Posted on 08/26/2011 4:26:26 PM PDT by danielmryan
It was the first Monday of the month, and a line numbering more than a hundred spilled from the doors of the District's largest food stamp office and down the sidewalk nearly a half-block to the corner of Seventh and H streets NE.
Children darted among the adults as the procession moved at a funereal pace toward the building -- a 10-minute walk from the U.S. Capitol -- where food stamps are dispensed. The hustlers who trade drugs, stolen goods and cash for food stamps waited patiently outside for people to emerge clutching books of stamps.
"For a $65 book, I am not going to give you over $30," a man wearing a leather jacket said as he and his partner did a brisk business almost within earshot of a security guard posted at the front door.
(Excerpt) Read more at web.archive.org ...
Near the end of it: "[A] Baltimore grocery store owner who was ordered to pay $1.3 million in fines after EBT tracking revealed that he had illegally trafficked in food stamps to the tune of $400,000. Investigators determined that the store was taking in far more revenue from EBT cards than its inventory made possible. They said 10 EBT card-holders confessed to selling benefits for cash on 203 occasions." (Underlining added.)
How do you think that store's revenue would show up in the national-account statistics?
The article claims that EBT makes fraud far more difficult, but I have my doubts. This article shows that any 'stimulative' effect of food stamps is, prima facie, due to food-stamp fraud.
I hope you enjoy, or are at least enlightened by, this "FR Archive Dive." I found it early this morning because I couldn't access FR and I was curious about the old days. The original poster was BobS.
Just another reason for why they got rid of food stamps.
Now I just need to find out where in Florida I can buy food stamps at less than half face value so I can cut my grocery bill in half.
How about we start giving out FOOD instead of food stamps from now on? This along with required drug testing for those getting assistance would collapse every blighted section of society nearly overnight.
For the life of me, I can’t understand why the WIC model (coupons for specific foods, in specific quantities) has not been adopted across the welfare system. The gov’t seems so gung-ho to tell the rest of us what we should eat, so why not do some “nutritional planning” for people who eat on the taxpayer’s dime?
Some months ago, as I was heading into Giant Eagle, a “minority” woman asked if I had a grocery list. She said she would buy my groceries, if I would pay her 75% of the tab. I said no, and she immediately dropped her fee to 50%. I told her to get lost. She screamed every name in the book at me as I went into the store!
It’s the reason they got rid of food stamps and went to debit type cards.
75% is a ripoff. The going rate is ALWAYS 50 cents on a dollar. She was trying to rip you off.
Food stamp fraud is just as bad now as it ever has been. Maybe worse. EBT cards didn’t even slow it down. The cards were issued to cut down on the embarrassment of having to count out food stamps at the cash register.
Allow me to brush off my rusty Keynesianism 101 and show you how, if you had accepted the deal, it would have made the shady transaction 'stimulative':
- Dr. Alternate Pachysandra ends up buying $100 worth of groceries for $50, making for $50' worth of spending. Unfortunately, this $50 would have been spent by Dr. Alternate anyway - making for no net spending. Moreover, Ms. Screamie won't report it so it won't show up in the accounts.
- Ms. Screamie takes her food stamps and buys $100 worth of food. Net spending: $100.
- After Dr. Alternate and Ms. Screamie part the ways, the latter takes her $50 and buys smokes. Net spending: $50.
Total spending: $0 + $100 + $50 = $150.
Now, to the revenue side. The grocery store got $100 in revenue. The smoke shop got $50. Dr. Alternate's $50 spend on his groceries by giving Ms. Screamie the cash won't show up in the accounts, so it adds $0.
[Side comment: Yes, I'm aware of Bastiat, but I'm calculating like a Keynesian.]
Total spending by government at the margin: $100 for the food EBT. Total addition to the national-income accounts: $150. Food-stamp multiplier: 1.5
Ah, fraud. Wotta stimulation!
This article is so bogus! There is no such thing as “food stamp books” anymore. At one time food stamps were paper coupons that were the same as cash. Not only could you sell them on the street for fifty cents on the dollar, but every little bodega and mom & pop store in America were buying them for cash, too. It was very corrupt, and very wasteful. About ten years ago they wised up and changed the system. Now food “stamps” come on a card with a PIN. It’s gaudy and has a big American flag on it. So when you’re standing at the checkout counter at the grocery store, everybody can see that you’re swiping a food stamp card. And if some loser gets desperate enough to sell it, then he has to sell his PIN, too.
You just aren't cynical enough, that's all.
The driving force behind the never ending expansion of the program is the vast array of commodity groups and companies that benefit from increased sales of their products. Food stamp advocates get the most broad-based support for expanding the program by including pretty much anything edible as long as it's not alcohol.
Or to put it another way, an army of lobbyists working in unison is better than just three or four or them.
BINGO!
Food is probably the LEAST use of Food Stamps and Welfare Debit Cards in EVERY major U.S. city. "OBAMA MONEY....from his Stash..."; that's the way it's treated, and that's why 90%+ of the black voters vote for The Messiah.
Water Dumping .....
Gheeesh....
“She screamed every name in the book at me as I went into the store!”
They’re feeling Obama’s power.
I sure couldn’t live around this garbage.
Obama's Stash!
One day, as an EBT card user was leaving the register, the cashier asked her "do you want your receipt?". She sort of waved her off with a hand as she began to walk off.
Being next in line, I said (rather loudly) "I'll take it! As a taxpayer who helped buy those groceries, it's mine anyway".
LOL! Got the ugly looks from the cashier and the deadbeat.
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