaming the system, they are not living in mansions living the high life.

I have absolutely no problem with poorer than me people getting help.

I'm happy to pay, and I'd be happy to pay more. If there are people who don't work because welfare pays more (I suspect this is a very tiny minority) then the government needs to step in and make sure employers can't get away with paying such shitty wages.

Better yet, how about instead of bashing WORKING people for not making enough money, let's address that.

Unless you have been down and out you do not have any idea how this program works. I was making a lot of money when I was young and am grateful that I had jobs that paid well. One day later in life I came down with medical problem. Never intended to have children. They came around as these things do. I took responsibility and because I did. I receive help to feed my kids WIC SNAP health care and money for bills. Not everyone can make tons of money. I know people work 2 or 3 jobs and still struggle. If you want to hit someone causing the problems go put a petition in to get the oil per barrel lowered those senators and congress sit on those dividend check from the oil futures.

I get pissed about a lot of things, especially when people lump all welfare recipients into a group called "lazy ass fucks". Most recipients of welfare are single mothers whose useless-ass men impregnate them, then leave. Does that perchance describe YOU?

I feel like we focus way too much on the "lowest" of the welfare recipients when the greatest amount of social welfare goes to the top. We capitalize income, and socialize risk, so that the wealthy are always protected at the expense of the poor. The amount of money we pay for those who abuse the welfare system is nothing compared to the money we lose to corporations not paying taxes, hiding money, taking advantage of massive tax breaks, keeping wages low...

Thank You for identifying yourself as a Troll with nothing better to do... anyways... federal government is closed so come back once is open.

Are you the only one here who gets pissed off? I'm gonna say no.
Am I one of those people?
Again, no.
I believe the richest and best country in the world should take care of those among us who are less fortunate. I believe poverty is largely not a choice, but due to circumstances beyond a person's control.
The person getting help is more likely to not live on the streets, to not turn to crime, to not end up getting medical care in an emergency room, which is much more expensive than seeing a physician on a regular basis.
But thanks for asking.

I'm absolutely fine with helping out to make sure everyone has a place to sleep and enough to eat and can go to school. My only gripe is that it's my state and neighboring states that do most of the paying for it, and the recipients who do most of the calling us Northeastern establishment liberal Jew-Commie queers.

I'm not happy with the state of our welfare system either. These programs were designed and originally passed as temporary measures. The extension of social programs should and can be funded better in the private sector through non-profit organizations. If people really cared about this issue they would have taken action at any of the high points in our economy. Some did, but not enough. The government doesn't exist to support people financially. It exists to protect your right to an open, equal opportunity market and national defense. That goes for both sides of welfare, rich and poor.

My mother who was a divorced parent with four kids was on welfare when I was 13 and 14 years of age. She went to school at night, and worked part time during the day to provide for four kids. When she got a better job with a non profit organization that also gave her a food allowance from their food bank warehouse, she went to HRS as it was known at that time, and told them that she no longer needed food stamps. Her income level was not very high, and I remember for months a state social worker came to our house to check our refrigerator and on us to see if we were taken care of, and being fed properly. When My mother finished school, she got a better job and continued to volunteer with the non profit organization to help others. My mother always stressed education and helping others when they need help. I do not believe that someone should given lifetime welfare. They should do everything they can to learn, educate and provide for themselves. Helping others to get back on their feet is the proper thing to do. I know that there are some people who takes advantage of the help that they are given, and refuse to provide for themselves. Those people should be cut off if they refuse to go to school and receive the training needed to provide for themselves.

Geeze Dave... I hear you. But its the system and not the people. It's the school system focussing on sports and not the students... kids need help... culture is a rough thing. Expectations and magical thinking gets these kids in trouble. It's rough out there. Then @VictoriaNotes shows whose getting the big breaks. More then those people and families struggling. I'm glad I don't have to be one of those unfortunate people asking for help...hmmm.

I'm in the UK so the details are different but I think the situation overall is probably very similar. I work, I pay taxes, some of my taxes go to fund our social security system. I don't have much of a problem with that. I have a huge problem with my government using my taxes to fund invasions of other people's countries, with my political representatives claiming hundreds of thousands of pounds in expenses (one of our MPs claimed for having the moat around his castle cleaned????)
I have an even bigger problem with all the corporation's that pay next to nothing, or sometimes absolutely nothing, in tax. That's money that could be funding our schools, national health service, the police.... That's money that's being stolen from us.
When my kids were growing up I was trying to impart certain values to them. Hard work, honesty, paying your dues... and all the time they could see how well I was doing with my values and how well those others were doing with their corruption.
Maybe a small number of people on welfare are playing the system -for a few hundred a week? It's absolutely nothing compared to the millions that are being defrauded by tax avoided and many big businessmen
Sure get pissed about 'lazy asks fucks' but be sure to work out who they really are. It's not some poor joe trying to bring up kids on welfare/benefits

OK, different country, but I feel the same situation in some ways.
I think the difference is that in OZ we have free education, free health care, vastly subsidized medicine even for those not on welfare. Our middle class welfare bill is huge, people receive far more than they pay. I am always in favour of consumption taxes, the more you consume the more tax you pay. Poor people can not afford as much, the wealthy are the greater consumers so they would pay more tax. Here we have companies making huge profits and paying minimal tax. Also poor people do less damage, use less resources, receive less benefit from infrastructure, ie roads. Around the world, the poor have not contributed as much to climate change. I am an old hippie, I have always been into self sufficiency, including financial self sufficiency, I now make almost enough for my frugal lifestyle simply by selling me excess solar power to the grid, but I am deliberately not paying a lot of tax. We are fighting to stop our governments from giving away billions to overseas millionaires to destroy our reef with huge coal mines, I do not want my money/tax going towards that. And of course, money is not real, I played the international currency markets for quite a few years and it really opened my eyes.

Just fine thanks. The top income earners should be taxed more, not less. Most of the top 1% make their money not from income but from investments they inherited from others.

I do think that incentivizing welfare families to have more kids is wrong. I don't think anyone should be allowed to have a child they cannot care for. Not that you could ever make that happen.

You need to distinguish between food stamps and welfare (TANF). While there will always be exceptions it is very difficult to get on, and stay on, welfare. Most recipients are only on for a short time. The welfare queen stuff is mostly just political bs. Far more $ is spent, and wasted, on corporate welfare thru the tax code. If you want to fix the food stamp problem the solution is quite simple; just increase the minimum wage.