# Food stamps; do you think one's purchases/taxes should be looked into? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 9, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625 "2012-06-09T15:30:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/221 "2012-06-11T11:03:54Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Isn’t this a proven fact of human psychology?(maybe even chimp psychology). > > I seem to recall studies that showed participants two scenarios: > > They receive $50, and their neighbor receives $50. > > They receive $100,and their neighbor receives $500. > > Guess which one most people chose, and which was more satisfying.:smack: > > Human fucking nature again. If they receive $100, and _everyone else_ receives $500, they have indeed lost something tangible beyond jealousy. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/222 "2012-06-11T11:09:29Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > If they receive $100, and _everyone else_ receives $500, they have indeed lost something tangible beyond jealousy. I’m guessing I’m being whooshed, but from a logical standpoint they should not even care what the neighbors are getting. The fact they do says something. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/223 "2012-06-11T16:08:10Z")
> [@Farmer\_Jane](#): > > I never said that all welfare recipients are cheats. I don’t even know if half are. But we’ve heard from a welfare worker that it happens and happens enough. > [@PandaBear77](#): > > Former Food Stamp caseworker checking in. > > … > > As for the concept of standing over people, watching what they buy – do you want to pay for the technology it’d take to do this, as well as staffing squads of Food Police to force people to use their FS “correctly” or lose 'em? Do you want to pay for even more caseworker to go make home visits of welfare recipients and give them the 3rd degree of where they got that Nintendo DS – knowing that there is NO WAY to disprove what they tell you? > > Didn’t think so. Yes, we heard from **PandaBear77** that it happens but that the costs of implementing the kind of oversight that you and the OP are looking for would be costly. I would bet that it would cost more than the money it would save in fraud. So no, I don’t think there should be more intrusive rules that we couldn’t afford to implement. We should be pursing those who commit fraud when they’re discovered but I also understand why they don’t (cost of proceeding vs the likelyhood of ever getting money). ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/224 "2012-06-11T16:17:52Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I’m guessing I’m being whooshed, but from a logical standpoint they should not even care what the neighbors are getting. The fact they do says something. If everyone else gets $500 and you only get $100, then there will be more money chasing the same amount of goods, and so inflation will eat away all of your $100 and more, leaving you poorer than before, assuming of course that you had the same average wealth as everyone else. If you needed that $100 just to put food on your family, that’s a different story because you would have had zero dollars, whereas now you have slightly less than pre-gift $100 due to inflation. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/225 "2012-06-11T16:58:08Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Isn’t this a proven fact of human psychology?(maybe even chimp psychology). > > I seem to recall studies that showed participants two scenarios: > > They receive $50, and their neighbor receives $50. > > They receive $100,and their neighbor receives $500. > > Guess which one most people chose, and which was more satisfying.:smack: > > Human fucking nature again. > [@Ludovic](#): > > If they receive $100, and _everyone else_ receives $500, they have indeed lost something tangible beyond jealousy. I think you’re carrying the hypothetical beyond the scope of the original study[ies]. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/226 "2012-06-11T17:01:44Z")
> [@Moonlitherial](#): > > Yes, we heard from **PandaBear77** that it happens but that the costs of implementing the kind of oversight that you and the OP are looking for would be costly. > > I would bet that it would cost more than the money it would save in fraud. > > So no, I don’t think there should be more intrusive rules that we couldn’t afford to implement. We should be pursing those who commit fraud when they’re discovered but I also understand why they don’t (cost of proceeding vs the likelyhood of ever getting money). Oh, I don’t want to investigate people’s food purchases. **PandaBear77** pointed out how easy it was to commit fraud (which you conveniently left out). _That_ can be rooted out with certain precautions. Not entirely, but a dent was made when we went to EBT cards across the country. Also, in the LAT article that I linked, investigators were cut and the state lost money because of it. So obviously spending money looking into _every possible angle_ is not cost effective, but clearly there’s a need for investigators. And combating fraud also acts like a deterrent. If it’s harder to break the law, you may not even bother trying. (: ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/227 "2012-06-11T18:17:03Z")
People who don’t receive as much as others shouldn’t have any resentment or interest in what others have? Not convincing but a nice idea. There’s enough complaining on this board alone about the elite among us who should share more to make me think that dictate is expecting saintly behavior on both sides’ part. It would be nice to think that we are all so elevated that we never cast a glance at what our neighbor is doing or has. And maybe we also wonder how he manages to afford it! ---
**Author:** ![gunnergoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e95f7d/32.png) [@gunnergoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gunnergoz)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/228 "2012-06-11T18:48:30Z")
I am sooo tired of all these anecdotal stories of “my friend has a friend who saw a woman in the store on food stamps while carrying a designer handbag…” etc, etc. If there is any merit to the stories, then tell us about all the letters you have written to your Congressman. Or complaints made to the local Human Services agency. Don’t just whine and moan about it as if you are entitled to be consoled because there are crooks in this world. Second, even if there is fraud and abuse, the solution is not to eliminate the programs, but rather to eliminate the abuse. That takes good leadership, from the top down. How do we get good leadership from the top down? We demand it and act upon our expectations. We don’t just vote based on sound bites and radio call in shows that inflame and justify our basic preconceived notions of the world - we actually look into the problems and try discover, in detail, what is wrong with our system and why our leaders are not doing something effective to fix it. Want better leaders? Take the money out of politics. How to take the money out of politics? For starters, start backing a constitutional amendment that would require public funding of all Congressional and Presidential election campaigns. We’re paying taxes already, just allow for part of them to be pooled and shared out between candidates - anonymously. At the same time, ban all personal donations from individuals and corporations. (Sorry folks, you can’t have it both ways - to be able to personally contribute to your favorite pol and at the same time demand that all pols remain free of outside influences.) //rant mode off// ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/229 "2012-06-11T21:13:31Z")
I’m more concerned that money saved by corporations when receiving huge tax cuts does not go directly to the CEO’s pocket then if some single mother bought a bag of doritos. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/230 "2012-06-12T16:15:51Z")
> [@Kaio](#): > > Wait, what? Either your math is way off, or… I don’t know what. If you’re paying a million bucks in taxes a year, I’m kinda not seeing how $300 can be all l that significant to you. I sure wouldn’t be too fussed about it, if I had so much money that a mere percentage of it was already in the seven digit range. > > That $300 is a lot more significant to someone making less than $20K a year. > > (I’m fairly sure your math is off, but I don’t know what percentage you were going for, or what money amounts you’re really starting with.) Thanks for double checking the math on this - I too was coming up with $1,000,000 in taxes for .03% to be $300 ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/231 "2012-06-12T17:27:18Z")
> [@Farmer\_Jane](#): > > Oh, I don’t want to investigate people’s food purchases. **PandaBear77** pointed out how easy it was to commit fraud (which you conveniently left out). _That_ can be rooted out with certain precautions. Not entirely, but a dent was made when we went to EBT cards across the country. > > Also, in the LAT article that I linked, investigators were cut and the state lost money because of it. So obviously spending money looking into _every possible angle_ is not cost effective, but clearly there’s a need for investigators. And combating fraud also acts like a deterrent. If it’s harder to break the law, you may not even bother trying. (: What the debate seems to be lacking is a real consideration of cost-benefit analysis. It matters to me not a whit that someone is getting food stamps but doesn’t deserve them for whatever reason if we’re going to have to pay twice as much to root them out than we’re going to save by striking them off the rolls. We also need to look at impact on honest people. Let’s say we now require a great deal more documentation. What if this doubles or triples the amount of time to receive the benefit? What will fill that gap, nothing? What if 5% of people who are disqualified due to investigation are disqualified incorrectly – what happens to those people? Is there an appeals process? How long does that take? Not everyone has checking accounts, not everyone gets paid by direct deposit. An awful lot of at-risk people don’t have bank accounts and get paid in cash, remember. How are they and their kids eating while they gather yet more documentation, yet more proof? Anti-junk food laws are also potentially a problem. Classifying food items isn’t easy and processed foods are among the cheapest. So let’s ban cookies and chips – what classifies a cookie? A chip? Does it matter if the cookie is lower fat? What is the fundamental difference between a Fig Newton and a Nutra-Grain bar, or between a chocolate chip cookie and a chocolate chip granola bar or a chocolate cereal? Is everything with chocolate banned, no matter how trivial the amount? Does it matter if the chip is baked? What separates a baked potato chip from, say, a lot of types of crackers? It’s one of those things that seems to be ‘common sense’ but the devil is in the details of actually enforcing this. Every item in the grocery store would need to be reclassified, and standards for those classifications would need to exist. Think of paying taxes. How many stories and anecdotes about tax cheats do you know or have heard? I’ve heard countless ones. Does it mean that it’s a good idea to now audit ten times as many people as we do – or audit every citizen, no matter the cost? I know it’s easy to get all morally stirred up because you saw someone use an EBT card to buy something you didn’t approve of, or because they seemed outwardly wealthier than they seem to ought to be. That outrage doesn’t make good policy and has the potential to destroy needed programs. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/232 "2012-06-12T20:14:22Z")
> [@the\_apples\_fell](#): > > I’ve seen women come through my register at work with expensive purses (not knock-offs, I know the difference) and food stamps. I kinda doubt that you could tell the difference by sight. > [@Blackberry](#): > > Expecting things you don’t deserve isn’t in any way restricted to food stamp recipients. Some of the most self entitled people I know are hedge fund managers. This was especially apparent during the bailout. > [@monstro](#): > > I don’t like hearing about people gaming the system, but you know what? It’s not like they are taking any food out of my mouth. My life is not going to improve if they decide to swap the lobsters for Spaghettios. And I don’t care so much stopping them if that means making it harder for law-abiding citizens to get them. It already is too hard, IMHO. > [@PandaBear77](#): > > Former Food Stamp caseworker checking in. > > I never, ever, not once, checked anyone’s taxes. I did check paystubs – unless you’re self-employed, in which case I HAD to take your word for it. If I suspected you were scamming, I could request your checking/savings accounts – however, if you simply told me you didn’t have a bank account, I had to take your word for it. Child support, I could check - I had access to the CS database. Alimony, no. Investments - no, unless you told me you had them. Trusts - only if you told me you had one (I ran into this ONCE). As far as income tax refunds went – we didn’t count them as income and only counted them as an asset if your tax refund was still sitting in the bank 6 months after you got it – which NEVER happened because most people spend their returns pretty quickly. > > Loans - never, because they didn’t count as income. Gifts - only if you told me about it, and even then I was only interested if it was cash. Properties - I had access to the DMV database but if I saw multiple cars in your name all you had to do was write me a statement saying you didn’t own most of them (which often was true as the DMV was notoriously slow about updating their stuff). I _could_ look up your house on the county property website but very rarely had reason to do this since most people were renting or living with Mom & Dad or other family members, very few clients were homeowners. > > Rent and mortgage - I had to take your word for it unless you told me some crazy amount. Utilities - didn’t matter, everyone got a standard deduction. If you told me you paid for utilities I had to take your word for it. The only time I needed a copy of your utility bill is if you were trying to get emergency assistance to pay for it. > > Car loans - never. Insurance - never. Social Security - I had access to their database. I had access to another database that would tell me if you’d recently been hired anywhere – I busted a lot of people with that one. I could also use the child support database a lot of times to prove whether or not your Baby Daddy was living with you or elsewhere. I also had access to the Unemployment database. > > Most of the time I only wanted paystubs. I do remember once busting a family that claimed to be 0 income – I made them bring in their bank statement and sure enough they had a $700 deposit – they “forgot” a parent had given them some money. > > If I suspected someone was lying, we had a guy in our office that investigated stuff like that - he’d go talk to neighbors, etc. We once caught an upper middle class man posing as a homeless man to get benefits. My biggest catch was a bitch who had been claiming VERY low income for years and years – I found out she was married to a guy making 80k a year and had been using her maiden name with us all along. She’d stolen 40k in Food Stamps alone, that’s not counting all the other assistance she was giving. > > Neither of these people were prosecuted, of course. > > Then there were those cases where I knew they HAD to be lying, but I couldn’t touch them – this is mostly with people who were self-employed yet smart enough to tell me they didn’t have a bank account. > > So a lot of the time my hands were very much tied. I had 800 something cases to deal with so it’s not like I had a lot of time to “investigate” anything. > > Oh – and if you were frauding Social Security or Unemployment, I’d get fired for telling them. > All of that said – speaking as someone who has been on FS _and_ a caseworker, I can tell you – you’d be amazed at how resourceful people can be. Just because a woman came into my office with a nice purse or acrylic nails didn’t mean she wasn’t broke. The purse could have been a Christmas present. The acrylic nails could have been an at-home job or done on the cheap at the local beauty school by a student. I never saw what they were driving however cars didn’t really count as assets for FS – only if you owned more than 2 outright and even then they had to be worth a lot of money. Plus just because someone is driving a car doesn’t mean they own it, nor does it mean they’re making the payments on it. > > I never saw someone lose FS over cars – it just doesn’t happen often. I did have 1 girl lose her Medicaid over her car – her grandmother had bought her a brand new car outright and it made her over the asset limit for adult Medicaid. > > The vast majority of my fraudsters were people who really WERE poor and just barely over the income limit – these didn’t bother me too much. As far as middle class fraudsters go, I had quite a few of those too – truckers’ wives were really bad about it. “Single moms” also scammed a lot – they’d lie and say their baby daddy wasn’t around, and it’d turn out he was living with her and working, and since they had a kid together his income counted and they’d be over income. > > I saw more Wal-Mart employees in my office than any other business, interestingly. > > As far as your Food Stamp card goes – I could see where you used it and how much you spent, but not what you bought. > > Most people who are getting FS are legit, though – and until you’ve been there you have no idea how shitty it feels to be using them. I had people cry in my office because they had to come try to get help. Yes, there ARE people out there who have plenty of money and scam, and there are tons of completely worthless families out there who refuse to work and are content to live off of the government. These families in particular are what is breaking the system. Most people on FS are on them for a year or two while they fix their situation and get on with their lives. > > I hated every second I was a welfare client. I loved my job as a caseworker but the pay was too low for me to make a career out of it. I am very, very thankful welfare was there when I needed it and I’m even more thankful I don’t need it anymore. > > As for the concept of standing over people, watching what they buy – do you want to pay for the technology it’d take to do this, as well as staffing squads of Food Police to force people to use their FS “correctly” or lose 'em? Do you want to pay for even more caseworker to go make home visits of welfare recipients and give them the 3rd degree of where they got that Nintendo DS – knowing that there is NO WAY to disprove what they tell you? > > Didn’t think so. So wait, food stamps are administered separately from WIC and other need based programs? It seems to me that while it might not be worth checking up on suspicious Food Stamp recipients because its only $100/month but it might be worth doing more checking if it was all the need based programs combined. I want a social safety net for folks and I’m willing to pay for my share so that I can live in a society that has that social safety net but I want some controls in there. One of the most frequently litigated cases by teh IRS is the EITC. If they threw everything into one pot, we could probably make better decisions. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/233 "2012-06-13T08:59:38Z")
Pandabear77 did not specify what state they work in but I find it difficult to believe any state is so lax. The rules for receiving public assistance in Texas are much harsher, for instance you cannot own a car newer than a decade old in make(this disqualified my sister from help when she was alone with two kids and there was no way to sell the car and get a old one) they also request years of back federal income tax returns. When I applied at 19 and told them I had never worked they said go file we need those returns to verify income, the IRS said if I filed five years of returns with $0 income they would assume it was fraud and not to if I had no income.:rolleyes: I can’t believe there is a state where with not one bit of paperwork you can get foodstamps, it sounds outlandish! ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/234 "2012-06-13T15:47:25Z")
As I mentioned on the first page of this thread, I received WIC and did not qualify for Food Stamps . I had to show two years of tax returns. Also linked to earlier in this thread, one cent more than $24,096 for a family of 4 disqualifies you for Food Stamps today. I sure would like to know which states all these people are getting benefits without having to prove need. Maybe I’ll retire there. Get me a Beemer and a fur coat and live in the lap of Welfare luxury. ---
**Author:** ![ducati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/235 "2012-06-14T01:54:49Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Bullshit, Oper. > > Lemme tell you about how I qualified for WIC when my twins were born. My husband had a job that paid $14,000 a year. I, before I gave birth, had a job that paid me $9000 a year. In New York City.! Wow. Thanks for having 2 kids you can’t afford to raise. Just send us an invoice and we’ll take care of that for you. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/236 "2012-06-14T02:17:25Z")
> [@ducati](#): > > Wow. > Thanks for having 2 kids you can’t afford to raise. > > Just send us an invoice and we’ll take care of that for you. :rolleyes: You’re welcome. You’ll especially thank me now that my college educated children are paying for you when you’re an old man. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/237 "2012-06-14T02:48:17Z")
> [@Sarabellum1976](#): > > I myself am curious about people who were legitimately “self employed” but maybe somewhat off the radar. Like, for instance, what about people who clean houses for a living? They get paid in cash, probably don’t get their wages declared. Were these people likely to tell the truth and estimate their incomes, or more likely to claim to be unemloyed altogether? Anecdote: one of the times I was in the Public Aid office I overheard a caseworker ask a new applicant what she did for money. The reply was “I’m a whore”. Given that the caseworker’s next response, in a very normal, routine tone of voice was “And how much do you estimate you make a week as a prostitute?” I’m guessing at least a few “off the radar” self-employed do tell the truth. I also expect the drug dealers and car thieves to lie through their little pointed teeth, too. > [@](#): > > What about people in the country illegally? Were there loopholes for them (or their kids?) or was it pretty difficult for illegals to get food stamps and Medicaid? Illegals do not legally qualify for either food stamps or Medicaid. They only food aid open to them are soup kitchen and pantries that don’t ask (usually church run) and the only medical care they can get is that for life-threatening emergencies via the ER. The only way they can get food stamps or any other government benefit is to break the law, usually by committing identity fraud. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/238 "2012-06-14T02:57:13Z")
> [@the\_apples\_fell](#): > > My issue is not with people who truly need help, nor do I think people should be completely downtrodden. However, if you have the money to afford luxury items, then I do not think that I should have to subsidize your meals. If you can afford a fur coat or a pearl necklace, you have the money to buy your own food. There is a huge range between destitute and able to afford luxury items. So… you’re saying that before a formerly middle class family can get food stamps they have to sell their TV’s, computers, vehicles, jewelry, and every other item of value they have in their possession? Because that’s how your coming across, that before they apply they have to sell _everything_ and basically be living in a place with bare walls and no furniture. Or did you mean something else? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/239 "2012-06-14T03:03:31Z")
> [@the\_apples\_fell](#): > > Don’t you see a problem with people who quit their job so as to collect unemployment without having to work, and who remain on welfare for decades? YOU CAN NOT STAY ON WELFARE FOR DECADES ANYMORE!!! That has been _impossible_ since 1996. Folks, that was _sixteen years ago_. Can we PLEASE keep up with the times? **Apples** , when you make a mistake that glaring you come off as uninformed at best, and more likely in the willfully ignorant category. You’re up in arms about something that hasn’t existed for 16 years and _admit_ you don’t know how the system currently works. You’re wrong on so many points it’s just sad. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625/240 "2012-06-14T04:59:10Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > 😕 How do you sell a SNAP card? Do you get a percentage of what will come to your account over the life of your benefits, or do you just get enough meth to last a day? You offer to buy someone else’s groceries for them, then pocket the cash. Or you buy groceries, return them, and either pitch a hissy fit when clerk refuses to give you cash and insists on putting it back on the card or don’t dring in the reciept at all and throw an even bigger hissy fit when asked for one. > [@etv78](#): > > And ONLY prepackaged food. (If you make a salad or plate of chinese food, you pay cash) And if you’re in a convience store you need to pay for those frozen dinners, sandwitches, et al _before_ you microwave them. Yeah, that was fun, taking food off the counter in and throwing it in the garbage front of customers (& their children) then tell them that they need to go back to the cooler, get another of the exact same item, and have me ring it up before they put in the microwave. :rolleyes: Same deal for the fucking breakfast sandwitches; the one’s in the cooler are fair game, the ones right by the register under the heating lamp aren’t. > [@the\_apples\_fell](#): > > Well, there are things that are not technically “fraud” that I deem morally reprehensible, such as buying all your food on food stamps and then spending cash right after on cigarettes and alcohol. Dumping out your water you bought on EBT and going to the bottle return. I’ve SEEN it. It’s really fun watching somebody do that, then informing them afterward then they try to get the deposit that this state doesn’t have bottle return. 😉 > [@Amasia](#): > > This. > > Part of the problem with EBT/SNAP is that the system was designed with a focus on distributing surplus food. For probably the first time in history, the government had the weird situation of having surplus food, yet people were starving. Fundamentally, food stamps were not designed solely as a means of getting food to poor people, but also as a means of supplementing the agricultural industry… Thank you. I had a college professor say just that in one of his lectures. Foodstamps are primarily a form of agricultural subsidy ("agriculture in this case including grocers) that has the happy side effect of feeding the poor. > [@Farmer\_Jane](#): > > Here’s my state’s list of [approved EBT foods](http://www.ebtcardbalance.com/buy-food-Colorado-ebt-card-el5)…junk food is allowed. > > Empty calories really go a long way to feeding the undernourished. :rolleyes: Not going to change unless somebody outspends the junk food manufacturers in order to [del]bribe[/del] lobby legislators and Congressmembers focus. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamps-do-you-think-ones-purchases-taxes-should-be-looked-into/624625.md?page=13)