My teenage son and I were watching people come to the food pantry driving nice SUVs and with cell phones and jewelry. He made an astute observation:
“The only difference between poor and middle class in who pays for everything.”
My teenage son and I were watching people come to the food pantry driving nice SUVs and with cell phones and jewelry. He made an astute observation:
“The only difference between poor and middle class in who pays for everything”
Yup. Go sit in the parking lot of your local county hospital/medical clinic and see the same stuff. They know how to get every free penny’s worth of stuff from the state, local and federal govts and live better than some of us who work to sweat.
I notice the red band “Public Assistance and Food Stamps” persists at a small but nonzero level all the way up to the Top 10% of income category.
My wife and I do a lot of local volunteer work in lieu of giving money to charities. The one event we will not volunteer time for is a food pantry. The people are rude, demanding and unreasonable and in return, I get politically incorrect and in a few cases have hurled profane invectives which tends to make the Pastor uneasy!
There are people who travel the entire county following a scheduled route to all the food pantries each week. They get angry and boisterous if there are only canned vegetables and no kraft mac and cheese. They complain if there is 80/20 ground beef and no 93/7. The sense of entitlement is maddening and more that I can take. Most offer absolutely no thanks.
We have found a few humble folks who are truly needy and we give to them directly (and discreetly by leaving food on their porch.) We also derive a lot of pleasure from preparing and taking hot meals to families at the local children’s hospital.
Excellent statement!
"Food pantries"/"food banks" are how people can be on food stamps, and be buying steak and lobster. They get their staples from the food pantry, leaving most of their food-stamp allotment to spend on what you and I consider luxuries.
The USDA 2014 budget is $146 billion, with 72% allocated towards "food assistance" programs. Then there's the state and local programs.
"Means-tested" programs are like an iceberg -- 90% is hidden under the surface. If you are a regular person down on his luck, you are not likely to find out about all these programs. But if you are an urban underclass Dem voter, your Democrat Party block-captain will know ALL about the various programs and sources of goodies, and will help you with the paperwork, PROVIDED you show up on election day.