Rarely if ever do I write
anything political, but this just baffles me.
First, let’s establish that 83%
of those who are on foodstamps work full time. They are not unemployed or lazy,
they just need help to get food because despite the fact that they work, they
just don’t earn enough to pay bills and buy groceries. If you are honest, it’s
not easy to receive them, nor is the amount a lot.
But just because you lack funds
does not give anyone the right to take what isn’t theirs. To take what they
aren’t supposed to.
Now …. This past weekend, the
system was down. But it wasn’t down, there was a glitch that lifted spending
limits on all EBT (foodstamp) cards. Most stores just didn’t take them. Apparently
two Walmarts in Louisiana didn’t get the memo, still took the EBT card, and
people just went nuts. It looked like they were bracing for the Apocalypse.
They purchase on their EBT card,
as it was put, ‘more food than one family can store.’ Obscene amounts. Some
bought cart after cart of food, wiping the shelves clean. How embarrassing that
people behaved like this.
When the store caught on, people
just left their carts.
But hundreds and hundreds of
people walked away with food they didn’t pay for nor were they entitled to.
Who flips the bill, not the government,
not the recipient of the EBT card, but Walmart. Is that right, no?
These select few out of millions,
just made every EBT recipient look greedy. We’re poor, we’re entitled. Walmart
screwed up., Sorry, my bad. My food.
Wrong.
I know what it is like to not
have enough money for groceries, I know, but the amount they took was far more
than they needed. It was greed. To me, and this is my opinion, was a complete
crime. Yeah, I said it .. crime. They stole the food. They knew they didn’t
have the available balance, yet they shopped and took advantage.
Stealing. The definition of the word ‘Steal’ - take
(another person's property) without permission or legal right and without
intending to return it.
Receiving public assistance of
any kind is not a given, no recipient is entitled to take advantage of an error
to benefit themselves further. No one
for that matter is. Having an EBT card does not give one the right to buy as
much food as they want. That is why there is a monthly allowance.
Before you say, “oh, well, I
would.’ Think about it. Let’s say all Citibank credit cards had the credit
limit lifted by accident, and you went out and bought 500 worth of groceries, a
new TV, and all sorts of stuff. When the system returned, who would be responsible?
Not the store … you.
But the people that took the food
do not have to return it, do not have to pay for it, it’s theirs free and
clear. Wal-Mart pays and that’s a hefty price tag. Why is that right?
Apparently, they can track every
purchase. I fully believe they should trace these folks and make them pay back
the cost of the food. Period.
What a sad state we live in when
people lack the morals and decency and feel they must take advantage of an
error to benefit themselves. What makes it worse is they did so, fully knowing
they wouldn’t get in trouble.
It was a milder form of looting,
and by all intents and purposes a crime.
People have lost all sense of accountability and it was a crime what they did and it's sad that society just continues to lose it's sense of right and wrong.
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