Food Stamp Fingerprinting

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/30/145905246/the-clash-over-fingerprinting-for-food-stamps?sc=fb&cc=fp

This is always a hard subject for me to have a distinct stance on. On the one hand, there are many people who would probably play the system and fraud the government to get more money in Food Stamps. These are the people that are the stereotypes and what uninformed people think of when they think of Food Stamp recipients- people who intentionally don't work, have too many children, etc etc. But I would say most (and no, I don't have a statistic to back it up) people who use Food Stamps actually do need them for many different reasons- low paying job, unemployment, AmeriCorps, disability, etc.

In Minnesota, the process is considered not as harsh as in other states. But I don't know if people can truly understand how demeaning it feels- how you feel like a failure, how all the employees (whether intentional or not) make you feel like you're an awful person. Your time isn't valued at all- I remember when I was in AmeriCorps and was applying- I had to go in for a face to face interview with my mountain of paperwork. But I was assigned a team number and had to interview with my team. I got there at opening time and waited an hour and a half for someone from my team to show up. I remember being very thankful that I was in a position to wait that long- I couldn't imagine being a single parent or someone who's job wasn't so understanding.

But I am truly on the fence- I know something needs to be done so that people aren't so easily able to fraud the system. But I also know I don't want to live somewhere where people feel like convicts just to get some help with food.