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In reply to the discussion: Clerk loses job for refusing to let customer use welfare money to pay for cigarettes [View all]Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)32. Tell me...
Do you believe that people on the TANF program (Targeted Assistance for Needy Families; food stamps) should be barred from buying, oh say, a ribeye steak? Should they be restricted to a diet of lentils and tripes?
Of course you don't think that, right? They're human beings, and as such are, in fact, entitled to have some pleasure in their lives.
If the funds allow for the purchase of cigarettes, I have no problem with that. And frankly given that cigarettes aren't really "optional" for their addicts, I find it harder to hold a grudge on that one.
It's easy to defend; simply make the argument that being poor does not subliminate a person into some "subhuman" status, where htye must be denied the perks of being a person.
Hell, if it were up to me, there'd be a "quality of life" fund for needy families that could be used to purchase access to concerts or theaters or the like. Why? Because goddamn it, human beings can't live like "work, eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep, die"
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Clerk loses job for refusing to let customer use welfare money to pay for cigarettes [View all]
proud2BlibKansan
Jun 2012
OP
this kind of thing does make the progressives case for income assistance look bad...
CTyankee
Jun 2012
#5
This kind of thing? You mean, ignorant people trying to humiliate the poor and powerless?
EFerrari
Jun 2012
#13
You are right and I think of that. But I just had one of those "conversations" with my auto repair
CTyankee
Jun 2012
#31
I Think you have to come from a progressive background & an open family where political
Pyrzqxgl
Jun 2012
#85
I'm sorry, too, that we don't live in that kind of world, or at least not here in the U.S.
CTyankee
Jun 2012
#44
It differs from the anti-obesity arguments in that people have to eat to live but not smoke to live.
CTyankee
Jun 2012
#55
But don't you think it's hypocritical to slam the poor for trying to find a little pleasure in
sabrina 1
Jun 2012
#72
But I didn't "slam the poor" on anything. I was talking about the hard, political reality that we
CTyankee
Jun 2012
#93
if tobacco is eligible, it's because corporations & tobacco farmers lobbied to make it
HiPointDem
Jun 2012
#95
GREAT point, and one's that very likely to be missed amongst the heat of the debate, even at DU.
bullwinkle428
Jun 2012
#148
In the absence of voters consent to provide aid, he would have been unable to buy cigarettes.
lumberjack_jeff
Jun 2012
#165
It's public money, and public funds, up to the point that a EBT card is funded.
lumberjack_jeff
Jun 2012
#169
LOL, so now this situation is my fault? Still doesn't make a lick of sense. n/;t
EFerrari
Jun 2012
#170
I wish I could say that everybody is on to the corporate welfare scam in this country but they
CTyankee
Jun 2012
#26
Yes indeed, in particular the purchase of Cadillacs using ebt cards just has to stop.
Warren Stupidity
Jun 2012
#152
Yes, if you refuse to allow a sale simply because the person is using a Welfare card
EFerrari
Jun 2012
#21
When did Big Tobacco care about choice? Remember the decptive adds and studies?
Nuclear Unicorn
Jun 2012
#81
This isn't a discussion about corporate propaganda. For that, you'd need to start your own thread.
EFerrari
Jun 2012
#101
if you can buy cigarettes with benefits, it's for the benefit of the corporations &
HiPointDem
Jun 2012
#89
it's an eligible product on the card, what don't you get? and it's eligible because
HiPointDem
Jun 2012
#103
We live in a system that guarantees that there will be poor people. Poor people are not infants...
Luminous Animal
Jun 2012
#125
Then in NYC she would be treated like every other supermarket customer.
Warren Stupidity
Jun 2012
#154
no, your post is bullcrap: i pay $9 a pack for cigarettes, and most of it is tax.
HiPointDem
Jun 2012
#106
Yes, she was playing morality police. If it'd been a mistake* I'd be for her. But she ran her mouth.
freshwest
Jul 2012
#176
the article says one type is for food only, the other type is for anything, even gambling.
unblock
Jun 2012
#6
WIC is a voucher. Very specific as to what you can buy with it. Milk, cheese, eggs, beans, juice,
Erose999
Jun 2012
#8
Jackie R. Whiton, had been a six-year employee at the Big Apple convenience store ...
Kalidurga
Jun 2012
#4
Further in the article it states, “She didn’t think it was right and just wasn’t going to sell..."
ieoeja
Jun 2012
#29
The cash portion can be spent at the discretion of the reciever of the assistance. n/t
cynatnite
Jun 2012
#15
If you're not going to allow poor people to buy smokes, why should you allow the rest?
cynatnite
Jun 2012
#46
Why do you keep saying it isn't our business when it is our money they are spending?
Bandit
Jun 2012
#94
moving to put all public benefits on these cards gives the public ever so many more
HiPointDem
Jun 2012
#112
Yes, it is. Most people work hard for their money and when they see it squandered
MrTriumph
Jun 2012
#84
apparently only when poor people "squander" it. albeit the overwhelming majority
HiPointDem
Jun 2012
#114
does it bother you that the military sells cigarettes and junk food to the troops?
Bluerthanblue
Jun 2012
#160
I thought in some states you can't buy smokes or alcohol with welfare cards.
southernyankeebelle
Jun 2012
#27
Notice how the store clerk and the customer are pitted against one another, while
coalition_unwilling
Jun 2012
#69
+1. and it's because of the media meme -- "lazy welfare cheats, wasting our money"
HiPointDem
Jun 2012
#86
Say what!? Taxpayers pass moral judgments every day about how their money is spent.
MrTriumph
Jun 2012
#87
I'm sorry but welfare is not for food. It is for your living expenses.
Warren Stupidity
Jun 2012
#155
This thread is a prime example of what makes the average person irate: Poor people
HiPointDem
Jun 2012
#92
i've been kicking a thread about the attack on unions for three days. one response.
HiPointDem
Jun 2012
#115
really. why would any working class person vote democratic, when they're constantly
HiPointDem
Jun 2012
#116
Got called for a jury on your hateful post-then I saw you'd already been PPRed....Good riddence
Rowdyboy
Jul 2012
#173
This just makes me so sad.....the whole idea of power over someone else.....
a kennedy
Jun 2012
#145