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Forecaster Forum: My time at Walmart: Why we need serious welfare reform
Dec 19, 2011 10:10 am
During the 2010 and 2011 summers, I was a cashier at Walmart in Scarborough. I spent hours upon hours toiling away at a register, scanning, bagging, and dealing with questionable clientele. These were all expected parts of the job, and I was OK with it. What I didn’t expect to be part of my job was to witness massive amounts of welfare fraud and abuse.
I understand that sometimes, people are destitute. They need help, and they accept help from the state in order to feed their families. This is fine. It happens. I’m not against temporary aid helping those who truly need it. What I saw at Walmart, however, was not temporary aid. I witnessed generations of families all relying on the state to buy food and other items. I literally witnessed small children asking their mothers if they could borrow their Electronic Benefit Transfer cards. I once had a man show me his welfare card for an ID to buy alcohol. The man was from Massachusetts; Gov. Michael Dukakis’ signature was on his welfare card. Dukakis’ last gubernatorial term ended in January of 1991. I was born in June of 1991. The man had been on welfare my entire life. That’s not how welfare was intended, but sadly, it is what it has become.
Other things witnessed while working as a cashier included:
• People ignoring me on their iPhones while the state paid for their food. (For those of you keeping score at home, an iPhone is at least $200, and requires a data package of at least $25 a month. If a person can spend $25-plus a month so they can watch YouTube 24/7, I don’t see why they can’t spend that money on food.)
• People using Temporary Assistance for Needy Families money to buy such necessities such as earrings, Kit Kat bars, beer, toy figurines, and, my personal favorite, a Slip'N Slide. TANF money does not have restrictions, like food stamps, on what can be bought with it.
• Extravagant purchases made with food stamps, including, but not limited to, steaks, lobsters, and giant birthday cakes.
• A man who ran a hot dog stand on the pier in Portland used to come through my line. He would always discuss his stand and encourage me to “come visit him for lunch some day.” What would he buy? Hot dogs, buns, mustard, ketchup, etc. How would he pay for it? Food stamps. Either that man really likes hot dogs, or the state is paying for his business. Not OK.
The thing that disturbed me more than simple cases of fraud or abuse was the entitled nature of many of my customers. One time, a package of bell peppers did not ring up as food in the computer. After the woman swiped her EBT card, it showed a balance that equaled the cost of the peppers. The woman asked what the charge was, and a quick glance at the register screen showed that the peppers did not ring up as food. (Food items had the letter ‘F’ next to their description.) The woman immediately began yelling at me, saying that, “It’s food! You eat it!”
This wasn’t the only time things like this happened: if a person’s EBT balance was less than they thought it would be, or if their cards were declined, it was somehow my fault. I understand the situation is stressful, but a person should be knowledgeable about how much money is in their account prior to going grocery shopping. EBT totals are printed on receipts, and every cell phone has a calculator function. There’s no excuse, and there’s no reason to yell at the cashier.
The worst thing I ever saw at Walmart was two women and their children. These women each had multiple carts full of items, and each began loading them at the same time (this should have been a tip-off to their intelligence levels). The first woman, henceforth known as Welfare Queen No. 1, paid for about $400 worth of food with food stamps. The majority of her food was void of any nutritional value. She then pulled out an entire month’s worth of Women, Infants and Children program checks. I do not mind people paying with WIC, but the woman had virtually none of the correct items. WIC gives each participating mother a book containing actual images of items for which a person can and cannot redeem the voucher. This woman literally failed at image comprehension.
After redeeming more than 10 WIC checks, Welfare Queen No. 1 had me adjust the prices of several items she was buying (Walmart’s policy is to just adjust the price of the item without question if it’s within a dollar or two). She then pulled out a vacuum cleaner, and informed me that the cost of the vacuum was $3.48 because, “that’s what it’s labeled as.” The vacuum cleaner was next to a stack of crates that were $3.48. Somehow, every other customer was able to discern that the vacuum cleaner was not $3.48, but Welfare Queen No. 1 and her friend Welfare Queen No. 2 were fooled. Welfare Queen No. 2 informed me that she used to work for Walmart, and that the “laws of Walmart legally said” that I would have to sell her the vacuum for $3.48.
After contacting my manager, who went off to find the proper vacuum price, Welfare Queen No. 1 remarked that it must be tough to stand on a mat all day and be a cashier. I looked at her, smiled, shrugged, and said, “Well, it’s a job.” She was speechless. After they finally admitted defeat (not before Welfare Queen No.2 realizing she didn’t have enough money to buy all of the food she had picked out, resulting in the waste of about $200 worth of products) the two women left, about an hour and a half after they arrived at my register. The next man in line said that the two women reminded him of buying steel drums and cement. I said I was reminded why I vote Republican.
Maine has a problem with welfare spending. Maine has some of the highest rates in the nation for food stamp enrollment, Medicaid, and TANF. Nearly 30 percent of the state is on some form of welfare. Maine is the only state in the nation to rank in the top two for all three categories. This is peculiar, as Maine’s poverty rate isn’t even close to being the highest in the nation. The system in Maine is far easier to get into than in other states, and it encourages dependency. When a person makes over the limit for benefits, they lose all benefits completely. There is no time limit and no motivation to actually get back to work. Furthermore, spending on welfare has increased dramatically, but there has been no reduction of the poverty rate.
Something is going terribly wrong, and the things I saw at work were indicators of a much larger problem. Something must change before the state runs out of money funding welfare programs.
Christine Rousselle of Scarborough is a political science major, pursuing a minor in French, at Providence College in Rhode Island. She is assistant editor for news at The Cowl, and vice chairwoman of the Providence College Republicans. Her column originally appeared on thecollegeconservative.com. Follow Christine on Twitter: @Crousselle.
Comments
Egordon says:
rifka says:
Wal-mart itself is part of why we have such high rates of poverty in this country. Last I checked, "full-time" employment at Wal-mart is 28 hours. I used to work at a hotel in Rockport. Every other employee there worked f/t at Wal-Mart, and also worked to make up the difference at the hotel and other places to support their families. Wal-Mart is completely against its workers joining together to make policies that benefit them and their families, so the wages there usually just reflect barely above federal minimum wage. And then there's the fact the the government gives tremendous handouts to companies, 'corporate welfare', http://www.citizen.org/congress/welfare/index.cfm and these corporations can't be seen as benevolent institutions who then create jobs. In fact, most of these companies just sit on their profits, giving them to their top execs, or investing it for more profit.
To blame individuals is wrong. Most of the people who receive food stamps do work, or want to work. In fact, welfare has been mostly destroyed. Clinton instituted the welfare to workfare program which hasn't been very successful, and instead we are left with incredibly high rates of poverty. Also, is the writer arguing that children, old people, disabled people (many disabilities are invisible) should not be given any support, should be left to be homeless or starving?
Welfare is largely a subsidy to the fact that companies aren't willing to pay their workers a living wage that they can support themselves on. The government ends up making the difference.
I believe we do not need to keep scrabbling for crumbs and hating each other, blaming each other for what we feel is unjust--that others are somehow getting away with being lazy while we work our asses off. There is enough to go around if we spread it fairly, if we stop giving corporations welfare and pouring money into useless wars!
The author mentions that the level of government support is not proportionate to getting people out of poverty, which is true, however that is NOT the reason for governments providing support. The government generally provides not enough to live on, not even enough to feed a family with. It is true that government support is a trap, not a great solution, because it requires that people REMAIN poor. There are MANY people in Maine, and everywhere else who don't have universal health care who require health insurance for life-saving medications and health care, who absolutely can't risk earning over the very low minimum in order to qualify for government subsidized health coverage. So, yes, welfare to workfare programs need fixing, but this author has it all backwards. We can't keep blaming individuals for SYSTEMIC issues. MORE support, not less!
Qazoo says:
The Wal-Mart You Don't Know
BY: CHARLES FISHMAND
The giant retailer's low prices often come with a high cost. Wal-Mart's relentless pressure can crush the companies it does business with and force them to send jobs overseas. Are we shopping our way straight to the unemployment line?
A gallon-sized jar of whole pickles is something to behold. The jar is the size of a small aquarium. The fat green pickles, floating in swampy juice, look reptilian, their shapes exaggerated by the glass. It weighs 12 pounds, too big to carry with one hand. The gallon jar of pickles is a display of abundance and excess; it is entrancing, and also vaguely unsettling. This is the product that Wal-Mart fell in love with: Vlasic's gallon jar of pickles.
Wal-Mart priced it at $2.97--a year's supply of pickles for less than $3! "They were using it as a 'statement' item," says Pat Hunn, who calls himself the "mad scientist" of Vlasic's gallon jar. "Wal-Mart was putting it before consumers, saying, This represents what Wal-Mart's about. You can buy a stinkin' gallon of pickles for $2.97. And it's the nation's number-one brand."
Therein lies the basic conundrum of doing business with the world's largest retailer. By selling a gallon of kosher dills for less than most grocers sell a quart, Wal-Mart may have provided a ser-vice for its customers. But what did it do for Vlasic? The pickle maker had spent decades convincing customers that they should pay a premium for its brand. Now Wal-Mart was practically giving them away.
And the fevered buying spree that resulted distorted every aspect of Vlasic's operations, from farm field to factory to financial statement.
Indeed, as Vlasic discovered, the real story of Wal-Mart, the story that never gets told, is the story of the pressure the biggest retailer relentlessly applies to its suppliers in the name of bringing us "every day low prices." It's the story of what that pressure does to the companies Wal-Mart does business with, to U.S. manufacturing, and to the economy as a whole. That story can be found floating in a gallon jar of pickles at Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart is not just the world's largest retailer. It's the world's largest company--bigger than ExxonMobil, General Motors, and General Electric. The scale can be hard to absorb. Wal-Mart sold $425.5 billion worth of goods last year. It sells in three months what number-two retailer Home Depot sells in over a year. And in its own category of general merchandise and groceries, Wal-Mart no longer has any real rivals. It does more business than Target, Sears, Kmart, J.C. Penney, Safeway, and Kroger combined. "Clearly," says Edward Fox, head of Southern Methodist University's J.C. Penney Center for Retailing Excellence, "Wal-Mart is more powerful than any retailer has ever been." It is, in fact, so big and so furtively powerful as to have become an entirely different order of corporate being.
Wal-Mart wields its power for just one purpose: to bring the lowest possible prices to its customers. At Wal-Mart, that goal is never reached. The retailer has a clear policy for suppliers: On basic products that don't change, the price Wal-Mart will pay, and will charge shoppers, must drop year after year. But what almost no one outside the world of Wal-Mart and its 21,000 suppliers knows is the high cost of those low prices. Wal-Mart has the power to squeeze profit-killing concessions from vendors. To survive in the face of its pricing demands, makers of everything from bras to bicycles to blue jeans have had to lay off employees and close U.S. plants in favor of outsourcing products from overseas.
Of course, U.S. companies have been moving jobs offshore for decades, long before Wal-Mart was a retailing power. But there is no question that the chain is helping accelerate the loss of American jobs to low-wage countries such as China. Wal-Mart, which in the late 1980s and early 1990s trumpeted its claim to "Buy American," has doubled its imports from China in the past five years alone, buying some $30 billion in merchandise in 2010. That's nearly 25% of all Chinese exports to the United States.
One way to think of Wal-Mart is as a vast pipeline that gives non-U.S. companies direct access to the American market. "One of the things that limits or slows the growth of imports is the cost of establishing connections and networks," says Paul Krugman, the Princeton University economist. "Wal-Mart is so big and so centralized that it can all at once hook Chinese and other suppliers into its digital system. So--wham!--you have a large switch to overseas sourcing in a period quicker than under the old rules of retailing."
Steve Dobbins has been bearing the brunt of that switch. He's president and CEO of Carolina Mills, a 75-year-old North Carolina company that supplies thread, yarn, and textile finishing to apparel makers--half of which supply Wal-Mart. Carolina Mills grew steadily until 2000. But in the past three years, as its customers have gone either overseas or out of business, it has shrunk from 17 factories to 7, and from 2,600 employees to 1,200. Dobbins's customers have begun to face imported clothing sold so cheaply to Wal-Mart that they could not compete even if they paid their workers nothing.
"People ask, 'How can it be bad for things to come into the U.S. cheaply? How can it be bad to have a bargain at Wal-Mart?' Sure, it's held inflation down, and it's great to have bargains," says Dobbins. "But you can't buy anything if you're not employed. We are shopping ourselves out of jobs."
raydot says:
I'm sorry, but I missed the part where this explains why we need serious welfare reform. Would someone point it out to me? I caught the part where we need serious education reform, I caught the part where we need to expand our substance abuse programs, and I caught the part where we need more jobs...so maybe I just read right past it?
jrgs1 says:
It has worked perfectly:
Keep the working poor (Wal-Mart workers)
squabbling with the non-working poor ("Welfare Queen" Wal-Mart shoppers)
and they'll never turn their attention on the real welfare issue (Wal-Mart's subsidies, practices where they pawn their insurance on to the states, tax benefits, and dozens of other corporate welfare benefits to a for-profit company, that are paid for by, amongst others, the poor).
RicksCafe says:
I was unaware that Walmart "pawn's their insurance on to the states". In fact, when I looked into it, I discovered that they boast 94% coverage of their employees, with Walmart's health insurance covering more than half. I also learned than Walmart fully supports President Obama's employee coverage mandate. 60 Minutes said that Walmart is the best business in the Nation when it comes to health insurance. No, their insurance is not free (which would not be sustainable), but unlike nearly all other businesses, they offer it to every employee.
What are these tax benefits you speak of? I'm aware of the tax code, so you need not tell me of the tax benefits that every single business in the United States takes advantage of--surely you don't begrudge Walmart from taking advantage of those. There must be some special tax break Walmart is getting that you know about.
And what are these corporate welfare benefits you speak of? You say there are dozens! That is at least 24. What are they? How is Walmart running its company that is different than any other company when it comes to dealing with the tax code?
One last question--Just because the author of this story focuses on individual welfare fraud and not on corporate welfare fraud, does this mean that she is in favor of corporate welfare fruad as you and Mr. Beem hope to imply? Common sense says that she is not in favor of corporate welfare fraud, but you and Mr. Beem are in such haste to denegrate anything and everything that may be Republican that you are compelled to insinuate accusations which are not supported by fact. You merely hope that she is in favor of corporate welfare fraud so that you can show what an evil person she is.
Like the author of this article, Christ would also oppose individual welfare fraud. He would not, however, automatically oppose a person or their opinions based solely on their political party.
eabeem says:
Hartford, CT. Walmart Tops List of Medicaid Recipients Again
Posted on August 9, 2011
Once again, Walmart stores in Connecticut have the largest number of employees and dependents on Medicaid. According to a July 22, 2011 report from the Connecticut Office of Legislative Research, Walmart ranked number 1 as the company with the most workers receiving HUSKY health insurance benefits, as Medicaid is known in Connecticut.
Compared to a 2005 analysis, Walmart’s total number of Medicaid recipients has risen by nearly 64%, from 2,232 to 3,654 in 2011.
Two years ago, a similar study placed Walmart at the top of the list of 25 companies with the highest number of workers on Medicaid. The list also includes dependent children of employees on Medicaid. HUSKY protects families earning up $41,348 for a family of four.
Walmart was not alone on the list for national chain stores. Home Depot, Macy’s, CVS, Walgreens, Kohl’s and JC Penney also made it to the top 25 list of Medicaid employees. The list was taken as of May 24th. The 25 employers total more than 25,000 HUSKY recipients. The report examines individual employers, and does not list self-employed workers, or the state.
Similar Medicaid studies conducted in other states like Wisconsin, Iowa, Massachusetts and Ohio, show similar results: Walmart has the largest number of Medicaid recipients on its payroll. In Ohio, the cost of supporting Walmart workers on Medicaid cost state and federal taxpayers nearly $45 million in 2009 alone. In a 2009 Massachusetts study, Walmart ranked #1 on the list of large employers with subsidized health care. A total of 4,796 Walmart workers relied on state and federal taxpayers for their health care support. Adding workers and dependents, Walmart cost Massachusetts $15.5 million that year. This is more than twice the subsidy of $7.223 million for Walmart workers and dependents as reported in 2006. As of March, 2009, Walmart had 11,681 workers in Massachusetts. The state report means that at least 4 out of 10 Walmart full-time employees are using state-subsidized health care.
What you can do: Walmart, which likes to promote the attractiveness of its employee health plans, still remains at the top of most state lists for Medicaid recipients. According to a January, 2010 literature review compiled by New York City’s Public Advocate’s office, Walmart’s health care plan includes a low premium of $27 per pay period for family coverage, or $702 a year in premiuims. But the plan also has a high annual deductible of $4,400, which means that a family would have to spend $5,102 of their own money on health care before Walmart’s insurance kicks in. Based on the average salary of a Walmart worker, this payment represents almost 25% of their annual income. For this reason, many employees choose to enroll in Medicaid instead.
RicksCafe says:
Interesting post. It is a good example of how people use statistics deceptively. I bought into your post at first, thinking that my perception of Walmart's medical benefit was flawed. I would have thought that the business that has the largest number of employees who receive medicaid would have been the besuness who employs the largest number of employees. I looked up the numbers at Fortune. Wouldn't you know it--Walmart IS the business that employs the largest number of employees.
In fact, the list of the 25 complanies who employ the largest number of people EXACTLY MATCHES the list of companies with the largest number of employees on medicaid.
Qazoo says:
How many work over 28 hours per week. Wal-Mart has been doing that for years. Only management even get's close to 40 hours per week. And in most States anything under 30 hours and an employer does not have to pay medical. So of course they employ the most people, 75% are part time.
Bottom line, you can spin it anyway you want, they are not good for America ! And yes I too shop there, what real choice do I have. I'd have less of a problem with them if at least they where selling us American products, but as you can see from my other post they are greatly responsible for pushing American manufactures overseas. It's all about the bottom line ! And if you are a 401K holder you are as responsible for it as the pimps on Wall-Street. When was the last time you even looked at your 401, it might surprise you to see all the foreign ventures your company invest in. But the average 401K American worker doesn't realize that. They're just happy to think they have a vested interest and a future cushion.
So, in the 'New Revolution' we will cut those some slack. (but only a little) The rest we put in the sweat shops after we confiscate their ill gotten gains.
eabeem says:
Exactly. That seems to have escaped young Ms. Rousselle however. She's got the conservative perspective down, but she seems clueless about the Christian perspective. Is this what Providence College is teaching -- coddle the rich, criticize the poor?
usingthepoortoa... says:
Actually my screen name is"using the poor to advance." Which is exactly what this young student is trying to accomplish with the help of her fellow republican friends on the internet and through the airwaves
dcraig says:
A million poor people abuse the system and we each get screwed a little bit. A few gigantic corporations abuse the system and we all get screwed a lot. Which fraud should we be more angry about? AIG, wall street banks, Enron , Worldcom, MF Global, etc. all stole more from you and me than all the welfare abusers combined.
RicksCafe says:
I surely enjoyed reading this well written article. I tried reading Mr. Nagine's even lengthier diatribe, but reading the derision in the first sentence caused a black cloud to form in my heart. I don't know if boredom or Mr. Nagine's open disdain of the entire Republican party would have wounded me more, but I spared myself from the agony of slogging through his bloody tome of hate. I would like to say that Americans have conquered many forms of hatred in the history of our great country.
It is a shame that hatred of those whose politics you disagree with is becoming acceptable.
I wish you all--even Mr. Nagine--a Merry Christmas.
Mr. Nagine says:
Merry Christmas to you and yours as well, RicksCafe. I just wanted to touch on a point or two since you have accused me of writing a 'tome of hate'. I certainly understand that welfare fraud and abuse is an issue and should be reviewed. I just happen to think that there are much bigger problems to address both nationally and in Maine first, before we start looking at the symptom of a much larger illness. The problem I have with the piece written by Ms. Rouselle is the dehumanization of anyone who receives assistance when she clearly doesn't understand the scope or the depth or the issue, nor does she offer any type of solution to the perceived problem.
I take objection to your statement that I have contempt for the Republican Party. I do indeed take issue with many political figures, but my disdain is held for those who highjack the political system for personal gain and purport to represent the interests of 'true' or 'real' Americans when their actions are clearly motivated by personal gain and greed and not the best interests of our country, my state and more importantly, all of our citizens. There are few differences between Tom Delay and Nancy Pelosi in my mind, nor between Keith Olbermann and Glenn Beck, although we unfortunately can't vote either out of the political landscape.
On another note, I am unfortunately one of the millions who fell for this little ploy for shameless self promotion and political grandstanding. Look around, almost every media outlet in the country is carrying a story on Ms. Rousselle as the little engine that could. She said, and I quote "I’m having the time of my life, I would love to do this full-time. My dream job is to be Ann Coulter.” Excellent. Another example of a quasi-political personality who uses the media as a bully pulpit and hides behind the church while beating the downtrodden and anyone who does not see eye to eye with her beliefs into something that allows the masses to view these people to be less than humanity.
RicksCafe says:
Well rebutted, Mr. Nagine.
I am happy to read in your reply the laundry list of Americans guilty of foisting this era of politically driven hatred upon us. Your list is incomplete without the inclusion of the oaf who started the ball falling; Rush Limbaugh. I especially like your comparison of Olbermann and Beck. What is wrong with our nation that those two still have a following?
While I disagree about the intent and content of Ms. Rousselle's article, I concur that we ought to find better models to hitch our wagons to than bloviating television or radio pundits.
Raising a glass 'o nog at you: *clink*
cmorcat says:
I’m glad to see that you gentlemen have drawn to an amicable position on the topic here in this little corner of the country. I regret that, as it has been pointed out, the damage has been done by Ms. Rouselle. The nation’s opinion of Maine has been dragged lower then a mud worm. She has become one of the media blinded minions of the pompous buffoons that make their money by outraging their followers with ideology lacking in fact. She has said her goodbyes to Maine on her search of her Golden Mike. I hope she is aware of the slippery soap box that she has placed herself on with the focus she has brought on to Maine. Perhaps she can catch ride from Mr. LePage on his drive to DC after he has done his deed for the Republican party in his one and only term here. She will make an excellent on-line media secretary for him.
RicksCafe says:
I see the thread has been hijacked by someone incapable of analysis based on result. Someone bent on disposing of our Governor solely based on the man's political party. Willing to discard any improvements to our last place ranking in business climate. Willing to wreck our economic recovery. Willing impoverish every last citizen of Maine just to have the Blaine House restored to the Democrats.
Cmorcat, if you have a point to make other than to insult Republicans, I hope you will take your mixed metaphores and ingenious insults to your own thread. I am so tired of people like you who have put on a blindfold to the Governor's accomplishments and opened fire on him since day number one. I suppose you believe he has accomplished nothing as our Governor. I have no respect for the incivility you displayed in your boorish post.
Mr. Nagine says:
I read this opinion piece with some bemusement, especially regarding the hostile, derogatory and elitist bent of the writer until I came to the write-up about Ms. Rousselle. Now it all makes sense. My only hope is that once Ms. Rousselle obtains her superior private school education out of state, she also flees the barren business landscape of Maine with its vast array of part-time low paying jobs and underemployment long before she realizes that her observations were not only short sighted and mean spirited, but irrelevant and self serving. Ms. Rousselle, I apologize in advance for sounding off on you as you only wrote the article. You do however represent a cross section of ideologues that bring nothing but discontent and negativity to the current discussion of how to address the state of Maine's financial problems and those of its residents.
As a resident of Maine, a one-time employer in this great state and an employee at an international call center based in Maine for 14 years, I have a different take on almost all of your observations. One major contributing factor to the higher percentage of people who receive food assistance, Medicaid and TANF benefits would simply be that Maine is the worst state in the country to do business in. There is no draw for businesses to come to Maine or continue to do business in Maine, leading to lower wages, lesser employer benefits and fewer quality jobs, leaving a disparate amount of low paying service sector jobs. You made these observations as an employee of Walmart, the second largest employer in the state. The majority of employees at the Walmarts in Maine could take advantage of the programs mentioned above because many of them are the working poor. As a point of reference, two adults working full-time at Walmart with average pay in Maine would be $10K short of one year's tuition at the college you attend without a meal plan or room and board.
Maine has the oldest population in the union, with a median age of 42 years. This is again directly related to our poor business economy. It's referred to as brain drain, or human capital flight. The young, educated and upwardly mobile move to other states for better employment opportunities, returning to Maine once they are older and established (and not uncommonly, settling back in Maine part time once they no longer contribute to the workforce and are exempt from state income tax). The older population of Maine uses these same programs and other 'entitlement' programs that they paid into their entire lives and were guaranteed would be there for them by our politicians. A social safety net is one of the hallmarks of a civil society, and in my humble opinion is the right and not privilege of all Americans. How can we be the wealthiest country in the world and treat our own citizens worse than those in other countries? Israel for example will receive 3 Billion Dollars in US Foreign Military Financing alone in 2011. This does not include other foreign aid programs. I wonder if they abuse the welfare we give them?
As an employee who has managed departments for the company I am employed by and a former employer, I have absolutely no problem paying seven cents on each federal dollar to assist those who need it through social programs and to keep those who aren't mentally, physically or otherwise able to be co-workers out of the workplace. I would rather pay to guarantee that these people and their dependents have food, clothing, shelter and medical care than be forced to work with someone who either can't do the job or doesn't want to. You may eventually come to this conclusion as well once you've had to work to pay your own bills for a few decades.
It’s incredibly easy to judge someone else’s situation when you have no vested interest in or responsibility to the situation. While the examples you illustrate do seem a bit extreme, I am not ready to say that a person who qualifies for TANF or food assistance can’t make their own decisions on what they should or should not purchase. I’m not able to call my neighbors, friends and families incompetent at life decisions.
Regarding the concept that 'extravagant' purchases can be made with EBT cards, I would agree that Ho-Hos and Ding Dongs shouldn't necessarily qualify, but is it so wrong for a child to have a 'giant birthday cake' or for someone who is disabled to have lobster once in a while? Considering the maximum benefit per person in Maine is $200 per month and decreases per person in a family unit, you aren’t actually going to buy a lot of steak before you run out of money. You know what you can't buy with EBT cards? Baby formula, diapers, vitamins, supplements or personal hygiene items. So, I guess I agree with you here in theory. Perhaps the products that you can purchase with an EBT card should be reevaluated. But since our elected officials believe that ketchup and pizza are vegetables in concert with lobbyists, I wonder where examining what items food stamps can be used to purchase would lead us?
What's truly disgusting is the fact that my tax dollars pay retail for EBT purchases while we subsidize the agriculture industry in America and set state minimum prices on perishables. Can’t we think up a better, more efficient, less costly system such as Community Supported Agriculture and food for subsidies for the large agricultural corporations?
Speaking of welfare abuse, why is it that our esteemed Governor continually rails against the very same 'evils' you clearly point out, all the while keeping his hand out for any federal hand-out he can grasp? One example is accepting the federal grant to help erect the private health insurance marketplace that is the heart of the 2010 health-care law referred to as ‘Obamacare’ by the governor while challenging the constitutionality of the law in federal court. And why is it that our state continually accepts block grants from the federal government with no intention of using the funds for what they are earmarked for? The state of Maine truly leads by example if you are expecting people not to abuse the system. Never mind corporate welfare and all the jobs that form of welfare creates. Oh right, just not in America.
I can tell you that my retail business suffered immensely directly because of our use tax laws in Maine. I was immediately 5% less competitive than anything online. Unfortunately, I could not accept EBT cards as I didn’t sell food. If I did, maybe I’d still be in business today, as this money is actually spent in Maine. Poor people spend the bulk of their money in Maine, regardless of if was earned by them or not.
Your reference to people ignoring you on their iPhones is more an indictment of the current culture, not an indication that our social programs are failing. It is a stretch to think that the people you are referring to actually went down to the Apple Store or the local public library to get online in order to make a $200 phone purchase or that they are being approved for contract phone plans when they cannot demonstrate a consistent income. Part of the experience of being poor is making do and getting by. If my daughter is on food assistance and I put her on my family phone plan, is she abusing the system? Am I?
Concerning your take on the hot dog vendor, I agree that it's an abuse, but it's one that can be punished if the laws are enforced. It's also enterprising, entrepreneurial and keeping federal tax dollars inside the state. Your reference to 'Welfare Queens' smacks of homophobia and/or racism regardless of your intent and it's Un-American. I vote for my leaders and don’t recognize the term ‘Queen’ as anything but a derisive and thinly veiled attack on a minority group.
Once you have a solution for people on assistance programs that includes affordable education and can show me a healthy state economy with a wealth of middle-class job opportunities, I’ll be more willing to waive my finger at all these ‘fraudsters’ and ‘abusers’. The people are a symptom of a much larger problem that they did not create, nor can most escape. You may want to speak to one of your colleagues who study the scriptures. There was once a man who had many great sayings, not the least of which was quoted in Luke 6:29-31. Perhaps they could enlighten you on the meaning and benefit of the practice of Charity and Fellowship.
Sorry for the rant, but your argument for welfare reform really boiled my blood. We would be better off as a state if people stopped looking down their nose at others as if they weren't part of the problem and started to become part of the solution. Enjoy your time at school. Maybe next summer you can come home and spend some of your time at an organization that is working to actually enrich the lives of Mainers, especially those at the financial fringes, as they are the people who truly need our time, support, energy and welfare.
Crooked says:
Well, I didn't get a private education. I worked summers in the coal mine to pay my way through college-and received GI Bill benefits, yet I still DO look down my nose at folks who commit fraud and squander my hard-earned tax money on things I can't afford.
I have worked hard every day for years, and still can't afford lobster--been years since I had it.
I think the fellow who supports his hotdog stand with my tax money should go to prison. The laws OUGHT to be enforced. We all should demand it!
Her reference to welfare folks using iPhones illustrates their ability to live "higher on the hog" than folks like me, who work every day.
Whatver the business climate in Maine, or the price of tea in China, "fraudsters" and "abusers" should be stopped or punished.
Charity is a voluntary thing in my book. The government taking money out of my paycheck so that frauds can live better than I is not something I'd volunteer if I had a choice.
I have hard time extending fellowship to thieves, layabouts and frauds. I've very little in common with such folk, REGARDLESS of race, creed, sexual preference, etc.
Crime is crime. Theft is theft. Fraud is fraud----REGARDLESS11
Qazoo says:
Where you the son of a coal miners daughter ? Subtle humor, never mind. Anyway, without a doubt fraud needs to be stopped. But let us not go off on a tangent. And I have little doubt as well that had this young whipper snapper stayed a few more months working at Wal-Mart she would have witness the First Lady buying designer dress's on the public doe.
Needless to say, if we ever get to the heart of welfare fraud, you and a good many others will most likely end up on food stamps after your company ends up in prison. Corporate welfare fraud in this country far out shines individual fraud. And again, I agree with your argument, but let's be honest, left up to you and your paper hero lemon tea LePage you'd have Mother Theresa back in the coal mines.
Qazoo says:
And yet the homeless live in squalor conditions. Anyone think otherwise pay a visit to the homeless shelter in Portland. They are living better in the OccupyMaine groups camp out in the local park. Less anyone think those tent's are indicative of homelessness, far from it. Those where not homeless you dealt with, I can assure you of that. And I can just about assure you that one or the other spouses had a job, a car.
And we haven't even gotten to Maine's commercial fisherman who haven't paid any state tax's in years, hide their assets and live off food stamps and heating subsidies in the winter. but manage to buy a new 4x4 every couple of years. And yet, lemon tea LePage had half of his employees from Mardens living on welfare. I suppose like your Wal-Mart who has told some of it's employees perhaps not where you where at, but the stories are out there, to help make ends meet to apply for assistant's.
Bottom line young person, wages for the average American have been flat since1979. While going up 64% for the top 5%. I sure as h-ll hope your not a poster child for the young Republicans. No doubt it bother you, you'll learn soon enough if your education doesn't land you in the hip pocket of corporate America, you'll be on food stamps yourself. Good luck.
RicksCafe says:
I have visited the shelter in Portland on several occassions; I often bring supplied collected in my community. I have also visited several foreign countries around our world during my time in the Navy. I strongly diagree about the homeless living in squalor. It is my observation that the homeless in Maine live better than a large percentage of people who have jobs and homes in countries less fortunate than ours.
It is not difficult for a homeless person in Maine to find shelter for the night, and while the homeless may go without a meal from time to time, there hasn't been one yet that has died of starvation.
I've seen communities in which the middle class earn less than two dollars a day. I've seen families forced to survive on one handfull of rice cooked in brown water.
The fact of the matter is that people on welfare in Maine would be considered rich in most other countries.
It is not my intension to suggest that the homeless don't need a hand up--quite the contrary. They need all the help they can get, and I believe every person has the ability to give a little something. Thank God we live in a country in which even those on welfare have the means help. It is too bad the distinction between a need and a want has been obliterated. Poverty ought not be comfortable.
I end with this warning: Government is the single least efficient means of providing charity. The more money the government takes from us to spend on welfare, the less we have to spend on effective welfare.
Qazoo says:
Hi Rick,
So did I, visited the shelter in Portland. The first time was around 10:30 in the morning. And let me say this I was highly impressed. The place was clean, all the mat's neatly stack against the wall. And the building looked very modern. I visited it again when they are checking the people in and I'm stunned ! The mat's are 6-12 inches apart, they have the people squeeze in like sardines. And this is before the numbers start swelling at the start of the recession, I can only imagine what it is like now. I've talk to several who stay there or have stayed there. Some have gotten ammonia, there was a t.b. outbreak there a few years back. Theft is rampant by the thugs who prey on the vulnerable. There is no mandate to shower and stay clean. All that the 1987 tent city protest accomplish, "was out of sight out of mind" and it created a whole bunch of good paying city jobs. You'll find no volunteers working there.
Now, you mention all around the world, and yet miss the key, THIS IS AMERICA, where one is born into far greater expectations. Like you, I know how other country's live, and guess what, they know or they knew before global communication nothing better. And expected nothing better.
The point is, while it may look to be a stark contrast to our way of life it is quite normal for most in those country's. Your playing the same classic tune to divert and even perhaps to wiggle out of America's stark reality. And do you know where that reality is heading ? 3rd world status in less than 20 years. Then who will you compare America too.
RicksCafe says:
Qazoo, Hi to you as well.
I thought I was careful to indicate that I was not trying to wiggle out of anything. In fact, I tried to suggest that, even though we have it better here, we still should do everything we can to help. I hoped to say that everyone, including myself, should go a little out of their way to help the people at the homeless shelter. I think I included words to that effect; if I didn't, I meant to, and I apologize.
I have wanted to compose a response to Ms. Rouselle's article but felt unable to articulate why my gut feeling was upon reading it was that it was so wrong.
I had planned on collecting actual numbers regarding the subsidies and tax breaks that WalMart receives from local governments when they come to town, (I believe it's called "Corporate Welfare").
Also I've long known that Walmart employees cannot afford to buy health insurance from the Walmart plan, but they are eligible for Medicaid, food stamps, and other subsidies, due to Walmart not paying a livable wage.
Ms. Rousselle, did you ever give a thought to your co-workers at Walmart, who are standing behind that very same cash register all day, or working on the floor, or in the Walmart distributions centers, not just as a college student working a part time summer job, but as a person trying to support their family?
One more thing that bothered me about the article was the sexist attitude that is perpetuated by the term "Welfare Queen". I believe Welfare Queen is supposed to mean a woman who has tons of children and sits on her but all day collecting checks from the government instead of going out and working.
#1 - Why does no one ask where the FATHERS of these children are, and why are they not supporting their families.
#2 - Perhaps the woman is working a job, but not making enough to get by. (Like at a job at Walmart perhaps).
#3 - How much does a stupid Slip & Slide cost anyway, and who said ADC mothers are not allowed to buy things for their children. Children of Welfare familys have birthdays and need toys too - perhaps it's hot outside and for the children who don't have swimming pools in their backyards, a Slip & Slide
would be an excellent frugal alternative.
#4 - As a mother of 2 who has been there - (I worked at Walmart for a few months when I went back to work after having my first child so I know what it's like to work there) - thank God I eventually found a full time 8-5 job so that I could put my children in daycare - most of which are open from 6am to 6pm. And I used a subsidy from the state (I lived in NH at the time) to help pay for the daycare. And I've been at my job for almost 15 years now. But I remember how hard is was, and Ms. Rouselle is a child who's probably never been in any kind of a situation where money was a serious issue.
#5 - I don't want to get into the whole democrat/republican thing but Ms. Rouselle brought it up first, I don't think anyone would argue that Republican are all about Corporate Welfare and don't give a damn what these huge corporations do, to hell with the people.