Comment by cratermoon
21 days ago
Americans seem to love to gatekeep what the poor are allowed to have or not have. They have this image of the Welfare Queen driving a pink Cadillac to cash her welfare checks at the liquor store. It seems that no matter how desperately destitute someone might be, there's a person who will point at something they have, whether it's a tent to sleep in under a bridge (a gift from an organization providing assistance to the houseless), a bicycle that's their only means of transportation, or a garden planted on public property, and say "they can't be that poor if they have that!
When someone lives off of public benefit, there's a sense in which the public can have an interest in how the money is used -- its use should correlate with its intent.
That's why SNAP money is restricted to particular categories. So caring about how it's spent is already a foregone conclusion, and rightly so.
If someone wants to spend money however they like, they'll have to earn it themselves. Even inherited money carries a sense of obligation to honor the family with how it's used (like not blowing it all in a week of lavish partying in Vegas, as an extreme example).