Posted on 03/29/2008 8:52:45 PM PDT by dragnet2
About one in every six West Virginians gets food stamps, the highest level of participation in at least 30 years.
Amid rising food and fuel costs, the assistance is becoming worth less and less.
And supplemental food programs for poor families are struggling to keep up with the added demand as donations are on the decline.
A total of 122,877 of the state's estimated 743,064 households currently receive food stamps.
Sarah Young, a policy specialist with the Department of Health and Human Resources, says the agency is seeing more of the state's working poor applying for food stamps in order to make ends meet.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.com ...
Wait, wait, wait. This is fuzzy math. One in six HOUSEHOLDS is quite different from one in six.
Admittedly, one in six households is still an appalling figure.
When is the last time WV was governed by a Democrat governor or Democrat legislature?
I see all that work on behalf of the state by Sheets Byrd is really making a difference.
In West Virginia, any calculations that involve families requires "fuzzy math."
oh relax, it's a joke.
Heh, heh.
I had this conversation with a friend today, actually, who was deploring the lack of affordable housing in the Bay area. I reminded her that there was a time when that if a man couldn’t feed himself or his family, he picked them up and moved them seeking work. It was one of the great migrations into California, matter of factly.
That age has come and gone. We have people who are capable of working, but in our “compassion,” we let them remain stationary and then bring in illegal work to be the jobs they should be doing. It deprives man of humanity, self-worth, self-respect, and it harms our nation’s social fabric.
Granted, there are those incapable of working. But they are not in the majority.
I didn’t know that squirrel and polk salad could be purchased with food stamps.
Stamps? I thought it went over to a credit card like system years ago.
Dammit...enough with the backwoods jokes. Just because I wanna try some squirrel stew doesn’t mean we are all deliverance and stuff...
I think you win the thread.
That was, precisely, my first thought.
Yikes! A 10 person household with little or no income.
We need to start putting free contraceptives in the grocery sack. Lots and lots of them.
Certainly not “one in six” is incapable? If that were the case, it should be the Health Department making this announcement!!
If it is worthless quit giving it out.
Yes, Jesco lives in an apartment just up the street from my office.
I saw him last thurs morning walking his little Jack Russell Terrier down the street. Jessie has a full white beard now.
He’s actually a very nice guy if you treat him with respect. Come to Madison WV some day and Ill introduce you to him. He likes to meet people.
I knew a guy from WV that got some of them food stamps.
He thought they tasted terrible so he didn’t get any more.
I wonder what percentage of those families taking food stamps are illegals???
Actually, since it’s possible that the poorer people are having more kids than those less poor, it’s possible that 1 in 6 households is actually more than 1 in 6 people in the state.
Ouch.
I believe W. Virginia has one of the lowest percentage of foreign-born residents of any state. Something like 2-3%.
The illegal alien crud has moved out of it's normal home in the border states to infect most of the states of the Union.
I'd be willing to bet your figures are too low by at least half, and probably much more.
A good indicator would be to travel around to the fast-food restaurants and see who is manning the counters and also see who is mowing the lawns.
While the blow-hard Robert Byrd has brought new highways to nowhere in West Virginia, he and others have failed to bring new industry to West Virginia. In order to improve the plight of the poor, you have encourage new industry to build in your state.
Coal companies have tremendous power in W. VA and have done everything possible to keep new industry out of the state so they can keep their own labor costs down. In the song, "Sixteen Tons," there is the classic line , "Saint Peter don't you call me cause I can't go, I owe my soul to the (coal) company store." That is just the way the coal companies want conditions to stay in West Virginia.
Keeping people poor and dependent is a great way to keep them under control and big supporters of Democrats.
I know a few like him (and I’m related to a few of ‘em)...
WV is, and probably will be for another decade, a yellow dog state. Mostly Conservative in values. Democratic in local voying.
Being a WV resident myself, this number doesn’t surprise me in the least. I’m not a native West Virginian, and yes there are many transplants like me here. The economy here is awful for sure, but there are lots of opportunities for engineers in the chemical and coal industries that lure people like myself in. I certainly don’t have the answers to the economic situation here. However, I will give some observations. People here for generations now have had the coal and chemical industries to depend on for well paid unskilled labor jobs. Those jobs have disappeared over the years, for reasons many of you are much better qualified to debate. The essence of the problem for people here is they’ve failed to adapt to the situation. In the southern part of the state (the worst economically) people refuse to relocate for opportunties feeling a sense of entitlement. Their bull headed way of looking at it is that it’s the govt’s fault so why not let the govt take care of them to make up for it? Wrong I know, but that’s how many see it. Also I have to ask why is it very few of the engineers I work with are native West Virginians? Why do we have so many job openings for skilled laborers such as electricians, mechanics, welders, etc? My point being, people here need to realize that there are still opportunties but they’re not handed out anywhere, they have to compete for them. They need to wake up and realize that the good old days of going to work in the mines after high school are over, and develop the skills needed to compete. They also need to quit sending their kids to Marshall (no offense to Marshall grads, my Masters is from Marshall as well) for Liberal Arts degrees and get their butts into Engineering school or learning a trade that they can use if they want to remain here. Anyway, that’s my rant, thanks for hearing it!
The illegal problem isn’t nearly as bad in WV as most states I’m sure, but it has gotten to be much worse in the last couple of years. I don’t want to get into a racist labeling thing here, and obviously I don’t know who is and who isn’t illegal but the fact is I used to only see Hispanics during the summer in our chemical plant doing work for contractors. Now you see them everywhere, year round. As matter of fact, I had 2 this evening who could barely speak English ask me directions at a gas station just down the street. For the record, this is in Charleston, and I doubt it’s a problem in most of the state. I do suspect however it’s a serious problem in the Eastern panhandle area near MD and DC.
It’s a mindset thing. I have a bunch of in-laws that live in WV. They think they couldn’t possibly ever leave WV.
One nephew with a college degree has never used it, works as a laborer in a factory and keeps getting layed off is perfectly happy to live at home and not look for work. I’ve even given him contacts to people I know personally and he won’t give them a resume. When he’s said there are no jobs in WV I tell him to come stay with my wife and I in north Alabama where the unemployment rate is between 3 and 4%.
Have another nephew with an Engineering degree that got a good job in Virginia but ended up finding a so so engineering job in WV after two years (and he was getting lots of raises in VA).
When I go to WV to visit I always feel like I’m in the twilight zone. Don’t get me wrong. I love going there, it’s just that I guess I am a hard ass as I was born with multiple physical handicaps and I put myself through High School and college mowing lawns to make money (did quite well too) and have this odd notion that if I can anyone can...
I’ve also moved to where the jobs are, not waiting for the jobs to come drop in my lap.
No wonder why Senator Byrd and most of the other “D’s” keep getting re-elected in W.V.!
Call me heartless but no one, and I mean no one, should be receiving $1200 a month in food stamps. I’m sure that’s on top of housing, fuel, and pocket money. If you can’t afford the kids keep it in your pants. Short of that, get fixed!
I am one of the generational West Virginians. My ancestors moved in to what became Nicholas county in 1810.
I don’t live in West Virginia. When I grduated from high school, I didn’t believe there was money for college so I joined the Navy. I learned electronics and moved on to computers in early nineties.
I would love to live in West Virginia, but I have built a life in Maryland. Most of my friends from high school have moved out. Those that didn’t have government jobs at some level.
I agree with you about a Liberal Art degree from anywhere. Go to an Engineering school and make a good living.
I have a nephew that can’t find a job in southern WV. I offered to let live with my wife and I in Maryland, but he doesn’t seem to want to take me up on it.
Good post....
Went hunting in WV with a friend years ago when i was in the Navy...really liked the people their....fine place to retire...but not work.
Well things don’t seem to have changed since I left. West Virginia is beautiful but it’s people are a breed apart. Welfare is a right to alot of them. Girls used to get married when they got pregnant. Do they get married anymore? Anywhere the UMWA reigned, education was strictly optional and not particularly important. I never met a West Virginia parent who pushed their kid to get ahead. I’m not a native but moved there (Monongalia county) as a kid. I love the place and understand why people don’t want to leave (it’s something that gets into your soul) but geeze Louise, somebody has got to tell these people there’s a better way.
Logan WVA 1946
Thanksgiving dinner!
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed freepmail me or post a message here.
These types of programs are what is keeping West Virgina improverished:
http://www.neoperspectives.com/summary.htm
In my area, there are radio spots advertising the availability. Probably in your area too.
Why would our government do this?
Amend that to say water supply.
Slavery is illegal.
Byrd has help. Let’s not be too quick to give Jay Rockefeller a pass here.
Unless it's government-sponsored. Then it is mandatory and expected.
There were times my family had to go on food stamps (usually while still holding a job.hopefully never again. knock on wood) It was amazing the amount a family can get in food stamps. We thought $600 a month was a lot. We even stocked up, since it's supposed to only be a temporary thing. But, cash assistance is very little and you don't get help with utilities or rent unless you are about to get kicked out or your power is nearly off.
No matter how ya cut it up, the numbers are not good at all.
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