What it really means to remove SNAP from many people's lives, and the consequences it will have

There are a lot of people who are trolling reddit and quora claiming to being "Lazy and mooching off the government for life so they can just live a lazy life" -- I don't believe those posts for a second. I think they somehow think that this happening is going to be a good thing, but they are not looking at the big picture.

I am pretty sure these are people who don't get (or have ever had to rely on) SNAP or any other government assistance, have full time jobs and are thinking that people like us on SNAP are somehow on easy street. They look at the tax brackets where they have to pay for welfare and social security and fantasize that every person on welfare has never paid those taxes.

Most of what people that think this way believe is actually wrong, that is not the case, here's a few reasons to expand your thinking a bit:

1. NOBODY wants to have to rely on such services, and does not go out of their way to get next to nothing for their family when they could get a job and make plenty of money. Just like nobody goes out of their way to get on disability. Do you even know how little you get on these programs compared to cost of living? It isn't even enough unless you live in an 1 room trailer in a state park RV lot, maybe. But even then, you'll be hard pressed to make ends meet. It's the reason that most disabled people still work to some degree (we have a website for disabled jobs, look it up).

2. Food prices are and have been so HIGH that it barely is sufficient in the first place. Why would people go out of their way to barely make it? The answer is we aren't. Many of us are working, but we don't always fit into these new boxes, so even some of us working will be cut off just because we only got a couple months of notice.

3. Remember because lots of us already WORK anyway and are using it as a supplement to to make ends meet and feed our children! (you know, the "S" in SNAP). Many people that work and don't get SNAP don't realize that if they really can't afford it then they need to be on it, too, but are too proud to do it, that is NOT our fault.

4. Many of us are either disabled or borderline disabled, living an area that is very unsupportive of being so, and depend on it because we cannot physically do anything else. Fun fact: Mental health appointments can take up to 3 months just for an intake, it may be years before you can actually get an exemption from a doctor and most doctors are reluctant to sign them because of their racial, financial, insurance, appearance biases.

5. Nonprofit Food banks often have little to give, get very few donations now that food prices have skyrocketed, especially now, and food give outs are only on certain dates and times which may conflict with our work or ride schedules to show up to get the food. The immediate food in question at the banks often is very close or IS expired. For some reason beyond my understanding people think expired food = donate. When prices when up 4x, food stamps did NOT GO UP. In fact, because the pandemic emergency was ending, the food stamps actually went DOWN right as the prices skyrocketed. So tell me, are you still fantasizing about us being lazy good-for-nothings?

6. I am sure I am not the only one who PAID TAXES FOR DECADES into my welfare, disability and social security taxes just to have it not be there now that I need it. Had I had a disability 10 years ago, I would have been able to have the time to be on SNAP while I waited for a exemption. Now you don't get that chance, as I stated many doctors don't want to sign those because they have biases or prejudices and have a whole list of reasons why they won't regardless of the individual's actual need for it.

7. Kids (and Adults) shouldn't go hungry, period. It's cruel, it's torture, it only hurts the economy and increases violent crime. We are people, not stocks at a bank you can just dump because you don't think we're making you enough money.

8. This country is a place full of people, many of us overworked, underpaid, and put our faith into a system that should catch us when we fall and help us get back up---now the MO is kick people to the curb when the clock runs out, with little notice.

9. People who fall short of making enough to meet the requirement (~800-1000 a month) find themselves without food, or having to buy food and not pay rent so become homeless, lose their children, which increases crime and starvation again and again.

10. People are spending these SNAP benefits on food, supporting local and national businesses, the economy, essentially allowing many workers to have jobs where there would be no demand for it otherwise. Everything from accounting to production line inspection, our entire chain depends on the economy being stable. You do something like pull SNAP, like tariffs, will make the entire country suffer. It will only have a positive effect on the bankrolls of the rich whose interests benefit from the collapse, but this is only a temporary gain for them. Once the system stabilizes again, they will remove something else to make more money treating the country like a game of JENGA until eventually... the thing that happens in the game when one too many pieces is removed.

- A working low income parent.