BRATTLEBORO — I've heard people - almost always people who were never poor or ever had to go on welfare or food stamps - complain up a storm over someone they saw at the supermarket using food stamps who had a nicer phone than they did.
From that one event, they make an incredibly petty and ignorant argument that everyone on food stamps is lazy and cheating the system for their own gain.
I also have to say that in these instances, I have heard a lot of people come to poor folks' defense, saying that a phone most likely just a gift or something they owned already before becoming poor, and both of those things happen quite a bit.
However, I think it's important to note that just because you're poor doesn't mean you have to be resigned to being miserable.
Yes, some poor people purchase expensive, big-ticket items and still use food stamps.
Yes, sometimes even us poor folk can work hard, save up money, and feel that it's okay to get ourselves gifts every now and again.
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A friend of mine often says that you simply can't trust anecdotal evidence. How are individuals on food stamps if they have access to this much money? Is it possible they have a job where they work for tips and that they can pocket a large stack of cash? Could it have been a windfall from a tax refund? Is it possible they got the car before they were broke? Is the car even theirs?
You can't possibly know.
What you're observing is a single instance, and even in that instance you can't possibly have all the facts unless you talk to this person, scrutinize everything you hear, and get some independent proof of where the money came from.
And, if the worst that you're thinking is true, that somehow this person is both on food stamps and has access to enormous sums of money and was able to buy a new Escalade, you're still only seeing one instance.
That's hardly representative of everyone on welfare.
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It's interesting that the burden of responsibility not to “waste” money is heaped on the poor. When someone sees someone on food stamps with a fancy phone, they're quick to complain about the irresponsibility of that individual.
Yet rarely do I hear people question why someone who is decently well off would spend money on a larger TV or a second car that they don't really need, either.
I think the people who make such complaints would say that it's because they feel like the people on food stamps are wasting tax money and thus becoming a burden on everyone. I think if they looked at where most of their tax money actually goes, they'd be a lot more alarmed by how much of it isn't going toward social programs.
But I think it's really more indicative of an entitled and self-serving capitalist mindset that we've been essentially forced to grow up with that belief that people with more money deserve to be happier than those who have less.