You could be mad at both… why is this a black and white issue? EBT abuse is real.
I have seen people literally sell the milk they get from EBT that was intended to be used for their baby. They bragged about being able to get the new iphone with it. I have seen homeless who buy bottled water on SNAP only to dump and resell the bottles so they could get cash for their addictions. Why would i not be mad at that just as I am at how corporate bailouts didnt help anyone except the top .01% of society?
Edit: so many hexbears. I dont care to respond to Kremlin bots.
“Yeah, rich people take orders of magnitudes more money from society in order to reinvest it in very concretely destroying society further, but did you consider that someone who was over-prescribed opiods as part of a deliberate campaign by the Sacklers also take up money coping with the addiction they ended up with?”
Fuck off. There are important societal benefits to welfare, while corporate bailouts and the like are a cancer intended only to give the rich more money.
I have seen homeless who buy bottled water on SNAP only to dump and resell the bottles so they could get cash for their addictions.
If you’re going to lie, why make up the most nonsensical lie imaginable?
I’ve seen this first hand a good few times - believe me or not because I don’t want to be too specific about my experience. You’ve got to be super desperate to pour out a 40 count of bottled water for $2-4, but people with nothing else but SNAP/EBT/etc funds will do it.
It’s sad and wasteful, but it’s also such a marginal thing compared to the Sacklers making the opium wars look like a prank that I don’t see how it can even brought up in the same conversation - except as deflection.
[Removed a bit too much hostility.]
I work with homeless people, many of whom have substance abuse issues. I’ve heard of all sorts of ways to get money for drugs (by the way, $2-4 isn’t going to get that done, not even close) and have never heard of anything close to this ridiculous.
It’s unbelievable. As someone else pointed out, with selling them you’re looking at $40, not $2-4, for standing at an intersection or in a park. And you don’t need to do it 30-40 times to get your fix.
I’ve seen no shortage of people reselling water bottles with water in them (common especially in places with lots of tourists) but just selling the fucking bottles?
Surely it’s a bit, LMAO. How is that something that could even be witnessed? Where is the open air empt water bottle market even located? :data-laughing:
Ah yes someone selling a few dollars of milk is definitely the same as a corporation stealing millions. Ah yes. These two are the same.
wow, I can’t believe someone would commit moral failures such as buying an iphone. the absolute outrage.
sounds like people shouldn’t be impoverished. that’s the conclusion you should be drawing, not this moral crusader thing of looking down your nose at impoverished people. If poor people are doing things you find distasteful, why not focus your energy on the people who create and spread poverty in the first place? and no, that’s not poor people. It’s the capitalists and their servants in the state
Why would i not be mad at that just as I am at how corporate bailouts didnt help anyone except the top .01% of society?
Scale. The amount that the capitalists steal from you is orders of magnitude larger than whatever infinitesimal amount of tax dollars (well, more accurately, cents) you lose because an unhoused person used a loophole to buy drugs. Personally I can’t even imagine being angry at the two people you mentioned. Nor is there a realistic way to prevent those things that wouldn’t punish the 99% of people who just use EBT to buy food like its intended.
(I also really don’t care if people find a way to use EBT money to buy something else in general. Like I can’t think of a single reason to be bothered by that. And I life off EBT and only ever use it the “correct” way.)
Idk man, just seems like small potatoes, and rare. Everyone has to eat and I find it doubtful that the skinny EBT amounts will fund an addict’s lifestyle significantly if the food is resold on the secondary market.
When it comes to government waste? It’s not nothing, but I think you’re right, it is technically small potatoes. But it isn’t rare, I’ve heard 2 very credible firsthand accounts. The result of one I’ve actually witnessed, repeatedly.
So idk exactly how that SNAP/EBT stuff works, but it’s just a certain amount loaded up on a card. I thought it was $200, and $200 went a hell of a lot further in 2017. My friend had a deal worked out with his neighbor, he’d “purchase” that $200 SNAP/EBT card for $100. They’d take that to the store & eat really, really well! 😂
We justified playing into it because if we didn’t buy it, they’d just sell it to somebody else. So why not us? Why shouldn’t we get the food? But yeah those neighbors wanted $100 CASH more than a $200 card to buy food. Is this behavior rare?..probably not as rare as you think. But definitely not common, and small potatoes.
