3 ms·

The problem is food stamps suck. You can't pay down a debt, you can't buy shoes for that interview, you can't get a phone number, move to a better job market,

The problem is food stamps suck. You can't pay down a debt, you can't buy shoes for that interview, you can't get a phone number, move to a better job market, afford first month/lastmonth/security on an apartment on a bus route, etc. And what is and isn't allowed is a constant political issue. The point is cash lets some one target their own pain points while cutting down the inefficiency of needing a bureaucracy to define the aid packages. Also a years wage from some shit retail job isn't 30k, it's more like 15k.

sliverstorm 13y ago
Not saying food stamps rock, but my parent approaches the issue as if I/we have royally decreed the poor should continue to starve in ditches. I felt it appropriate to point out that the USA generally (GENERALLY) doesn't let people starve in ditches.
- dwiel 13y ago
  Maybe not that many are starving to death, but many people in the USA don't get the food that they need. In 2010, 17.2 million households, 14.5 percent of households (approximately one in seven), were food insecure, the highest number ever recorded in the United States [1] [1]: http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/us_hunger_facts.htm http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/us_hunger_facts.ht...
  - sliverstorm 13y ago
    This is completely tangential to the original point of discussion. I did not come here to argue about food stamps.
    - dwiel 13y ago
      It is completely relevant. The ancestor post was making the argument that we already have a minimal support system in the USA that anyone can take advantage of a pursue their dreams. They just need to take food-stamps/etc. This doesn't seem to be working so instead, we need to give them $30k/year. My point is that we aren't even providing minimal life support to everyone yet, so to say that it has failed is premature. Show me a system where healthy food is accessible and free, and safe housing is also accessible, convenient and free where people are still struggling to invest and improve their situation and then I will believe that it doesn't work.

sliverstorm 13y ago

Not saying food stamps rock, but my parent approaches the issue as if I/we have royally decreed the poor should continue to starve in ditches. I felt it appropriate to point out that the USA generally (GENERALLY) doesn't let people starve in ditches.

dwiel 13y ago
Maybe not that many are starving to death, but many people in the USA don't get the food that they need. In 2010, 17.2 million households, 14.5 percent of households (approximately one in seven), were food insecure, the highest number ever recorded in the United States [1] [1]: http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/us_hunger_facts.htm http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/us_hunger_facts.ht...
- sliverstorm 13y ago
  This is completely tangential to the original point of discussion. I did not come here to argue about food stamps.
  - dwiel 13y ago
    It is completely relevant. The ancestor post was making the argument that we already have a minimal support system in the USA that anyone can take advantage of a pursue their dreams. They just need to take food-stamps/etc. This doesn't seem to be working so instead, we need to give them $30k/year. My point is that we aren't even providing minimal life support to everyone yet, so to say that it has failed is premature. Show me a system where healthy food is accessible and free, and safe housing is also accessible, convenient and free where people are still struggling to invest and improve their situation and then I will believe that it doesn't work.