MI Lottery Winner (Amanda Clayton) Charged with Welfare Fraud

It's always a tough call because many in the government don't listen even when you try to report changes in income... but of course, the key there is the word "try". When people become dependent on government, they just can't break the dependency.

Examine wealthy people who receive Social Security or even Republicans who condemn the Social Security system yet will be damned if they won't get theirs. Social Security is a retroactive program meaning not one dime you pay in is for your own Social Security. When the system began, it went into immediate use giving money to people in need during the Great Depression so that working Americans were providing the money that was paid out. When you retire, it's the people still paying in for your retirement Social Security payments... you pay nothing for it.

Yet how often have we seen Republicans attack government programs and then be first in line to get the benefits when they are in need or simply want to get back what they feel they paid in?

While Republicans may be hypocrites... that's better than breeding support for the dependency in the first place which is where Democrats go wrong.

The problem with Capitalism is Plutocracy and ironically enough, that was just as true with Communism.

Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy directly or indirectly as wealthy people use their wealth to become political leaders or will use their wealth to gain control over political leaders.The key word there is "control" because that's where Plutocracy comes in.

With Communism, the promise was a redistribution of wealth and yet, to achieve this meant having the power to control the economy and all financial resources... no different than the Capitalist system in this regard.

The difference is simple enough to understand as Capitalism allows everyone to achieve what they can from a free market system meaning an imbalance as some will achieve greatly and others little at all. Communism offers a redistribution of wealth so everyone basically gets the same with the difference being the more people you add, the more your economy must grow as if it doesn't grow then adding more people to the system means everyone gets less.

But within each system, todays America vs the old USSR, there is an element of blind support given by the people always with an us vs them mentality and in most cases it's externalized as foreign enemies. In the US, the system breaks down because of it's two party system where each side blames the other without taking responsibility for what their own side contributes to the problem as both sides have been dumbed down into blind sheep who can't do anything but blame the other side until they reach a point where neither side is electing leaders based on leadership ability... but the ignorant stupidity of voting to keep the other side from winning even if their candidates are better qualified than your own.

To a degree, the US system is now no better than the old USSR before it's collapse because the American people have willingly given away the authority they possess which Capitalism has to offer. It's not just the political left... it's both sides. The left is, however, more pronounced because they support the federal government in it's growth of federal spending where the political right opposes more spending... yet, the political right isn't choosing leaders based on ability anymore than the left meaning that they're no different as the problem isn't which side has more power... it's that both have been so dumbed down they don't realize that they have have no power but are giving power to leaders who only represent themselves and the control they have to do whatever the hell they want with no real leadership ability to do anything but manipulate the media and the American people.

Look at the Republican victory in 2010 and ask did they honor their promises to their voters... the answer is no they haven't and, in fact, Obama did more to reduce Obamacare than the Republicans even tried to do at the federal level as it's state Republicans taking action against Obamacare. And what about the Democrats in 2008... again, nothing as all they did was blame Republicans when it was the political left within the Democratic Party attacking everyone on the right who split their own party against itself and pushed rightwing Democrats to work with rightwing Republicans against Obama and by telling Republicans to get on board to blindly support Obama or get out of the way, leftwing Democrats guaranteed a repeat of 1992 when they did the same thing leading Republicans to unite to say no to everything Clinton wanted telling Liberal Democrats to prove they could do what they wanted without Republican support.

Neither side is worth a crap in that regard.

Amanda Clayton should have paid the money back but likely was so caught up in her wealth she didn't think to contact anyone to tell them to stop sending Food Stamps and the system itself just kept on sending the Food Stamps as an automatic payment. If you were required to send in a form every month to continue receiving Food Stamps or they'll be cut off, this probably wouldn't have happened.

Apparently, Clayton actually didn't do anything wrong as the FS kept accumulating on her Food Stamp card and from what I read on the story, she actually didn't continue using the card. If true, then she committed no fraud because the FS weren't spent and are still on the card. If she did use the EBT card, then yeah... she be in big trouble as she knowingly continued to spend the benefits rather than just merely receiving them.

If people ant to make something political about it, then observe the politics first.

If you want to talk right and wrong because she used the Food Stamps, she's guilty if she used them... she's not guilty if the welfare system kept adding the FS on her EBT card not noticing they weren't being spent which would have been a sure sign something was wrong.