Reply #101: Can you eat a school book? Do you cook protractors for your kids' dinner?

[Heddi]

A large part of the people who are on food stamps have children. Why are you forcing a child to go hungry or undernourished because mom or dad is "able bodied" and could be doing something better.

Sure--send them to school. Then what? What jobs are to be had? What degrees can you get in less than 1 or 2 years NOT INCLUDING pre-requisites. What about child care? What about educational expenses? What about the rent and the food and gas bill and car maintenance and gas money and shoes for growing children?

My grandmother is 67 years old. She gets $400 a month social security, 350 of which goes to pay her mortgage.

After TWO YEARS of living on $50 a month, she was finally able to quality for food stamps.

She gets FORTY SEVEN DOLLARS A MONTH FOOD STAMPS. Her ENTIRE income is $447 a month for food, utilities, mortgage, medicine, clothing, gas, and god forbid ANYTHING should come up that costs more than the pittance she's able to budget for each of these.

This woman started working when she was 12 years old. She didn't retire until she was 65...yeah, she should have worked the extra 7 years to get more SS money, but she was forced to quit work because of 2 arthritic knees and 57 years of standing on her feet for 12 hours a day. Before she "retired" (ha ha), she was working 10 hour days at the local KFC just to make ends meet.

So you tell me---if my grandma didn't have food stamps, how is she supposed to eat? What is she supposed to eat? How much more can she divy out that $50 remaining from social security than she already divys?

As it is, she doesn't turn on her heater because the electric bill is too high. She sits in the dark all day and night because the electric bill is too high. She lives in a shitty neighborhood, so selling the house won't do any good because she owes more to the bank than anywhere NEAR what she'd get for it.

So you cut off her welfare---what the FUCK is a 67 year old woman going to go to school for? She's already worked 90% of her fucking life, and now you're saying too fucking bad for her, adn the MILLIONS of others who are like her and CANNOT feed themselves without foodstamps---

Yes, there have to be limits, but not at the expense of other people's life and health and well being.

Although, by the tone of your post, she's just a lazy old bitty who should shovel snow for the neighbors if she wants luxuries like "food" and "electricity"

:eyes:

I pray you NEVER NEVER NEVER find yourself on the receiving end of a bad situation. Easy to cast stones and call for "limits" when you most likely have a pantry full of food and a house that is heated above 50 degrees. Easy to call for limits when you don't have to watch your grandma sit in a house, in the summer, sweating to death because she KNOWS that if she even turns the AC on for ONE DAY, the bill will be higher than she can afford...

real easy. Real FUCKIN easy.