Sorry if I offended you. WIC is a lot better than that.
The foods provided through the WIC Program are designed to supplement participants’ diets with specific nutrients. WIC authorized foods include infant cereal, baby foods, iron-fortified adult cereal, fruits and vegetables, vitamin C-rich fruit or vegetable juice, eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt, soy-based beverages, tofu, peanut butter, dried and canned beans/peas, canned fish, whole wheat bread and other whole-grain options. For infants of women who do not fully breastfeed, WIC provides iron-fortified infant formula.
Its also worth pointing out that each of these items includes hundreds of different brands and varieties. Obviously the technology exists to limit/exclude certain items. I'm not talking about limiting a SNAP family to staple foods only either, but maybe there are some things that should not be covered that are. Oddly SNAP excludes certain health-foods & supplements, so they do it already. But oh the travesty if we suggest that some horribly unhealthy items not be covered by tax-dollars that also go to public health assistance programs that these same people are likely on! Come on now...
Sure the system gets money to people who need it, but are we as citizens not allowed to examine and scrutinize how our money is being spent? I have seen the system from both sides. I developed these opinions many years ago when I was in the system myself, and yes it could be improved dramatically. Google would be in financial ruin if none of their divisions communicated or shared data/systems, but when it comes to government that's just fine and dandy because they literally cannot go out of business.
Its upsetting that you've giving me all this attitude simply because I conveyed my true feelings on what I saw in the SNAP system myself. I have as much an interest in a successful society as you do, but I've been around long enough to know that there is a fine line between helping and being an enabler. We are in many cases incentivising the kind of choices that lead to poverty; its absurd.
And yes, it is "their" money. They labored for it; its theirs. Theft and harm is almost always done in the name of goodwill or "helping". If "helping" isn't done voluntarily, you're essentially reaching into someone's pocket without their permission; maybe tolerate a little scrutiny when it comes to how that money is spent, in light of where you got it after all. Is that so much to ask?
ps- I worked at a market where people would constantly pull the deposit swap move. Yes, they are taking hundreds of dollars worth of SNAP and wasting it for roughly 10% of its value; it was constant. I also worked in two different grocery stores and dealt with similar, and I've worked retail and dealt with people buying clothes via the state. I saw how well the WIC system worked at Kroger too. I'm not some fucking Mr Peanut monocle wearing upper-cruster, I fought my way up from the bottom. To this day I don't know if SNAP really helped, or if it just enabled me to fail for a little longer.
Have a good day.