Three days before Thanksgiving, someone was trying to steal peoples food stamps.
This became a big problem in New York a few years ago. Thieves would put skimmers on top of the card readers at supermarket checkouts and then drain the food stamp accounts of people who went through those checkouts. The state initially refused to compensate victims despite the fact that this wasn’t even a scam that someone could chosen to avoid. The only safety measure was to try and disassemble the card reader to see if there was a skimmer that would come off.
Eventually politicians changed the policy and compensated people after there were so many cases of theft that major newspapers were writing about it. I don’t know if theft is still frequent but less talked-about because victims get compensated, or if the authorities managed to put an end to it.
I’m not surprised that criminals would do such a thing, given that they do so much worse.
What shitty system even allows this to happen? It’s not like the microchip in credit cards that allows for secure transactions is particularly expensive.
Small addendum because I looked it up:
Apparently checks aren’t the only ancient aspect of the US banking system. Chip cards have apparently only come around in the past few years, prior they used the insecure magnetic strip cards that can literally just be copied.
On some revolut (finance app, popular in ireland) cards the magenetic strip is disabled by default.
Mastercard started removing the magnetic strip from new cards this year in some European countries, and want to completely remove it worldwide by 2029.
In the US, I’ve actually got one card that doesn’t have a magnetic strip: a debit card for Target stores (gives 5% discount for every purchase which is why I have it).
To grow all the veggies for these people on food stamps… Right?
Right?
You’d be surprised how much food an urban homestead can produce. And no, one person isn’t going to feed everybody on food stamps but like many things, if enough people start doing it then it becomes part of the culture. Imagine if houses had a little homestead instead of a grass lawn, especially in the front. Whole changes in culture could occur. For example, one of the best things about Halloween in my opinion is that the whole neighbourhood comes alive with people out and about. If people spent more time in their front yards doing gardening (and not noisy polluting lawn mowing) there’s be more interactions between people and places would feel more alive and safer. </rant>
To grow the veggies bought with the food stamps. 😉
Seriously though, you can buy seeds and bulbs for growing food on food stamps. I can’t remember if live plants are covered - it’s been a few years since I’ve needed them.
What is a food card, and food stamps? Is this some kind of US-only dystopia?
Yes, in a way. My understanding is that in the US instead of giving less fortunate people the money to buy what they need they get given tokens which can only be used for specific types of items. Obviously it’d be a lot cheaper to skip that extra admin cost and give the money directly instead of maintaining an entirely separate type of currency, but you can’t trust those filthy poors to know what they need. And hygiene products are one thing they don’t need, apparently.
It’s a thing (or used to be a thing) in Australia too: a voucher or prepaid debit card that can only be used to buy food, given to low-income residents.
Australia actually has a proper safety net for low-income residents though, with public health care and monthly payments from the government if you’re unemployed and looking for a job, or you’re a child / young adult and your parents are low income, or a few other cases.
