toobfreak
Tungsten/Glass Member
I took your post as a bit of a insult as I felt you were digging too deep and looking for hair-splitting semantics. To answer your question seriously though...I’d say ABSOLUTELY NOT...Nobody funded by taxpayers should be buying weed, cigarettes and booze with other people’s cash.
Yeah, I run that risk sometimes by pointing things like this out rather than being just a mindless rah rah cheerleader for one party or the other. I was merely pointing out that taken into a court, one's words would be taken and used at their literal face value rather than how you meant it.
But after implying I was being pedantic, now you're saying you DO think what I asked? You mean if a person qualified for food stamp assistance but had enough income from, says, social security to afford a drink now and then, that it should somehow not be their right to spend their money as they can afford or see fit? Even if that drink helps alleviate physical pain or helps them sleep? And if so, how would you enforce that?
The logical next step then would be to limit food stamp people only to bread, water and yellow cheese, the cheapest, lowest quality of food despite the health implications with no access to cable TV or anything else providing the slightest quality of life because it would be directly or indirectly coming at the taxpayers expense.
Murderers in prison have it far better than that.
Mind you, I don't mean to put words in your mouth, BL, I'm just pointing out the ramifications of some things said by the camp that apparently RESENTS all social programs, because not only are these programs a form of human compassion meant to alleviate suffering rather than to increase it, but NOT ALL PEOPLE on social programs like welfare, food stamps, et al are there by CHOICE, because they are lazy, hapless, etc., some are there because they are victims of old age, illness, disease, car accident, injury through work, violent husbands, etc. they had no control over.
I guess my point is that I'd much rather see us eliminate 80% of the FRAUD that goes on in these programs where people truly not needing or deserving public help get weeded out so that we had more money left over for those truly NEEDING and DESERVING it, rather than deny innocent human beings all dignity and quality of life for circumstances that are beyond their control and expect them to just exist like plants to rot away in some forgotten corner.
That is the basic definition of generosity of spirit and compassion of giving. It's what we do when no one is looking that truly defines who we are, both as individuals and as a species. I just happen to be magnanimous of spirit enough that I would not refuse to stop for a person caught in a fire, trapped in a burning car, drowning in a pool, or suffering on their last hope as a victim of some ill fate just because they need some help or a handout.