No, it isn't cruel - it is admirable. There should be stigma to living on the dole. I wish my little town's stores here did that. Instead what we see are welfare mommas obliviously flaunting them - in some cases, bragging. I have NEVER seen one of them trying to 'hide' using the card - EVER..... Disgusting.
They get to go because their wives are the only ones working and her job has cut her hours and her pay.
These people are desperate and their desperation is embarrassing to them.
I watched a woman with 2 gov’t cards buy groceries, 1 cart plus a little, then another cart with a lot of clothes, books and I don’t know what else. I didn’t know there were different cards for different items. She used one card for some of the groceries and all of the clothes. The other card she used for groceries. Her fingernails were beautiful, as was the pedicare, the clothes she wore were not from Walmart.
It’s not “cruel”, let’s call it “an incentive to get off the dole”.
You’re probably onto some thing that goes against your argument: those who feel the shame and stigma are those who wouldn’t be using them if th ey had an alternative.
Two years ago for the first time in my life I had to go on unemployment. The payment was just enough to cover my mortgage so I once a month withdrew the total amount off the card that Indiana issues and made the deposit in my account.
I was so ashamed I drove myself clear across town to another branch that I never used and slunk in when they were dead slow to do it. I felt lower than whale sh*t, to be honest it was the lowest point of my life I think, and that was withdrawing from a system I had paid into for damn near 30 years. I see these women using WIC or food stamps in line at Walmarts every time I’m there buying complete crap and then I just imagine the outcry if that system is ever interrupted someday.
I weep for my kids and what they will have to deal with when they are my age.
(caution: contains foul language)