Originally Posted by sixshooter (Post 789905)

Much of the world hates us because of jealousy over our prosperity granted to us by our freedom to pursue our own individual self interests. People living at the (whatafuckingjoke) poverty line in America live at a higher standard than 97% of the world's inhabitants. Jelly much?

Originally Posted by Gearhead_318 (Post 789911)

Also, I think we should take over Canada. I hear they've got free health care and maple serape as far as the eye can see.

The number of businesses approved to accept food stamps grew by a third from 2005 to 2010, U.S. Department of Agriculture records show, as vendors from convenience and dollar discount stores to gas stations and pharmacies increasingly joined the growing entitlement program. Now, restaurants, which typically have not participated in the program, are lobbying for a piece of the action. Louisville-based Yum! Brands, whose restaurants include Taco Bell, KFC, Long John Silver’s and Pizza Hut, is trying to get restaurants more involved, federal lobbying records show.

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About 20,000 people sign up for food stamps every day, and college students across the country are the newest demographic being encouraged to enlist. Portland State University devotes a page on its Web site to explaining the ease with which students can receive benefits, along with instructions on how to apply. The school says food stamps are not charity but rather a benefit all honest taxpaying citizens can afford. …Traditionally food stamps are for the working poor and single parents, but colleges are trying to make it as easy as possible for students to obtain federal assistance, no matter their socio-economic background. Oregon has a state-wide non-profit which includes a special focus on food stamps for students… The Grand Views, a college newspaper from Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, featured a story on students who apply for food stamps because they claim they don’t have time to hold down a job between classes and basketball practices. …Adam Sylvain, a sophomore at Virginia’s George Mason University, recounted a recent conversation with friends in his dorm room. “My roommate told me he applied for food stamps, and they told him he qualified for $200 a month in benefits,” Sylvain said. “He’s here on scholarship and he saves over $5,000 each summer in cash.” “A few of our other friends who were in the room also said if there were able to, they would get food stamps … They think that if they’re eligible it’s the government’s fault, so they might as well,” Sylvain said. …President Obama’s latest budget included $72.5 billion for food stamps — nearly double the amount from 2008. Approximately 38 million people, or 13 percent of the U.S. population is on food stamps. It’s a trend that seems on the rise — Salon recently reported on young, broke hipsters using federal assistance to buy high-end organic food. “I’m sort of a foodie, and I’m not going to do the ‘living off ramen’ thing,” one young man said, fondly remembering a recent meal he’d prepared of roasted rabbit with butter, tarragon and sweet potatoes. “I used to think that you could only get processed food and government cheese on food stamps, but it’s great that you can get anything.”

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Originally Posted by Vashthestampede (Post 791043)

College students that are on food stamps should be thrown down south for a few months to live with the pros to see exactly what life on handouts will eventually bring them.

It was mentioned in the other thread about a few members here that go to college on state/federal aid. To a point, maybe that's ok. Maybe if the aid is paying up to 50% max of the tuition. Otherwise, its a handout. Free is free and you dont appreciate something that's given to you as much as you would if you had to earn it (getting good grades isn't earning it, its expected).

Food stamps should be for those with families that can barely make ends meet and need to feed their kids. Not for kids in college that are already getting a helping hand to go to school. IMHO of course.

Originally Posted by Vashthestampede (Post 791043)

Food stamps should be for those with families that can barely make ends meet and need to feed their kids. Not for kids in college that are already getting a helping hand to go to school.

Originally Posted by Braineack (Post 791153)

(Posting from my phone.)

If govt got out of the handout business tution costs would be reduced dramatically