SNAP benefits ( gentally)

[rjs330]

If you gave money to a family to buy food and they bought food you did not like would you castigate them and insist they can only buy what you approve of? That is not charity, that is being a control freak.

Nope, wouldnt say anything. But I probably wouldn't give them any more money. If they were hungry, I'd go buy them the food. And pots and pans so they could cook it.

 

[Larniavc]

You guys say some hateful stuff to be christians. Someone needs to do an expose on this faction of christianity and expose your hypocrisy.

~bella

I’ve long since got used to the prurient judgementalism displayed on this a Christian website.

 

[Larniavc]

Who for example is saying hateful stuff?

Please don’t encourage people to break forum rules by ‘calling’ folks out.

 

[Tropical Wilds]

with the whole mess with SNAP benefits should there be anything food wise that cannot be purchased?

No.

How strict should it be?

The person is given benefits based off of income. The person decides how to operate within that budget.

The end.

 

[Larniavc]

The simple truth is that calories are incredibly cheap. But people are also incredibly lazy. I say this as a fairly lazy person myself. But really, for $2-3/day you can get someone 2000 calories. Unless they work in construction or some other physical job, that's plenty. Even if they need 4000 cal/day, which is what I'd expect for manual labor at a construction site, that's only $4/day. Nutrition is a concern, you can't just give them bread, milk, and oil and call it good. A multivitamin isn't going to pick up the slack. The point is, it's INCREDIBLY cheap to feed people. For reference, the average SNAP benefit is about $6.18 per day per person. So that's $2/day of waste or preference, compared to what should work. Or, said differently, by having the government provide for their needs, every 3 people who get fed deprive one person of food.

What I find interesting about this passage is that it details specifically the mechanical needs of the human organism.

This rather misses the point of the needs of a human being.

 

[Tropical Wilds]

Imagine you’re a kid at school and it's lunchtime. Your friends are all eating cookies and doughnuts that their mom packed in their lunch. Meanwhile, you’re stuck with carrot sticks and apple slices because your mom can't buy treats with SNAP. How would you feel in that situation? Would it make you feel sad? Humiliated? Denying low-income families the ability to buy junk food with SNAP goes beyond looking at only the health benefits of doing so.

I have Crohns. When I’m sick, the only thing I can eat that don’t get me sick are Haribo gummies, no more than an ounce at a time, no sooner than 45 minutes between handfuls.

I don’t know why. Water will make me sick. Meat will make me sick. Bread makes me think I’m dying. Vegetables or grains or fruits make me want to actually die. Dairy makes me welcome death with enthusiasm.

I acknowledge gummies are not good for me and I can’t live off of them. But sometimes, after multiple days of being unspeakably ill, I’m so mentally and physically and emotionally exhausted that I exclusively eat gummies for a few days because I just need a break. Other times, I’m doing something I know triggers illness (flying) or doing something I want to ensure won’t have me get sick at an inconvenient time (holidays, vacations, road trips) so I eat just gummies.

Let’s just let the people who know their bodies decide what they need for it.

If I were on SNAP, my $200 in Haribo gummies is not what decides the difference between a functional government and complete societal collapse.

 

[Paulos23]

The issue is those who don't work because they get so much free stuff. Not those who can't work nor those who genuinely need assistance. But rather those who are purposely freeloading.

To take a quote from a song I know:

"My batteries they are dying
I did not forget I neglected to charge them
The screen is broke and the crack is growing
Around the edges patina is showing
If I work a day it can all be replaced
By foreign labor and toxic waste"

We have so much crap we buy and import that if we cut back on that, we could afford to feed people who need it.

 

[asquirrel]

What I find interesting about this passage is that it details specifically the mechanical needs of the human organism.

This rather misses the point of the needs of a human being.

Louis Rossmann has a great bit about why Minimum Wage Jobs Need to Suck. Essentially, you need the bottom of whatever society is to be uncomfortable enough that nobody wants to stay there as a way to encourage people to do more than the bare minimum. While you attempt to assault my humanity, the reality is that I am trying to preserve theirs. I'm helping them keep a reason to move forward in life and resist the temptation to settle on that 'being enough'. But this is also the reason to, as I put in previous posts, know the people you are helping directly. There's a world of difference between someone broke because their leg is broken, who has worked hard their entire life, and someone broke because they just want to not try.

Sure, even that not-try person might be traumatized and need mental support to realize there's a point to effort. I've been there. But sometimes the only way to make them desperate enough to do some soul searching is when their life can't make them happy. You assault my humanity, you don't understand I'm protecting theirs.

 

[asquirrel]

I have Crohns. When I’m sick, the only thing I can eat that don’t get me sick are Haribo gummies, no more than an ounce at a time, no sooner than 45 minutes between handfuls.

...snip...

If I were on SNAP, my $200 in Haribo gummies is not what decides the difference between a functional government and complete societal collapse.

Thank you for your story. This is a great example of why it's foolish to mandate what people can eat when on assistance. Guidelines are great. Requirements that the money be spent on food only are acceptable. But ultimately the person knows what food they really need.

Have you considered making your own gummies? They aren't terribly complex to make. You could fortify them with vitamins and minerals, make them with natural dies. I have 0 idea if this is within the realm of what you can do. I ask only because it might make that tiny sliver of life just that little bit better.

 

[rambot]

Becauae you are literally taking someone's property and giving it to someone else. How can you not understand that.

1) You fundamentally undersdtand the concept of taxes so I won't belabour that point.
2) What other tax dollars do you pay where you can MICROMANAGE how every dollar is spent? None

This isn't about "your property" (laughable phrase); once your money LEAVES your possesssion it's no longer "your property".


This is about wanting to exert control over other people; you can window dress it how you like but it's built on some shady logic.

Try that with your kids at school. Take their A and give it to another kid who got a D and then Give them both a C. See what they and their parents have to say about it.

This may be the most absurd comparison I've ever seen in a while.

Also, I teach behaviour. None of my kids have IQs over 80. They aren't the A kids.

 

[Belk]

Nope, wouldnt say anything. But I probably wouldn't give them any more money. If they were hungry, I'd go buy them the food. And pots and pans so they could cook it.

That strikes me as perfectly reasonable.

 

[Belk]

Because they are asking us to be involved in their lives and paying for their stuff. If they just paid for their own stuff they could buy what they want. But if you are saying you cant afford to eat, then take our money and buy junk with it, apparently you dont really need the food that badly.

They can buy nutritious food with our money and if they really want junk food then buy it with their own.

No they are not. They are asking for assistance from their government. That there are some so desperate to decide what constitutes "good choices" in order to justify the assistance is strange to me. If liberals demanded that SNAP recipients could not buy red meat because of its health effects and limited it to tofu they would be rightly castigated. I see this as no different.

 

[Chesterton]

Please don’t encourage people to break forum rules by ‘calling’ folks out.

You left out a sentence. It's perfectly fine to comment on the content of posts.

 

[dogs4thewin]

Commercial food should be classified based on nutritional value. There's already USDA and recommended by the American Heart Association etc classifications and endorsements. Some foods are already clearly labeled as snack and novelty items.

What do you mean classified you mean like whether SNAP can buy certain things?

 

[dogs4thewin]

The issue is those who don't work because they get so much free stuff. Not those who can't work nor those who genuinely need assistance. But rather those who are purposely freeloading.

and quite frankly even as someone on disability I do realize that if someone else is providing for my basic needs with a means tested program. I am on my late father's SSDI which is not means tested, but if I am on a means-tested program I would understand that I could not expect the same quality of life that one has that is not. Now, there are ways in which I feel that SSI ( the means tested disability program should be improved ( subject for another thread but even as someone who has been on the program it is NOT that someone should be able to have the highest quality things

 

[Tropical Wilds]

Thank you for your story. This is a great example of why it's foolish to mandate what people can eat when on assistance. Guidelines are great. Requirements that the money be spent on food only are acceptable. But ultimately the person knows what food they really need.

Have you considered making your own gummies? They aren't terribly complex to make. You could fortify them with vitamins and minerals, make them with natural dies. I have 0 idea if this is within the realm of what you can do. I ask only because it might make that tiny sliver of life just that little bit better.

It is something that’s in the realm of what I can do but nowhere near the realm of what I will ever do.

 

[Servus]

What do you mean classified you mean like whether SNAP can buy certain things?

Yes. No one needs a bag of Doritos. Someone might argue that a bag of chips only costs $3 or whatever. But if it's so cheap, SNAP, WIC and EBT shouldn't be needed to buy it. Since I'm single and there's one right down the street, I get stuff at 7-Eleven on a regular basis. And I see druggy young men stocking up on chips, twinkies, candy, soda and using EBT to get it. So I can't help but think it's like they're being rewarded for doing drugs.

 

[Larniavc]

But sometimes the only way to make them desperate enough to do some soul searching is when their life can't make them happy.

That‘s the plot of the Saw movies.

A nice sentiment on this a Christian website. Do you really believe people need to be ‘made desperate’? Is that a personal view? I don’t remember reading that in the Bible.

 

[asquirrel]

That‘s the plot of the Saw movies.

A nice sentiment on this a Christian website. Do you really believe people need to be ‘made desperate’? Is that a personal view? I don’t remember reading that in the Bible.

Oh look, another person putting words in my mouth and sockpuppeting points of view I do not have.

 

[Larniavc]

Nope, wouldnt say anything. But I probably wouldn't give them any more money. If they were hungry, I'd go buy them the food. And pots and pans so they could cook it.

Would you buy them a stove to heat the food? The pots and pans? Would you buy the fuel for the stove? You example is nice but fundamentally misunderstands the intricacies of what is constructive support and what is performative tokenism.