how appropriate
on 07/30/2011 at 10:35 AM
Here in Texas we have something called the Lone Star card, which is basically a state-supplied debit card that gets refilled monthly. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been in line behind some deadbeat who buys steaks and chops with the card, then pays cash for booze and cigarettes.
If it was up to me we’d go back to passing out bread, peanut butter, and surplus cheese in place of food stamps. No one would starve, which after all should be the focus of the program, and it would provide a great incentive for recipients to earn some $$$ and be able to buy more appetizing food.
But what do I know? I’m just a hard-working productive taxpayer who isn’t as smart as the elected geniuses in D.C.
We could make public housing out of old Army tents too.
Or build big institutions where the really destitute could live. We could call them poorhouses!
All sarcasm aside, the “daily dole yeast” handout from many sci-fi stories is starting to look like a good idea. Even if everyone in the country got a morning and evening plateful, whether they were on aid or not, it would probably be much cheaper than the money spent on SNAP programs like the Lone Star Card. No, you ain’t gettin steak and lobster. You’re getting beans, soy, veggies, and a liter of vitamin water. White meat on Tuesday, fish on Friday, red meat on Sunday. That’s it. Don’t like it? Get a job and buy your own food.
Simply do it as WIC does it - specific items - WIC is meant for health and so you can’t go in and buy any ole thing.
I am so pissed that the very people who pay for this crappola are not allowed to demand any guidelines at all.
And the ‘requirements’ for food stamps etc are way too lenient. WIC requires a monthly ‘class’ (which is repetitious and mind-numbing beyond belief) and THEY CHECK INCOME every month to insure that one has not gone above the levels.
A few little common sense requirements - would make a vast difference. But common sense and requirements seem to have nothing at all to do with the crapweasels in DC.
I’m reminded of one of my favorite dystopia books; Ira Levin (of Rosemary’s Baby fame) wrote ‘This Perfect Day’. You didn’t even need a credit card. The world-wide computer ran everything. If you wanted something, you just let the computer scan your bracelet. The computer, UniComp, then decided if you were worthy of your purchase.
Has anyone else here on BMEWS ever read that book? My mother gave to me when I was twelve. The really sad part is, she never read it. So I’ve never met anyone to discuss it with. Mom did that a lot. She’d off-load books on me that she never read. Tolkien, Heinlein (in fact, she gave me Stranger in a Strange Land. Obviously she’d never read it else she wouldn’t have given it to a ten-year-old. I also have credit Mom with giving me, again unread, her HP Lovecraft books.)
Mothers, make sure you read what you give to your children. They will probably want to discuss what they read. In my case, Mom has never even read The Hobbit. But I have the first issue paperback she gave me when I was only eight. And the fact that I couldn’t discuss (and was probably too young) some of the Heinlein books, etc, may have warped my character.
