I, Anonymous Apr 19, 2019 at 4:38 pm

Comments

1

While you were busy judging poor people on what they buy, you could have used that time to see that SNAP cards do get a farmer's market discount.

Regardless, people are free to buy whatever they want for their own happiness with the money they have, and you’re free to take up your concerns about our food system with the FDA, USDA, and the grocery stores who stock junk food instead of thoughtlessly proposing we penalize and further control those who are already struggling.

2

Sure, Asshole Vegan, then why not let them use the SNAP card to purchase booze, smack, crack?

6

@2 Doesn't work that way. If we could order a la carte, I'd mandate that all DHS funding go toward blowtorching white supremacists and nationalists out of their holes. Oh, and for taking Persian clubs to Patriot Prayer every time they think of crossing the river.

Meanwhile, let's start taxing churches, please... or institute a church tax like other countries.

7

Number of locations on Google Maps for the search term "Portland Farmers Market": 14

Number of those locations, East of 205: 0

Maybe you can see the problem here with your logic.

8

What a pathetic excuse for a post.

9

How much money do you think people on SNAP receive? I will tell you that it is NOT enough for the entire month, especially if they go for the expensive healthy items. A donut is full of calories and can provide hours of energy to people who might not see three meals a day. When I lived in poverty, I ate a zebra cake in the morning, nothing but sugar, but $25 cents at the time, and a $1 burger from McDonalds in the evening with as much ketchup (also full of sugar) as possible. Do not imagine that this way of eating did not keep me starving most of the time! I worked at the time, but I also had to pay rent, utilities, car registration, car insurance, gas, etc. I found myself without any money for food. When I lost my apartment, in between jobs, I lived in my car even after someone punched out the window so it was both cold and unsafe.

The people who receive SNAP benefits are often in a position where they have to share their food with other people, particularly wiht the people who are allowing them to stay under their roof without paying rent. How can they pay rent. SNAP provides no cash assistance, and often the part time jobs they work is barely enough money to cover the expenses needed for them to travel to work. Unfortunately there are many people out there who work for very little money. Minimum wage for a full time job in the city for someone who cannot afford a car, is enough to disqualify one from government benefits. However, it is often not enough to provide for rent, heating, and other living expenses. After all people need clothes, and even the thrift stores charge money. What if the roommate has a child? He or she cannot collect benefits while working full time, even if he's barely making enough to keep from starvation. So one answer is to befriend someone who has SNAP benefits, and while the person takes care of the baby, cleans the house, and prepares the food, he or she can go to work.

Why do poor people tend to live together? Why is it that the person on SNAP is not living with someone who lives in a mansion? I'd like to see the statistics on this, but chances are that if he or she finds a home, it will not be with someone really rich.

I think this is because people who live in poverty can empathize with other people's struggles and are more willing to help out than rich people.

Many people on SNAP cannot afford a car, which makes employment in the suburbs much more difficult due to lack of public transportation. Also if their friend kicks them out, they have nowhere to spend the night. So they find someone who is equally poor and they help each other.

In order to get the benefits, the person must work only part time and make a fairly low salary.
Many people on SNAP work!

People who work need energy, and if they are very lucky, since SNAP does not cover tooth extractions in many states, they might make enough money to get their tooth removed when it is causing theme excruciating pain.

There is also the added horror of this drudging life. Many people on SNAP have very difficult lives. While they struggle to get a better job, they have to walk for many miles, or if they have a car, they have to use the money on gas sparingly, and make sure they do not lose their part time job.

Many people who collect SNAP have a college education, in a highly competitive field, or in any field, but have not yet found a job in that area. That happened to me actually. One day I was on welfare, barely getting by, and then a company hired me because I graduated Summa Cum Laude. It is implausible to think that a student will be hired the day after graduation. I was interviewed before my graduation, but the job was offered to me almost a year later.

Before you judge what people buy, please do some real research to find out why they have to do this.

Have you researched for example, how unpalatable and old is the food provided at certain soup kitchens in the super liberal city of Portland?

Articles such as yours are confusing. They attack the poor with little evidence or understanding. If it would have attacked the establishment for providing SNAP holders with too little money, I'd agree with you. This is what forces them to settle for food high in sugar and grains, becasue it's likely to last them much longer than a pear, or a tomato salad with cucumbers and feta cheese (yumy!). And hunger is still an issue for them!

Also before you are so quick to jump on people who require SNAP benefits, find out why.

I am not saying your article assumes this, but too many people in this country assume that the poor are that way becasue they drink too much, are involved with drugs or are lazy. However, too many people are on the streets because of an illness for which the insurance found a loop hole sticking them with a bill so high that they could no longer pay their mortgage.

I'll tell you a true story. A women in her 70s, who was still working and had the insurance from work and part of Medicare, ended up with a bran abscess so severe that two operations on the brain were needed. In the meantime, her insurance (neither of them) made sure that they paid the bills. She could not walk after the operations, and went into rehabilitation. However, because of "mistakes" made by her insurance companies (insurance companies encourage the employees to make as many mistakes as possible that involve forgetting to send out payment for patients), she would have found herself broke and homeless when she finally found herself able to walk again, after more than a year in rehab. She could not fight the insurance companies. She was very sick and on three different IV antibiotics. Antibiotics find it difficult to reach the brain. After a year in rehabilitation while learning to walk again, and medicated with antibiotics to kill the bacteria in her brain, she would have been inundated with bills if her son did not speak with the insurance on a weekly basis. He kept on fighting for the money that was hers under the contract the insurance company signed. They held the money allegedly by mistake, or become some form was incomplete, or not enough nurses signed them. It is easy for insurance companies to find excuses. It is not easy for a woman in her late 70s to find herself homeless, after the medical bills became so extensive that she could no longer pay her mortgage. After working her entire life as a construction engineer, designing homes and bridges, how could she start to work again in her 70s?

People who get sick and are tricked by the insurance companies make a large percentage of the the homeless population. Not all the elderly have help, and when they are sick they are often alone. It is too easy to lose all your savings if you get sick in this country and health care is yet again under attack.

I understand your concern regarding the health of poor people who eat "donuts." However, did you research if active people are better off if they spend one dollar on a donut or a pear before going on long walks through the city, looking for work. My roommate helped shovel the snow in the winter. He was 7'2 and I doubt a pear would have held him for a job like that. If such a study is not yet created, and this topic really interests you, I'd recommend you start the study.

Articles like yours are likely to start debates because they are vague. They are not backed up by empirical evidence. They are also out of context. It is puzzling for me to read something like this. Makes me wonder what are you really trying to say? That there should be restrictions on the food that people on SNAP receive? Okay, if restrictions are placed on donuts, should they also restrict other foods. Which ones? Sugar is known to be unhealthy. However, it does provide much more energy than a bunch of delicious but certainly expensive salads made with tomatoes, cucumbers and celery (all fairly expensive vegetables). How would this help the people who are already struggling so much?

The real questions is what is this obsession with placing more and more laws and restrictions on people's liberties? Why? How does it affect you, for example, that a person on SNAP is so hungry after a day of working (this is the only day she works from 8 to 5), which would still qualify her for SNAP. However, she worked really hard. Maybe she helped a landscape artist dig holes for trees, which uses a lot of energy. So she is so hungry and goes inside a store and sees a carrot and a donut. If she was digging all days, and gets the carrot, she's putting her health in danger. Her body would start to eat itself from the high level of exhaustion. She needs substantial food.
My question is why is this so important to you?

Is there a larger issue on which you wanted to comment, but was not sure how to approach it?

It seems the issue you chose was badly researched and badly explained leaving the readers confused enough to want to write back and contradict you, or at least, to point out some of the flaws in your argument.

11

@HelloFalicia ......I fuckin miss upvoting on comments đź‘Ź đź‘Ź đź‘Ź

12

OP is a fucking asshole. Mind your own business.

14

There can be two accounts on the Oregon Trail Card depending on the benefits you are receiving. One is SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program) and the other is TANF (temporary assistance for needy families).

SNAP has restrictions on what can be bought. https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/eligible-food-items

TANF has no restrictions on what the money can be spent on.

So one card with two different accounts. One can buy soda the other can't.

15

Let them eat donuts and soda so we can also pay more for their health care. 'Merica, fuck yeah.

16

@15 "So we can also pay more for their health care." Have you seen the crowd at a Blazers game? There are plenty of non-SNAP/TANF fatties taxing the health care system.

17

Middle income America: "yes son, I'll get you some pop tarts and pizza pockets and mt dew for your weekend playstation 4 call of duty slumber party"

Also middle income America: "um I'm paying my taxes like everyone else and I really think you should be buying healthy food, not potato chips and cola"

18

Instead of micromanaging people who require assistance in this country, why not focus on the source of the problem? Working people aren't paid enough to live (most people receiving SNAP benefits work and most people who benefit from SNAP benefits are children). So often people in this country vilify the poor and those in need of any kind of assistance and constantly give a pass to the corporations and obscenely wealthy people in this country robbing every last one of us blind.

So many people here judging and making nasty comments when if their lives were monitored or micromanaged or examined and deconstructed in any kind of similar way would FREAK THE FUCK OUT. Fuck all of you. And if you ever find yourself in a situation where you need help, may this society be kinder and more understanding to you than any of you. This society claims to be a great one and all it proves through everyday action is that it is cruel and inhumane in every way possible.

Educate yourselves for fuck's sake.

https://www.justharvest.org/advocacy/the-truth-about-snap-food-stamps/

https://4thworldmovement.org/food-stamps-waste-money/

22

I was on SNAP for a long time when raising my kids on my own. Honestly it sucks. I didn't buy snacks, pop or extras very often. I will tell you this. If is far cheaper to buy crap than wholesome food.

23

SNAP is another Oregon simple fix to a complex problem. PPS is a good example. Too much debating over coddling solutions and no action... Oregon is known for this. I've learned. It's to a point where solutions get lost in arguments. Then everyone asks, "what are we debating again? I forgot. Um, let's just throw a number $$ at it and maybe it'll go away for another debate."

24

@9 Just finished reading you essay on SNAP. You can buy an apple for the cost of a donut. Possibly apple and banana, depending on the weight. Combined is 100k times better than any sugar filled donut. You're complaint on the OP is one of a millenial that graduated with a liberal arts degree and wonders why it's not paying a livable salary. Why on earth would you be on SNAP if you have a college degree. Unless you have high expectations for yourself while not doing much in the meantime. I've seen this trail card used and though I don't agree with judging others, the IA was pretty damn accurate with purchases. At least that's what I see when I buy gum at the grocery stores in Downtown

27

Is this helpful. Don't have kids if you can't afford them.


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