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Comment by jjulius | Hacker News Reader

Given the fact that "food stamps", as posted in another comment, is a colloquial term, this is absolutely not true. WIC, for instance, gives you a slip of paper with a specific list of the foods and amounts of those foods that you can buy. This is often limited to things like milk, cereal, eggs, baby formula, etc.

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WIC and friends are funded by the feds but implemented by the states, and those on the programs know what can be bought where.

Ask any grocery clerk; it’s very common to see someone use SNAP to buy the listed items and then immediately afterwards spend their cash on the other things. Funds are fungible, after all.

All of which isn’t really a big deal, tbh. However the program is so large and the hoverment abandoning the purchasing power they could have if they dictated more the “buyables” is a regret. They could have “WIC” stamps on foods that are not only healthy but actively good, low in sugars, etc.

> Ask any grocery clerk; it’s very common to see someone use SNAP to buy the listed items and then immediately afterwards spend their cash on the other things. Funds are fungible, after all.

Why is this at all surprising? SNAP doesn't cover anything non-food, like cleaning supplies; people still need toilet paper and soap.

It's called "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program". "Supplemental" seems to perfectly describe that behavior.

The "stereotypical" is someone buying food with SNAP and then spending their own money on liquor and junk food.

But that's an acceptable price, imo. You will always have scofflaws and people who just want to be fat, but that's part of the price of a society.

Right - I was that grocery clerk at another point in my life. The cashier processing the WIC purchases, specifically. That's why I take issue with such generalizations about abuse of the program. Yes, your own funds are used to purchase the foods not listed on your WIC check, but I saw many people come through who used it to make "good" purchases. Sure, maybe they weren't the pinnacle of health, but at least it looked like they were trying, as opposed to the stereotype of wasting it on junk food and alcohol.

I was mostly talking about SNAP/EBT

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