20% of food stamps spent on soda & junk food.

[Jtbrig7390]

You're flatly ignorant.

Pot meet kettle....

[Spectral]

You responded to Nixx saying you could consider categories that can "very cleanly and clearly be defined" with "Let's start with sugared beverages!"

Rofl.

My head hurts.

Beverages containing sugar is a pretty clearly defined category. If it makes your head hurt, the issue might be that your head is only capable of handling staggeringly low complexity issues. You could always leave the thinky-work to people with a bit more processing power.

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Pot meet kettle....

That's not an actual refutation. You plainly don't know what the EITC is. Being super ignorant isn't that big of a deal, but continuing to have opinions about things you don't know anything about is pretty bad.

[TITAN308]

Ya sucks someone across the pound has to live in a dirt shack. That isn't my issue, my issue is you and people like you trying to force me to live the same way.

You are also a liar. You keep repeating this same line. No one ever said you needed to be put in a dirt shack and made to starve to death.

The mere fact you automatically draw parallels between fucking soda and some poor kid rummaging through garbage so he can eat for a day is pathetic.

You are a spoiled brat and I suspect you always will be in regards to your income/assistance situation.

[Jtbrig7390]

. Being super ignorant isn't that big of a deal, but continuing to have opinions about things you don't know anything about is pretty bad.

Like I said pot meet kettle...

[Jtbrig7390]

You are also a liar. You keep repeating this same line. No one ever said you needed to be put in a dirt shack and made to starve to death.

The mere fact you automatically draw parallels between fucking soda and some poor kid rummaging through garbage so he can eat for a day is pathetic.

You are a spoiled brat and I suspect you always will be in regards to your income/assistance situation.

Show me these poor people with 64inch tv's and iphone 7's before you call someone a liar about anything.

[Steve French]

If there are categories that can very cleanly and clearly be defined, then we can consider those. Otherwise, I'd rather we focus more on finding ways to reduce the number of people who need assistance of any kind in the first place. We can also do things like what you suggested earlier and try to offer additional services to teach and promote more responsible habits.

We could stop illegal immigration for one, 78% of illegals are on welfare.

[Spectral]

If you define it as pop, perhaps. When you say "sugared beverages," I can see that easily leaking into juice and becoming an issue in a hurry, as juice varies from basically as bad as pop to fairly alright, depending on the exact variety.

I have no problem with heavily taxing juice. Juice is pretty awful for you and should only be consumed in very small quantities.

I also wouldn't have any problem with defining the category as "added sugar". Easier still would simply be sugar itself heavily; this creates a de facto heavy tax on soda without impacting juice if for some reason we decided that juice is a special category of obesity and diabetes causing beverage.

[Jtbrig7390]

We could stop illegal immigration for one, 78% of illegals are on welfare.

You can't be illegal and on welfare......ffs

[ugotownd]

You're just reinforcing what he said -- TANF is a cash benefit on the same card as EBT. Maybe you should read what he quoted and your own source before calling someone a fucktard:

At least 37 states issue Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) cash benefits through electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards

Its the same card most likely if you getting one your getting the other. So you think its ok people are using other tax payer money for cigarettes an lottery tickets. If you got a better job or a job at all you wouldn't need to bum money from others. There is thousands of our tax payer funded people marching in Washington DC today why aren't they at work an school. We will have the same in a week for Trumps inauguration.

[Darsithis]

We could stop illegal immigration for one, 78% of illegals are on welfare.

I heard that 99% of statistics are bullshit...like this one.

[Steve French]

Including or not including travel time, fuel, and preparation time?

How far do you have to travel to a grocery store? It takes less than 5m for me to get to the publix near me, so not much travel or gas, so that's basically nothing, and what, do you pay yourself to prepare your own meals? I don't understand how prep time costs you.

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You can't be illegal and on welfare......ffs

You really are clueless aren't you?

[Jtbrig7390]

Its the same card most likely if you getting one your getting the other.

Dude you been proven wrong at this point just stop, you clearly don't know what you are talking about....

Also once again people like you ignore the fact that there is people on this system and also paying into it.

[Spectral]

How does taxing juice stop people from drinking it? All that does is hurt the consumer, it doesn't hurt the business.

Again, unless you genuinely believe that sugared beverages are a special case of a good with zero demand elasticity, cost impacts demand.

I almost can't believe this simple of concepts need explaining.

[Kraenen]

How does taxing juice stop people from drinking it? All that does is hurt the consumer, it doesn't hurt the business.

You literally say it in the next sentence.

You inhibit (not stop completely, just lessen the behavior) people from consuming something if it costs more (hurt the consumer).

[Jtbrig7390]

You really are clueless aren't you?

You know you need a SSN and a State ID (along with other requirements) to get on welfare right?

[skatecL5]

Good thing they don't then.

Also once again you act like getting a smart phone even a iphone 7 cost's a fuck ton. News flash it doesn't, if you got decent credit you can get a iphone 7 from many carriers and just be tied to a contract for a few years. Poor people don't pay $700 upfrount for a phone and as a matter of fact anything that does cost a lot they normally use a credit card for.

Fuck them having anything right? Can't have a smart phone or a soda....

Did you really spend 4 pages arguing how a poor person cannot afford a fucking $20 filter off of Amazon, yet now say they can easily afford the monthly payments for an iPhone 7? This is some top quality shitposting.

[Spectral]

I don't support the creation of a sin tax for sugar.

OK. I do. I guess that's that.

[Jtbrig7390]

Did you really just spend 4 pages arguing how a poor person cannot afford a fucking $20 filter off of Amazon, yet now say they can easily afford the monthly payments for an iPhone 7? This is some top quality shitposting.

One its a example and two it all comes down to what is needed.

A $20 filer isn't needed, A Cell Phone (any type) is quite needed.

[Thoridal]

If I suggest they should be taking money management classes, that is deemed inhumane too.

Apparently criticizing people who are "poor" is just taboo and a discussion that is not allowed to happen.

Here's some money management for ya, buy a TV for a grand, lose your job next year, you are now scrapping by and are short 300-400 a month for food for your family.

Here are your options.

1- Sell your TV for a month of food (you would be lucky to get half that back), next maybe sell some expensive furniture, hell maybe if you are well established you have an extra car to sell or some equity you can tap (bad idea in the long run but hey if it makes you feel better about yourself to waste money). Going this route the more you have the longer you can go but at the end of the day some one with only a TV, a nice phone and maybe a decent computer will get maybe 4 months out of it.
2- Use the damn benefits you paid into and will continue to pay for once you are employed again, keep your stuff, get a job and resume your life.

2 is the better option from a financial stand point and morally there is absolutely no fucking problem with it.

Self righteous arrogant pricks that say thing like "you shouldn't own a few nice things and use food stamps" are one of the major problems with this country. You mentally warped ass hats act like you are paying for every ones benefits when in reality most people on these programs will pay far more in taxes than they will ever use in benefits. I know absolutely no one that isn't severely disabled that uses food stamps for any longer than they have to and I know a lot of people that have been on food stamps, myself included. Not using something you earned when you need it doesn't make you better than any one else, it just makes you an idiot. You might as well pay for insurance while you are at it and then not use it when you need it. Yes there are people that abuse the system, but that number would have to be 10 times the amount it is now to be worth the attention it gets.

[Spectral]

Here's some money management for ya, buy a TV for a grand, lose your job next year, you are now scrapping by and are short 300-400 a month for food for your family.

Here are your options.

1- Sell your TV for a month of food (you would be lucky to get half that back), next maybe sell some expensive furniture, hell maybe if you are well established you have an extra car to sell or some equity you can tap (bad idea in the long run but hey if it makes you feel better about yourself to waste money). Going this route the more you have the longer you can go but at the end of the day some one with only a TV, a nice phone and maybe a decent computer will get maybe 4 months out of it.
2- Use the damn benefits you paid into and will continue to pay for once you are employed again, keep your stuff, get a job and resume your life.

2 is the better option from a financial stand point and morally there is absolutely no fucking problem with it.

Self righteous arrogant pricks that say thing like "you shouldn't own a few nice things and use food stamps" are one of the major problems with this country. You mentally warped ass hats act like you are paying for every ones benefits when in reality most people on these programs will pay far more in taxes than they will ever use in benefits. I know absolutely no one that isn't severely disabled that uses food stamps for any longer than they have to and I know a lot of people that have been on food stamps, myself included. Not using something you earned when you need it doesn't make you better than any one else, it just makes you an idiot. Yes there are people that abuse the system, but that number would have to be 10 times the amount it is now to be worth the attention it gets.

There's also the option of saving enough money to provide a cushion rather than spending $1K on a TV when you're apparently right at the edge of poverty. I realize this is a fundamentally anti-consumerist sentiment, butI actually don't think encouraging people to save money is that obnoxious.