US News Food Stamps No Longer For The Poor As A Record Number Of College Students Now Use Them

[FireCat]

I would also say that they should be part of a broader retraining program for those who aren't in school - people shouldn't be on food-stamps indefinitely

It would be great if they find a job or something for them.. with a pretty decent wage!

 

[Varine]

why? then people would pay more in taxes? why does the government need that control over the people? it doesn't, and thus it shouldn't

It wants it though, so this isn't an unlikely scenario.

 

[Prometheus]

To give a personal touch to this debate, I have $150 a month, post living costs, to actually use. This means $150 to spread to anything and everything I need including gas, food, clothing, and any unforeseen expenses. Having to not worry about food is a giant relief.

Also, the amount of money being "leeched" by people "abusing the system" is an ultra small amount compared to how much money the 1% has cost us using tax loopholes, and causing financial market stress.

 

[Slapshot136]

It wants it though, so this isn't an unlikely scenario.

still doesn't make it a "great" scenario

 

[Fatmankev]

why? then people would pay more in taxes? why does the government need that control over the people? it doesn't, and thus it shouldn't

I'm not really seeing how they'd have more control that way, but alright. I just feel like if the government is going to intervene in our lives as often as they do when we don't need them, then they should take more responsibility for the actual needs of people, like food stamps.

 

[Slapshot136]

I'm not really seeing how they'd have more control that way, but alright.

food-stamps is basically a EBT or a "bridge card" that is given out by the government and people can only use it to buy food/etc. in general - the government would have an easy way of noticing exactly who eats what, where they shop, what they buy, when they shop - a goldmine of information for any marketeer - what is the advantage of giving up all that information to the government? it's bad enough that most of these stores know when a person gets pregnant, but why does the government need that kind of information? how could it possibly help people?

now you are going to say that a person can always just buy their food, yet then you suffer from the increased taxes that benefit people who do use food-stamps (and we are talking about the people who don't need them, but the rest of the population that would also get food-stamps if "everyone" was given food-stamps), and the only thing you gain is your privacy, which you more or less would/should of had in the first place

and I supposed I didn't give any direct examples of "control", but hopefully you can see that a person armed with that kind of information does have a certain degree of control over people - that is why corporations track these sort of things and send target advertisements - they influence (aka control) people to a certain degree, but lets give an example - lets suppose a big company such as Tyson lobbies to remove "free range/organic" chicken from being covered by food-stamps - the government would exert a certain control over the population's demand for chicken if it decided to act on such lobbying (which wouldn't exactly a surprise if they did)

 

[Varine]

In short, the more the people rely on government aid, the less they will do to protest things they don't like, and the more direct control they will have the option of taking.

 

[Fatmankev]

Word, I wasn't looking at it from that sort of perspective. Although I'm still not sure that 'control' would by my word choice, more like 'influence', I'd say; they'd be able to tailor advertising campaigns and specific products to a very controlled demographic, granting them influence over the choices people would make. Even if you know all that information, I still don't think it would help you to actually control them.

And Varine, I get that - the government has far more power than it should, or than I'd like it to have, anyway. But if they're gonna be doin' all this crap that I feel like doesn't help, I'd rather them do something that I feel like would help.

 

[Slapshot136]

Although I'm still not sure that 'control' would by my word choice, more like 'influence

influence is a level of control, a scale might look something like:

1. no control
2. hint/suggest (advertising)
3. recommend (endorsements, warning labels, etc.)
4. influence (changing prices influences customers, bribes)
5. required for "privilege" (such as insurance for drivers)
6. mandate/order (army orders for example)
7. blackmail/threaten/coerce (torture)
8. physical control (involuntary reflexes, breathing, etc.)
9. mind-control (jedi mind trick?)
10. complete control of thoughts and actions
11. perhaps memory control? I don't know.. we haven't actually gotten here yet

 

[Varine]

This is how I view what's happening in the US right now:

Everyone is dead set on tearing down whatever we have no and replacing it something new that works better. But everyone is too fucking lazy to actually build something new to replace it. We're tearing down the walls because they're ugly, and not thinking about how the building is going to be supported when the walls are all gone, and just admiring the view there is without it.

 

[Slapshot136]

We're tearing down the walls because they're ugly, and not thinking about how the building is going to be supported when the walls are all gone, and just admiring the view there is without it.

I usually see the opposite happening: the old walls need to come down first, but there are certain minority groups that benefit from the old walls, and those few are the most vocal about the issues when they arise, and thus they never get taken down - stuff like rent control in major cities and import tariffs that benefit local producers/manufacturers at the cost of everyone paying more for the product

 

[Varine]

Those are second story walls. All those programs will fall apart when the economy does, just like everything else.

 

[Prometheus]

Oh, the economy is falling apart. I forgot that when the signs point to a growing economy, that means it's failing.

 

[Varine]

Signs point to a growing economy != a healthy economy.

 

[tom_mai78101]

If only I had study economics when I had the chance...

 

[camelCase]

I'm taking intro. to economics and it's boring as hell =/
The times I do listen, they use a lot of fancy terms with simple meanings; which makes me less willing to learn.

If it is easy to understand, make it easy to say, god dammit.
Leave the fancy words to the fancier topics.

 

[Varine]

Economics is awesome. And it's not that simple once you get out of the personal finance and introduction courses. I mean it's not that hard, but it's definitely not easy once you get into stock markets and whatnot.

 

[Accname]

I'm taking intro. to economics and it's boring as hell =/
The times I do listen, they use a lot of fancy terms with simple meanings; which makes me less willing to learn.

If it is easy to understand, make it easy to say, god dammit.
Leave the fancy words to the fancier topics.

Can you imagine my math prof needed 17 slides and 40 minutes to explain the arithmetic mean and after the lecture i wasnt even sure if i still understood what it was.

 

[Varine]

I had a professor that spoke Russian the entire course and expected us to figure out what she was saying.

 

[tom_mai78101]

High expectations are too damn high.

I'm actually hoping economics be split into "How to Deal Personal Finances and Insurances" and "Introduction to Stock Markets and Investments." These topics would truly fit a 2 semester course schedule.