Meme Thread... no politics

In reply to Mr_Asa :

That said, gamers have not owned the games they've purchased for over a decade now.

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

As a person who has been able to afford any phone I want, largely because I make a phone last 5+ years, the most expensive phone I've ever bought was about $700.

GIRTHQUAKE said:

You'll have to prove any of that is happening, let alone has a "bill" that's going to pass. Living in a post-truth society means that anyone can "make" their reality depending on whom they follow and listen to, especially if they're loud enough- and it also means there's no nuance or context. Also, this berkeleyin' food stamp thing? On a forum dedicated to making race cars from what you got you're not gonna think "Maybe it was bought used or repaired on the cheap"? Comon, you're better than that. Here's an actual meme

When I was in my 20s I was flat broke. Working a job for $8/hr with a wife and a kid and living paycheck to paycheck. I was in line at the grocery store one time and the lady in front of me bought $80 in groceries and paid with food stamps. She was buying steak and seafood to go with her fresh veggies. She was also buying a bottle of wine that her food stamps wouldn't pay for. She whipped out a stack of cash and peeled a $20 off the top to pay for the wine. I was a little pissed about that, but I let it slide. 

I, on the other hand, was buying dried beans, canned veggies, rice, and hamburger with a $20 because $20 was all I had.

I followed her out of the store and as I was walking to my 1974 Pinto that I paid $250 for, she was climbing into a shiny new Caddy that had her 6 kids in it. That told me a lot about how government assistance works and it really pissed me off. It was a repetitive theme until food stamps turned into EBT cards because people were embarrassed to be getting assistance while spending money on new cars and new phones. Now they can whip out a visa just like everyone else. I'd be willing to bet that lady's 6 kids are on food stamps now and playing the system just like their mother did.

The charity I give the most money to is the Lowcountry Food Bank. I'm a firm believer that the better off should make sure everyone gets fed. I also think the EBT system should be dismantled and scrapped. People on government assistance should never be better off than the guy that's busting his ass to make ends meet and feed his kids. 

In reply to Toyman! :

There are a few people that really do need temporary assistance like SNAP and when Covid first hit, there were a lot more people that really needed the help.  I'm aware of one situation where a couple had at least one child and both parents worked as bartenders, but at different restaurants and different shifts so they could split childcare duties and to diversify their employment in case one establishment had troubles.  They were doing okay until the government came along and made all the establishments closed and now they were very suddenly both not getting a paycheck or tips.  A sickeningly large number of the people that receive SNAP, however, are generationals that see it as a right of passage to take their kids down to the office on their 18th birthday so they can get their very own SNAP card.  Honestly, I think society might be better served if we took that money and bought large quantities of rice and beans and if you can't feed yourself, you can come down and pick up a weeks' worth.  Source: My wife works for the state office that administers that program.

Sounds like y'all should go have some conversations with the largest private employer I the country, who spent most of the last 30 year's making sure they were the only game in town, while utilizing public money for private security, selling toxic "food" and knockoffs of knockoffs of Chinese goods.

We can always find an exception to the norm, toymans seafood queen, hell even Bud Dwyer was a good politician, but most of the people living on food stamps these days are wage slaves. I can't even go far enough to call them debt slaves like most of the people here, because they don't make enough money even working full time to get into debt. 

GameboyRMH said:

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

As a person who has been able to afford any phone I want, largely because I make a phone last 5+ years, the most expensive phone I've ever bought was about $700.

I volunteer at a food bank and one of my frequent customers drives a D Class Mercedes (2019ish in fairly good condition)...I've gotten to know her and learned that her husband was an attorney who died suddenly and wasn't a big saver.

The car looks impressive but we all know how little a high end European car that's out of warranty is worth...pretty much when it breaks, she's walking.

In general, yes, there is a lot of fraud in these systems and even if the cost to minimize it exceeds the savings a case can be made to go after the offenders as it's so infuriating to the rest of us.

Having said that, things aren't always as they appear so please give others at least some benefit of the doubt.

My opposition to electric stoves is simple.  When the power goes out, I have no stove.  We've been in this house for 10 years.  In that 10 years, there has not been one year when we haven't lost power for at least a long enough period of time to affect our meals, and we use our stove to cook just about every meal.  This past year we lost power for a week.  Gas stoves work just fine without electricity.  Gas ovens only need a minimal amount of electricity to work- enough to power the electric controls- and our generator can handle that just fine.  I don't want to have to keep a large enough generator on hand to be able to cook with on an electric stove- while powering the rest of the house.  

We went to visit my parents for Christmas 2 years ago.  The night we got there, the power was out.  Being western NY, it was also 10 degrees.  Had they not had a gas stove and a gas fireplace (with battery controls) we could have died.  BTW:  NY currently has a ban on gas stoves going into new construction.  This is not a hoax, or misinformation.  

We have a wood stove at our house, for similar reasons.  Last winter the mini-splits upstairs took a dump and the incompetent company took a month to get parts and figure out what was wrong.  A MONTH.  In the middle of winter.  You know what doesn't need electricity to make heat?  A chunk of burning dead tree.  

Apart from these "minor" "inconveniences" with electric stoves, I have yet to use one, and I have tried many, that works as well as gas.  Gas is instant, it always works, it's visible so you can see you've got heat, and it is instantly regulateable.  

In a world where electricity was 100% reliable, where power was generated from the sun or nuclear, and stoves worked perfectly, I could be convinced to go with an electric stove.  We are nowhere near that point.  

Zero politics expressed or implied.  

In reply to RevRico :

I'm curious what Walmart pay, currently $14-$19/ hr to start, has to do with people abusing the system? If you are working full-time at Walmart, you don't need an EBT card unless you have six baby-daddy. You are probably eating a lot of beans and rice, but you aren't starving. If your spouse also works there, you are bringing in about $60k a year and then you can afford steak at Walmart. 

In reply to Toyman! :

"The charity I give the most money to is the Lowcountry Food Bank. I'm a firm believer that the better off should make sure everyone gets fed. I also think the EBT system should be dismantled and scrapped. People on government assistance should never be better off than the guy that's busting his ass to make ends meet and feed his kids."

Quoted for emphasis.  We also donate to our local food charity, have brought them food, etc.  The whole food industry in this country is a joke- far too much to get into in a meme thread.  

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

We have been in our house for 12 years. In that time we have lost power twice. Both times due to cars running over transformers. 

I still spent the time and money to install a gas stove because they cook so much better than anything else on the market. 

Edit:

Never mind. I'm not wading into this discussion.

This is not what the meme thread is for.

Edit, redacted for same reason as above.  Back to meme spamming.

In reply to Beer Baron and ProDarwin:

But wait ... I'm sure someone was about to change their opinion on the matter.