yeah. next time it happens, I'll be sure and get 'em to fill out a survey for me.
As for me being a bigot...thems fightin words, to use a colloquialism. How many scars have you got from physically fighting Klanners? Hmm?? How many broken ribs have you got from defending someone different from you? I still have a rib that pops out of place when I laugh or cough too hard. I lose a good 5%-10% of my business because using any sort of racial slur, at ALL, will get you booted out of my store. Permanantly. Got a swaztica tatoo? Don't come to my store. Don't want to leave? I will offer to eff you up.
I don't tolerate racist crap. Period. It is the epitomy of stupid, irrational, human behavior. I've fought too hard, too often, defended too many people, both verbally and physically, for someone to pull the racist card on me.

Ok. It's really quite simple. I used to pay well above minimum wage. Now I pay just above minimum. Grocery stores always pay minimum. When the minimum goes up, their costs go up, so their prices go up. As does every business that typically pays it's employees minimum wage. So the costs of living goes up. And suddenly, what I'm paying is no longer above poverty levels. I can't raise wages at my business because my costs have gone up while the economy collapsed. People, with jobs, have less money to spend on what they want because the costs of what they need have gone up so much. I would hazzard a guess that raising the minimum wage has pushed more people on government assistance than purty much anything else.
Good job, government.
I should also mention that since they raised the minimum wage, I've dropped from 12 employees to 8. Business has dropped that much. Companies that typically pay minimum, won't hire anyone, because of the costs. So, it's even harder for someone to even get a foot in the door, so to speak, of any business.

Basically, increased minimums = increased costs, decreased workers, decreased business, decreased buying power of everyone.

Oh, and the increase was more than $2.

I wish you lots of luck...

so what is the solution to the rise in cost of living that had NOTHING to do with wages,, should wages remain stagnant while the cost of living goes up,,,?


I think the cause and effect is backwards here. perhaps increased costs mandate increased minimums,..;.

Are they paying for Social Security with their fake Social Security cards?

I'm surprised that he can fill two refrigerators full of food when the amount of food stamps allowed is sooo low. If they have a baby, they're probably receiving WIC too. One thing to remember is that the food that he received has to last him for a month. Food stamps is a once a month situation.

I know alot of people who try to keep two fridges stocked with food. That doesn't mean anything outrageous anyway.

Foodstamps are only given to low income people and the amount is to help with food during the month, it will not buy all the food for all month.

Winx, WIC does give alot of milk and stuff so that maybe why he had to get another fridge.

Not fake. Stolen. As in, those numbers belong to someone and it ain't the Invader. A Federal Crime.

My acquaintances are getting over $200 a month for food with food stamps, and they also eat a huge, nutritious vegan meal once a day for free at a food line at which I occasional volunteer.

I spend about $200 a month cash on food, and I have a high metabolism, and I even feed other people with this food. I buy a lot of dried grains and beans and cook them at home; I bargain shop for the cheapest produce; I also buy frozen fruit & vegetables so that none of it will be wasted. I don't waste my money on anything with empty calories.

Anyone in normal health with access to a normal supermarket can easily live off of $200 a month for food... unless they are a too frickin' lazy to cook themselves a plate of beans and rice, clip coupons, plan their meals..... or so hedonistic that they must waste their money on 'fancier', less nutritious food.

Who are THEY - where did THEY come from - and where are the statistics, police records, or anything else that supports the theory you have put in the little box you think I can't see beyond?

Furthermore I would really like to see the contrast between THEM (those non-legals)and hard-core citizens and the percentages of fraud perpitrated on our welfare systems from both sides.

Welfare fraud is not new, nor is identifying a particular group of people as the designated class of sub-humans (or sub-Americans)to be the butt of discriminatory bigotry. Don't like 'em, make them responsible for everything that's wrong - instead of facing more difficult issues, that may involve a little more effort than mere opinion.

You can't impose your way of eating on others.

What if someone were allergic to beans and rice? What if they can't digest veges because of some strange condition? ETC and so on.

So good for you that you can do that. Not everyone can. And you cannot impose it on them.

I eat healthy too but I cannot eat healthy on 200.00 a month. I have to buy cheap and unhealthy food quite often because my money is low.

I think I have a great solution to several issues.

First we need to direct every food/nutritional welfare recipient within a reasonable distance to Arcamedee's store to fill up their refrigerators and cabinets once a month.

The new business will allow Arcamedees to pay a dollar over minimum wage and keep his own employees off the welfare roll.

Also, Arcamedees can create his little survey to support his theories. Of course he can't target only the welfare recipients so it will have to be general survey. It could ask question like -

Do you think Illigal aliens are defrauding our welfare system?
Please give examples.

You can't impose your way of eating on others.


Ah, America, the land of the free! Where even people who eat at the expense of the labors of others feel entitled to eat whatever they want!

I know for a fact that $200 is more than enough for an average adult with access to a supermarket and a kitchen to eat healthy. People choose to do otherwise, which is fine. That is their choice.

What is not fine, is claiming that $200 isn't enough money said person to eat healthy for a month. The fact is, it isn't enough money to support these peoples preferred diets. I don't think that it should be.

Its a matter of choice.

Seeing as how this is a convo about mexican-americans, I give props to the mexican-americans I know - they know how to eat high quality, inexpensive meals!



So they can eat whole grain pasta. Big deal. Oh, and I forgot...I don't eat eggs (for the poor little chickens!). But back when I did, I had a huge excess of protein in my diet at a very, very low cost. Of course, I waited for them to be on sale, and even rode my bicycle an extra 1/2 mile to get them at the lower-price grocery store.

My lazy-*** selfish entitled 'friends' thought I was wasting the effort. I mean, hell, money is free! It comes from the government! Why put effort into saving money?



That would be quite sad, since veggies are the most cost effective way to obtain many nutrients (aside from vitamin pills).

There is no doubt that there are rare, exceptional situations - and this is exactly why I'm pissed off on this topic. The people who are abusing the system drain resources which should be serving those who really need it.




Not everyone, no, but the main obstacle for most people is their worldview, their priorities, their values, and their knowledge.



Are you talking about the lazy, entitled people, or the people with medical conditions? I impose nothing on anyone, but I had little sympathy for the lazy entitled people who make bad choices.




Do you budget yourself? Do you plan your meals? Do you calculate the cost of your meals? Do you visit multiple stores and make mental notes on prices? Do you clip (or these days, print) coupons? Are you willing to invest time/effort into more labor intensive or planning intensive meals? Do you share with others? (Can really but down on cost and labor). Are you willing to cut things out of your diet because they aren't cost-effective ways of getting nutrients? Does anything every go bad in your fridge?

In my experience, unhealthy food isn't any cheaper than healthy food...actually, its more expensive. It costs you energy, vitality, capacity to accomplish things...it effects your mood, which can effect your job (or job hunting) performance. It wastes money on non-nutritive food which would have been better spent on even a very small quantity of nutritious food.

When people each cheap unhealthy food, they are not providing their body with energy or nutrients - they are addressing other kinds of 'needs' which are better confronted and addressed - like food addiction issues, emotional needs, deeply ingrained but self-destructive habits...they are not feeding their bodies, they are feeding their addictions and their emotions. I don't say this in judgement, I'm just acknowledging that $200 a month is not enough to feed peoples food addictions.

As Tony th' Tiger would say,"GRRRRREAT post!!"^^^

One way they could get quality food stuffs is if Welfare would disallow junk foods.

And, whatever happened to Hussein's, get 'em up off their fat azzes and make 'em skinny???

I have heard endless, endless complaints from people on food stamps about how they can't buy certain pre-made (warmed?) foods with their food stamps. The majority of the time, these foods are way overpriced, compared to making it yourself. I can sympathize with homeless people, but for anyone with a kitchen, buy the damn ingredients for 1/3 the price and go make it at home.

I thought that blatant junk food, like candy, was already disallowed...but the crap my friends buy on food stamps isn't much better.

I agree. Foodstamps in my state only covers about a week's worth of food.
My Mom retired from the company (not-for-profit) that facilitated the WIC program in our state. Yes, they get a lot of milk, etc. That ends when the child becomes five.

There's no way that I can feed my child and myself healthily for $200/month. We eat fresh fruit daily and that's not cheap. I bargain shop too. I buy extra when items are on sale. I clip coupons and plan my meals weekly. I eat rice often, eat dairy products and whole grains, and eat frozen veggies. Eating healthy is not cheap.

50 dollars per week ,, for two? not likely,,,,I have a family of four and I stretch the grocery budget to 100 per week, but my son works so he often buys himself something as well

Unhealthy food is cheaper than healthy food. There's even research on it.

There's no way that I can feed my child and myself healthily for $200/month. We eat fresh fruit daily and that's not cheap. I bargain shop too. I buy extra when items are on sale. I clip coupons and plan my meals weekly. I eat rice often, eat dairy products and whole grains, and eat frozen veggies. Eating healthy is not cheap.


I have limited experience buying food for children. One the one hand, they don't eat much; on the other hand, I would be extremely concerned about the quality of their diet. I've eaten fresh fruit while spending less than $200 a month, but primarily when its less than a $1/lb. So some days I'd do without, and when I come across sales I eat more.

In the big picture, I think that eating healthy is cheaper than not eating healthy. The people I know with crappy diets seem to end up spending money on doctors, medicine, time lost from work, etc etc.