>OK, in an article where food stamp recipients are saying they have to water down milk, there's an interesting photo at the beginning of the article:
>
>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24670991/
>
>Note the 20 lbs. bag of charcoal briquets in the lady's cart as well as a box of Tennessee Pride bisquits.
>
>Why is it our problem that she can't manage money? Disgusting.

As a teenager (back in the last milleneum), I sacked groceries. I'd see the food stamp mommas driving a three basket food train. They would have 14 kids and three or four baskets full of groceries. Later, as a cop, I would go into the houses in the hood, and almost without fail, there would be food left all over the place, clothes piled ankle deep all over the house, cock roaches, mice, filth etc. Many times these "families" are comprised of people who are uneducated, and they have come to believe they can survive by getting a check from the government, per child. So, the government is driving this problem by paying these single mothers to have kids. It's a bad situation that doesn't have an easy solution.

My bible fellowship class has tried to help a few of these families over the years, and we will be doing it again over the next few months, but sometimes I wonder what the solution is. Personally, I think the government could set up a program to help, but it would need to clearly define how it was going to play out, and it would need to actually play out, with the "family" getting of subsistence, and becoming taxpayers.

I hate it for the poor, but they are going to have to grab the bootstraps while we are buying the boots - IMHO