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Society with a sense of entitlement

stovebolts

stovebolts

Member
It utterly amazes me how our society has changed in the past 20 years. When I was young, food stamps were an embarrassing reality many hid from others. Now it's the "cool" thing to do.

Where is the pride anymore within our society?

I'll have to agree with Paul on this matter as it pertains to able bodied people.

2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

http://news.yahoo.com/michigan-lotto-winner-charged-welfare-fraud-132900962.html

LINCOLN PARK, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan woman who continued to get food stamps after winning a lottery jackpot was arraigned Tuesday on welfare fraud charges.
Amanda Clayton, 25, of Lincoln Park was arrested on Monday. If convicted of the two felony charges, she could face up to four years in prison.
Clayton stood silently during her arraignment at Lincoln Park's 25th District Court. Defense lawyer Stanley Wise said he hopes to have charges dismissed at her next court hearing April 24. He didn't elaborate.
"She's upset but she'll be fine," Wise said.
Clayton won the $1 million jackpot on "Make Me Rich!" a Michigan lottery game show, and chose to take home a $735,000 lump sum, before taxes.
The case came to light last month when Clayton told Detroit TV station WDIV that she thought it might have been OK to keep using food stamps because she wasn't working.
The state Department of Human Services has said it was Clayton's responsibility to report her dramatic change in wealth within 10 days. She was dropped from the food program.
"It's simply common sense that million dollar lottery winners forfeit their right to public assistance," Attorney General Bill Schuette said in a statement Tuesday. "We will continue to work with local, state and federal authorities to uphold state laws intended to ensure wise stewardship of taxpayer dollars."
Clayton wasn't the first Michigan lottery winner to keep public benefits. Last spring, a TV station reported that Leroy Fick, 60, of Bay County, was using the food program despite winning an $850,000 lump sum prize in 2010. He told state officials about his wealth but was allowed to temporarily keep his card because lump-sum windfalls at that time were not counted as regular income under the program.
The state has since banned anyone with assets of more than $5,000, excluding a car, from the food stamp program. That ban knocked Fick off the rolls.
Click to expand...
 
Hi Jeff,

There is something fundamentally wrong with possibility of sentencing this person for up to four years.

Think about. She attempted to abuse the system by collecting tax payer money in the form of food "stamps." Four years, or even less, of "three hots and a cot", also on the tax payer's $ will cost far more than she attempted to collect.


How about this: she pays back, in restitution, every single $ she has ever gotten from welfare and then throw in a extended period of community service with in house arrest on top of it all. Add to that a sentence causing her to fork over a % of the winnings to other charitable causes in the State.

Seriously, it's a win/win for the courts and the tax payers. :thumbsup


I don't know man, we often cut off our nose to spite our face. LOL
 
I agree Vic. As a matter of fact, I'm against any jail time for any crime except violent crimes. Let's face it, due to the revolving door of repeat offenders, jail isn't exactly a deterrent to crime and, as you point out, it often costs taxpayers far more than what the crime cost society.

Best to make them pay back what their deeds cost, add fines and do community service related to the crime. :yes

And, yes, I do believe that we are very much an "entitlement" society. I think that all the free breakfasts, lunches and even now dinners that many receive from the time they enter kindergarten to the time they graduate high school has convinced many that the world does indeed owe them a free lunch.
 
I understand Vic,

However, the four years is the Max, that's if the courts throw the book at here... which they never do.

The states in this to make money, not loose money... especially in a Michigan economy.
Bottom line, she has the money... The state will make a profit on this one.

But did you notice what her lawyer said?

"Defense lawyer Stanley Wise said he hopes to have charges dismissed at her next court hearing April 24."

More to my point though Vic, this is the kind of stinking thinking that I'm addressing

"The case came to light last month when Clayton told Detroit TV station WDIV that she thought it might have been OK to keep using food stamps because she wasn't working."

C'mon, she won a million dollars! she "Thought" that it would be ok just because she wasn't working? What's up with that? Where in the world did that line of thinking come into play?

But she's not alone!

Clayton wasn't the first Michigan lottery winner to keep public benefits. Last spring, a TV station reported that Leroy Fick, 60, of Bay County, was using the food program despite winning an $850,000 lump sum prize in 2010. He told state officials about his wealth but was allowed to temporarily keep his card because lump-sum windfalls at that time were not counted as regular income under the program.

And we talk about corporate greed?
 
handy said:
And, yes, I do believe that we are very much an "entitlement" society. I think that all the free breakfasts, lunches and even now dinners that many receive from the time they enter kindergarten to the time they graduate high school has convinced many that the world does indeed owe them a free lunch.
Click to expand...

My kid gets "free" raisins every day at school. Doesn't matter if he wants them or not :eeeekkk
 
I work at a grocery store and I see lots of people with food stamps. Heck the state has required that we no longer call it that, not that I listen. It's now called "EBT", but I have no clue what that means. It's so rare that I see someone who actually is deserving of the food stamp program. I can think of about three people who ought to have it. One person is disabled, not sure 100% why but I do suspect it is from injuries sustained in military service. Another lady is a widow with 8 kids. The last is this old lady she is a widow.

Pretty much everyone with food stamps that comes into my line at work also has a big thing of cash. One time I got this guy who used his debit card instead of his food stamp card and he got so mad. He demanded to have it fixed and his reason was that he only had enough money on his debit card to go buy a new television. I didn't say anything but I really wanted to point out that it may be that the TV is the reason he is on food stamps...
 
There was a short period of time when Steve and I went on food stamps... Steve had lost his job and his benefits and we had to pay COBRA, then for a private, individual health insurance that didn't have a prescription drug plan. Between what we paid for the health insurance and what we paid for Steve's epilepsy medications, we had absolutely no money left over for anything. We used our credit card to pay for gasoline and kept that bill as low as we could by the simple expedient of Steve living with my folks while he worked his part-time job and me never going anywhere... but food.. we couldn't purchase food, just didn't have the money. The food stamps were a welcome safety net at the time even though it made me cringe to use them. Seriously, it was embarrassing, but hey, we needed them.

The things was, we never considered them anything but a temporary help. Steve worked hard to find a job that would pay benefits and as soon as he got that job, we went off the food stamps, even though we still qualified. We could have remained on the stamps until Steve had enough raises to be off of them, but we didn't do that... we could afford to buy our own food, so we did.

Same thing with the free breakfasts and lunches at the schools... we qualify for the low-cost program, for which we would pay only .42 cents a day for a breakfast and lunch. However, by budgeting we can afford to pay the full cost, which is $1.80 a day for each. $1.80 is still a good deal for hot lunch.... and my kids hate to eat breakfast at home on school days, because no one is hungry at 5:30 in the morning, so I don't mind paying $1.80 for them to eat at the school.

I do think that too many people take these things just because they qualify for them... even if they don't need them and can afford to buy their own food. The qualifications for food stamps here in Idaho seem very "generous" to me... going by their chart, Steve could have received three raises before we would have no longer qualified for them.
 
And that's what I'm talking about Dora. It's called pride and principal and there isn't anything wrong with taking pride in yourself for all the right reasons.

Last year our daughter called to tell us that she was excited that she could get on food stamps! We told her that she better not!! :rollingpin Btw, she didn't. :thumbsup
 
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