SNAP is Hard

[JimMeade]

Here's a story about how hard SNAP (food stamps) is to get and how it doesn't go far enough.

http://harvestpublicmedia.org/post/obtaining-federal-food-aid-takes-time-patience?utm_source=feedbur...

It is too bad there is bureaucracy.  Bureaucracy was created for a reason, to implement the intent and letter of the law.  Sometimes it probably is aggravating.  I should probably feel more sympathetic to people on SNAP.  

[sw363535]

It should take time and patience....  There is a lot of cheating in every public assistance program.

there are years when programs need participant numbers to grow to maintain a place in the budget and there are years when accountability is the theme to protect ones employment.  

program need and accountability are both important.

Everyone wants ease and convenience and a wait period beyond a few minutes will bring on nasty responses...

We have made a lot of dumb life style promises and there are those who will complain when "free" isn't delivered to their expectations.  Accountability takes time.

SNAP elegible products should be more restricted.

[sw363535]

Thanks jim the article...... good info  llllll 

I doubt the 40 million participants number........ I would guess it to be much higher if it were recorded as the number of americans and eligable aliens actually fed by the farm bill.. it's probably closer to 100 million eating on food stamps.

The size of the payment is based on income and number of dependents....per participant.

Still has that stench of "affect on family"  It keeps live ins and relationships with children from choosing marriage when the mother can qualify for this and more assistance as a single mother.

But all government programs have their "side" effects.

There should be more choice restrictions in the store..... Protein should have a choice between vegitable choices and the cheaper meat available.  Milk, juice, water..... should be a drink choice. Soda or gourmet coffee should not. 

etc etc etc,

If we are on the program because of financial need we should offer economic based decisions with the best nutrition possible.  A good percent of our population does not handle economic decisions extremely well.

[k-289]

Reviewing  some  options  on  daughter  - in -  law  with  a masters  degree -  I  find  it  unsettling  to  a  point  of  the  volume  of  education $$$$$  spent - - -

Nothing  to  extravagant  - I  recognize,  although  winding  through  the  maze  of  requirements  being  a  bit  different  from  the  previous  decades - - -

Collage debt  somewhaatttt  strangles  the  take  home  equation  of  the $18  start  up  wage  scale - - -

College  Debt  service  will  be  an  on  going  chore,  &  I'm  thinking  food  assistance  being  for  the  $15/ hour  folks  being  inevitable,  unthinkable  reality  - - -             

[sw363535]

The major difference here is even more disturbing....

1 education loans bring all the penalty for spending mistakes(or lack of value) back on the one recieving the loan when it gets paid back.

2  snap poor decisions are laid back on the taxpayer.

[k-289]

Wonder  when  there  will  be  a  2nd  mortgage  -  equity  program  offered  on  college  debt  

[BA Deere]

America is a blessed nation and no one should starve.  Even though the athlete on the box of cereal makes more money than the wheat farmer that fills the box of cereal, we have the cheapest, safest food on the planet...no one should starve, even if it means handing out food stamps.

But why do American citizens (and illegal aliens) need food stamps?  Well, they don`t make enough at their job or they can`t find a living wage job.   

So, why is it they can not be gainfully employed well enough to provide food for their family`s table?  Because the living wage jobs have went to Mexico or overseas where the cheap labor is.  

So why did those good jobs leave our borders?  Corporations want cheap labor and lax worker and environmental laws, to make $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

So why don`t voters change this?  Well they took a good first step in electing President Trump, but those solutions may be too little, too late and more "pain" than snowflakes are willing to sustain in correcting things.

What do you mean "pain"?   Well people are addicted to cheap Walmart junk and the Walmart $5 tee-shirt.  When the President starts talking about tariffs to solve these problems the "swamp" ie consumers and Wall Street don`t want any price increase at the retail level and freak the hell out about any threat of "wage inflaaaaation"...Well without "wage Inflaaaaaation" some workers won`t afford food and will need Snap and food stamps and Obamacare.   Look, when you got a watermelon grin on you face buying Walmart crap, the flipside of that is your tax money  is going to have to subsidize under-employed workers.

If you want to be hardcore about it, I suppose we could do like Castro did in the 1970`s and purge out un-needed workers.  In this country send everyone that doesn`t make $50,000/yr to Mexico, but with various contractors wanting cheap foreign labor and more immigration, I doubt there would be much support shipping people out   🙂

I know a guy that has a Dominican Republic girlfriend and she makes $100/month cleaning the police station down there.  Lives 5 miles from the ocean but has only seen it twice in her life.   She has it better than average down there, but lives on $3 a day!   That is what it looks like in a global economy...just sayin`

[sw363535]

Why can't you say "Labor in the US became too expensive to support business internationally."  It is not accurate to say "Living wage jobs went to mexico..."   

There has to be some responsibility handed to organized labor in the US and their congressional partners  for driving labor costs to a point of 

Labor pay gets misquoted with "the Amish lie" constantly...... (not what we say but what we don't say)

I see it often..... Labor that cannot figure its own benefits or it's own tax liability.   I see $15 per hour employees who have a $65K  annual package when all benefits are included.  And I see $15 employees who  won't take a benefit other than cash.

But lets face it no matter what the after tax cash pay is.......... the labor cost is that plus the tax and the matching tax and the benefit package(personally offered and government required.)

Insurance and the government intervention in that area show much of the problem...... I see farmers who pay full health insurance for employees as a benefit and others who carry workmans comp for employees, housing rent, utilities.....  and employees who will walk away from the benefits to get $1 per hour more.  

Then I listen to employees who get $15 per hour and another 25 to 30K in benefits per year say they can't make it on 15 per hour (and they set their own hours.

It is like me wondering why I don't get my garage cleaned or shop work done ............... since I got a cell phone and an internet presence.

Every employer I do business with struggles with labor.  .............. less qualified and less dedicated to their employers than ever before.    These $15per hour guys take home more than I ever have.......... but I and my wife, have passed on a lot of cash income over the years in order to own a business and some realestate.  And I understand the tax code

The workers in the US do not realize how much control they have over their income and accumulated wealth,  they blame employers just like they are told to.

[k-289]

$31,550. oo   wages   &  a   $65,000. oo   annual  package  ?  ?  ?   ?    AM  I  MISSING  SOMETHING  HERE  ?  ?  ?  ?

[k-289]

I'm  trying  to  figure  out  where,  what,  when  on  the  $34,000. oo  benefit  package  shakes  out  ? ? 

If  I  had  my  d'rathers  I  would  accept  the  straight  up  $65,000. oo  and  put  an  end  to  the  help  wanted  ads  - - -