National Review takes on Kentucky's "White Ghetto"

[Linus Van Pelt]

SNAP should just be money instead of EBT cards. The restrictions on what may be purchased likely increase rather than decrease fraudulent use that isn't related to genuine need. Nowadays housing and vehicle costs are often bigger strains on household budgets than food, and all these fraud schemes depend on people who have enough to eat but are stretched on the rest of their budget. Also, it contributes to people staying in poverty to make it mandatory to spend benefits on disposable goods rather than saving up a little to pay for emergencies, a move to a region with more jobs, etc.

Other first-world countries have cash instead of food stamps, and it's not like their poor people are going hungry because it's going to drugs, or whatever the moralistic worry would be.