After an improbable rise from the Bronx projects to a job selling Gulf Coast homes, Isabel Bermudez lost it all to an epic housing bust ”” the six-figure income, the house with the pool and the investment property.
Now, as she papers the county with résumés and girds herself for rejection, she is supporting two daughters on an income that inspires a double take: zero dollars in monthly cash and a few hundred dollars in food stamps.
With food-stamp use at a record high and surging by the day, Ms. Bermudez belongs to an overlooked subgroup that is growing especially fast: recipients with no cash income.
About six million Americans receiving food stamps report they have no other income, according to an analysis of state data collected by The New York Times.
Makes it tough to pay the rent.
You might want to bring it up at Tea Party rallies to see their response.
Down in West Palm we passed numerous ‘check cashing’ storefronts. In almost all of them was the sign:
[b]WIC Checks and Food Stamps accepted![/b]
And as my dad points out, stand outside a store where they accept food stamps, and watch the car the people drive away in (often better than the one I drive), and the expensive cell phone used. I can’t tell you how many people I saw down there at Publix who had expensive cell phones but paid with food stamps. Remember, cell phone plans are around $50 – 0ver $100 a month. My neice can’t afford diapers for her kids, but can smoke through two $6.00 packs of cigs a day.
Let’s look behind the story before judging the state of the economy.
I suspect that some of those people live in the households of others, so they are not trying to run a household on the value of the food stamps that they receive. For example, a disabled adult child living with his parents might receive food stamps (although you would think that someone living under those circumstances would also get SSI).
library jim, cell phones would be essential for being available for getting a job.
I’m not sure if we should have a nanny state that tells people what they can buy or not.
But as long as we’re giving billionaires money to spend lavishly on their own bonuses, I don’t begrudge poor people a few small pleasures.
I think a lot of us believe that those who need help would could be better served if no bailouts had been given out and that the free loaders who do not need the help had there handouts stoped. Two wrongs do not make a right, only a left.
Re: [blockquote] #3, libraryjim, are you implying that everyone on food stamps is secretly wealthy and defrauding the system based on your experience? In addition, are you furhter assuming the the economy is fine, also based on your experience? [/blockquote]
Don’t worry, Jim. Most of us understood that you are saying there is a lot of fraud going on with government entitlement programs and that many folks make frivolous choices that put them in bad financial shape. Poverty in America still means cell phones and cable TV, in stark contrast with poverty in the rest of the world.
Cell phones are also essential for evading the police, setting up drug deals, and getting illegal IDs!
The amount of people getting ‘lavish bonuses’ are very small compared to execs who don’t. And they may very well earn it, or are you guilty of discrimination against the rich? Reverse snobbery? Let me ask you, if they didn’t get that money, would the poor get it? Nope. Even if the gov’t gets it’s way for total wealth redistribution, the only place that money would end up would be in the hands of government officials for their bureaucracies to keep poor people in poverty and reliant on that government, as was the case in the Soviet Union.
Do I think that all people who get food stamps are ‘secretly wealthy’? No, but I do think there needs to be some sort of accountability. Having an iPhone and expensive plan is irresponsible when you can’t feed your family. I make 30K a year, and I can’t afford more than a tracphone, where I spend $20 for 60 minutes with three months of service, I pay as I need more. Plus my phone gets double minutes. Likewise a car where the payments can be higher than rent! If you have a Lincoln Navigator (Someone I know saw a woman pay with food stamps, then get into a 2009 Navigator when she left the store) that costs $600 a month for payments, then the responsible thing would be to go back to the dealer and trade down to a Ford Focus!
I try to be as fiscally responsible with what I earn as possible, living within my means. Why should we not expect the same from those on assistance? Why shouldn’t we expect the same from the government, for that matter?
Can you prove that only US citizens get food stamps? I know for a fact that in south Florida many illegals get food stamps, WIC and other benefits (several of the people who protest a day labor service that caters to illegals are involved in the political and legal aspects of this and are trying to get local enforcement of immigration standards with ID required for services. If my tax dollars are going to pay for these things without my consent, I want to make sure everyone deserves to get the benefits, have proper citizenship or immigration requirements, and do not ‘cheat the system’.)
Oh, come on, where did I suggest the economy is fine? The Democrats and the media have done their best to wreck our economy, and have succeeded in that admirably. (I assume that the comment “I’m not sure if we should have a nanny state that tells people what they can buy or not” also applies to your views on health care, where if a person doesn’t buy health insurance, they will be fined $750 and face one year in prison? I hope you have protested this aspect of the HC Reform bill to your representatives and senators?) Food Stamps and WIC have clear guidelines as to WHAT can be purchased with those coupons. For example, under WIC, you have to use the coupons to buy milk, cereals, bread, and formula. You cannot re-sell the coupons (unless you live in South Florida, I guess), or use them for cigarettes or alcohol. Although I did also see liquor stores that advertised “food stamps accepted here” as well.
You are naive if you think fraud is not widespread in the system, especially among illegals, and that only those who need the system are using it. Food Stamps and WIC are supposed to be temporary stop-gaps, designed, like unemployment insurance, to help out until one can get back on their feet. Unfortunately, the Nanny State we now live in says “who needs you to work? Stay on the dole as long as you want!”
By the way, don’t forget that I was out of work for 7 months, and the job I now have pays less than I got before I lost my previous position. I don’t begrudge anyone seeking help that needs it, but I would rather see the Church take this on than the Government.
Perhaps we should require all who go on assistance also sit through Crown Ministries or Dave Ramsey courses?
Jim
Thank you, Alli B., that’s exactly what I meant!
There is fraud. A majority are legit. I don’t want to tell people what to buy, but I also don’t want to pay for people to have relative luxuries at the expense of taxpayers. Unfortunately our system, initially designed to give dignity to those out of work, robs dignity and doesn’t do a good job of helping/encouraging/mandating people take work available. It would be best if this were done by the Church; however, as much as she does, it has never been enough to keep the government from needing to step in to help. Many, if not most, people on unemployment made poor financial decisions – as did most of the rest of the US public in the past decade. Dave Ramsey or Crown Financial should be mandatory high school education in every state – and should be for most church members, too.
My point(s) is (are) there are lots of true things said above. That there is fraud doesn’t mean there aren’t a majority who are legit. That some have let themselves become conditioned to living on welfare season after season does not mean many are trying hard to get work. That the Church should do this doesn’t mean she has ever done enough of it. Oh, well … I think my point is made.
oops – should have been “does not mean many are [i]not[/i] trying hard to get work” in the second paragraph. My apologies.
This is not as strange as it sounds. In my state, if you are “self-employed,” you do not qualify for unemployment compensation. The theory is that since you are theoretically hiring yourself, you can’t fire yourself and thus shouldn’t qualify for unemployment because somehow it is “voluntary.” Ironically, however, you are still assessed to pay unemployment taxes to cover yourself even though you can’t qualify for unemployment compensation.
So who are the “self-employed”? Typically, small business owners, as well as “independent contractors” such as real estate salespeople, insurance salespeople, mortgage brokers, lawyers and others. If they go under, they have no government safety blanket like salaried employees and union employees have. And many of them end up consuming their savings and retirement trying to keep their businesses going before they lose it all.
RE: “I’m not sure if we should have a nanny state that tells people what they can buy or not.”
Of course — JW is completely for a “nanny state” in that he adores vast quantities of entitlements. One of the pleasant things to watch in JW’s rhetoric is his use of the words of the system that he hates — thus his deconstructionist use of the word “nanny state” knowing as he does that conservatives use that word all the time and despise a “nanny state.” Its rhetoric that is calculated, and transparently obvious, and repellently lacking in integrity — but what else is new?
RE: “But as long as we’re giving billionaires money to spend lavishly on their own bonuses, I don’t begrudge poor people a few small pleasures.”
Hey I’ve got an idea — let’s do neither. Let’s not bail out the banks nor offer the entitlements. That way the government has no say in how people spend their money.
That would certainly eliminate the “nanny state” that JW is so fearful of.
If welfare/entitlement fraud is so rare, why are there so many of us that have lived “poor” and seen such fraud? When I was working minimum wage part time in southern Mississippi, I personally observed several folks receiving rental assistance, utilities assistance, food stamps, education assistance, and a cash stipend…that all added up to much more than I was earning and paying taxes on.
Some that are pooh-poohing the anecdotes about entitlement fraud have never lived the life of the working poor. Many of us that have been working poor and have worked our way up all seem to have similar stories about welfare fraud. Why is that and what makes those that have lived insulated lives think that their perspective is so much more accurate?
I don’t think that any of us are heartless or ruthless. We just are tired of injustice; and as Sarah pointed out, that includes the injustice of bailing out the uber rich, too. Being against fraud is not an either/or proposition. One can be equally comfortable being against fraud at the lower end of the economic spectrum as at the higher end. I believe that the amounts of money involved balance out because there are far fewer rich frauds than poor frauds and though the rich frauds receive more individually than the poor frauds, there are so many poor frauds that they steal as much or more of our tax dollars as the wealthy ones. Both class of frauds are despicable.
If I read the story correctly, Isabel Bermudez had a six figure income prior to the recession. Her job (“selling Gulf Coast homes”) would have required that she have a good, late model car and an expensive cell phone. With a six figure income she could afford the car and an expensive cell phone. These things do not necessarily vanish when one loses one’s job in a recession; they are also probably necessary to find and get another job.
I recall something back in the 60s. It seems that two Houston banks were merging. One of the bank presidents lost his job as a result. At the final meeting he joked that he guessed he would have to file for unemployment compensation. The other participants said, “You wouldn’t dare.” So, each week this limo pulled up in front of the unemployment office. The chauffeur got out, opened the door and the former bank president got out, went in, checked to see if there were any openings for bank presidents listed and, there being none, collected his unemployment check. Cheat? Hardly. After all, the bank had been paying into the fund for him for years, and he qualified and was entitled. Not everything is as it seems. (Incidently, he signed over his unemployment checks to a charity.)
Around here the phrase “food stamps” is something of an anachronism. There isn’t such things. Recipients of “food stamps” are issued what is, for all intents and purposes, a debit card. So it is unlikely that people standing in line can tell whether the individual is “on food stamps” or is using a debit card. I suspect, although I do not know for certain, that the stores’ computers are programmed to reject prohibited purchases such as alcohol, tobacco and some processed foods.
There are undoubtedly cheats on food stamps. There are cheats in business and industry. There are cheats in politics. There are even, gasp, cheats in TEC ministry! Maybe the solution is to do away with business, industry, politics and TEC.
When my friend was working as a cashier at a grocery store, she said the way folks worked around the prohibited item list was they’d use EBT (electronic benefits transfer, the debit-card version of food stamps mentioned above) for what that covered, then put down one of the dividers and do a seperate transaction for beer, cigarettes, and lottery tickets. While I don’t like the idea of legislating morality (if the poor want a beer with the money they earn, it isn’t the State’s business to nose in) perhaps budget counseling could be paired with benefits. Like how much job training could you pay for by dropping the beer & lotto tickets, for example. I think this is something the Church can step up and handle, though we must be careful to avoid the hectoring, Victorian mode.
[blockquote]Her income soared to $180,000, and she kept the pay stubs to prove it. By the time the glut set in and she lost her job, the teaser rates on her mortgages had expired and her monthly payments soared.[/blockquote]
Ok, and I am supposed to feel [i]sorry[/i] for her? You are kidding, right? She was [i]earning[/i] that much money (SIX times the median income of households in Fort Myers, which is $28,514)and she couldn’t be bothered to pay off her mortgage or set aside money for a rainy day? She had a $120K, but that wasn’t good enough, so she bought a $180K house and went further into debt. She [i]worked in the industry[/i] and failed to realize the reality of adjustible rate mortgages?
After exhausting her unemployment benefits, she hasnt’ found a job, any job at all, anywhere?
A quick Google revealed the following in the Fort Myers area:
Adecco Employment Services‎
Snelling Personnel Services‎
Personnel Services-Ft Myers‎
Remedy Intelligent Staffing‎
Kelly Services‎
And so on, and so on…
In fact, there were 3,014 web page responses to the Google search “Fort Myers job openings”.
I have worked for Olsten Temporary Services. My wife has worked for both Snelling and Kelly. Why can’t she? I started work at age 14, while in school. Why can’t her 17 year old daughter get a job and help out? Where is her personal responsibility? Why does she expect others to pay for her poor life choices?
What a story of feckless behavior! By the way, last I checked, TANF is still available, so why isn’t she collecting it? Has she already used her 5 years worth of public cash assistance? Also…she might want to consider MARRIAGE. I know that it is an old fashioned concept, to be married when you have kids, but it seemed to work well, in most cases, for a few thousand years. Maybe she should give it a shot.
“Cell phones are also essential for evading the police, setting up drug deals, and getting illegal IDs!” So then, perhaps we should make them illegal? Not sure what your point is.
Sarah: “Deconstructionist use”?! You mean, consistent use? Government “regulation” of poor or rich people is still regulation. Most people are simply selective when they use the word “nanny state.” Plenty turn their eye against big banks and corporations who are on the dole and get all enraged at undocumented workers gaming the system. It seems to me that plenty tend to think the rich are a better class of people. Not any of the people who blog here, of course. I freely admit, I’m more willing to forgive the everyday sins of the poor. I’m relatively prosperous and don’t have time to resent whatever machinations they may take.
Sarah, “adores vast quantities of entitlements.” I’m not sure exactly what that means. I don’t share your belief that government is always bad; that does not mean I think it is always good. Nor do I think citizens using the government to help the poor puts our society at some great risk. I admit, I’m always amused when you try to pigeonhole me, because I don’t agree whatever political narrative you find convenient. Just so happens that here my needling seems liberal.
#18 – I admit, Sick, I feel the same way when a banker says that $500,000 a year isn’t enough money.
Andrew717’s comments are more forgiving; they show some understanding of the nuances; that the poor are persons who aren’t perfect, who make mistakes. Alas, if the church were a bit more able in these things, perhaps there wouldn’t be a need for the state. What is evident is that most Christians don’t do enough, or they think that they do enough.
If there is one difference between someone who is wealthy and poor, it is that when someone who is rich makes a mistake, they are more likely to be forgiven. Someone who is poor makes a mistake, and they are bound into the system. I see it all the time. I myself have benefited from being forgiven in my youth. I also don’t mind being taxed, as compared to the rest of the world, it’s a small amount, and I understand that our great country requires its citizens to make some sacrifices on its behalf. Some of which may be financially painful.