Automatic Attitudinal Response: Food Stamps

This post took me a little longer to think about, which is probably a sign that I am not very aware of my automatic attitudinal responses. I tried to think what makes me a little tick and memories of my hometown actually popped up. Now a little disclaimer, I love my hometown and glad I grew up there because I think it helped make me who I am, as did the places or places you grew up, but as always there is a but.

But I had two pet peeves when I worked as a cashier at our one and only grocery store. One, scanning all the junk food that went through the check line before they swipped their food stamps and two, helping them out to their Cadillac Escalade.

Of course I defaulted to finding a source that defaulted with what is wrong with food stamps.

Top 10 reasons Food Stamps Need to be Reformed

This article agreed with some of the points I felt was wrong with food stamps, such as creating dependency, and it is prone to fraud and being an abused system. It also brought awareness to maybe some other issues, such as the programs goal aiming for enrollment versus need.

This short documentary explains some of these same points also, although I am a little skeptical about where the source of the this documentary, very one sided perspective.

I tried to learn a little more about how food stamps work. This video makes it seem like it isn't easy to abuse the system but then how many more people are getting boob jobs while on food stamps? Or is this a marginalized example? 

I am sympathetic to the families who truly do need it like Mercedes. She is very respectful and has an incredible amount of integrity, but is she also a marginal example?

Thinking back to that job now I wish I would have paid a little more attention to who was really using food stamps, to who was buying the junk food versus nutrition, etc. Is it marginalized in my own mind based off my own experiences? Is the media only showing us marginalized examples?

I don't notice food stamps really anymore since I haven't been a cashier and don't see it on a daily basis, but I am still skeptical of the system. I definitely there is room for improvement, less abuse, quality over quantity and so families like Mercedes can have afford nutrition while they are trying to get back on their feet and even buy a few sweet treats to enjoy for her and her family.