Customer paid for groceries with food stamps, walked into parking lot and...

[CrabtreeSus]

If you have an expensive car, you can sell it.   Then buy a cheap ass car.   Use the money from your car to buy food.


http://tampa.craigslist.org/hil/ctd/3646087462.html

[Redwave]

Don't know why I'm going to open myself up to this but....  While in Junior College (approx 30 yrs ago), I worked all shifts at a 7-11 in between two lower class neighborhoods (1 predominately white & latino, and 1 predominately black).  Do this for approx 2 yrs and come back and tell me if there's any doubt as to how well the system works.  I'm very happy to live in a country that cares enough about humanity to provide safety nets, but the honest hard truth is, as long as there's a way to bring in benefits equal to and exceeding that of the working poor, there's absolutely no shot of turning this thing around.  Children are used as pawns in the justification. They are also the ones who grow up with this as a normal way of life, consider it a right, and pass it on to the following generation(s).   BTW, it was not just a snapshot in time.  Shortly after my parents purchased their first home, the school district changed boundaries and I later attended Jr High in a neighborhood bordering "the projects".  Have seen this from many different angles.  Blatant widespread abuses with no shame.  Plenty of exceptions and misconceptions, yes.  People shopping for the elderly is a great example.  But the situation is undeniably real, disgusting at times, & a drag on society.  With a large percentage of recipients, it becomes a serious handicap for those it is intended to help.  A Florida analogy - feeding the alligators.

[2002Champs2055]

If you have an expensive car, you can sell it.   Then buy a cheap ass car.   Use the money from your car to buy food.


http://tampa.craigslist.org/hil/ctd/3646087462.html

For a car with over 150,000 miles and the transmission or engine giving out ? No thanks. I wouldn't want to pay more money for fixing the car than I actually bought it for. I'd lose money trading in a nicer car for a worse car I'd have to fix every month.

And what if it was a hand-me-down from a old relative who can't drive anymore. Your going to sell the car they gave you ? Just for a couple months of food when your going to need to register for food stamps again when that money runs out?

[CrabtreeSus]

A couple of months?    How much food do you eat in a month anyway?   If I sold my 20,000 car and bought one for 1500, that gives me 18500.    That will buy food for at least 2 years, maybe 3.    Depends how many people you are supporting.

[Redwave]

if the answer to stopping outsourcing is to make it less appealing by paying Americans the same wages that Chinese laborers get paid to do those jobs, I fail to see how that helps our economy in the least.

Because it's an entry level oppurtunity while you learn skills that can't help you advance to higher paying jobs, and/or further up that company ladder with hard work.  Minimum wage jobs are never permanent , they are entry level . They pay the minimum for a reason : because they require no skill . Only an complete useless idiot does a minimum wage job permantely, and usually not even them.  Even idiots acquire skill in thier trade over time. Managers at McDonald's don't need a minimum wage increase because they've already earned it themselves.

...and you don't see how eliminating an entire segment of an economy like manufacturing effects an economy ? Wow , you are clueless.  An economy that is built on only a few select markets  is less diverse , and therefore less stable and likely to face crashes. It also raises all our prices in many cases because you have to import everything.




Seriously...why do people even debate you ? You're a complete dumb ass. Here's a little reading material for you since you seem to think outsourcing has nothing at all to do with wages. This is from that conservative think-tank called the Huffington Post :
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/06/walmart-outsourcing-depresses-wages_n_1573885.html

Just gained a tremendous amount of respect for Dolorous on this.  It is spot on, and it's too bad so many in this country are such blind lemmings with no possibility of original thought.  If you believe what the public was fed for years by the politicians and media about manufacturing being only undesirable dirty jobs, then you were just duped.  Many of them were, but many were not.  I worked as a professional for 13 years in the electronics manufacturing industry (different sector for the last 10 yrs).  A large company in St Pete allowed me to more fully appreciate one of the core necessities that keeps our system a working and sustainable model.  An opportunity ladder that accommodates all.  An individual with the willingness to work for a living can walk through the doors and forge a path to succeed in life.  Top executives, recent grads, young adults (from all walks of life - all levels of experience & education....) , or as was often the case, recent arrivals to the US (often refugees recently staged in another country preparing and hoping to immigrate legally to the US).    It's opportunity plain and simple.  A ladder to success based on opportunity, desire, aptitude, and perseverance.  It's the American story of the 20th century and how our middle class was built.  I personally want to live where there's a path for those who care to pursue it.  I want them to have a good chance to lift their families into the middle class, becoming skilled at something, maybe gaining a degree as a benefit from their employer (who will likely end up benefiting as well), and pass on a new legacy to their children.  Never will all succeed, and success will always be defined differently, but I surely don't want to see a swelling lower class resorting to burglarizing our homes, robbing, carjacking, or beginning to kidnap for ransom as in Central & South America.   I'm not all doom-n-gloom, or some bitter guy that got kicked to the curb and suffered.  I personally did better career wise, but am also keenly aware that I was better positioned than many to do so.  I'm all for bringing back manufacturing jobs to the US that make sense.  I'd much rather pay 2x's or more for my electronics, but have steady employment and wholesale opportunity for the masses to get started, become productive, and benefit from their efforts.  Also not wild about seeing families needlessly dispersed all across the country & uprooting our households multiple times with the average term of employment what ?  3-5 yrs now.  Major financial costs are incurred with each move and some are not always accounted for in the analysis (ex.  minimum 1 yr interruption in 401K contributions, etc).  Bottom line: the numbers on your check may be higher, but can you do more with it ?  Even with all the cheap consumer goods, I'd say absolutely not.

The model we've slipped into in the last 15-20 years or so is not befitting us.  It is not attributable a single political party or individual and will not come back around until we get off of that freakin ridiculous stance.  We've got a generation of college educated kids living at mom & dads largely because of a lack of opportunities and depressed wages.  Many aging adults are working longer than they ever thought they'd have to for a multitude of reasons, such as: having their nest eggs wiped out in the market, severely depressed home values,  healthcare premiums beginning ridiculous yr-to-yr jumps around 2001.  The way things are headed, a lot of older folks are likely to move in with their kids out of necessity.  Retirement planning, back when my parents and even I was young, was not the same as it is now.  401K was only supposed to be a supplement to company supplied pensions. They were not always offered or thought to be needed.  The actual pension plan has gone the way of the dinosaur except in government jobs and a few other select companies.  This whole deal is going to be a real interesting experience and we can't afford to remain blind as to what the worth of our manufacturing industry really was and could again be.  One thing to consider: how do you think WWII would have turned out if our manufacturing processes, trained workforce, and capacity was not what it was at that time?  Do you really think it'll never happen again.  What have we been doing lately?  Scrapping our plants & employees, while handing over the technology & manufacturing capacity as quickly as we can.  Do you think our market will mean anything to China if we no longer have a consumer driven economy fueled by a working middle class.  And what if we can no longer pay off what we're borrowing from them, not to mention burning them with garbage investment vehicles.  Probable too much for one post, but oh well.
   

[2002Champs2055]

A couple of months?    How much food do you eat in a month anyway?   If I sold my 20,000 car and bought one for 1500, that gives me 18500.    That will buy food for at least 2 years, maybe 3.    Depends how many people you are supporting.

4. You would get $20,000 for your used car ? What did you have like a 2010 BMW or Mercedes with 5,000 miles on it ? Then that would make sense. lol and good luck finding a car for $1500 that runs right without fixing it. Your over-exaggerating.

I was talking more about a 2006 caddy for 7 g's. Why would u sell that for a 2000 Toyota for 3 g's just to eat for a couple months and then have a car that's going to break down.

[BucNY]

Don't know why I'm going to open myself up to this but....  While in Junior College (approx 30 yrs ago), I worked all shifts at a 7-11 in between two lower class neighborhoods (1 predominately white & latino, and 1 predominately black).  Do this for approx 2 yrs and come back and tell me if there's any doubt as to how well the system works.  I'm very happy to live in a country that cares enough about humanity to provide safety nets, but the honest hard truth is, as long as there's a way to bring in benefits equal to and exceeding that of the working poor, there's absolutely no shot of turning this thing around.  Children are used as pawns in the justification. They are also the ones who grow up with this as a normal way of life, consider it a right, and pass it on to the following generation(s).   BTW, it was not just a snapshot in time.  Shortly after my parents purchased their first home, the school district changed boundaries and I later attended Jr High in a neighborhood bordering "the projects".  Have seen this from many different angles.  Blatant widespread abuses with no shame.  Plenty of exceptions and misconceptions, yes.  People shopping for the elderly is a great example.  But the situation is undeniably real, disgusting at times, & a drag on society.  With a large percentage of recipients, it becomes a serious handicap for those it is intended to help.  A Florida analogy - feeding the alligators.

Very nice summary. I think that says it all.

I honestly don't see it changing, I see it getting worse. I see the government setting up more and more regulations to essentially protect Americans from themselves. This is the heart of the matter. You cannot make people strive to do better. You can't make people make good choices, but what you can do is bankrupt a country trying.

The truth is that only when you take all safety nets away and people are faced with no way out other than to work for it will things change. That type of thinking is just not an option, I'm not sure it should be either.

[dbucfan]

But wait - there's more

Dems preserve US-Mexico food stamp 'partnership,' while USDA prepares for meat inspector furloughs
Published March 18, 2013

Salmonella outbreaks. E. coli outbreaks. Millions of dollars in economic losses.
These are among the scenarios the Obama administration warned about last month as it claimed the sequester would force the U.S. Department of Agriculture to furlough meat inspectors.
But while the administration prepares to take that step, it continues to pursue a "partnership" with the Mexican government to "raise awareness" about food stamps among immigrants from that country. When a top Senate Republican proposed cutting off funds for that program last week -- in the form of an amendment to a budget resolution -- Democrats on the Budget Committee shot it down.
It's hard to put a firm price on the cost of the partnership, which was launched under the George W. Bush administration. But an aide to Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who has railed against the partnership for months, said it could easily be in the millions. Since 2004, the program has blossomed to include dozens of meetings and conferences and health fairs with Mexican officials -- all of which cost money, not to mention the cost to the food stamp program of new enrollees brought in as a result of this partnership.

Sessions, in a statement to FoxNews.com, said he believes the public will eventually demand an end to the program, though the Senate Budget Committee allowed it to continue in the vote last week.
"We have uncovered extensive evidence that federal authorities have -- during the Bush and Obama administrations -- aggressively undermined a core legal tenet of immigration policy: that those granted admission should be self-sufficient and contribute to the economic health of the nation," Sessions said. "It is amazing that Budget Committee Democrats would unanimously vote to continue funding these costly promotions, especially when our debt is causing such profound economic harm." 

According to a letter from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to Sessions last September, the "partnership" since 2004 has included roughly 91 meetings between U.S. and Mexico embassy and consulate staff; 29 health fair events; and 31 roundtable discussions, conferences and forums in 20 cities.

Twenty percent of the meetings and activities occurred since 2008, according to Vilsack's letter. Sessions is concerned the collaboration amounts to a vehicle for the USDA to pressure people onto the food-stamp rolls -- in this case, noncitizen immigrants from Mexico.

The USDA denies this. In his letter last year, Vilsack said the purpose is "to help eligible people in need make informed decisions about whether or not to seek assistance."
The initiative is one of several the agency has "to promote awareness of nutrition assistance among those who need benefits and meet all program requirements under current law," Vilsack told Sessions in the 24-page letter.

However, his letter indicates the number of legal, noncitizens participating in the program -- now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program -- has increased from 425,000 to 1.23 million between 2001 and 2010.

Meanwhile, the USDA continues to press forward with plans to furlough meat inspectors, describing it as a necessity of the sequester -- though the department has eased off a bit on warnings that this could lead to more foodborne illness, since all meat and poultry will still have to be inspected.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/18/dems-preserve-us-mexico-food-stamp-partnership-while-usda-prepares-for-meat/print#ixzz2Nwi4cZjf

[SnookAU]

Get's into a Cadillac DTS. I would estimate it to be a 2008 or 2009.

I stood behind this guy in the grocery store and noticed how he was paying. I checked out quickly and decided to see what kind of vehicle he got in. Not sure why I decided to do this but it really pissed me off.

Doesn't matter what year it is, it's a better vehicle than I own and I'm buying him groceries? This is why people want to stop the handouts. I have no problem giving some of my hard earned check to help those in need. It gets to a point where I feel taken advantage of enough that I no longer am okay with it. So many people scamming the system out there.

I buy groceries with this.....


and drive this....



Maybe I got this car from a Settlement Check when I had a good job and and now I'm broke as a joke and need food stamps to live. Maybe this car was a graduation present from a wealthy family member whose not willing to buy me food everyday. Maybe this a car from a family member who passed away. Maybe I bought this car when I had a good job but got fired and now need a little help eating.

Don't judge people. The person your judging may be in the same predicament as me

You could start by selling some of that crap in your garage.

I'm amazed by the amount of people on food stamps in this country.   Its truly sad.   What's even more sad is the amount of them complaining about Obama being a socialist.

[BucNY]

I love it when people so "don't judge". Well that is part of the deal. When you tell the Government I'm broke and have no money for food so please give me some money for food, you open yourself to judgement. When you take money from other people it becomes their concern what you do with the money.

I have to say I'm surprised, not really at all though, the blatant disrespect and entitlement you have to actually post a picture of your car. You have the audacity to take money because you're so broke you can't buy food yet you have a nice car and what looks to be a nice garage to put it in if you ever got rid of all that junk.

You are the perfect example of what is wrong with the system. Broke enough not to afford food, not broke enough to somehow be able to drive around a very nice car. In other words broke enough to need tax payer money yet not broke enough to actually change anything. Do you have internet? Cable? Cellphone? My point exactly is the system allows you to spend your money on yourself and my money on your food.

You would be smart to take down that photo, I'm not sure of the laws where you live but you may be incriminating yourself.

[spartan]

Get's into a Cadillac DTS. I would estimate it to be a 2008 or 2009.

I stood behind this guy in the grocery store and noticed how he was paying. I checked out quickly and decided to see what kind of vehicle he got in. Not sure why I decided to do this but it really pissed me off.

Doesn't matter what year it is, it's a better vehicle than I own and I'm buying him groceries? This is why people want to stop the handouts. I have no problem giving some of my hard earned check to help those in need. It gets to a point where I feel taken advantage of enough that I no longer am okay with it. So many people scamming the system out there.

I buy groceries with this.....


and drive this....



Maybe I got this car from a Settlement Check when I had a good job and and now I'm broke as a joke and need food stamps to live. Maybe this car was a graduation present from a wealthy family member whose not willing to buy me food everyday. Maybe this a car from a family member who passed away. Maybe I bought this car when I had a good job but got fired and now need a little help eating.

Don't judge people. The person your judging may be in the same predicament as me

What are you doing on the internet if you can't afford to buy food?

[BucNY]

If you are going to take a handout, take money out of my wallet, you should have exhausted all other options. Guess I'm just crazy....

[CBWx2]

Just out of curiosity, how much money out of your wallet do you think goes to pay for food stamps? I'll give you a hint. The average person probably loses more in the cushion's of their couch in a given week.

[Durango 95]

Just out of curiosity, how much money out of your wallet do you think goes to pay for food stamps? I'll give you a hint. The average person probably loses more in the cushion's of their couch in a given week.

Seems like you might know the answer to this, CBW.

Are there any reliable estimates on how much money is lost on food stamps through fraud, abuse, etc ?

[CBWx2]

Just out of curiosity, how much money out of your wallet do you think goes to pay for food stamps? I'll give you a hint. The average person probably loses more in the cushion's of their couch in a given week.

Seems like you might know the answer to this, CBW.

Are there any reliable estimates on how much money is lost on food stamps through fraud, abuse, etc ?

I can't verify for certain, but reports suggest that it's about 750 million dollars yearly, which is enough to fund the war in Afghanistan for about 2 days. It averages out to about 15 million dollars annually per state. I suspect that setting up a new agency or hiring additional investigators in each state to combat this problem will without question cost each state more than the 15 million dollars annually that it would save. Even if that estimate is false, and it's double, or even triple that amount, you'll still be operating at a net loss by creating more bureaucracy to fight the problem.

And on a side note, the answer was 20 cents. 20 cents a week of the average American's tax burden goes towards general welfare services, which includes food stamps. It averages out to $10.40 a year. If we cut out welfare altogether and helped no one, the average American wouldn't even save enough money to buy a DVD at Wal-Mart.