When people apply for TANF?

Is using TANF or Food Stamps bad?

  • My friend just lost her stuff in the fire and applied for TANF and Food Stamps to help her with some things til she gets back on her feet. She's sometimes embarrassed to go to Wal-Mart or Brookshire's and use her Food Stamps card to buy grocery because some people look a her a poor or needy. Why do some people look down at others when they are poor or need help?

  • Answer:

    Some people are just narrow minded or have never been in a tough situation. I have and still am though I am better than your friend. I don't mind people using programs who need them and qualify, I even encourage. It's people that abuse programs that rub me the wrong way.

Khryztal at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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Unfortunately, we live in a time and place where being wealthy is seen as the only true symptom of success, regardless of how a person got there. To be on any sort of assistance program is in direct conflict with this idealized state, and observers of those less fortunate than themselves, depending on their outlook, can sometimes think that since a person is not as financially successful as they are it must be due to a deficiency in character or intelligence. In other words, people are prone to passing judgment, unable to put themselves in others' situation. I personally don't think it's their fault at all most of the time, just a side effect of being brought up in a greed-driven culture. But I have been on the receiving end of it, and I can empathize with your friend. It hurts to not be able to pay for food, especially when it's a result of something you can't control. 40 million Americans are on food stamps, a vast figure, not because Americans are lazy or fat but because these are tough times and providing the basic needs for a family or even for yourself is a lot harder than the pundits on TV, most of them from upper-middle class white families who never had to worry about buying food their entire lives, make it out to be. So tell your friend that it is NOT bad to use TANF and food stamps because they are assistance programs that were created for anyone to use, people going through tough times AND people who need help living in this low wage, high cost world. And if anyone looks down at her, don't let her give them a second thought. She should be embarrassed for them; they've been told, overtly and subtly, over and over in the course of their lives that those with money are somehow worth more than those without it to the point that they are unable to express the most defining human emotion: compassion. Can you imagine being so blind? Take comfort in the fact that you and your friend have insight and understanding which far exceed that of the people who frustrate you with their callousness, who are so concerned with the appearance of others that they neglect to look in the metaphorical mirror. Poverty sucks and it's unfair, there's no doubt about that. But it's not something to be ashamed of. In no way is it a failure on your friend's part, because despite the fact that we live in the richest country in the world, with a population of 308 million people (according to the 2010 census), a whopping 13% (40 million people) of Americans need help buying food. Translation: there's something seriously wrong with this picture. If my earlier arguments failed to persuade you that asking for assistance isn't a bad thing, hopefully these figures will succeed.

Mitch

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