05-18-2016, 11:11 AM
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Too lazy to set a custom title
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: portland, OR
Posts: 20,684
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Quote:
Originally Posted by woj
One obvious observation is that if it's possible to game the system, then EBT recipients are getting too much?
Imagine that if you have your shit together, you can survive on $100/month, you need to eat, so you need $100/month no matter what... so you get a $100/month EBT card, buy food with it, there is zero $$ left over to game the system in any way...
if you try to sell it, then obviously you won't have enough to buy food anymore, making selling it pointless? you try to buy candy bars at whole foods, then you won't have enough left over to buy real food, so obviously going to whole foods for candy bars isn't going to work either?
so the whole problem is that everyone is really getting $150, $50 more than the $100 needed to buy food, and that extra $50 can be used to "game the system", either by selling it, or buying frivolous goods?
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Here is the problem with this idea. In order to get EBT you have to prove that you have little or no income. The problem is that the EBT officials are swamped with people they are helping. They can't do a deep, detailed investigation so they do the best they can. The people that are gaming the system have income from other areas. A common scam is that one person applies for EBT and then they have other family members move in with them (or already living with them and they lie about it) who have some source of income so the EBT isn't as vital. Another is that they get EBT then hit up every food bank they can and get free food that way allowing them to use EBT to buy more luxury type items. It is going to be nearly impossible to stop people who are doing that. Also, the number of people doing that is tiny compared to the number of people using it properly. |
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