toldailytopic: More Americans are on food stamps than ever before, why do you suppose

[Granite]

The greed at the top is disgusting. It percolates down through the corporate layers and all are infected.
Greed is greed.

I'd agree, for the most part.

The unions are as guilty of malfeasance and mismanagement as the company management.

Can't agree as much with this. Businesses by nature don't operate out of the kindness of their hearts, so unions are still very necessary.

One thing about you Granite that can always be relied upon, You always have the last word because you do not grant intelligence or concern in your opposition.

What? I'm not trying to have "the last word," bybee. I'm trying to have a discussion. You're the one who lately ends conversations and leaves in a huff. If you can't actually go back and forth, it's not my problem. Can you or can you not discuss this issue like an adult?

 

[bybee]

I'd agree, for the most part.



Can't agree as much with this. Businesses by nature don't operate out of the kindness of their hearts, so unions are still very necessary.



What? I'm not trying to have "the last word," bybee. I'm trying to have a discussion. You're the one who lately ends conversations and leaves in a huff. If you can't actually go back and forth, it's not my problem. Can you or can you not discuss this issue like an adult?

Well, a young adult....

 

[HisServant]

No it didn't. Years of mismanagement did that. The workers simply decided not to take an 8% pay cut because of it. Keep in mind that the "union" is just the workers acting together. The poor market position of the corporation had nothing to do with any labor decisions because the laborers don't get to make any of those kinds of decisions.

The solution to corporate mismanagement isn't to blame the laborers because they refused to pay the consequences of management's bad marketing decisions. If the product they were producing isn't earning enough to pay for the labor involved in producing it, and profit the investors, then they should have tried new products, or new marketing strategies. Or sell the company to someone who will. But blaming it on labor, who have no say at all in the marketing of the products they are making, is just chicken ***.

I blame the laborers because they knew that crap was going on and still worked there... they knew the 8% wage cut was coming a long time ago and did nothing proactively about it.

 

[zoo22]

I blame the laborers because they knew that crap was going on and still worked there... they knew the 8% wage cut was coming a long time ago and did nothing proactively about it.

Wha?

You blame the laborers because they should have been proactive about poor management and declining sales? lain:

Proactive like what? Maybe the laborers should have bought more Twinkies.

 

[Alate_One]

One factor might be the Obama administration removing the work requirement for food stamps.

This is far more complicated than you or Romney want to make it sound.

The real reason has a lot to do with the recession, leading to lots of unemployment and underemployment. Plus there's the problem of wage stagnation in the middle and lower class.

It's taking more work to make ends meet and at the bottom more people are having trouble making them meet at all.

 

[drbrumley]

It seems that the U.S. government has been pushing hard to get as many people dependent on government as possible. Food stamps spending has more than doubled since Barack Obama became President, although the number of Americans on food stamps almost doubled from 2001 to 2009 during the presidency of George W. Bush as well.

And the Obama Administration has gone so far as to push U.S. food stamps onto Mexicans!

From Civil Unrest: Do Our Rulers Actually Want It To Happen?

by Scott Lazarowitz

Like I said before and will say again....your dollar is almost worthless. Until we deal with inflation, this will continue to be an issue.

 

[Persephone66]

More Americans are out of work, or are underpaid at work than any time since the great depression. So of course, all forms of public aid are being stressed, including food stamps. During the depression we had soup lines. Food stamps are the modern equivalent of those old soup lines.

This.

I haven't had a good paying job since 1999, I currently make a little more than half of what I used to make and consider myself lucky.

 

[The Berean]

I wonder how much does fraud play into this? They don't actually give paper food stamps anymore. Since 2004 people use the Electronic Benefit Transfer system which is basically an ATM card that people can use to "buy" food.

 

[sky.]

This.

I haven't had a good paying job since 1999, I currently make a little more than half of what I used to make and consider myself lucky.

Have you tried looking in a different/current field? Maybe try Walmart I hear they are on the government upswing.

 

[The Berean]

This.

I haven't had a good paying job since 1999, I currently make a little more than half of what I used to make and consider myself lucky.

I seem to remember you mentioning before about working as a teacher and at a hotel at night. Do you still have those jobs?

 

[Persephone66]

I seem to remember you mentioning before about working as a teacher and at a hotel at night. Do you still have those jobs?

Yeah, still doing that.

 

[fool]

For intance, should we even have billionaires let alone trillionaires in this country? I agree with freedoms, but are we free to exploit employees without recourse?

Commie!

 

[fool]

Example: A home with 4 people in it that makes 36,000 a year apiece might not qualify. Take out one of the legal folk and replace him with an illegal alien that makes 27,000 or less and walla! you got food stamps.
Source

That's insane.
It's like a modern slave class, we have ten million people that have to break a law at every turn just to survive but neither party will either kick them out OR sign them up.
We feed them or we won't have another generation of slave class.

 

[fool]

No it didn't. Years of mismanagement did that. The workers simply decided not to take an 8% pay cut because of it. Keep in mind that the "union" is just the workers acting together. The poor market position of the corporation had nothing to do with any labor decisions because the laborers don't get to make any of those kinds of decisions.

The solution to corporate mismanagement isn't to blame the laborers because they refused to pay the consequences of management's bad marketing decisions. If the product they were producing isn't earning enough to pay for the labor involved in producing it, and profit the investors, then they should have tried new products, or new marketing strategies. Or sell the company to someone who will. But blaming it on labor, who have no say at all in the marketing of the products they are making, is just chicken ***.

Right, cause no one ever heard of Twinkies.

 

[fool]

What "bill" are we paying because Hostess is bankrupt?

Eighteen Thousand more people on food stamps, and their families.
AND no more Twinkies. Whether you got stamps or not.

 

[fool]

It's taking more work to make ends meet and at the bottom more people are having trouble making them meet at all.

And there's a billion Chinese willing to work a hundred hours a week for a tenth of what a person here gets in welfare.
The bottom will only get deeper.

 

[rocketman]

I blame the laborers because they knew that crap was going on and still worked there... they knew the 8% wage cut was coming a long time ago and did nothing proactively about it.

This is an interesting statement though not well thought out but, there is a question just begging to be asked:

If they knew what was going on upstairs from the production floor what action should the laborers have taken?

 

[Alate_One]

And there's a billion Chinese willing to work a hundred hours a week for a tenth of what a person here gets in welfare.
The bottom will only get deeper.

Not exactly. Wages in china are increasing, their purchasing power is also increasing so they are starting to buy from other countries. Jobs are now moving to countries where wages are even cheaper. Eventually their wages will rise also and they won't want to put up with the environmental damage and oppression by corporations any more than Americans.

It's already starting in Bangladesh.

When the whole world reaches a quasi-similar standard of living things will re-balance themselves, assuming no major world wars or other disasters mess up the process. The problem is, what do we do in the interim. It's tempting to turn to protectionism, but large corporations based in the US, many of which are already globalized, are NOT interested in that. We should at least have policies that discourage outsourcing and encourage companies to manufacture in the USA.

 

[fool]

It seems that the U.S. government has been pushing hard to get as many people dependent on government as possible. Food stamps spending has more than doubled since Barack Obama became President, although the number of Americans on food stamps almost doubled from 2001 to 2009 during the presidency of George W. Bush as well.

And the Obama Administration has gone so far as to push U.S. food stamps onto Mexicans!

From Civil Unrest: Do Our Rulers Actually Want It To Happen?

by Scott Lazarowitz

Like I said before and will say again....your dollar is almost worthless. Until we deal with inflation, this will continue to be an issue.

They want to take all our money and give it to everyone.
Sure the people in positions of responsibility will get an extra carrot in their lunch box. But those filthy Yacht Owners will be ground to chum and used as bait while their Yacht is used as a fishing boat by the struggling working class, until it breaks down and no body knows where to get Yacht parts cause they don't make them anymore, cause no body has a Yacht.

 

[fool]

If they knew what was going on upstairs from the production floor what action should the laborers have taken?

Start their own company!
This is America!
You can be whoever you want.