BigMike Loc: yerington nv

Hi liberal guys and gals! Read this. If even half of it is true we're in for a lot of fun in the future. Check out what happened in Louisianna and rest assured that there are plenty of people who are being "helped" by our tax dollars who will take advantage of us every chance they get.

http://www.wnd.com/2013/10/new-domestic-threat-food-stamp-r**ts/

JerryMac

I wanted to say something but..... wow..... I am left speechless.

I can't even walk out with what I bought if they gave me too much change back. I had to argue with a cashier for about ten minutes onetime because she gave me ten dollars too much back in change.

I hope a lot of people are arrested for theft. They knew what they were doing.

BigMike Loc: yerington nv

I come from a poor neighborhood in a poor town. I've seen lots of people gaming the system. I've seen people who never miss an opportunity to grab wh**ever they can get at the expense of the taxpayer. Any program that does not teach people to stand on their own creates a subclass of dependent people - and huge numbers of people who could work accept that dependent status because its EASY. That makes them dependent thieves, just like the Walmart vampires in Louisiana. And we have become enablers of this sort of behavior by not demanding accountability from aid recipients and those who administer that aid.

oldroy Loc: Western Kansas (No longer in hiding)

You just reminded me of a black young man from New York City who works with my boys at a menial job for little money. Of course, he gets some money because he has 8 children with only three baby mamas so he doesn't want too good a job. Both of my boys are very conservative and both have come very near to taking him out to the woodshed when he talks about the stupid people he works with. Stupid because they don't take any kind of subsidy from some government. He just can't understand them when they tell him about the food r**ts that will take place when farmers are finally overcome by progressives. He doesn't know where food comes from. Guess what their employer's customers are? Why they work for a farm implement company and that fool can't understand where food comes from or how it comes about.

working class stiff Loc: N. Carolina

I get the point you are making.

But then I thought about this, from the article:

"When Wal-Mart corporate headquarters allowed the card holders to buy food anyway, with no spending limit, word quickly spread, and a flood of shoppers in the Wal-mart stores in Springhill and Mansfield, La., stripped shelves bare."

Of course if Walmart decides to give away free food there are going to be r**ts. What do you think they were thinking? I'm cynical enough to contemplate that Walmart was going to use the cleared shelves to sock it to the government for replacement value.

BigMike Loc: yerington nv

I think Walmart may have had a lapse of sanity! However, their lack of judgement in no way excuses the actions of the people who took advantage of the situation. Individual responsibility is the only thing that will save those folks from a life of dependence and parasitism. Also, it was not a lack of judgement on the part of a business that caused r**ts in Europe. It was a sense of entitlement. "YOU ARE OBLIGATED TO TAKE CARE OF ME, AND IF YOU DON'T I'LL DO THIS....!" We are well on the way to that here. Ask yourself, "what would happen if everyone on welfare was told tomorrow that they would no longer get benefits for free, that the government would hire them as laborers and they would have to work hours corresponding with the benefits they receive?" It would be anarchy! I guarantee you there would be murder and chaos in the streets. We've ruined whole generations of Americans with the phony compassion of the left, who have no problem with the sterile charity of government programs but would never in a million years take it upon themselves personally to lift a needy person out of the mud.

working class stiff Loc: N. Carolina

A lapse in sanity is a mild way of putting it. And it doesn't excuse the behavior of the individuals, but it did contribute to the cause of that behavior. In fact encouraged it.

Whether it's free land (think Boomer Sooners), free front row seats at a Who concert (7 dead in Cincinnati), or free food, there will be mob-like behavior. That has nothing to do with dependence or parasitism. The Sooners could be seen as enterpreneurs, the concert free for all was probably middle class considering the prices the Who were charging, and the EBT mobs were probably dependents. Mob behaviors are not limited to the dependents.
I would have like to have been a fly on the Walmart wall during the decision making process leading to the outcome: let's give them food for free.

But I agree with your other premise: that beneficiaries of government benefits should earn them by working for them. It's the same logic for me: giving stuff away invites anti-social behavior.

There-in may lie a conundrum for conservatives. Wouldn't "what would happen if everyone on welfare was told tomorrow that they would no longer get benefits for free, that the government would hire them as laborers and they would have to work hours corresponding with the benefits they receive?" require a government jobs program?

Something I, as a liberal, am not opposed to. Plenty of public infrastructure in this country that need fixing.

And wouldn't that be a common ground for liberals and conservatives? What are your thoughts?

BigMike Loc: yerington nv

Temptation exists everywhere friend. Bad behavior is rooted in bad people. The good food stamp recipients were not trying to take advantage of that situation. They were at home with their kids. An honest person will call the person who's wallet he found and return it with the contents intact and the dishonest one will keep the money and head to Walmart with the credit cards hoping to stock up before the wallet's owner figures out its missing.

I, as a libertarian, feel as you do. Our infrastructure is a disgrace. The conservative in me says, instead of creating a government agency to oversee welfare laborers, hire Construction companies to do necessary projects (like we do now), have the welfare agencies (which already exist) provide the laborers. It would cut the contruction company's costs since they wouldn't be paying the laborers. Their bids would be correspondingly lower which would save the government money, and since the government is already paying for welfare recipients room and board (to some extent or the other) it would be getting more for OUR money than it gets now.