How are we this ignorant people? (Not political)

Now honestly I'm not even sure what I'm going to name this thread because I'm not even sure this is rant,but here we go. I'd just like to preface this also by saying that in general terms I really don't care what people choose to eat or not eat, the epiphany below hit me while in the grocery line.

So I'm behind a guy that looked to be in his early to mid thirties the other day at the grocery. He has a cart full of crap. Three bottles of juice, 3 liters of coke, two bags of chips and some other assorted goodies. I noticed that there was basically nothing that had any nutritional value. I didn't really care as much as it stood out to me.

So the cashier begins ringing up his groceries and he procedes to tell her that he only has $28 dollars on his food stamp card. He then begins to let her scan every item in this full cart and picks and chooses which items he's going to keep and which he's going to have put back for him. So instead of looking at the actual prices while shopping he filled the cart and then made his decision in line, not only that but he filled a cart with all of the items that he didn't want to buy anymore for an employee to put back for him. This isn't event to the rant part yet. Even though this was extremely rude not only to the customers in line behind him, including myself. It was also equally rude to the employee that had to go restock all of those items.

The rant starts here. He purchased $28 worth of absolute crap to fill himself with all week. I spent $40 of food that will actually nourish me. The difference was approximately $10. So then it hit me, not only as a tax payer am I paying for his groceries, I'm also buying his diabetes and high blood pressure meds here in the next 10 yrs because his diet is the epitome of reckless.

This is why I I have such a resistance to socialized medicine. Essentially, the tax payers are getting hit twice for someone else's choices.

This brings on the true reason for the rant. Is our education system so bad that people have no knowledge of nutrition whatsoever? Not basic arithmetic? I mean at the end of the day for a man to reach his thirties with essentially no knowledge beyond that of a fifth grader is beyond disappointing. This is a failure of our education system and a personal failure of that man. How can you take a demographic serious if you can't read a label or add up a price tag.

Jeezus Christ

Can I just say, "LOL."

I got behind some people like this the other day. A guy and a girl (I won't further expand on what I thought their relationship to be) and she has a 'baby bump'. I detest that term 'baby bump' but gladly apply it here. I also back-ranted about it in another thread.

I'm glad people are finally seeing and speaking out in public about these people. They're more than a nuisance. If we can get some verbal momentum going, maybe someone upstairs will notice and take some positive action on our behalf (for a change).

reality check question :

how much does :

3 l coke

2 bags of " chips "

3 bottles of " juice "

cost

and bonus question for context :

what was the rest of the trolley contents ?

a reply to: ignorant_ape

Question 1- about $28
Question 2: more crap, hot dogs, more juice, grapes essentially sugar in different forms

a reply to: avgguy

I can see how you were irritated in line. I would be lying if I said I don't get impatient, no matter what the hold up is. Supermarket lines get longer and longer and supermarkets hire fewer people for less hours (mainly because they don't want to have FT employees so as not to pay benefits).

Anywho, possibly there was a gathering at his home. EBT is used for that kind of food as well. You don't know if that is his main diet. He could have brought a calculator or estimated closer. But, he didn't and it is part of a supermarket employee's job to restock. They restock things daily...people who forgot their wallets or left something in an odd place in the store.

I have seen the argument that "you" believe "you" are paying for it. Most people who qualify for EBT do have a job. Most have been paying into that system for years before they even receive EBT.

Most of the rant is baseless, other than it is natural to be impatient in line when someone else didn't plan out their shopping trip.

a reply to: avgguy

Your post makes me think of something a guy I worked with said. He said, why should my local taxes be so high paying for public schools when I have no kids. I said why should my taxes be used for making bombs used to kill brown people. Why should my taxes go to subsidize Exxon. Everyone has something they do not like that's done with their taxes.

originally posted by: Snarl
I'm glad people are finally seeing and speaking out in public about these people. They're more than a nuisance. If we can get some verbal momentum going, maybe someone upstairs will notice and take some positive action on our behalf (for a change).

You mean like, maybe someone will take them away or maybe they will be gassed next to the mooselems?

Maybe we need to look at where the problem comes from, lack of education and poverty. When we all get on the same page as to where the issue stems from then we can prevent people like DeVos being put in charge of education, bankers in charge of banking and so on... perhaps then, in 30-40 years, we might have a higher standard of education and we won't have to suggest the government take care of our dumb.

originally posted by: avgguy
a reply to: ignorant_ape

Question 1- about $28
Question 2: more crap, hot dogs, more juice, grapes essentially sugar in different forms

Juice and grapes? My God.

a reply to: avgguy

The biggest issue is the educational system, American literacy has not improved in the last ten years. According to a study conducted in late April by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy, 32 million adults in the U.S. can’t read. That’s 14 percent of the population. 21 percent of adults in the U.S. read below a 5th grade level, and 19 percent of high school graduates can’t read....they probably can't read the labels.

a reply to: avgguy


Most of the people who do hands on labor at the grocery store and Walmart are on SNAP/foodstamps because the cost of living is being driven higher and wages are kept low. Don't forget the person scanning your food is probably on them unless they are married to someone more or less wealthish and working to pay for a third car and a trip to Hawaii or something.

If someone wants to drink Mountain Dew using their SNAP card let them have at it. It will just speed up the process for Cyborgs who will need chemical coke for fuel for their robot gut as they stock shelves or pluck away at a cash register. These drinks are likely chemicals created to fuel hybrid human robots. The doctors help the process along. The tax payers help the process along.

So you eat healthy, good for you, but if you're really into healthy almost everything you eat is genetically modified or chemically processed or has some weird chemical filler in it or has something foreign to your body in it, it's really hard to eat healthy clean food although it can be done. But take a look at your own lables before announcing how healthy you eat. It's humbling.

Be aware that "the biggest lobbyists for the food stamp program aren’t poor people or organizations who represent low-income families, but big Wall Street banks and mega corporations. Two quick examples: J.P. Morgan Chase raked in $209 million for just two contracts agreeing to administer EBT card benefits in Florida and New York; and Walmart made half a billion in food stamps just off Oklahoma residents and in just a two-year period. "

More eye opening facts on SNAP can be found here:

freedomoutpost.com...

a reply to: avgguy

You care about him so much, did you say something to him about the diet, using 'your' tax money, diabetes, etc? Not a peep. You're just peeved he's 'costing you'.

a reply to: avgguy

Maybe your tax dollars didn't go well towards his education

Maybe he'll live only half your age and you wont have to worry about paying for his retirement

Maybe walk a mile in his shoes


I'm stingy about welfare as well but there are a lot of iffies in there. Personally, I think if state or government welfare is going to give money for food, they should just simply give out food instead of the cards. Government cheese anyone? There was once something called WIK (or however it was spelled) when my mother was raising us, who was also on welfare. You simply can not understand the circumstances of each person on welfare, though sometimes it's pretty obvious.

Ranting on a guy's choices on welfare is low, in my opinion. At least he isn't buying lobster and using the ebt card to gamble or buy drugs. Maybe this is what will sustain him in the same way your healthy food sustains you. Living on sugar wont instantly send you to the doctor. Maybe this was at the end of his month and he wanted to treat himself. Who's to say that he didn't have more healthy food at home?

Again, you never know till you walk a mile in that man's shoes.

a reply to: intrptr

Why would I say something to him? It's not my business to put him through a nutrition lecture or teach him how to add. That's what elementary school was for.

Well just by those items you don't what they eat all the time.

That was just a particular snapshot.

A lot of people go to the store more than just once a week.

a reply to: StallionDuck

The point is if I can spend $40 to make 35 meals for the week and he can spend $30 for something that won't get him through Tuesday then he can't be that hungry. I don't make a lot of money, that's the point.

originally posted by: Kharron
You mean like, maybe someone will take them away or maybe they will be gassed next to the mooselems?

I'd be satisfied with just turning off their free-stuff. Hell ... that might lead to the decimation of a branch of gooberment.

a reply to: avgguy

We don't teach people about how politics work until university.

We don't teach people how to file their taxes until we tell them they could go to jail for not doing it when 18.

We sure as hell don't teach them the value of proper nutrition either.

That's because the education system in most countries in the Americas is anything but an education system. It's a 'learn how to take a test' system. ' Learn how to retain vast sums of knowledge for about a month and then forget it all', kind of system.

This is why I I have such a resistance to socialised medicine. Essentially, the tax payers are getting hit twice for someone else's choices.

Now with this being said, there are more healthy folks that not healthy folks and remember, most everybody pays taxes, even those on some form of social insurance or assistance, so they are doing it to themselves in that respect.

But I agree whole hardheartedly. I should not have to pay for the mistakes of others on one hand, but I firmly believe in the requirement of a security net for the less fortunate - even if some will take advantage.

And the entire reason I believe in that is because the government probably set them up to fail to begin with.

~Tenth

a reply to: dfnj2015

You missed my point. It's not about the taxes it's about the irony of the govt paying for you to live (through food) then killing yourself anyway(by being an idiot) because you buy sugar with all of your govt money. -----> which then costs the govt more money for his meds-----> which costs the govt more money when he has his first heart attack ----> which costs them even more money when he has a stroke and needs home healthcare. It's ironic that your being given money so you won't die of starvation, to only die of overconsumption later on. It's a wild cyclical process.

originally posted by: Snarl

originally posted by: Kharron
You mean like, maybe someone will take them away or maybe they will be gassed next to the mooselems?

I'd be satisfied with just turning off their free-stuff. Hell ... that might lead to the decimation of a branch of gooberment.

Your wish is granted -- he's cutting off the free stuff, a.k.a education. The future generations will also be sabotaged by these recent moves and the damage may be irrecoverable when you look at all this from the outside. Further poverty is almost guaranteed which makes further welfare a necessity.

Can you believe some people choose to be short sighted and disregard all of this? The guy described in the OP ain't that far from average, you know?