Forum Post: Food Stamps Are Not Really Food Stamps
Posted 11 years ago on Aug. 17, 2012, 5:16 p.m. EST by trashyharry
(3084)
from Waterville, NY
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
The purpose of the Food Stamp Program is not primarily to provide food for low income Americans.Prices for goods and services are limited to what the traffic will bear.Everyone who rents is required to pay grossly overinflated rents.These rents are not counted as income available to be spent on food by the Food Stamp rules.Most people are required to pay grossly overinflated prices for auto insurance and these payments also are not counted as being income available to be spent on food.Most people are required to pay grossly overinflated rates for gas and electric;these payments are not counted as income available for groceries.Most people have to drive a car to get to work in the US because the corporations have prevented and cut down development of mass transit,so people have to pay grossly overinflated gasoline prices.Part of the cost of gasoline for Food Stamp recipients is not counted so they can drive to work.People who own homes are required to pay grossly overinflated mortgage payments,another sum of money not considered available for food,along with grossly inflated homeowner's insurance,grossly inflated property taxes,grossly overinflated telecom charges and taxes for landlines,water and sewer.Because millions of Americans are on Food Stamps,Wall Street Corporations don't have to lower prices on goods and services because a big chunk of traffic can't bear to pay.The Taxpayers are freeing up that money and preserving the ability of Wall Street firms to continue their hideous price gouging and refusal to pay workers a living wage.The price gouging of landlords and corporations and the refusal of corporations to pay a living wage are what Food Stamps are really intended to promote.The fact that millions of people are helped with part of their grocery bill is a nesessary part of the scam,the point of which is to slide those slimy fingers into Taxpayers pockets.That's why Food Stamps aren't really Food Stamps-they are Wall Street Stamps
This is something I agree with and have been posting for a while on here. Subsidies perpetuate wall street greed ... they allow them to cut labor while increasing taxes on those still working, so that those unemployed can still spend money on goods and housing via taxes paid for by us. Wonder why in an economy where we have probably almost 20 percent of the population without meaningful full-time employment nor with reasonable wages and the dow keeps rising? Well we're paying them with our taxes it's a hidden bailout that allows them to continue cutting their consumer base effectually by cutting jobs but still getting their products sold and rents paid. I would love to see the subsidies (aside from elderly and disabled) stopped at once to effect change. When Wall Street loses that subsidized piece of the consumer pie - only then will they begin to feel the true pain of this economy which they are responsible for. - let's take away 20 percent of their profits and see what happens to the people - they will revolt - change will be quick and immediate action will rise to bring back jobs and prevent monopolies. The economy must function in a circle - you can not have the working poor and declining middle class paying to sustain the entire system - it will not work. As the wealthy hide their profits in investment gains loopholes and get fat off of the taxes of the few left employed how is this going to be sustainable? Eventually Wall Street will crash - but it will be on their terms and will only effect the citizenry - they will never be forced to hire or to pay well until the people demand it we can not afford to wait - as they grow ever more powerful and we the people lose our democracy and spend our lives running on a treadmill that is on a slow decline into the pits of poverty and oppression.
Now yer talkin'! every goddamn cent of these programs is part of the taxpayer fleecing scam!There is no such thing as an altruistic program whose sole purpose is to help disadvantaged people-they may have started out that way,but the reason they can't be defunded is because the corporations are using all of them,even if only to serve as a safety valve.
sounds like the company store pay wages and then charging them back
The TP's are gettinghit on both ends.I find the TP's Interesting because they know about The Rabbit Hole,even though they won't admit it.
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Check this shit out....JP Morgan making billions off of the food stamp program.
http://www.rooseveltinstitute.org/new-roosevelt/food-stamps-jpmorgan-banking-industry-profit-misery
The banks hands are all encompassing of this nation, and sucking the life out of it ie vampire squid.
Which is why we need a total redo of the entire tax/trade/foreign/monetary policies, and an entire clean out of every level of goverment and gov agencies.
The article does not say how much profit JP Morgan makes from the food stamp program.
Food stamps cost the federal government about $70 billion/year now... JP Morgan might be making billions, or most of the revenues for that division might come from other services.
Job creation without government spending: http://jobcreationplan.blogspot.com/
I could cut the cost of food stamps by 14 billion dollars just by ending the 14 billion taxpayer dollar subsidy given to JP Morgan every year.
Maybe if the corporations paid people better wages we wouldn't need so many dollars going to the food stamp program. It's outrageous that billion dollar companies pay workers so low that tax payers have to kick in to assist them.
Very true. Even Apple doesn't pay its workers well, and it has $100 billion in cash in tax havens. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/business/apple-store-workers-loyal-but-short-on-pay.html?pagewanted=all
yeah but they have safety nets... literally for the suicide jumpers at Foxconn in China.
Here's some other numbers.....it;s hard to find anything too reliable on this topic. i think it shows the tangled mess that these banks are in, and that they are in win/win no matter what.
http://www.alternet.org/story/155849/are_corporations_and_big_banks_making_a_windfall_from_food_stamps?paging=off
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They're not Wall Street stamps; they're Obama stamps, promoted by the corporations that profit, and paid for by the tax payer. They're not food; they are but a medium of exchange, and many I know are actually using them to purchase services. In fact I know of some that use them to pay the babysitter.
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It's not the color of his skin, I like browns and tans and even at times black; and that's just a fact - we like dark skinned people. Your comment is not one of color, it's one of race. There may very well be a disproportionate number that receive food stamps - I suspect you might be right - but you're kidding yourself if you think it's just black people, there's a tremendous number of white people receiving them, too.
Nope, it's not about that... it's about the underlying philosophy here related to race... but there's also a darker side - these are the neuroleptics they feed after the brain wash of psychotropics... mere opiates this government, white or black, feeds the poor as they drown in poverty; it's also about corporate sell outs as JP Morgan rolls in its slice of the federal pie, and the action. It's about corruption.
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BushStamps? Nah, I don't think that's gonna sell well. And these things are selling like... hot cakes.
I'm not partial to short leaps; I'm going over the cliff in search of the bottom, no matter where it takes me.
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Yep. I really do.
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What do think about Biden's chains comment?
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Anti Obama partisan attacks?
Funk-The Food Stamp program started before BarakO was born.You are correct about a distressing amount of fraud being perpetrated by Food Stamp recipients,though.I will probably post on the subject of how a Food Stamp grant can be magically transformed into heroin,methamphetamine,cocaine,marijuana,tobacco products or alcohol.I really would prefer to devote space to the greater evil double header of price gouging on one end,and scooping of tax dollars on the other being perpetrated on moderate income Americans by the corporations-this fraud is well into trillions wheras welfare and Food Stamp fraud is probably "only" in the single digit millions-but I agree with you that it is terrible.
haha... it's even worse than you suspect. People are paying contractors to fix the roof with them; they're paying the babysitter with them... (legitimate concerns) and it's occurring because people are unemployed, they have NO money. Sad, actually... and the government is complicit in that it first allows jobs to leave, or destroys them with over regulation and tax burden both of the business and the individual, and then generously awards these miniscule handouts to appease. The handouts, the freefare, are not necessarily a good thing; it's an opiate to the poor. I was really offended when I realized JP Morgan was advertizing them on Hispanic channels; if they believed that their actions would be better received, as entirely benevolent, they'd be advertizing on all channels and not so surreptitiously on channels the average American cannot understand and will not watch. In short, it's government for corporate wealth, keeping the good man down.
Good post,Funk
By far the biggest driver of higher prices: inequality.
Rich people can afford to pay astronomical health care costs. Poor people, not so much. Same with everything else.
But generally, other than rent many things are priced to be affordable for poor people. If a loaf of bread costs more than $1 you are going to the wrong store.
So then food stamp recipients are drug addicts and don't deserve the benefit?
No, but if just 15% of the recipients are in it for the money, that is a lot of fraud on a monthly basis.
While looking up fraud rates I came across this article: http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/news/crime_checker/eastern_shore_crime/chicken-pot-pie-target-of-home-invasion
Apparently some people are desperate for food.
Food stamp fraud, first search result: http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/millions-commit-food-stamp-fraud-every-year
"Each year, the government bas about 1,000 retailers nationwide for fraud. In the Baltimore area alone, agents have permanently disqualified 39 store owners since 2006."
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT MEANS BY 'FRAUD':
"Back in the era of paper coupons, the fraud of trafficking rate ran in the 4% range. Since we've gone to the electronic cards, it runs more in the 1% range," said Concannon.
The Electronic Benefit Transfer Cards (EBT) are replenished monthly with taxpayer dollars and are supposed to track purchases so recipients can't buy banned items.
With help from store employees, customers can easily game the system.
So the 1% rate is completely separate from people trading or selling food stamp cards.
yes, but selling or trading is considered fraud as well. People have signed up for food stamps, go to the store with someone who wants the food, that person picks out the food, the other person pays for it with food stamps, then once out of the store the food is resold to other person for perhaps half the price.
Sounds like a lot of work.
http://www.usmessageboard.com/politics/219815-food-stamp-fraud-the-new-crime-wave.html
So you know that 15% are fraudulent.?
No. I did see a special on the local news channel about how easy it was to commit food stamp fraud.
So you don't know.
I don't, but add together all the factors, Twittering ads for food stamps, people desperate for cash, People desperate for food who don't have cash.
Then they allow the food stamp pre-paid cards to be used at strip joints, nail salons, hair salons.
Not a pretty picture.
Seems like it is a miniscule fractional percent. No reason to attack the program or the people struggling for food on the program.
We should have some effort to review fraud and waste but I'm quite sure the vast majority of food stamps goes to food for hungry people.
85% is still the vast majority, and, even if the amount of fraud was 15%, most of that food still ends up going to the poor. It's the additional middle person that concerns me. The one who signs up for the program and resells their stamps for profit or to feed an addiction, and the nails, hair thing I don't know, maybe that's not such a bad thing since a person's appearance can affect how others treat them.
Not sure about the adult entertainment use, that seems over the line.
You are concerned with nickles & dimes. I could see searching the military budget for fraud & waste. That would yield real money.! I could see auditing all wealthy tax returns. That would yield real money! but looking for money among the food stamp program. It's not worth it. The amount of fraud is miniscule compared to what I've mentioned.
Lets always have some effort to prevent fraud & waste in poor peoples programs but let's focus more effort on those areas that will yield real money.
Healing society will drop the food stamps usage - by removing much of the need - by doing things like instituting a living wage for all workers.
That's right. the cost of this program will drop exponentially if we could get the middle class relief we need to grow the economy. Greentech/infrastructure job investment. cut taxes/debt for the working class.
That'll do it.
Over halfway to the first goal of 100 (55 signatures), I ordered 250 free cards from Vista Street Printing to hand out in person which by the time I was done ordering turned into 500 cards at 13 bucks (no way to get around the 7 plus dollars for shipping) including a calendar on the backside.
lol, nothing is for free.
Good luck
Which what the Debt Neutrality Petition does, it instantly allows consumers to pay down their consumer debt, quickly freeing up some spending money every month for more local purchases.
http://www.change.org/petitions/congress-create-debt-neutrality-rights-for-paying-down-credit-cards-student-loans
Already signed. Hows the petition doing?
It will be a good start - that's for sure. {:-])
I think probably the fraud element of Food Stamps is nowhere near as bad as what the program is being used for by the corporations.There really is no way to stop people from converting Food Stamps into other things-and I personally think that the Food Stamps are theirs and it's up to them to manage their use the best they can.Right at the moment,I am not on Food Stamps because my landlord refused to submit a landlord statement because he is-A TP like Funk.People like Funk are extremely angry at the Food Stamp recipients because they are the ones getting food.They don't realize that the whole thing is just another way that the Government Cronies have devised to shield corporations from competition-and reality.If you read Funky's reply-naturally the very first one-it indicates to me that Funk never thought about Food Stamps from that angle before,and I hit a nerve.I am a little bit used to talking to the TP's and although they are stubborn,you can have a conversation with them as long as they know you hate&detest Obama-which I do.I am not willing to put up with unfair attacks on Obama just because I hate him,though.
Exactly. Choke out more money from the middle class to subsidize other things, all because the system is entirely fucked up.
Its not going to stop until the majority of the people are on food stamps, or the entire system collapses.
They dont want a middle class anymore, its too much of a pain for them in a new global environment.
You are complicated dude.
Hang in there
We have a government that is openly promoting, as salesman, food stamps to the profit of corporations... on the one hand, it's wealth redistribution... if they were available to all, it would be a tax refund. It's just one more shining example of moral dyslexia.