# Should people only be allowed to purchase ingredients with food stamps? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 6, 2010, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410 "2010-08-06T16:08:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dilton\_Doiley\_Philosopher\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f1d935/32.png) [@Dilton\_Doiley\_Philosopher\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dilton_Doiley_Philosopher_King)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/21 "2010-08-06T16:36:33Z")
Time to cook is one thing, and something which I can’t come up with an answer for right now… but if we do not have the expectation that people can teach themselves how to cook, then why have the expectation that people can learn to read, drive, use a shovel, operate any machinery, type, cut grass, bag groceries, work on a car, assemble something from parts, or anything else that requires more than one step to perform. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/22 "2010-08-06T16:40:06Z")
It’s not a question of knowledge, but one of time and facilities (as \*\*Diogenes \*\*pointed out). Trying to shoehorn all poor people into a category of living situations where they have the time and facilities to make meals from scratch is just silly. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/23 "2010-08-06T16:40:22Z")
I think a lot of whether or not you can or should dictate how that money’s spent depends on your view about the assistance and its nature. For example, many here view this sort of food assistance as a fundamental right, and a primary purpose of government. Others may view it as a short-term, stop-gap thing, and as a huge drain on public coffers that are already depleted as-is. If you take the second view, it’s not at all unreasonable to think that if the government is essentially giving someone that which they could in the vast majority of cases, go earn themselves, then the government has a duty to be a good steward of the taxpayers’ money. Along that line of reasoning, it’s reasonable to think that the government not only has the right, but has the obligation to decide what is and isn’t reasonable for the recipients of the aid to spend that aid on. It’s reasonable for the government to expect aid recipients not to buy non-nutritious junk food on the public dime, especially when those same people are likely to be disproportionately affected by diseases that are directly related to diet, such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease and hypertension. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/24 "2010-08-06T16:40:28Z")
These people have been approved for X amount of dollars worth of food support. Full stop. What food they decide to spend that money on is their business. On a related note: My mom gets some ridiculous amount of food stamps per month. Something like $6. Yes, really. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/25 "2010-08-06T16:41:03Z")
The WIC program (women, infants, and children) _does_ put restrictions on what can be bought with it, but it’s done as an exhaustive list. If one brand of cereal is on the list, but another equivalent brand isn’t, then you have to buy the brand that’s on the list. > [@](#): > > Go look at a broke college student’s pantry and then tell me it’s cheaper to live on ingredients. It is cheaper to live on ingredients, if you don’t count the cost of your time. College students with a pantry full of pre-prepared foods, it isn’t because they’re cheaper. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/26 "2010-08-06T16:45:59Z")
A couple of older threads: > **[Food stamps- should there be restrictions on what you can buy?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=188226)** > > In my job as a cashier at Wally World, I deal frequently with people who purchase their groceries with food stamps. OK, I’m fine with that. I really don’t mind the idea that people who are in poverty can get some government help paying for the... > **[Replacing food stamps with real food for poor](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=528436)** > > I mentioned in a couple threads how I thought a good idea would be to replace the food stamp program with actual food. The gov’t could contract to make a nutritious foodstuff or foodstuffs and give it out to supermarkets and freely distribute it to... ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/27 "2010-08-06T16:52:29Z")
How many threads have we had on this subject? Is it time for another one? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/28 "2010-08-06T16:54:44Z")
So when I was getting assistance, having a cast from palm halfway to shoulder, I shouls have had to buy ingrediants and make meals? Honey, if it couldn’t be nuked or eaten without cooking, forget it. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/29 "2010-08-06T16:59:55Z")
[QUOTE=Dilton Doiley,Philosopher King] Time to cook is one thing, and something which I can’t come up with an answer for right now… but if we do not have the expectation that people can teach themselves how to cook, then why have the expectation that people can learn to read, drive, use a shovel, operate any machinery, type, cut grass, bag groceries, work on a car, assemble something from parts, or anything else that requires more than one step to perform. [/QUOTE] Because no one learns how to do most of those things on their own without someone teaching them. Who is going to teach people who don’t know how to cook things from scratch to do this? And who is going to provide them with the facilities to do so? Not everyone has a stove/oven/microwave or a refrigerator (or crock pot…gods :p). Or even pots, pans and other cooking implements. Hell, I know people who are middle class or higher who don’t have those things, let alone the poor who benefit from programs like food stamps. -XT ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/30 "2010-08-06T17:10:18Z")
Besides what other people have pointed out, it’s just not worth the trouble of the government to create a new bureaucracy to decide what food items are acceptable and what aren’t. It would cost more than it would save. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/31 "2010-08-06T17:13:40Z")
Well, not necessarily. There are an awful lot of people at the DoD who already do much the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/32 "2010-08-06T17:13:59Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I don’t know how easy it would be to categorize the thousands of food products out there, and we should also consider that a lot of people on food stamps are working (either both parents or single parents) w/ not a lot of free time to cook. As long as liquor and tobacco and other items like that aren’t allowed, I say let the people buy what they want. The voice of reason, attempting to make sense. Agree. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/33 "2010-08-06T17:27:55Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Lack of access to cooking facilities, time to cook, or even a permanent home should not preclude food assistance. Elderly people or the disabled who lack fine motor control to handle knives should not be precluded from food assistance. > > So, no. \*\* standing and applauding \*\* Seriously, the judgemental posts here are from people who have no friggin’ \*clue \*what it’s like to be seriously, completely, overwhelmingly in poverty. I don’t mean “I can’t go out to dinner because otherwise I couldn’t pay my rent” type of broke. I mean “I can’t buy Top Ramen and even if I could I have nowhere to cook it” type of broke. Crap like this: > [@](#): > > Have you ever used a crock pot? doesn’t help either. Crock pots aren’t free, ya know. They can’t pay for their own food, and now you want them to purchase _appliances_?!? ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/34 "2010-08-06T17:38:48Z")
> [@Laudenum](#): > > > [@niblet\_head](#): > > > > Why is it we seem to only get to make all the lifestyle decisions for the poor? You think you aren’t paying increased health care costs for middle class fat people? Hell, even if every employee in my company was a billionaire but we had three heart attacks and one stroke out of 100 people you bet our premiums would go up next year, even if the other 96 were exceptionally healthy. > > Because the middle-class and rich pay for their own food. > > The OP is limited to those on food stamps. No, he mentioned paying for the health costs of people on food stamps. ETA: I would also argue that we subsidize crap food that anyone of any class eats via high fructose corn syrup. ---
**Author:** ![Dilton\_Doiley\_Philosopher\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f1d935/32.png) [@Dilton\_Doiley\_Philosopher\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dilton_Doiley_Philosopher_King)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/35 "2010-08-06T17:43:31Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Crock pots aren’t free, ya know. They can’t pay for their own food, and now you want them to purchase _appliances_?!? If I am going to be subsidizing something, I would rather pay for a crock pot, hot plate, microwave or pots and utensils, then pay for chips and pop. “Give a man a fish”, and all that… ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/36 "2010-08-06T17:45:05Z")
Crockpots aren’t exactly speedy either. I would say that they aren’t a bad suggestion for some folks in the kind of space and time situations we’re talking about because they aren’t _that_ expensive (no more so than a hot plate or microwave), they don’t take a lot of space and they provide a tool to do some homecooked, economical meals that can be cooked while you’re out and about. It’s not something can be practically used as an everyday, all purpose cooking tool, though. It can be helpful, it gives people some more options, but it’s not practical to suggest that everybody on EBT should limited to only being able to buy things they can cook in a crockpot. ---
**Author:** ![Dilton\_Doiley\_Philosopher\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f1d935/32.png) [@Dilton\_Doiley\_Philosopher\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dilton_Doiley_Philosopher_King)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/37 "2010-08-06T17:46:28Z")
> [@niblet\_head](#): > > ETA: I would also argue that we subsidize crap food that anyone of any class eats via high fructose corn syrup. That hadn’t occurred to me, but considering that [we are doing just that](http://farm.ewg.org/progdetail.php?fips=00000&progcode=corn), I agree with you. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/38 "2010-08-06T17:48:10Z")
> [@niblet\_head](#): > > > [@Laudenum](#): > > > > Because the middle-class and rich pay for their own food. > > > > The OP is limited to those on food stamps. > > No, he mentioned paying for the health costs of people on food stamps. ETA: I would also argue that we subsidize crap food that anyone of any class eats via high fructose corn syrup. Never mind. I withdraw my participation in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/39 "2010-08-06T17:53:22Z")
The answer is no, you can not make a snap decision about a persons lifestyle by nosing into what they bought one time. You do not know if they scrimped for a kids party . You do not know if they eat that way all the time. Mind your own business. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410/40 "2010-08-06T17:55:06Z")
How about the electricity/gas cost to do all that lengthy cooking? You think that’s free? Yeah, let’s run the fifty dollar crock pot for twelve hours to make soup, it won’t cost a penny on the bill, right? And of course there’s no problem whatsoever when you’re living in a shitbox with ancient wiring to leave an electrical appliance running for hours, no chance of a fire there, of course not! And if you happen to be camping under a bridge, you can simply plug the crock pot in to one of the handy free electrical outlets so conveniently installed every ten feet or so. Easy peasy, one wonders why in the hell those stupid poor people don’t just do that, instead of buying shelf stable products that don’t require refrigeration. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-only-be-allowed-to-purchase-ingredients-with-food-stamps/549410.md?page=3)