Lawmakers Find $21 a Week Doesn't Buy a Lot of Groceries

[susan314]

Originally Posted by Kevin

We ought not spend our hard earned money on folks who did not earn money in their lifetimes. Those people are wastes of oxygen in my opinion. I'll bet if we quit giving them $21/week in food stamps, they'd get jobs... or they'd die.

With all the suffering in the world, someone kicking off because they were too lazy to do the sort of work Americans won't do doesn't bother me so much.

Wow. Just wow.

Kevin, there have been a few points that I haven't completely disagreed with you on, but this is just shocking to me.

Most senior citizens did work hard in their lifetimes. In fact, many of them worked harder than any of us ever will. The world has changed greatly, in ways that people may never have been able to anticipate back then.

Yes, we in modern times know not to trust/rely on a company sponsored pension and social security...because we've seen so many seniors get the rug pulled right out from under them. But 50 years ago, that was not the common mindset. People back then assumed that if they provided a lifetime of loyalty and hard work to an employer, then they would be taken care of in retirement. Unfortunately, now they've seen benefits and pensions get slashed at the same time cost of living has skyrocketed.

I agree that if a person has been lazy their whole life and never contributed to society, then maybe we shouldn't have to worry about holding him/her up now. But I don't think those people are anywhere close to the majority of senior citizens on food stamps. That generation knew how to work...hard. And we've all benefited from the fruits of their labor. The idea that you think these people should just hurry up and die absolutely horrifies me.