Today at Trick or Treat so Others Can Eat, one of the guys in the houses we went to asked us what we thought about food stamps. He didn't have any food to give to us to put in our bags and jokingly said that if we have extra we should give some to him. Thats when he asked us about what we thought about food stamps. He started talking more about how it seems a lot of people are using food stamps, and how that doesn't make sense to him because everyone he knows is employed, and all his friends agree that everyone they know is also employed. First off I thought, well yeah everyone you know is employed, your friends are probably all your coworkers. I know that sounds judgmental, but the the point he was arguing off of just didn't seem very valid to me because of that. When he asked me and Patrick what we thought about food stamps we both didn't really know what to say and told him that we didn't know much about food stamps. So, because I don't know much about food stamps, I decided to look it up once I came home.
Pretty much anyone can apply for food stamps. To receive them, you have to meet certain requirements. First thing has to do with how much you own, you cant have more than $2,000 in resources, but that changes if you have someone over 60 living in your house, then it turns to $3,000. Also, not everything you own counts, for example, your house and land do not count. You also need to meet a certain income limit. Income limits vary by how many people live in the house, and this changes every year.
Now knowing a little more about food stamps, I can somewhat answer the man's question about what I think of them. As far as I can see, I think its good that there are food stamps because, it seems to me, those people might end up going hungry without them. But I also heard that food stamps don't get you just any type of food, there is a limit on what you can use them for, and mainly its just junk food (at least thats what I heard). Its good that they will have food in their stomachs, but what about malnutrition? Thats a different topic though. As far as I can see, I don't really see how food stamps could be abused because you have to meet a requirement in order to use them, so the people using them must need them.
Yeah maybe, but what if some of those people are just lazy? I'm all for helping those in poverty, I really am. I think these stamps definitely help people. The problem is, you can't know each person's situation. In some cases they can be really helpful, but in others, I think they discourage people from getting jobs. I think we should do our best to help, but also be mindful of people's intentions.
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