Tax Dollars Hard at Work

We took a trip to WinCo this afternoon. It took about 1 1/2 hours. We chose a checkout line. There was ONE person ahead of us. We were in line for TWENTY, yes 20, minutes. This is why:

Jeff was enraged and this little poster describes his feelings to a T.

Here's the story. I'll try to make it short, but it was a nightmare.
The couple in front of us was a typical "baby daddy-baby mama" livin' off the government type. African-American man with a beanie, baggy pants, too cool for everyone, treats the lady like a slave, etc. with a Caucasian fake-baked just nasty lady wearing a green velour tracksuit with no shirt underneath and the zipper down to the bra. NOT pleasant.

They had 3 carts full of stuff. Frozen dinners, dog food, Tampico juice, at least 6 cases of soda, refrigerated biscuits, pizza, more frozen dinners, Jiffy muffin mixes, chips, and all sorts of other preservative-filled microwave meals. Not a whole lot of actual food. There was also some laundry detergent.
They are putting all their stuff up on the belt thing and the checker keeps giving them a running total. 2 1/2 carts later, they have gone over their budget and are starting to "just get the necessities" which means soda and Tampico juice and frozen pizzas. So then they're way over their limit with a bunch of stuff not even scanned so it goes back into the cart and a worker was sent to put it all away.
Still over the limit, they start going through their bags and picking things to put back. Laundry detergent (who needs clean clothes?), fresh fruits and vegetables, chocolate, etc. We FINALLY get to the point where they have put enough stuff back. We thought. The cashier starts ringing up our stuff and then the baby daddy comes back over and gets all up in his baby mama's grill saying that she was supposed to be keeping track of it all. So the cashier has to go back to dealing with them and getting them to pay and put yet MORE stuff back from their already bagged groceries. Baby mama says,
"We got everything except cigarettes and diapers."
Awesome. So, they use their food stamps and then have to come up with some cash to cover the difference. They're $1.75 short. Random worker at WinCo knows baby daddy and covers the difference. We also find out that there are 8 people in the household. Jeff figured it was prostitutes. I figured it was lots of children. I really tried hard to find pictures that would describe them, but this is all I could come up with:

Now, there are a few things we need to discuss about this situation. Generally, I don't care at all what people buy. The fact that I'm getting my degree in social work says that I support helping people who really truly need it. There are a lot of people out there who are having a hard time and can't make things work which is great that there is TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) to help them through the tough times.
My thoughts are that if you are in need of food stamps, you should use them for NECESSITIES. Like bread, milk, vegetables, fruits, etc. Not frozen meals, pizza, refrigerated biscuits, soda, fake juice, and all that kind of stuff. Drink water. It's good for you AND you can get it from the tap. Pretty cool, huh.
Plus, if you know you have a definite limit of what you can spend, you should probably have a calculator with you and keep track of how much you're spending before filling 3 carts of stuff.
Common sense. Logical. But not for these people. Or for many of the people that social workers work with. It's definitely an interesting population and there are a lot of frustrations that come along with it.
It is frustrating to have a husband who works so hard (thanks, Jeff) and we make things work with the little bit of money we have and we don't qualify for food stamps, but then there are people who spend their extra money on cigarettes and velour tracksuits and get $400 from the government (our taxes) for groceries.
I know times are tough. People are having a hard time everywhere. I really do think people who genuinely need the assistance should get it.
I also think that people who spend their extra money on cigarettes and not necessities for the children should look into something called birth control. It works wonders.