Why does the government typically make such utterly stupid decisions?

Law suits.

That’s a part of it, lawyers. The other is that people demand some of these things because it “feels good” or it fits their political agenda. The path of least resistance is to cave to what the constituents want. There is also the nepotism and affirmative action culture in gov’t. Most people with x job make x amount and you either work hard for x amount or goof off and still make x amount. 20% of the people do 80% of the work so odds are about 4 out of 5 times the person you are dealing with is completely incompetent.

The food stamp rules are designed to make using SNAP as unpleasant and shameful as possible. The red state representatives don’t like the idea of people enjoying the food they buy with SNAP.

But the sugar/candy lobbies make sure that their product is okay.

If someone used SNAP to buy a rotisserie chicken, a video would be on Facebook in an hour castigating them for living high on other people’s tax money.

Explain papa murphys then, nobody has griped about that yet “take and bake” pizza is clearly set up to skirt EBT rules.

It’s hard not to live high on food stamps! Hells bells. I could buy food with the amount of food stamps I got that I could never afford to buy today.

They don’t necessarily make stupid decisions. They make decisions based on who pays them the most to do what is best for them. So, sometimes it seems stupid to the majority of us because a small (perhaps just a couple of brothers) found a way to benefit from it.

Those with the most cash to throw around get the government they want.

That’s basically how everything works. If you have enough cash to throw at lawyers you get “justice.” You get off even if you’re guilty as hell.
Those without that money lose, whether they’re innocent or not.

What makes you think it’s only government? Most large companies are operated the same way. It’s only by accident that anything actually works out. Most people have a very poor understanding of cause and effect and relatively rudimentary ability for critical thinking.

Bad education? Anti-intellectualism gone berserk? Addiction to rules even when they don’t make sense? There seems to be a lot of (metaphorical) short-sightedness, tunnel vision, corruption, apathy and stupidity going around. As @YARNLADY just said, I don’t see it focused in the government, but all over the USA.

I agree with @YARNLADY. I swear it in government and private enterprise.

It’s frustrating in government, because as tax payers we feel we are forced to pay for someone else’s decisions.

Often, there is a logical reason for some rules, but unintended consequences creep in. The people just didn’t think of everything that could go wrong with the new policy. Sometimes, policies are made to punish people I think. Like proposing drug testing for people who receive social services, or restricting what food stamps can be used for in ways that are very extreme, and not in line with what the average American eats.

I would guess you can’t use food stamps for drugs, because they are for food. They don’t want addicts drugging up and barely feeding their children. Just to clarify I understand that many people in food stamps have legitimate health problems that require medication, I don’t believe most people on food stamps are addicts.

Also, politicians do favors for other politicians and for friends, and don’t reallybthink about what their doing all of the time.

It’s problem to be sure.

But just imagine the shit storm if all those bureaucrats disappeared and people actually had to live without a governmental babysitter.

As a government worker for over 25 years, I can tell you some interesting stuff:

There are a lot of inconsistencies in local government because of changing leadership, local power struggles, promises made in exchange for votes and support (vote for this and I’ll send you some federal money to fix that playground in your district, etc.).

Many people have no clue what the difference is between what their town/city government does, their county government does, their state government does and the federal government does. As a county worker, I’d go to someone’s home to assess their child for county services and they’d start asking me about a federal issue (for example, Social Security disability). I do phone banking for the organization I work for, and we’ll call someone advocating for a local politician, and the average citizen has no clue what the county government is responsible for vs. state, etc.

When you talk about what food stamps allows, I’ve seen people buying herbal tea with food stamps. I’ve also seen people at the local bodega buying chocolate bars with food stamps, which annoys me because it’s going to be way more expensive at the bodega than if you buy it at the supermarket. I often don’t buy organic stuff because I can’t afford it, but if I were on Food Stamps, I could get it. Do I find that annoying? Yes.

As far as the hot meals, if you’re buying a hot meal for 8 bucks or 15 bucks, your food stamps are going to go way quicker than if you cook it at home. With the barely edible old chicken, the store is liable if the sell the barely edible old chicken to anybody, no matter how that person is paying. Then the store can be sued when the customer gets sick. PLUS the food stamp recipient is likely to say “why is it that you get to buy good food with your cash but I get some old barely edible chicken with my food stamps? That’s not right! What makes you better than me because you have cash and I have food stamps.” (are you understanding where I’m going?)

I can assure you that if you try to limit what people can buy with their food stamps, they go nuts. Absolutely fucking nuts. “We have the right to buy what we want.” “Just because we get food stamps, does that mean we can’t enjoy a candy bar?” I find this to be a similar argument to people not wanting to have to do drug tests to get monetary benefits. “This is my money. You can’t tell me what to spend it on.”

A big thing is people don’t vote. They bitch, but the don’t vote. If you vote, you may get more of a leg to stand on with your local politicians as far as “I voted for you.” Then you could bitch to them. People don’t vote but they all bitch. The people to bitch to never hear it.

For the transportation issue, you talked about a transportation company transporting disabled people, and why can’t others take the ride since the bus is going there anyway. It is probably a special bus made to hold wheelchairs, maybe with ramps or lifts on it. If they picked everyone up, it would be crowded with people and the wheelchairs and people with walkers and stuff woujldn’t fit, which would defeat the purpose. In the county I work in, the disabled transportation has to be arranged two days ahead of time. It’s not for everyone because it comes to you like a taxi. It’s not quite as simple as “the bus is going to XYZ place so why can’t they just take me, too?”

As for your local code enforcement officer, maybe he’s repeating himself to you because he thinks you’re not getting what he’s saying. Maybe he has a form to fill out every time you call, so he needs to clarify what your name and address are. It’s hard to make a judgement about that without knowing the other side of the story.

GA @jca.

@jca “Many people have no clue what the difference is between what their town/city government does, their county government does, their state government does and the federal government does. As a county worker, I’d go to someone’s home to assess their child for county services and they’d start asking me about a federal issue (for example, Social Security disability). I do phone banking for the organization I work for, and we’ll call someone advocating for a local politician, and the average citizen has no clue what the county government is responsible for vs. state, etc.”

Fuck yes! I follow both of my US Senators and my Representative in the US House on Facebook and I cannot even begin to count the volume of people who post to them bitching about the state budget. It’s terrifying to see how many people don’t have even a basic grasp on how their government functions.

NONE OF THEM SPEAK ENGLISH!! Just spend 45 minutes on the phone with Naviant with a woman who I could barely understand. So frustrating.

@Dutchess_III
Navient is a U.S. Corporation, not a government entity.

I stand corrected.

It might not be stupid , but an attempt to gain and trade political capital with the government. Maybe the politican actually wants to see the local governments to fail. They might be gaming the system.