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I see a lot of I think statements in your post, and no empirical data. What specific issues are you suggesting result from giving cash over food stamps? Are y

I see a lot of I think statements in your post, and no empirical data. What specific issues are you suggesting result from giving cash over food stamps? Are you familiar with the absolutely byzantine rules imposed by many states on food stamp recipients on what they can purchase? It was recently discussed in an article here I believe. It goes down to specifying which specific types of cheddar cheese are permissible. Just removing the mental burden of that alone would be an improvement.

tombert 5y ago
> I see a lot of I think statements in your post, and no empirical data. That's totally fair; this is observational anecdata. Something a bit more objective would be to look at lottery winners [1], a case where someone gets literally millions of dollars injected into their bank account. Despite this a majority of lottery winners end up broke relatively quickly. Of course, this is going to be a selection bias; typically financially responsible people are not playing the lottery since it's generally regarded as a bad financial investment, but the fact that the lottery exists proves that there's a large enough audience to justify its existence. > What specific issues are you suggesting result from giving cash over food stamps? I think there's a risk of an increase in the aforementioned lottery tickets, > Are you familiar with the absolutely byzantine rules imposed by many states on food stamp recipients on what they can purchase? > It was recently discussed in an article here I believe. It goes down to specifying which specific types of cheddar cheese are permissible. Yep! I actually looked into the process of applying for them when I was really broke in 2016 [2], and you will get zero arguments from me that it's a draconian system that needs revision. There are a bunch of arbitrary rules about how they can be redeemed and I am somewhat against those, but that doesn't mean that we get rid of food stamps entirely. [1] https://www.lovemoney.com/gallerylist/64958/lottery-winners-who-blew-the-lot https://www.lovemoney.com/gallerylist/64958/lottery-winners-... [2] I actually didn't end up getting them due to an extreme bit of good luck finding a job just in time.

tombert 5y ago

> I see a lot of I think statements in your post, and no empirical data. That's totally fair; this is observational anecdata. Something a bit more objective would be to look at lottery winners [1], a case where someone gets literally millions of dollars injected into their bank account. Despite this a majority of lottery winners end up broke relatively quickly. Of course, this is going to be a selection bias; typically financially responsible people are not playing the lottery since it's generally regarded as a bad financial investment, but the fact that the lottery exists proves that there's a large enough audience to justify its existence. > What specific issues are you suggesting result from giving cash over food stamps? I think there's a risk of an increase in the aforementioned lottery tickets, > Are you familiar with the absolutely byzantine rules imposed by many states on food stamp recipients on what they can purchase? > It was recently discussed in an article here I believe. It goes down to specifying which specific types of cheddar cheese are permissible. Yep! I actually looked into the process of applying for them when I was really broke in 2016 [2], and you will get zero arguments from me that it's a draconian system that needs revision. There are a bunch of arbitrary rules about how they can be redeemed and I am somewhat against those, but that doesn't mean that we get rid of food stamps entirely. [1] https://www.lovemoney.com/gallerylist/64958/lottery-winners-who-blew-the-lot https://www.lovemoney.com/gallerylist/64958/lottery-winners-... [2] I actually didn't end up getting them due to an extreme bit of good luck finding a job just in time.