We really need to stop treating this as such a "gotcha!" The whole idea of welfare is that it is supposed to go to people who need it - working or not.
Are people on Food Stamps always going to be unemployed? No? Then are they are going to be employed somewhere? Am I supposed to be mad that these programs are working as designed?
Food stamps and medicaid in particular are also explicitly tied to family need. Unless Amazon is going to start paying someone with a family of 5 more than a person with a family of 3, these criteria are always going to be malleable. (In our state, Medicaid eligibility goes up to $80k in income and up to $100k for food stamps!)
As a proud taxpayer, I am happy my money is going towards working families. I would be more concerned had it not. And I am not going to pretend to be shocked that the beneficiaries work in (surprise) low-income jobs.
Agree with all that. The criticism is that this is a big, American company, one of the largest and most impactful ever, that makes lots of money and is quite profitable, and yet pays its workers low enough that they need to be subsidized with tax dollars. Your tax dollars are given to Amazon's workers, so that Amazon can continue employing them for low wages, and the money saved by paying low wages is going into the shareholder's pockets. Is that a system that you are happy with, and would be fine with continuing in perpetuity?
Obviously, there isn't a silver bullet, and every potential solution has thorns, but are food stamps really meant to perpetually sustain individuals that make low wages at companies that can afford to pay them more?
> (In our state, Medicaid eligibility goes up to $80k in income and up to $100k for food stamps!)
In FL, Medicaid adult eligibility ceiling is $Ø. Also the next states over. And states past that. And more states.
In FL SNAP income limits for adults are [whatever the ASCII symbol is for irrelevant]. Whatever the guidelines are, the vast majority of impoverished adults are denied. Same for next states over. And you get the idea.
Folks posting from states that aren't hostile to vulnerable people are posting their healthcare/assistance figures - in a way that seems to imply their numbers could well represent America. They don't tho.
Are people on Food Stamps always going to be unemployed? No? Then are they are going to be employed somewhere? Am I supposed to be mad that these programs are working as designed?
Food stamps and medicaid in particular are also explicitly tied to family need. Unless Amazon is going to start paying someone with a family of 5 more than a person with a family of 3, these criteria are always going to be malleable. (In our state, Medicaid eligibility goes up to $80k in income and up to $100k for food stamps!)
As a proud taxpayer, I am happy my money is going towards working families. I would be more concerned had it not. And I am not going to pretend to be shocked that the beneficiaries work in (surprise) low-income jobs.