We know that today’s page 1A story on the escalation in the use of food stamps in Robeson County will provoke a lot of indignation among people convinced their labor is feeding lazy no-goods who are abusing the system and are allergic to work.
There will be plenty of finger pointing at President Obama, who has loosened the restrictions on food stamps, which has led to a national expansion of the program and an increase in Robeson County of about 85 percent since he took office. Critics will say that Obama is fostering dependence, in part so that he can depend on food-stamp recipients voting for him in November so the free-for-almost-all can continue.
And some of that is fair.
It is shameful that Robeson County is projected to receive $77 million in food stamps this year — about $600 a year per person. The stigma isn’t denied, which explains why the government years ago replaced food-stamp coupons with EBT cards that resemble credit cards, meaning fewer people rolling their eyes and casting judgment at the check-out counter of the grocery store.
But only a simple mind, one incapable of nuance, would conclude that the problem is only laziness, and that it would evaporate if people would just get to work.
There is so much conspiring against us — the size of the county, 134,000 residents, ranking us 23rd in the state; our unemployment rate of 13.9 percent, the sixth highest in the state; the fact that so many of our residents work in tourism-related jobs, which don’t pay much and offer few if any benefits, meaning people who do work still need help; and our unwillingness to embrace education, a cultural malady with roots in the reality that so many of our ancestors in a county that is two-thirds minority didn’t value what they were historically denied. That list could grow from there, but space prevents it.
Don’t conclude that just because you aren’t eligible for food stamps that you don’t benefit from their explosion in this county. The $77 million that will pour into this county this year makes food stamps one of our most important industries. Those dollars will have an economic effect of about $150 million this year, meaning jobs, firstly at grocery stories, of which there is no local shortage, and then growing outward from there.
We don’t deny the abuse of the system, people who can work but don’t, people who trade their food stamps for alcohol or drugs, people who can’t afford food but find the money for tattoos, cigarettes and video games. But in this case, perception is just a small slice of reality.
The system isn’t perfect. Why, as one of many examples, can a food-stamp recipient walk into a grocery story and buy a prepared cake instead of the necessary ingredients at a third the cost to make their own? And why do some people on food stamps qualify to receive government-subsidized cell phones? These things rightly provoke outrage.
But those who abuse this country’s benevolence are the minority, and the real face of a person who depends on food stamps is someone struggling in the nation’s worst economy in 75 years and has hungry children to feed. Part of this nation’s greatness continues to be our willingness to help our neighbors through troubled waters.
In Robeson County, food stamps can be considered a big business, Pierce said.
“It helps provide jobs and funds payrolls, he said. “If it wasn’t for food stamps, there would be $60 million less coming into the local economy.”"
This is the biggest pile of Keynesian horse hockey I've ever read. The USDA is claiming that if we take a dollar from one person and give it to another person to buy food, then that will create $1.84's worth of economic activity? Give me a break. There's no truth to the multiplier hogwash that Keynesians peddle. If it was true, then why don't we tax everyone at 100% and give everyone someone else's money so that when it's spent it is somehow worth more?
That $60,000,000 had to come from someone else's pocket, and letting the original owners of that money save or spend it as they see fit is much more desirable than having Uncle Sam take it and give it to another while claiming it's good for the economy.
There are people in this county (and country) who don't desire in any way shape or form to even go out and look for work but at the same time you can ride by half-million dollar homes where the mailboxes are propped up with 2x4's to support the extra weight of government checks.
Now that being said I just wonder if you have any data to back up the following statement:
"But those who abuse this country’s benevolence are the minority,"
Alot of things start out with good intentions but wind up having unintended consequences. The model of public assistance is set up with a tilted wheel. Almost defies logic in many instances.
Our little part of the world is unique. We depend on much more government than just public assiatance. There are more people employed by the government than work in manufacturing. Not the recipe for a thriving economy.
Read more: The Robesonian - Food for thought
Listen people, GOD created our human bodies with certain needs like food. OK, follow me on this.. So to continue to live it(the body) must be fed daily. Now if you don't work you will starve and die. GOD made us like this, if you don't work you don't eat and you die. Get mad at him if you must, but this is HIS design, and when we taxpayers are forced to GIVE you money to eat, YOU are actually making us sin by side-stepping the design GOD implimented of "work to eat" to sustain life. If you don't like the fact that one cannot go without food, then you need to have a little talk with your maker.
Shame on all of you(well, most) who make others pay for you to eat. What did people do before foodstamps?
Why not use an old abandoned warehouse to put "poor" peoples food in where they can shop and run into their friends and talk about lottery numbers, sports or whatever they talk about. Let the government run it and who cares if the checkout line wraps around the building. This way they are out of our way cloggin up the lines at wal-mart. We paying people are busy and they slow us up paying for food with an EBT card, then diggin around for loose change to buy a pack of cigaretts and some beer. Yall think we enjoy standing behind ya? Nope. Sure don't.