Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Also during your whole spiel, you accused me avoiding questions. What questions?
You avoiding questions? Yes. It’s both questions and counterarguments you haven’t responded to, actually. And I’m not sure why this is so confusing for you, since I’ve now posed these questions and counterarguments twice, and still no response. How about I make it easy and number them for you? Here goes:
1. Have you ever been on welfare?
2. …which has a follow-on:
You say
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
This tells me you have a sense of entitlement. I do not feel like someone is entitled to any forms of recreation.
You call this “entitlement” without responding to the point being made, which is that I think it's quite easy for Joe Six Packs to imagine how perfect they'd be if they were in a difficult financial situation, how they would save every single penny, and how they would contribute $0.00 to recreational activities or relaxation. Very easy to say when you're not living it, and only armchair quarterbacking, methinks. Of course you don’t feel someone on welfare is entitled to any forms of recreation, but it if you’ve never lived that way yourself in those circumstances and on welfare, that’s not saying much, is it? Get my point?
3. You said
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
I knew quite a few people that would buy chicken liver/ heart trays and green beans so they could be their dogs on our tax dollars. […] The dog food thing is killing me. I was told personally by a few individuals that she used EBT purchased food to feed her dog. What would I need to prove and who do I need to prove this to? You? You are just a dude on the web as am I. I cant make this stuff up myself. If you can't take my word, then I am sorry.
You can never prove it. How do you propose to enforce this? Again, I'd love to see how you propose determine whether people are choosing to give any of the food they buy to their dog— as if they can't throw them scraps of whatever meat they're eating (including chicken liver/hearts and green beans)? According to your quote, they are not actually buying dog food, so enforcing this is impossible. Right?
4. You said
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
I think the food stamp vouchers will be more of a hassle to use for one.
Again, this does nothing to solve the problem of simply spending the food stamps on legit food items and then buying the liquor with extra cash. Right? How do you propose to address this issue you’ve already raised?
5. You said
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Secondly, pop, junk food, chewing gum and ice wouldn't be included with these vouchers. My annoyance with such lenient rules isnt only with being able to buy ______, but also being able to buy the above garbage foods.
This is a tough one, because where do you draw the line when it comes to "junk food"? Most processed foods fall under that category.
6. You said
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Also, I already told you the majority of EBT users I witnessed were like this one way or the other. […] I gave you my first hand experience, but you wanted documented proof or "quantitative" data. Unless you have first hand experience opposite to what I have to share, you have nothing more to contribute to this conversation.
I beg to differ. You (and hatts) made the claim, so it is up to you to support it, not me. You haven't done that. So I feel I have something very valuable to contribute, and it is this: your n=1 (oh sorry, 10 or 20 or 100! wow!) firsthand experience is not quantitative data to support hatt's claims that "most" EBT users are like this, sorry. Because we are talking about a group of ~109 MILLION people. Now do you see why your anecdotal experience may not generalize to a population this large?
7. You said
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
In regards to CEO's and drug tests, go for it.[…] This is a poor analogy though because I assure you far more people are on food stamps than CEO's are taking tax payers dollars.
On the contrary, I assure you that CEOs are taking far more money on a per person basis than the average welfare recipient.
8. You said
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
This problem does exist. Dont bury your head in the sand.
Oh the problem may exist, alright. You just haven’t done a very good job of supporting your points. Nor do you seem to be capable of addressing the problems I've pointed out regarding some of the solutions you’ve posed above. The first step would be seeing the questions and counterarguments I’ve posed and actually responding to them instead of pretending they don’t exist. Talk about burying your head in the sand. Hope the numbering helps.
