[fintstone]

Originally Posted by tadd

Flint:
So is she lying and cheating the system? Or is she fully within the rules and practicing ‘work avoidance’ (much like those who are wealthy practice fully legal tax avoidance-by using the in place rules)? Since you have her paperwork, if she is not within the rules, you can fix that right here and now.

You didn’t mention any backstory? Did her spouse die and leave them wiped out from medical bills? I was very close to insolvent when my wife finally passed. Only where I am today thanks to a zero % balance offer that just happened to hit my mail box when I very much needed it and allowed me to recover.

Crap happens to people despite how much one tries.

What I find comforting is that only 10% of our total population is on SNAP. Not quite elimination of hunger in this country, but pretty damn good. That means the remaining 90% is doing ok enough NOT to need help.

Like so many other metrics, for whatever reason we don’t pat ourselves on the back for how damn good this country is doing…like women an degrees. Or a myriad of other things. The fact we focus on single digit disparities it very heartening to me when doom and gloom is the message of the day.

I know Covid has changed my outlook a significant amount. I used to not question the corp wage slave grind. It’s just what you did to make money. But you know what, that money may buy things but it doesn’t buy peace. This year is going to be camping, gardening, and interaction with the extended family way more than the extra hours of work. I’ll make my contribution, but if I can telework and skip the 4 hours both ways, I won’t feel a twinge for doing so anymore.

It’s time to use the rules to my advantage.

It does not tell me how/if she is cheating. Her statement of benefits tells me that her income is $875 per month and she gets $250 a month in SNAP benefits. I have no way to "fix" it. I do know that she has decent car and furniture and a bunch of dogs (not allowed on the lease) ...and that she keeps electricity, phone and water turned on...but has not paid the rent once the government told her she no longer had to.

She is divorced and has been for the entire time I have known her. She has grown children. She is not hungry as she is morbidly obese.

I do not find it one bit comforting that 10% of the country has made such poor choices and been rewarded for them that other people's money has to be taken at gunpoint to feed them...in addition to the vast social welfare system provided to them.

I really don't see much recent good news to celebrate about. More women getting degrees is nice, but if they are not necessarily useful degrees (and they cannot provide for themselves) I am even less impressed. If I am taxed to finance their degree or repay their loans...I am even less impressed. Perhaps if they earned the money to pay for their own education, they would be a bit more selective in what they studied. I also see that men have increasingly entered the unemployed group (worker participation) at an alarming rate.

I am sorry to hear about your wife. I did not know. May you and she have peace.