It's Not About "Burger Flippers" It's About The Devalued Dollar

I'm sure many of you have seen the memes (or variations thereof) shown below on social media over the past few months. The one on the top is more than a bit disingenuous because it presupposes that first responders only get minimum wage and that they do not complain. There's a similar one comparing "burger flippers" with United States soldiers which is also disingenuous because it ignores the fact that soldiers are grossly under paid and under benefited as well! The bottom meme is closer to what has actually happened - the decline of buying power by the U.S. dollar and the MSM ignoring inflation, the second great depression and the impact that this had on tens of millions of Americans.

 

 

 

 

Many moons ago when I was working a part-time minimum wage job for $3.10 an hour while in college I was able to afford to share a 2 bedroom apartment, had a savings account and didn't need food stamps. Six months later, I was out of college and bumped up the gravy train to $3.50 an hour and more than 30 hours a week. Then I was paying back my student loan and still had the savings account, paid rent, paid for my food, paid for clothes, et al. My point is that the buying power of the dollar has dramatically decreased over the years and inflation (which they used to report on the nightly news by the way) is going through the roof.

 

I noticed that almost no one was bitching and moaning when McDonald's CEO was given a 4+ times raise last year, but raise the minimum wage and howls are made mostly from the right-wing, economists and filthy rich people. So, with minimum wage workers on food stamps, child welfare, housing welfare etc., you'd rather argue that subsidizing these high-profit, low wage corporations is all right for American taxpayers? A $15 an hour wage would cut food stamps rolls and all the rest. It's that simple. This isn't about pimply faced teenagers or retirees, this is about corporate welfare at the expense of working Americans and the fact that the dollar doesn't buy nearly as much as it use to.

 

If you are still fixated on the "burger flipper" in spite of reading this far, consider this: the average fast food "value meal" costs about $7.50. It would take an employee at said fast food establishment one hour's worth of wages to afford that. Even the self-serving, bigoted car magnate Henry Ford understood he had to pay his employees enough of a wage to afford the cars they built.

 

FOOD STAMPS - Come To My Door With Your Torches And Pitchforks!

One of the stranger divisive issues to enter American politics recently is the one where people on food stamps should not also buy, with their own money, booze and, gasp (!) tobacco. Newsflash! The sanctimonious blowhards who perpetuate this argument are being completely disingenuous because you can't buy booze or tobacco with food stamps! Get it? They are called food stamps.

Here's the quick story: I pay taxes. A few times over my life I have qualified for food stamps - like right now. Without it, I'd be homeless. Homelessness, we may agree, is a much bigger burden on our welfare system. Some wags will say that the poor should be careful with their "discretionary" income all the while ignoring the enormous burden place upon tax payers by the corporate welfare state. Newsflash #2! The rich are being subsidized by the tax payers. That's why they have lawyers and lobbyists.

So, the rich can party but not the poor? Because some people need assistance from us, the tax payers, they should continue to remove more joyousness from their lives? How does that work into the "happiness" part of the Constitution? Like, "sorry family, we're on food stamps and Christmas is cancelled", or "no birthday for Billy", or "if you want to watch a movie, go to the neighbors", or "well, time to get rid of our pets".

I'll say it again: it is all about housing and corporate welfare! The government has said that housing should account for no more than one-third of monthly income. Well, that's all fine and dandy, but the actual amount is 50% or more, an especial burden for the poor. So, should I be able to buy booze or tobacco with my hard earned money? You bet! We tax payers subsidize the rich through a vast array of resources for them. Know what? They buy booze, too.

I Am Not An Animal - I Am A Human Being!

WARNING: Pissed off American ahead!

I'm on food stamps. For over a year. And it's people like the person who wrote that positive shit above, that makes me not only more able to face another day of doing the American hustle, but also be proud to be an American. What's that dear readers? The American hustle? You know, trying to find a job and keeping a roof over my head.

But this American, he compares me, a person on food stamps, to an animal! Isn't that fucking great?

To be poor be poor in the United States of America today is worse than it was in the last decade of the 21st century. I speak from my own experience. I have never been truly homeless, I have only spent a couple days on the streets. But I have lived what most Americans would consider a sub-standard life for the last eight years. But why the flying fuck should that matter because I AM AN ANIMAL!

Without food stamps, I would be forced to, what? Lose my phone? Sleep on the streets? Or go into your fucking pantry like any self respecting ANIMAL would and steal your food, but not before I killed your pet dog, too.

You may see me roaming the streets, breaking into grocery stores to steal all your meat because god knows, AS A HUMAN like an animal, without food stamps I should be able to forage for my berries and leaves and cows, OH MY!

Meanwhile, the Corporations and Banks steal more from your American pocketbook than this ANIMAL ever could! And you know what's truly funny? You gladly open your wallet to those fucks but would like to slam it shut on this ANIMAL!? Then you deserved to be raped, and raped repeatedly by the Corporations and Banks who won't even give you the common courtesy of a reach around. May you and any others that think like you that I am an ANIMAL be set upon and masticated by both Smokey The Bear and Yogi Bear (+ BooBoo) you pious fucks!