chrismb wrote:Just hold them horses a mo. I'm not
all judgemental here. I'm only judgemental 5 times a day and I had used them all up by the time I read that. I was critiqing Diogenese approach of not doing anything about it. I want to make it quite quite clear I am not at all judgemental towards dimwitted sponging unemployed layabout tax-dodging freeloaders. They are what they are.
No, sir, the critique was at Diogenes and now we have a much clearer picture of the motives of kicking off this thread. So the card was an idea from Diogenes? So this thread was nothing to do with a motive of irritation or annoyance over spending taxpayer$, it is all to do with GUILT!!!
No, Diogenes, we will not give you absolution for your sins here!
I don't feel guilty about telling the Rep the idea. I feel disgusted that they mucked it up so badly. It's Still an improvement over the food stamps they used to hand out. To be fair, it was a friend of mine that thought of the idea. I was just the first one to mention it to the Rep. As Josh has pointed out earlier, there is a lot of fraud going on in the Food stamp program. Nowadays, instead of selling the food stamps for drugs, people sell the card and PIN number for drugs. Putting the person's picture on the front of the card would have made that MUCH more difficult. They would have actually had to go to the trouble of going to the Grocery store and BUYING the groceries before they could trade them for Drugs.
Adding that little bit of work to the equation would have dramatically changed the outcome. The Dealers wouldn't want the hassle, and the users wouldn't want the work or the delay.
In any case, I thought it was peculiar that the two times I went shopping (which is extremely rare for me) I managed to get behind three different people all using and abusing the state Welfare card. I have since talked to other people who pointed out that it was shortly after the begining of the month, so people's cards were "charged up" and ready to use. They say the stores are always inundated with Welfare cards around the begining of the month.
As I have mentioned before, I don't think the government should give poor people money to manage. They should give them staple foods from a warehouse, thus obviating the purchase of a bunch of crap that isn't any good for them and likewise eliminating the purchase of overpriced or excessively expensive (steak, lobster, etc.) items. There should be SOME motivation for people to want to get off of the State Dole. Having to show up at a state run warehouse and receive your Staple (no frills) groceries ought to provide that motivation.
The system we have now persists not because its a good system, but because it has such a large constituency. The grocers love it because they sell the merchandise,(Business) The Welfare recepients love it because it's easy and simple and convenient, the beauracrats like it because it's a large convoluted system requiring lots of beauracrats to run, and the politicians like it because it pleases so many people that can vote. The only people it doesn't please are the taxpayers, who are divided by ignorance and lethargic about fixing it.
A state warehouse based system would draw the ire of all the grocers AND the welfare recepients. (A considerable constituency)
