[Yahoo] Defiant Lottery Winner Still Uses Food Stamps

This is true. It is basically a liquid asset and those are not counted in determining who is eligible for aid. The department has asked the federal government to review and change this policy as soon as possible.

 

The government expects its citizens to be moral and "do the right thing" is hypocritical, at best.

If I were him I'd have done the same thing.

Does the government give a damn about the woman working two jobs to make ends meet?

Plus the government took over half the money. That is highly unethical.

 

No, he won't. He seems smart about keeping his money. That is why he is still on food stamps. I applaud the guy for finding a loophole in the system.

 

Here's a crazy idea......CHANGE THE LAW!

 

Except it was the government that gave him that money in the first place.

 

Happens everywhere (except the lotto part). System needs a serious overhaul/reform.

 

I don't think it's a big deal. The government routinely spends trillions of dollars; this guy costs us a couple of thousands. If this were the worst case of government waste, we should pat ourselves on the back. I'm not sure it's a good idea making a big policy change on eligibility based on one guy's case. Not counting liquid assets was intentionally done when the policy was first made. I worry about unintended consequences down the line and others being denied food stamps when they really do need it because of this one guy.

 

If i were him, I'd happily trade the right for food stamps if I had a say in how much money I was taxed.

Oh but there's the rub. No matter how long he lives he'll never get that 1.2 million back from them.

Government: 1.1999900 The lottery winner = 1000 in cool food stamps. The lottery winner: #winning

 

It's gonna be hard to make a guy who just paid a flat 1 million in taxes feel bad about taking enough people's hard earned tax money to pay his groceries.

I thought this was gonna be some penny pinching miser, but what it really appears to be is someone who's really pissed about paying 1.2 million or whatever in taxes on his lotto winnings.

It's lame, and he should stop doing it, but it's not that shocking, and you don't go changing rules / laws / whatever just because of something like this.

 

This sort of thing only makes people cause a fuss because they imagine that ALL people on food stamps or public assistance are somehow, secretly, hiding their lottery winnings.

 

I say more power to him.

 

There is some truth to this statement.

The funny thing is the US spends about $70 billion on food stamps per year. I am assuming that most of these are going to needy families. Compared to our national debt, food stamps make up about 0.5% of that debt, not a high priority area in my case. Stuff like this really takes attention of other areas that need to be looked at first. I'm not saying the program doesn't need fixing but it would be like putting a fixing the stereo in your car when your engine needs to be fixed.

 

Ding Ding Ding!!!

I agree. The system is in a terrible state. Food stamps are just a complete other topic that i could angrily go over for hours. I have seen it get abused.

Im not saying people dont need it at times but its just wow. who really needs it....did i mention that i could go on forver about this topic.

 

What is really curious is the only time the word morals and ethics ever enter the mind of a washington politician or others is when it has to do with poor people.

Poor people are supposed to act ethical, but those same people never reach their own impossible standards.

 

I say have some sense of pride, decency, and self-respect, and stop taking handouts that you don't need which burden others unfairly.

 

Exactly. Remember the Wall Street bailout? I read about the wives of two CEOs or high profile people in that bailout who received millions, it may have been billions, for the own activities. This is two people receiving significant amount compared to the 40 million that are on food stamps. Where was the outrage over these two people?

 

I agree with this but realistically I'm not sure how many people would do that. Sad but true.

 

I wouldn't do it because I'm a better person than this jackass and I hold myself to a higher standard. Period!

Of course, if I was broke before and living on food stamps, then who knows where my standards would be.

This is one situation where I can't put myself in his place. He's probably got a very cynical view of the world from his shoes and feels like a victim so he wants to take advantage whereever he can.

 

See post below - I misunderstood what what (ha) was saying.

P.S. what: The pronoun "their" in your second sentence is ambiguous. Please revise your work and resubmit it for further review.

 

Maybe I misread it but I thought what he was saying was pretty right. Wasn't he saying that politicians expect the poor to act ethical when they (the politicians) do not act ethical?