Box of Food in Lieu of SNAP

↑ chaylizi ↓

Wed, Feb 14 2018, 8:57 am

LittleDucky wrote:

The idea of taking the SNAP challenge is based on the false premise that it is the sole source of food for the family. Kids on SNAP will get free lunches from school and they get them year round. Signs near some parks and public schools in the summer tell eligible families where to get wholesome lunches even when school is out. Many get breakfast at school as well. Kids too young for school would qualify for WIC.

Not frum kids in my area. We get no state sponsored lunches. People who use SNAP have to pay for their children's lunches and snacks out of their benefits. Guess they should be sorry for buying potato chips and fruit cups. Guess no one has ever seen a school go nuts at parents for not sending 4 snacks daily for each child.

↑ SixOfWands ↓

Wed, Feb 14 2018, 9:03 am

LittleDucky wrote:

And my disabled BIL, whose sole sources of income are government benefits, including SNAP?

WhatFor

Wed, Feb 14 2018, 9:09 am

Thanks, Marina. You touched on what I came here to say.

Everyone gets so outraged when poor ppl have options about what food they can eat with taxpayer money. Meanwhile no one makes a peep when wealthy public servants spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to travel first class around the world on the taxpayers dime.

There's a reason the wealthy and powerful want to keep directing your attention to count the pennies the poor are spending from taxpayer resources: they don't want you to look at what they're doing with millions of dollars of taxpayer money.

↑ LittleDucky ↓

Wed, Feb 14 2018, 9:13 am

chaylizi wrote:

It is your choice to send to private school. My kids school doesn’t do it either. The government offers all kids in PS free lunch (if they qualify, which they do if on SNAP). It’s part of the services the government gives. Your personal choices does not mean the program doesn’t give enough. If I decided I will only eat non-GMO organic food should I get more money from SNAP?

By the way, 4 snacks is crazy. They ate breakfast. They should get morning snack, lunch and afternoon snack. When do they eat so much?? Never heard of this!

↑ leah233

Wed, Feb 14 2018, 9:14 am

WhatFor wrote:

Everyone gets so outraged when poor ppl have options about what food they can eat with taxpayer money. Meanwhile no one makes a peep when wealthy public servants spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to travel first class around the world on the taxpayers dime.

My opposition to government programs is primarily because of how they destructive they are to the people on them and general society. Not the costs.

↑ 33055 ↓

Wed, Feb 14 2018, 9:23 am

marina wrote:

Why do these conversations always revolve around benefits exclusively for poor people? Why doesn't anyone go off about government benefits that everyone gets?

* Taxpayers should never have to pay for school computers and smartboards and music and gym! If you're getting free education, be happy with math and English on a chalkboard!

* Taxpayers should never have to pay for fancy library programs and computers and internet and DVD collections! Just be happy there are some books!

* Taxpayers should never have to pay for landscaping in national parks! You're getting the park for free, just make sure the grass is not overgrown!

* Taxpayers should never have to pay for higher education government scholarships for college and graduate schools! Just be happy you have a high school diploma!

Oddly, I don't really hear these conversations. Why are there gazillions of threads on what SNAP recipients are entitled to but none on what library patrons are entitled to?

Is that because we can all use the library? Is that because using the library does not reflect on your work ethic?

Imagine if libraries were exclusively for people who couldn't afford to buy books or go online at home. I think we'd immediately start debating whether the library *really* needs that new carpet or if the unwashed masses can do just as well with the old one.

I think libraries are becoming too bloated. For instance, I don't understand why my library taxes have to support admissions into attractions in NYC. Patrons get free passes. These passes are expensive to taxpayers. Libraries have expanded way beyond books and have become entertainment centers way beyond their original mission. I gulped last time I saw my library tax. It was outrageous. I also would love to know what percentage is going towards books.

↑ chaylizi ↓

Wed, Feb 14 2018, 9:24 am

LittleDucky wrote:

I love this website. Frum people who don’t think chinuch is important.

↑ Fox ↓

Wed, Feb 14 2018, 9:25 am

WhatFor wrote:

There's a reason the wealthy and powerful want to keep directing your attention to count the pennies the poor are spending from taxpayer resources: they don't want you to look at what they're doing with millions of dollars of taxpayer money.

Yes, except "the wealthy and powerful" who benefit from the misuse of taxpayer money aren't some evil cabal gathering in Davos. They're people we know and love. They may even be us.

They're the people who work for social service agencies that don't really produce tangible results.

They're the carpet companies who win the bid for the new library carpeting that Marina mentioned.

They're the farmers that I drone on about -- raking in farm subsidies they don't need.

They're even nice people like my parents and their friends, who worked for a state university and were given lifelong pensions at 90 percent of their highest salary plus lifelong health insurance.

Good people, in general. Certainly not conniving or manipulating the rules to cash in at the expense of others. But nevertheless, benefiting from government waste, inefficiency, and sheer stupidity to degrees that would put the most prolific welfare cheat to shame.

The problem with democracy is not so much domination by the wealthy and powerful. It's that few of us can resist the temptation to vote ourselves rich.

↑ LittleDucky ↓

Wed, Feb 14 2018, 9:28 am

WhatFor wrote:

Oh I get outraged when they design government buildings and its “artistic”. I don’t want them wasting my tax dollars so they can work in an extravagant building. I have worked in a plain (clean, but nothing fancy) building and was able to be productive. Fancy ceilings or the detailed scrollwork gate around the building wont make the DMV or SS office more productive.

I visited a city in CA during the summer, when they were in a drought no less, and there large fountains on government property! What a waste! In the summer when evaporation takes a lot! (And my friend couldn’t water her lawn during the day, only on certain days before about 7 am, restaurants couldn’t give water without a specific request for it etc).

I hate all waste. This thread was about one type of waste. I didn’t think it relevant to say “while I think SNAP should be changed I think XYZ should be looked into as well...” that’s for another thread about hating government waste.

↑ 33055 ↓

Wed, Feb 14 2018, 9:30 am

Mommyg8 wrote:

Can you elaborate on your thoughts? Because I'm not getting your point clearly. Thanks!

Breaking up which companies will destroy the economy? Please explain.

Let's say we break up Wal-Mart. Those patrons are not going to Mom and Pop stores owned by the workers. They are going to shop the cheapest option available. Well, we also broke up Target.

We then need to break up Amazon. We can add those workers to the unemployed.

The next cheapest option will be companies not in the US. They will be on the internet. All the profit and jobs will be outside the US.

↑ SixOfWands ↓

Wed, Feb 14 2018, 9:35 am

LittleDucky wrote:

So you would be fine if SNAP limited purchases of meats to the least expensive types, all of which are treyf. I mean, my local Aldi has chicken breasts this week for $1.89 a pound. My local kosher store has them on sale for $4.99. Why should your person choice mean that the program doesn't give enough?

↑ Fox ↓

Wed, Feb 14 2018, 9:41 am

leah233 wrote:

My opposition to government programs is primarily because of how they destructive they are to the people on them and general society. Not the costs.

Yes, well, the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan started banging that drum in 1965. Everything he predicted has come true. Charles Murray has taken up the cause, somewhat involuntarily, and has been literally beaten up for it.

Of course, there is a huge, largely underground conservative African-American movement based precisely on the notion that government dependency is doing what slavery couldn't -- destroy AA family structure and initiative. It exists in blogs, YouTube, Twitter, talk radio, and columns in conservative outlets. Occasionally one of these people or groups escapes and is accidentally featured in MSM, but they're quickly recaptured and the fences around the reservation are reinforced.

↑ SixOfWands ↓

Wed, Feb 14 2018, 9:42 am

Squishy wrote:

Just curious where you live that imposes a specific library tax, as opposed to funding libraries from the general budget. I've never paid a library tax, and google only gave me links to libraries providing free tax help.

Nor have I ever heard that people who use libraries are entitled to free admissions to NYC attractions. I go to the library every week or so. Where do I sign up?

↑ saw50st8 ↓

Wed, Feb 14 2018, 10:07 am

leah233 wrote:

My opposition to government programs is primarily because of how they destructive they are to the people on them and general society. Not the costs.

While I agree to a certain extent, I am grateful that we live in a country where our most vulnerable have basic food.

I think the argument against SNAP paying for junky food is that the purpose is to make sure underprivileged people have proper nutrition. There is absolutely no redeeming quality to things like soda. Zero.

↑ saw50st8

Wed, Feb 14 2018, 10:10 am

SixOfWands wrote:

NJ breaks that library tax out on your taxes.

Many local municipalities in NJ have memberships to various museums that you can borrow.

↑ seeker

Wed, Feb 14 2018, 10:31 am

Squishy wrote:

I am an NYC library member, please tell me where to sign up for free passes to attractions and where to find these entertainment centers? (there is one library in Jamaica, Queens, that has lovely science-museum-like interactive exhibits, by the way. But I know of nothing else remotely similar. For a free thing to do with my 2 kids, it was very much worth a trip)

Also, I have never heard of a library tax. Late fees and philanthropy/fundraisers yes. And the government certainly sponsors most library functions, but not separately from overall taxes. Book percentage notwithstanding, libraries are an incredibly important resource. If the "original mission" of libraries was to provide equal access to books, it's consistent with that mission when they now provide equal access to computers, the internet, enrichment programs for kids, and classes that improve people's ability to function in society.

↑ marina ↓

Wed, Feb 14 2018, 10:40 am

leah233 wrote:

My opposition to government programs is primarily because of how they destructive they are to the people on them and general society. Not the costs.

Do you have any reliable evidence of this, though? Do you have anything to really prove that people were better off before the New Deal? That dying of hunger in the streets is somehow less destructive than being on foodstamps for a while?

Or is this your own personal view?

↑ LittleDucky ↓

Wed, Feb 14 2018, 10:48 am

SixOfWands wrote:

Again, I said categories of food to be picked from. Chicken or beef for example is Ok. Duck or lobster not. WIC doesn't give a price amount. They say 1 gallon of milk (but don’t allow organic. They do allow lactose free if you have an allergy). Even if you buy from fancy supermarket A you still get the same gallon of milk. Why can’t it be the same idea? With your benefits you get X in cash to spend on anything else but you also get coupons for A, B, C.
The idea of snap is that it is SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION. It was never designed to be their sole source of food. It is also supposed to be nutritious.