[vtsnowedin]

I wouldn't get uptight about someone buying ice with an EBT card. Their power might be out or buying it buy the bag might be cheaper than making it in the kitchen freezer. What frosts me is someone buying lobsters or Delmonico steaks with one in front of me while I'm budgeted to hamburger keeping all the bills and taxes paid.

[Newfie]

To be fair to Cog I suspect few of us, if any, have not had a Cog moment at some point in time.

Sure you may be able to rationalize around th injury. But at times that takes a LOT of work.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'I') actually thought it was his best post, like, ever...

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', 'I') wouldn't get uptight about someone buying ice with an EBT card. Their power might be out or buying it buy the bag might be cheaper than making it in the kitchen freezer. What frosts me is someone buying lobsters or Delmonico steaks with one in front of me while I'm budgeted to hamburger keeping all the bills and taxes paid.

[davep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')verall, the food stamp issue is complicated. It's a STRUCTURAL low wage and jobs problem, and that's not the working class's fault, that's the system and corporate profits so high.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('davep', 'G')ood point. For those on low wages, resorting to this kind of welfare is in fact a subsidy to the employer who doesn't need to pay a living wage.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lore', 'I')t's just Cog being once again a self entitled ass.

[davep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lore', 'I')t's just Cog being once again a self entitled ass.

[Sixstrings]

This whole foodstamp thing..

YES, too many in the US have foodstamps. Core issue is that too many are too poor, so fix the poverty.

Another way to look at it is to just be like India, and let people be dirt poor and on the street, maybe starve, and kids go hungry. That's the libertarian view on it. It can work, India does it, it's a different kind of life but it's very cold and not what America is about. We are in fact still a first world top tier economy nation, we actually can do better.

Personal responsibility matters too, conservatives are right on that to an extent, but it's also the system.

Some better trade policy, raise the min wage to a living wage, AND THEN STOP illegal immigration (that's the key component liberals are not for). And that would fix it.

I mean, I honestly do see both sides of it. Some of it is cultural. If we could change our culture somehow and all become South Koreans, then all Americans would be working extremely hard from kindegarten through all their life. South Koreans, and Asians in general, are serious business hard workers.

So maybe we've got cultural problems, decline of the church and family, I don't know.

Then look at French and Danes.. overall they get to enjoy life so much more, so much paid time off work and such, more vacations. France is so "socialist" yet it keeps chugging along somehow. (maybe that ends, with too much immigration and maybe becomes unsustainable).

EASIEST SOLUTION -- just tackle immigration and raise the frickin' min wage, already.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'H')ere Cog, a more appropriate target to place your rage.
The problem is that this target doesn't wait in line at the check out counter!

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/1 ... astructure

[AdTheNad]

So Cog, when corporations avoid paying any and all taxes they legally can get away with, as a shareholder you demand nothing less - however when real humans act in ways to maximise their own utility through legal means it makes you stew in anger?

[vtsnowedin]

There are various figures for the amount of fraud in the program and they run between 1.5 and 4.5 percent but taking an average of just 3 percent of an 80 Billion $ program is a lot of money.
But even the vast majority that really qualify for a card are free to make poor choices with the money (That's what a EBT card is , a form of money) and because they have the groceries bill covered by the card are then free to spend any other income they have on all those things like ice that tax payers would not want to foot the bill for.
So the tax payers are subsidizing the poor persons smoking and drinking habits and will then have to foot the bill for their increased medical care needs created by that consumption.
It doesn't do any good to be angry about it but I can understand an occasional rant about it.

[salinsky]

Cog could solve the EBT problem by using the approach he suggested on how to deal with the hippies hanging from the bridge. He said he had numerous and humorous ideas, one of which was shooting them. Cog is man with a clear approach on how to solve complex problems. COG FOR PRESIDENT!!!

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('davep', '
')Remember that the people who earn the most pay very little tax indeed. Loopholes are there for a reason.

[Sixstrings]

@outcast
You're right that the wealthy do pay a lot of taxes

but

Dave is also right that the wealthy and corps use all the loopholes and "food stamps" they can get their hands on, too

Just a general note, by the way.. Dollar General, in the OP, is actually MEANT for lower income shoppers. If one wants a higher class of shoppers around you, then there are OTHER stores to go to. Things may cost more, but nothin's free in life.

You get what you pay for.

If I walk into a Family Dollar or a Dollar General, then I already know what I'm walking into and don't expect different.

Cog is like expecting caviar and arugula, at the Piggly Wiggly.

Or, like going into a dive bar, ordering champagne and complaining the bikers are "uncouth." It's a dive bar, that's what it is. If you choose to slum it, then you just gotta roll with it man. This is Dollar General, this is what it is.

P.S. Cog would have more of a gripe if it were a mixed-class store, or higher end.

Personally, I live in an income-mixed area. I've got a Family Dollar close to me. It's NASTY. It's just so gross. I get depressed just walking into that thing, it's got literally homeless people shopping there. Yet.. it's close.. it's actually not even the cheapest though, sometimes poor stores COST MORE.

So..

What I wind up doing, more often is driving OUT of my way to shop at a nicer store. And then, some places like a "save a lot," I'd never STEP FOOT into that.

And then, we've got a chain of very NICE grocery stores down here and if you go into that one you can be sure of a great experience -- but your darn bill will be at least 1/3 more, if not 50% higher. Or, there's whole foods and trader joe's etc. There's options in most places, you get what you pay for, Dollar Generals are just a lower level.

[Quinny]

This thread is surreal - the guy who supports shareholders rights allowing them to screw the world and everyone in it getting excited over someone needing some ice WTF.

[Cog]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Quinny', 'T')his thread is surreal - the guy who supports shareholders rights allowing them to screw the world and everyone in it getting excited over someone needing some ice WTF.

[Newfie]

Cog,

You didn't respond to the well put above post about CORPORATE welfare.

Sure the woman on welfare is screwing you.

About half as much as the corporate exec you support is screwing you.

Or you think you are part of the corporate screwing (through your ownership of stock) and support the corporate welfare because you are the recipient?

.........
I'm not against you being pissed. I just want make sure you don't miss some of the well deserved targets of your justified vile.

[Cog]

Well Newfie it is like this. I've worked in the corporate world at different levels for a good long time excluding my six years in the military. I've never been jealous of rich and successful people. I wish there were even more of them. At least with corporate welfare, if there is such a thing, society gets a payback in the form of employed people. Most people in the USA work for some sort of corporation, even if they are stocking shelves or being a retail clerk. They are happy to have a job. Do we not want people to be gainfully employed? Does work suck so much that we want more people sitting on their ass all day complaining about life is so unfair to them?

The folks who are constant consumers of free stuff just reproduce and generate nothing of value to me. Corporations generate profits, return value to increasing stock prices and dividends and provide employment to millions. The return on our corporate welfare actually generates something positive. Were it within my power I would give even more tax breaks to the producers of value since everyone wins from their success.

I've never been hired to work by a poor person. I generally have nothing against poor people as long as they take their dole and don't overly complain about how little they are able to steal from my wallet.

Government is all consuming hydra that takes money not rightfully theirs and distributes it to people who provide little or nothing in return. Government has certain things it does well. Taking care of people is not one of them. You and I both work for government at some levels. You directly and myself indirectly through government contracts. I build roads and bridges. You are involved somehow in transportation unless I am confusing you with someone else. We do provide something of value for the taxes taken.

[Henriksson]

I'm indignant that grasshoppers like you are consuming my planet. I'm much more important than you, stop wasting my oxygen.

This is satire.