The lady who drove a Mercedes to pick up food vouchers.

[CapnAwesome]

I've had assistance (SNAP) myself, for a brief period. I didn't feel the slightest bit of shame because I've been a taxpaying worker since the age of 16. I am entitled to benefit from what I've been paying into for half my life, and all the more when you consider that most of that tax money has gone to corporate welfare, which is unjustifiable, and the military, which gets vastly more than it needs.

I absolutely do not agree that people should feel shame. The vast majority of people don't choose to be poor and starving. Those who would shame the poor needing help should be far more ashamed of themselves than those who are getting the help. It's a lot easier not to be an asshole than it is to change your economic status.

And, I do absolutely agree with the idea of a guaranteed minimum income, because who deserves to have basic necessities is not a question we have the luxury of asking when we clearly have enough for everybody.

I agree with you that assistance should be there for bad times and taking it when you are paying into the system is totally justified. Nobody should feel bad about it. The only thing I take issue with is the word starving. Poor and hungry maybe, but virtually nobody in the United States is really starving in the true sense of the word.