The "Mlllionaire on Food Stamps" thing

[JohnStOnge]

http://www.examiner.com/political-trans ... yer-s-dime" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm sure thate must be another thread on this somewhere but I don't immediately see it.

My take: More power to him.

Don't get me wrong. If I had my way there wouldn't BE anything like food stamp programs to begin with. Government would not be involved in charity.

But it is as it is. This guy won two million dollars. Government took about $1.25 million of that from him in taxes. So we're going to worry about him taking a little bit OUT of the system after he just put $1.25 million of his lottery winnings IN to the system?

Me, I'm not worried about people who obviously put way more IN to the system than they take out of it.

[∞∞∞]

I think this is fine. The man is 59, and from what I read disabled and presumably unemployed because of it. We have no idea if he has any debts or other monetary obligations. Other articles say he bought a house and car and invested the rest into a retirement fund, and that doesn't seem like some crazy spending for someone who won the lottery. The man is still on an income that qualifies him for food stamps, except that now he owns a home and has a retirement fund which plenty of others that qualify also have. He reported everything he had to, asked the government if he still qualifies for the program, and was approved. The man has done everything within the system, and food stamps are supposed to be based on income and not liquid assets (which lottery winnings are) to protect people from giving up things like their house just to eat. I've seen him vilified all across the internet now and it seems like he's being made out to be a scumbag and the poster child for food stamp fraud, which I think is unfair. It looks like he's simply been sensible with the money.

[kalm]

Sensible with his money is right. It's the American capitalistic way! He's doing nothing different than Exxon, BofA, big AG, or Wall Street hedge fund managers. The only failure on his part is not being able to get around the initial chunk the IRS gets. He's small potato's for sure but god bless him for figuring this out.

[Baldy]

Sensible with his money is right. It's the American capitalistic way! He's doing nothing different than Exxon, BofA, big AG, or Wall Street hedge fund managers. The only failure on his part is not being able to get around the initial chunk the IRS gets. He's small potato's for sure but god bless him for figuring this out.

You forgot to add unions to your little list. An oversight I'm sure.

Anyway, the fact of the matter is that the government still lets them get away with it, and won't do anything to fix it.

[kalm]

Sensible with his money is right. It's the American capitalistic way! He's doing nothing different than Exxon, BofA, big AG, or Wall Street hedge fund managers. The only failure on his part is not being able to get around the initial chunk the IRS gets. He's small potato's for sure but god bless him for figuring this out.

You forgot to add unions to your little list. An oversight I'm sure.

Anyway, the fact of the matter is that the government still lets them get away with it, and won't do anything to fix it.

I've added unions a number of times before and they deserve to be on the list but they are no worse than the rest.

[AZGrizFan]

A guy on food stamps has money enough to buy lottery tickets and nobody has a problem with that?

[kalm]

A guy on food stamps has money enough to buy lottery tickets and nobody has a problem with that?

It's the new economy, driven from top to bottom by shifting money. The fruits of our labor is SO 20th century, Z.

[grizzaholic]

A guy on food stamps has money enough to buy lottery tickets and nobody has a problem with that?

[JohnStOnge]

A guy on food stamps has money enough to buy lottery tickets and nobody has a problem with that?

Well...like I said: If it were up to me there wouldn't BE and programs like food stamps to begin with. So in one sense it bothers me that he or anybody else gets food stamps (or the cards they use now) at all. But, no, it doesn't bother me that he was buying lottery tickets. I was off on my math last night. He won $2 milion and he ended up with $850 so $1.15 millioin rather than $1.25 million was taken in taxes. But, still, the only thing that bothers me about this is that somebody acquired money and $57.5 percent of it was immediately confiscated from him by governments at various levels.

[Vidav]

A guy on food stamps has money enough to buy lottery tickets and nobody has a problem with that?

In high school I worked at a grocery store and you saw this shit all the time. People would come in and buy a cart load of stuff that was way better than I could afford to eat because they got food stamps. Then they would leave chatting on their top if the line cell phones and drive away in their new cars.

Shit pissed me off to no end.

[grizzaholic]

In high school I worked at a grocery store and you saw this shit all the time. People would come in and buy a cart load of stuff that was way better than I could afford to eat because they got food stamps. Then they would leave chatting on their top if the line cell phones and drive away in their new cars.

Shit pissed me off to no end.

I worked at a gas station and would see this same shit. Driving a brand new SUV they would come in and pay for the gas/beer/cigs with cash and then buy a whole bunch of candy/chips/pop/jerky/etc... with their food stamps. And would be wearing the most expensive clothing, including their little bastard children.

[Baldy]

In high school I worked at a grocery store and you saw this shit all the time. People would come in and buy a cart load of stuff that was way better than I could afford to eat because they got food stamps. Then they would leave chatting on their top if the line cell phones and drive away in their new cars.

Shit pissed me off to no end.

Me too, I worked as a butcher through high school and college at a grocery store. These people would buy the most expensive cuts of meat with their damn food stamps. You could see them with their little booklets adding up the stamps and comparing it to the prices of the meat. I wanted to go upside their heads so bad.

[citdog]

27 bucks a month for housing in the projects, free food, and free school lunch


=






and

[JohnStOnge]

Remember: Whenever this guy goes into a store and buys stuff with food stamps he's doing so after just having paid $1.15 million in taxes. That's probably more in taxes than the majority of Americans pay in their lifetimes.

I'm not going to begrudge him getting a little bit back in food stamps after he's been raped like that. I'm a lot more concerned about people who suck the teat and contribute little or nothing to the system.