It also bothers me when I see those steak eating poor folk out buying cocaine. When I was poor I had to buy crack because it was cheaper. Only the rich should be buying cocaine. I'm not making this up folks. (Okay, yes I am.)

Hell, I'm bothered when anyone wastes their money on cigarettes and alcohol. But unless you want the government to come in and make the grocery lists for all people on assistance, you will have some (I stress the word some) people who will take advatange of the situation. But to brush an entire group with such a broad paintbrush is as stupid as my above crack/coke joke.

Actually, the current system of using EBT cards for food stamps has eliminated a certain level of fraud.

In the old days, people would buy a nickel piece of candy using a $1 food stamp, then pocket the 95 cents in change. Do that enough times and you'll soon have money for beer and cigarettes. The current debit card system does cut that type of blatant fraud out of the system, which is a notable improvement.

However, I've still seen people buy groceries with food stamp cards, then pay for cigarettes and alcohol with cash. If they've got the money for a carton of Camels and a six-pack of Bud, they need to pay their own grocery bill.

Al, does it help that I eat flank steak so that the poor can have a delmonico?

Nope, it's probably me who's the ignorant one; flank may be called
something completely different in the U.S. It's the cut that's from the belly,
and is particularly tough and poor quality.

**********

Okay, then, I know what you are talking about. It sounds like what my Mama calls "stew beef" - the cut of beef you normally use to make a beef stew. I've eaten it many times and, yes, you have to simmer it for hours before it gets tender enough to chew.

I'm sure most of our other posters understood what you meant, but in the South, sometimes things have different names than in the rest of the country.

The trap in government assistance is this: You get the funds to survive at above subsistence level. In other words : you're guaranteed a living wage, but not necessarily a decent wage. But since you're so poor that you qualify for government assistance, you also have health care (I think that's the rule.)

Now, if you start working, first of all the minimum wage is so low there's no way you can make a living wage if you need to feed and clothe your kids if you work a 40 hour week. But no-one us going to even hire you for more than half a week, because if they do, they have to pay for your health-care.

So you need to work 2 or 3 jobs, and those jobs might not line up all that well, so you get little time to sleep or spend with your kids and you have to pay for someone to watch them. Not a proper kindergarten, because there just aren't hours enough in the week to cover that.

Since you're now working, you no longer qualify for complimentary health-care for the destitue. So unless you decide to make your 3rd job selling your ass every night, you go without and hope that none of your kids get sick, because even your ass could not cover that kind of expense.

Hmm. Whyever would anyone choose not to work in that system?