We really are paying for cell phones for the poor

[angelatc]

http://www.lifeline.gov/lifeline_Consumers.html

20 years ago nobody had a freaking cell phone, but now we're apparently entitled to them.

They advertise them on TV here - funneling government money to the media.

[JdotRdot]

welfare has been paying for a lot of crap since it's inception...land lines were included, the move to cel phones was imminent. & i know saw that they are trying to include a nationalized internet into the deal

[asimplegirl]

How and the hell is this possible?

I meet qualifications to get nearly every form of help available (not saying I do or will), and I have never heard of this...is it just in certain states or something? Is it in places with more people supporting welfare?

[MelissaWV]

It is just in certain states.

Part of the push behind this is that cellphones are controllable and, rather than establishing a land line account and having to deal with fees and pricing of phone service that way, it's just easier to give someone a rather crappy cellphone with limitations, a means to monitor use (quantity and type of calls), and less potential for abuse. In theory, anyway. Most of these are TrakFone type things where a phone is given only a certain number of minutes then shuts off.

Women's shelters have been giving away phones for years. Those phones often only dial 9-1-1, or that plus a given five additional phone numbers (to call a child's school, the shelter itself, transportation service, etc.).

I don't think it's a bad idea, except that there's no reason this should be Gov-run. Private entities (see women's shelter example above!) do a fine job of it, and could probably get PSA time on most stations to advertise the program if they wanted. The Gov has an awesome track record... of taking a good idea and making it go South really fast.

Now my question is: when the "my cellphone gave me cancer" cases come out, and everyone is suing, won't people want to sue the Government for paying for these horrible carcinogens? :rolleyes:

[He Who Pawns]

What a load of crap.

This country is doomed.

[JeNNiF00F00]

http://www.lifeline.gov/lifeline_Consumers.html

20 years ago nobody had a freaking cell phone, but now we're apparently entitled to them.

They advertise them on TV here - funneling government money to the media.

shit, I didn't even have a cell phone until 4 years ago. Because I couldn't AFFORD IT.

[Elwar]

I had some house guests the other week. A married couple with two kids, neither of them have a job...he's 40, they're living with her mother.

They get better health care than I do, she's signing up for college which will be paid for.

On top of that, she's 6 months pregnant...she smokes like a chimney and spent her spring break with us drinking beer and downing shots (all on our dime because they were too broke to buy squat the whole time they were here). Her oldest daughter receives SSI because she is mentally challenged (she has all the signs of fetal alcohol syndrome).

My wife was devastated seeing her best friend growing up act like this with a baby and another one on the way...we cut all ties once they left.

[Mahkato]

When they start Wiis for the Poor, I'm signing up.

[Soca Taliban]

Are you kidding me??????
I must be doing it wrong. I work my ass of for everything I have
, but apparantly thats not the way I should be doing it. :mad:

[JaylieWoW]

While I am completely opposed to being forced to pay for someone's cell phone, let alone anything unearned by those riding my coat-tails for their own survival, I am trying to learn to see the positive of such travesties. (Yes, you have to look really hard to see it).

What an amazing thing it says for the REAL producers of these products, not of course the crafty, beguiling marketing pros, but the minds who actually figured out how to make cell phones cheaply enough that virtually everyone has one now. Not of course to diminish the wrongness about me paying for someone else's "luxury".

I'm just in a positive mood today and intend on maintaining that mood so I can get through doing the laundry around the house (I've been rather unproductive this week with my homemaking skillz). :p