The average cost to American taxpayers for SNAP/food stamps is $36/year. (TikTok screencap)
Wait… if the average cost to help people eat every week is that cheap, then wouldn’t the same idea work for healthcare and even income welfare in general?
Oh, right. It’s never been the actual cost to everyone. It’s about hurting “those” people.
Exactly.
Our laws are cruel because we as a collective like them that way. Poverty is seen as a punishable personal failing in this country.
“Ethics? What’s that? Can I put it in my Swiss bank account and make my numbers bigger?”
“What’s in it for me?”
Fun fact: One of the where it all began moments was Ronald Reagan’s 1976 speeches about Linda Taylor, the alleged welfare queen who defrauded social security. To quote Reagan:
She has 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards and is collecting veterans’ benefits on four non-existing deceased husbands. And she’s collecting Social Security on her cards. She’s got Medicaid, getting food stamps, and she is collecting welfare under each of her names. Her tax-free cash income alone is over $150,000.
Except she didn’t.
Linda Taylor was not a kind soul, and was, indeed, defrauding the social security system, but had four aliases and was getting about 8,000 in annual benefits, far from the royal amounts accused by presidential candidate Reagan. ($8k is about $42K in 2024 dollars, so not exactly a robust regal living for what is a fuckton of paperwork).
As someone who’s on SSDI and might be committing fraud to pay my rent, my disposable income is less than it was in 1990 when I was entirely legit, only then my rent was about 40% of my income, and now it’s 89%. I’m having to save for replacement appliances and am skipping brunches even though I’m supposed to – according to parents and psychiatrists – be getting out for social contact, for which I am instead relying overmuch on 988.
And I’ll be losing SNAP on November 10th, which means I’m just fucked. I am stocking up on noodle cups and pantry-stable foods, since I don’t know how I’m going to survive and still pay rent, unless some sociopolitical miracles happen.
I’m half hoping that we are, indeed, three skipped meals away from revolution as I don’t want to be skipping too many meals or dying of malnutrition. As I said, sociopolitical miracles.
Agree on Reagan, of course. Sorry about the SNAP - feeding your citizens (and giving a handout to farmers at the same time) is such a no brainer that it’s my go-to when trying to convince folks that Cruelty is the Point with these policies.
Consider your local foodbank. We, and I’m sure others too, see SNAP disappearing and donated what we could split between state and local food banks. I don’t know what else we could do right now. Except stock up some more on bulk dry rice and beans
What’s the average cost per taxpayer for starving and bombing Palestinian children?
That’s also what popped-up in my mind at that title: giving money and weapons to an ethno-Fascist nation to mass murder children of another ethnicity is also “pure evil”.
In pure ethic and moral terms letting people starve is actually less evil than helping murder children, simply because the former is mostly a passive action (doing evil by refusing to act) whilst the latter is active (acting to, or in this case to help, do evil).
If one sees the former as worse than the latter because the victims of the former are Americans and the victims of the latter are not, one being guided by something else than morals or ethics - most likely some form of tribalism such as Nationalism.
In summary this specific shit, whilst evil, isn’t actually morally and ethically worse than what American Administrations have already been doing: the people activelly helping mass murder Palestinian children clearly don’t have the morals or ethics to refrain from doing this not-quite-as-evil thing, so will do it (and keep on sleeping like babies at night) if they think they will gain from it.
This isn’t at all surprising and not even close to the depts of evil they’re capable of reaching.
I’d rather accidentally feed people who don’t need it than accidentally not feed people who do need it. Especially in a country where many people who qualify for government assistance don’t take it because it’s seen as shameful.
Fun fact: Food riots kicked off the French Revolution
oh! Did you order the Giljotin or the Joey?
What an uncivilized country. Rapidly approaching failed state status.
Most of the people bitching about this are people who get welfare.
I’m from poor white trash rural Midwest.
Everyone there gets welfare. Everyone there constantly complains that so and so doesn’t deserve it.
They also bitch quite a lot how the black people dont deserve it. Even though there are like zero black people in the area. So they know zero black people. But somehow they know that lots of black people are abusing the system.
It’s this whole. “I don’t have anything because other poor people are strealing it”.
I’m pretty sure it’s just projection.
Like. They would steal if they could so they think everyone else is.
It’s frustrating to deal with such people but at the same time I do acknowledge that poverty can cause hostility.
I believe the term is called "scarcity of resources " in social psych studies. ?
Lucky for me, my grandfather is hella left liberal. So when I have to visit family for holidays I spend most of my time with him. And he likes that I listen and agree with him about how everyone around him is a bigot.
Yes Grandpa. They are.
He also really hates Trump. I mean. He gets fired up. “That Son of a bitch” is his name for him.
Well, they call themselves Christians.
Ive noticed a lot of religious groups/churches only help others under specific conditions.
Like for instance you want a free meal from the church, then you hear “the gospel” while you wait and guilt tripped into attending services.
I mean that’s what a lot of missionaries did. They went to places where people were starving and said. Sure I’ll feed you but you have to convert and attend my sermons.
Very conditional.
Can’t we just help people without expecting something in return ?
Charity should be unconditional in my opinion.
Like rich people don’t take advantage of tax breaks and subsidies etc.
I know way too many people who genuinely need benefits but continually get denied them to give a shit about the tiny sliver of the pie chart that don’t need them but have them.
