The jaw dropping admission that this little rich girl is taking food stamps even though her parents could pay for her food and she makes $200 a week comes at 2:15 or so. But watch the whole video from the beginning where this parasite in training explains the vast amount of perks she receives and how they still aren’t enough:
Yeah, that’s a lot of our tax money going to her unlimited texting and trendy footwear. But beyond that, City Year’s stipend is good money that a lot of poor people live on now. Many of them don’t collect food stamps. Since this girl’s family can ensure she doesn’t end up homeless and starving she is in essence stealing money from poor people who need it.
City Year is clearly not about “volunteering” since the people involved are bribed and given perks that the rest of us don’t have. For Erin above, it is indoctrination into a system where there is no shame in taking food stamps (something most people who have needed to be on food stamps have felt) and the belief that middle and upper class Americans deserve the same social support impoverished people do. If this sounds less like building America and more like emulating the Chavista model of government, that’s because it is. City Year is building a paramilitary cult comprised of members who are learning to view the government and the leftist agenda as the very center of their existence. Don’t believe me?
Watch this, the scary stuff starts around 1:00:
The “red jackets” are getting all sorts of government perks. Is it to create loyalty? It certainly doesn’t create independence.
Rob Taylor,
Your are correct to say that this will not create independence. I don’t see how it could.
Get yourself out of that tizzy. The phones and footwear do not come from government sources – they are provided as gifts-in-kind from the Timberland Company and T-Mobile.
You have no way of knowing this girl’s background and whether she has any family at all. You can’t know that many people serve without family support and use food stamps to support themsleves since AmeriCorps stipends are far, far lower than minimum wage.
A) She says in the video that she was until then being supported by her family and B) food stamps should go to poor people trying to feed their children not hipster d-bags slumming for thirlls.
Are you really sayingf that people who volunteer to work for Americorps should get food stamps while over three million Americans had their unemployment benefits run out and can’t find work? Are you really saying that $200/week isn’t enough to live on because there are people living on that now. I lived on $200/week many times.
As for “in-kind” gifts. What does the “in kind” mean? Are you now claiming Timberland and T-mobile just give out millions of dollars with nothing coming their way?
My tax dollars shouldn’t go to helping rich, White kids have the peace corp experience sans the danger of traveling.
I do agree some City Year members do receive food stamps, who in the “real world” wouldn’t need them but YES Timberland and T-Mobile are our sponosers and they give us millions of dollars for the “nothing” of 1,700 hours that we give.
Timberland provides us our boots, ALL of our “reds” (vest, 3/4 pull over zip up, “bomber”, gloves, hat, belt, and all-weather jacket). Aramark provides our pants, which CY pays for. Our backpacks were donated from one of the many banks that supports our cause. Our shirts, I’m not sure if they are purchased or donated. Our free cell phones come with 300 minutes and unlimited texting and are necessary for us to keep in touch. Not all of us can afford to have cell phones and a free phone with free mobile to mobile to keep in touch with our fellow Corps Members and supervisors do come in handy. In New York, where I proudly serve, we are provided with unlimited Metrocards. Which are paid for by City Year and come in handy considering I commute approximately 2 hours from Long Island to East New York (Brooklyn). I would pay for the LIRR but I can’t afford another $200 so I use the bus and subway to get to work.
And yes $200 a week is tough to live on especially in these economic times. Our money is a STIPEND not an actual paycheck. They “pay” us because there couldn’t be as many of us volunteering for 8-11 hours a day in the inner-city schools many of us serve at.
Please tell me what “government perks” I’m receiving? Is it my taxable educational award that will help off-set my $20,000+ of loans I have for my undergraduate schooling? Or is it the pause on my monthly $400+ a month bill I would have if my loans weren’t put in deferment because of City Year?
Please get all of your facts straight before you start rambling about things you don’t know. We put in 1,700 hours, yes some of those hours are training , but Monday through Thursday we are in schools usually from 7:45am-6:30pm.
Any more questions, just post them and I’ll try to answer them for you. And in-kind means giving gifts in kindness ie donations.
Sincerely,
A Lower Class Latina who believes in the power of giving back & is currently serving in City Year
You’re a liar. No one refers to themselves as “lower class” except rich kids who look down on poor people.
What you described is more than many people in New York have. $200 a week is plenty of money when YOU’RE GETTING FOOD STAMPS. And a stipend is still getting paid. Your loans are your responsibility, just as my loans are mine.
And your bill for your loan could only be $400/month if you were in fact rich enough to pay it. My loan amount is significantly higher than yours (for undergrad and grad school) and the highest amount I have to pay would be around $300. Again, you’re a liar.
The money the government is laying on you should go to the food banks that serve the hungry, the teen programs that help real poor kids get out of poverty or some other cause aside from forming some statist cult of douche bags who think it’s their right to not have to make their own way through life. News flash kid the money the government is giving you is worthless; we’re heading into a second crash with the dollar going the way of currency in Zimbabwe and Argentina. New York is broke and more and more productive people are leaving because the taxes are too high. Within 20 years NYC will look like Detroit largely thanks to people like you-rich kids soaking up everyone else’s money and not producing anything.
If you really want to help the country, start a farm and actually make something of value. But you don’t want to help the country; you want to help yourself to the fruits of other’s labor with the help of a cleptocratic government – typical of a rich hipster douchebag.
You should also learn what rambling means before vomiting it out in some comment.
I’m a naturalized citizen of the USA, ie an immigrant to the country, which I’m sure you’ll love. And if I describe myself as lower class it’s because I can be honest with my economic situation of living at home with my parents and doing an Americorps program because I don’t know what I want to do for grad school. I went to a state school and financial aid wasn’t too helpful considering it was so “cheap.” And I do work with other programs that help low-income youth, the Fresh Air Fund (which I’m sure you’ll find something wrong with as well).
Just so you know Corps Memebers don’t automatically receive food stamps and not all of them have them. The Corps Member would have to apply for them in whatever area they live in. Many Corps Members are denied but the few who apply may or may not receive them. Also we recieve money from private donations, the state (NY loves us and the work we do), the Board of Education, our sponsors, and I’m sure from one more area that I can’t remember right now.
You can’t call me a liar if you don’t know my situation. I merely let you know the facts because the things you were saying weren’t correct. Now you know a little more about the City Year program and if you don’t like it that’s fine.
Always get the facts. I haven’t insulted you because I have been taught manners and how to be respectful. Again all I ask is that you research and get the facts before you start rambling.
Thanks for you time.
Sure you are. I like the way you assume I hate immigrants which is typical White liberal agi-prop (I have long called for increased immigration for people fleeing communist regimes and Christians, Druze and other religious minorities in Muslim countries) then hide behind the romanticized armchair Marxism of White liberals to justify your lack of pride and ambition. If you aren’t a rich White kid you’re basically a tap dancing Aunty Tom rubbing out their talking points while they intentionally try to keep you poor.
If you have the luxury of living at home waiting to “decide” what you’re going to do with your life you’re clearly not poor. That’s simply a fact. I come from a long line of poor Black folk and I can tell you know that real poor people don’t have the opportunity to ponder their lives. They have to work and they don’t get taxpayer money to do so.
I never said Americorps members automatically get food stamps. I said they shouldn’t be eligible for them. Just because some companies use donations to Americorps for tax purposes doesn’t mitigate the fact that you’re getting money from tax payers and that money could be better spent at homeless shelters, rape crisis centers and food banks. I’ve helped collect food for the food banks and know how in need they are. But you don’t have to worry about that collecting government perks and complaining that you can’t live on $200 bucks a week even though you live with your parents.
I can in fact call you a liar. You don’t have a right to have me take you at your word. I would point out that you haven’t proven anything I said was incorrect, only that you disagree with it. I know education is piss poor in this country nowadays but I’d expect a college grad to at least know that.
You have insulted me by claming I was ignorant in your first comment and now that I’m some nativist bigot in your second. If you don’t consider that insulting whoever it is that taught you manners missed the lesson on not offending strangers. They also failed to teach you that rambling literally means going off on tangents and not being clear when applied to writing or speech which is not only untrue here but also designed as an insult by you.
I will put forward, at the risk of “rambling” that this attitude, the belief that you not only have the right to insult me because you disagree with me (which of course you do it’s simply bad form) but that I should give you the courtesy and respect you refuse to give me is indicative of an inflated sense of entitlement. This is the same character flaw I was criticizing in the girl above. You are not entitled to anything you are getting, most of which is not only funded by me through taxes but in the case of food stamps is a finite resource that is taken away from a person who needs it to be given to someone who doesn’t.
Resources are not infinite. The government has no money; it only gives out the money it takes from others. Those are facts, ones you ignore because you want me to agree that you’re in some way entitled to have the rest of the world shoulder your burdens.
That’s the real insult.
There are definitely ways to live like a “rich hipster” even if you are poor. Find example here: http://potatoespeasandmilk.wordpress.com/
Rob Taylor,
The Federal poverty level for a single individual is $10,830. A City Year stipend pays 8,800 (before taxes, since the stipend is taxed) plus whatever other income the Corps member is able to earn the remain 2 months of the year. If they work 40 hours or more per week (even at a minimum wage) during the remaining two weeks, they come in above the poverty line, so you’re right, they shouldn’t be eligible for food stamps – this is the reason may Corps members are turned down when they apply.
The larger point in your argument is pretty well summed up by this:
“Just because some companies use donations to Americorps for tax purposes doesn’t mitigate the fact that you’re getting money from tax payers and that money could be better spent at homeless shelters, rape crisis centers and food banks.”
You don’t think Americorps is a good use of public funds. Others clearly disagree with you on this topic, which is why City Year has been going for over 20 years. That’s long enough for the policy makers holding the purse strings to evaluate it’s successes and failures. If there wasn’t a benefit, the funding would have been redirected by now. The program benefits the kids and communities it serves.
Also, just for the record, stamps or not, $800 a month (taxable) in a major metro area (where Corps members live and work) is livable, but it’s a tight budget. A young person makes more money working part time at McD’s than they do from a city year term. It’s not like Corps members live a plush existence off a fat government check.
Finally, your accusation that the City Year kid is a liar may be your “right” (whatever that means on the internet), but it adds nothing to your argument. You haven’t (and can’t) offer a shred of proof to back that assertion up. I think your blog offers a good perspective, but this rant against “privileged” kids doing community service at a minimal wage rings hollow, especially from someone with a MFA.
The City Year workers are not living on $8000 a year; they’re living off their parents. They have resources to support themselves which they aren’t using and taking the finite resources of food stamps when kids like the one above don’t need them. You do understand that food stamps are not an unlimited resource don’t you? That the state must pay for them, and states like New York are already bankrupt?
Privileged kids should be supported by their parent or themselves. If the supposed poor kids at City Year could make more than they do ant fast food shops why aren’t they doing that and caring for themselves instead of helping to bankrupt states where people are already not getting enough food? I’ve run food drive for food banks, there are really hurting people out there who need the food stamps and that chick in the video is stealing the food out of their mouths.
I also don’t see why my Masters matters, though for the record I have a Masters in Liberal Studies and a Bachelors in Comparative Religion. I assume you’re claiming I’m a child of privilege but I’m not. I’m a bi-racial kid raised by a single mother in an all Black area at a time when Black folks didn’t feel the need to pretend they liked us. My mother was in fact on food stamps for a time, and then she worked her way out of poverty. That experience however has nothing to do with my belief that those who don’t need charity or welfare (both of which are finite) shouldn’t be taking it. That’s just called decency.
I have also lived on less than $8000 and never went on food stamps and lived in the “big city” by utilizing my resources. Without my wife and family (and loans unfortunately) I would have never been able to go through school. But I would have given up going to school rather than steal food from the mouths of single mothers with no where else to turn. What about you guys?
what a pointless waste of time. This girl is rich? How? $200 a week? Too many holes. Whoever posted this is borderline retarded.
So since the girl in the video admits her parents could take care of her but she thinks it’d be fun not to is acceptable to you? What about the people who really need food stamps? Should they get less because a bunch of kids like her want to play poor?
You are a hypocrite. Why don’t you help the country by starting up a farm? But instead you decided to get a degree in Comparative Religions. You spent 5 years to educate yourself in a field that is helping no one. You took out loans which are putting money into the pockets of already rich people instead of helping the poor. How about you stop bashing people who work for 50-60 hours a week (probably more than you do) for less than minimum wage.
Honestly (although you’ll probably call me a liar anyway), I have no problems with you or your choices in attending school or anything else, but when you start bashing people that are doing more good than you and claiming that they’re stealing from the poor and hurting them, it makes you sound like an ignorant, hypocritical asshole.
Maybe next time you’ll think before you open your mouth.
Oh and as for the “single mothers who have nowhere else to turn”, maybe they shouldn’t have gotten pregnant if they didn’t have the means to support themselves and their child.
You don’t know what a hypocrite is do you?
Rich White people taking food stamps are taking food from the mouths of poor people. You and your friends are spoiled bourgeois douchebags who claim to be helping others but blurt out nonsense about single mothers getting what’s coming to them.
My greatest satisfaction in life will be watching you starve in the street when America defaults on it’s interest payments for the bonds we sell the Chinese to fund your lifestyle.
By the way, I got my degree in four years. I then got my Masters. What’s your degree in and why would it take you five years? Are you retarded or something?
i want to learning to another country in degree programm
I did City Year from 2005-2006. My parents never supported me after eighteen so I lived off the stipend during City Year. The stipend was $150 a week. My rent was 500 a month. After my phone bill, I had 50 dollars to live off of. I worked 60 hours a week minimum for City Year which means I made around $2.50 an hour.
I don’t think it’s fair to base your opinion of City Year members on just these few accounts. There are thousands of them.
Do you know what City Year members do? What time of volunteer work have you done?
I have volunteered in food banks and various charities and never was paid for it. That’s what makes it volunteer. What you have is a government job, you’re not a volunteer.
Volunteers do things on their own dime.
Your ignorance makes me pity you Mr Rob Taylor
We get it. You made your point. Unfortunately you couldn’t do so without getting angry or really offensive – or with any real factual basis. Just a bunch of partisan talking points. People who do service years do so for a lot of valuable reasons, and come from all backgrounds. Just because you have some agenda against the particular people you know of doesn’t mean they are representative of everyone.
You’re making the same invalid points that all the Tea Party people are making when rallying against “entitlement programs.” As if somehow you, or anyone else who takes government money but doesn’t fit your mold of a “douchebag” is exempt from your pious scorn. If you’re so against people “stealing from the government,” then maybe you should stop driving on the roads our taxes built, or maybe you should go steal the oxygen mask and wheelchair from the next old lady you see, or maybe you should go protest outside a bank that took bailout money and still passed out billions in bonuses. This list goes on forever. But god forbid someone sacrificing their time, doing something truly good for an underserved community who chooses to live below the federal poverty level and doesn’t want to burden their family (if in fact their family could even afford it – I know mine can’t) takes advantage of widely available social services. Apparently THEN its suddenly blasphemous.
Get over yourself. You’re an offensive, obnoxious blowhard with an invalid point.
“My greatest satisfaction in life will be watching you starve in the street when America defaults on it’s interest payments for the bonds we sell the Chinese to fund your lifestyle.
By the way, I got my degree in four years. I then got my Masters. What’s your degree in and why would it take you five years? Are you retarded or something?”
Have a psychologist (or 70) evaluate these comments and see if they would deem you healthy, well-adjusted individual. You are sick.
“My greatest satisfaction in life will be watching you starve in the street when America defaults on it’s interest payments for the bonds we sell the Chinese to fund your lifestyle.
By the way, I got my degree in four years. I then got my Masters. What’s your degree in and why would it take you five years? Are you retarded or something?”
Have a psychologist (or 700) evaluate these comments and see if they would deem you healthy, well-adjusted individual. You are sick.
Are you kidding? Putting the bad mouth on someone is “sick” but not taking food stamps which are FINITE when you don’t need them? Really?
People in California got their tax refunds and welfare payments in IOUS last year that the bank weren’t guaranteed to honor because rich, spoiled brats like you took money from programs meant for poor people.
You do realize that money is not infinite, right? That America stopped producing wealth about 30 years ago so resources that the government has should go to the needy, not people like you. Of course you don’t, because your rich parents never bothered to teach you how money works.
By the way, the Tea Party does in fact protest the bailout of banks, wej us don’t assualt and harass bank tellers because they’re not the bad guys.
The people you’re talking about aren’t living below the poverty level, because THEY”RE PARENTS ARE SUPPORTING THEM. But guess what chump, the starvation is here. Instead of yelping at me why don’t you go see how much food prices have increased in the last week. The use your so-called education to chart out the trajectory.
Oh, you’ll still be able to buy food, but those poor people you claim to serve? Not so much. A guy I know who works at a feed grain silo told me Friday a bag of feed was $7. Monday it was $10. Why don’t you ask the government to print up some more Wheat this year?
Maybe when those poor people you claim to be helping can’t buy food even with food stamps because it’s too expensive you’ll get why you should have not taken those limited resources from them.
Maybe this ONE GIRL in the video’s parents are supporting her, but guess what: nobody I know in my Americorps program has any help from their parents (not that it should even matter)! And they are all LEGALLY DEFINED as living below poverty. Keep hanging on to that tiny thread, though.
You are demented if you truly think people making huge personal sacrifices to work long hours doing largely unpleasant jobs to give back to the community by doing something most people are paid – in the case of teachers, BY THE GOVERNMENT, no less! – 3-7 times more to do are bankrupting anybody. That is pure, unadulterated lunacy. You’re just clinging to some hyper-partisan hyper-paranoid talking point that has no basis in fact. Your whole viewpoint on this matter is based on glaring hypocrisy. Not to mention that even if you DID have a valid point, you put such an ugly face on it that nobody would want to stand with you. Do you really think that insulting people and generally acting like a douchey internet troll is a way to raise awareness? To convince people of something?
For a more eloquent elaboration on just why your platform is hypocritical and ass-backwards, check this out. “Man, did they break the mold when they made these assholes.” Amen.
Edit Please don’t link to Rolling Stone or any other magazine in my comments.
You’re lying.
I’ve worked in non-profits sometimes making $8000 a year an NEVER took welfare. ALL of the kids in this program are eligible for food stamps which are a FINITE RESOURCE that should be going to poor people.
If working with poor people is so unpleasant to you find something else to do. But incoherent screeds about how it’s “hyper-partisan” and “hyper paranoid” to think that welfare should go to poor people when the government handing out the welfare IS OUT OF MONEY is just ludicrous.
Instead of reading Rolling Stone why don’t you read, I don’t know, a newspaper and see how the US. Bond sale went today. Oh, guess what, it went poorly and that’s where the U.S. raise the money to pay you, stupid.
Why don’t you stop reading magazines and read the government’s own reports, the one that says the average grocery bill went up 10% in the last two months, or that more needy people are applying for welfare … but some aren’t getting it because it’s underfunded.
Why’s it underfunded I wonder. Moron.