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Thursday, May 3, 2012

On Welfare Queens

What!? No. That's asinine.
I keep seeing all of these hate graphics about poor people. They usually invoke the fantasy world wherein welfare queens receive free rent, free food, and can afford luxury items with the cash that they receive from the jobs that they don't have. It's pretty illogical, but the myth persists.

Personally, I'm really curious as to how people can tell when people are using food stamps, since it's a plastic card that looks and works exactly like the average debit card. How can you tell the difference between my brown CNB bankcard and someone else's brown SNAP card? How close are you folks getting to the people in front of you? Usually, I'm still unloading my cart while the person in front of me is checking out, and I can't really see what their card looks like, so all I can see is if they're using a check, a card, or cash.

So the next time you see a graphic like that, you should ask the poster, "Exactly how close are y'all getting, and why?".

2 comments:

  1. I can see your point, however my own simular experience to this involved a woman wearing Lous Vitan(sp?) , baby phat and various other labels I wouldnt be able to afford screaming because there were several seasonal items of junk food that didnt come up food stampable and she was not gonna spend HER money on things she beleaved she should be able to get.(Keep in mind there was an entire cart without a single veggie or meat product that wasnt a convience food)

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  2. The fact is that 1 in 7 American families receives food benefits (and even more are eligible). Out of those families, over 60% are working, and many of the non-working folks would love to be employed.

    Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying that it doesn't happen. (Drug money comes to mind.) I'm saying that it's not the proliferate norm that hateful people claim.

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