You are right - it should be possible... Two notes though... >From my experience with paycard (stored value card) systems, companies generally classify establishments, but not individual items sold at those establishments. It's actually possible for a company to prevent you from using your card at any places classified as "sporting goods" for example, but it's not possible (or wasn't a couple years ago when I was doing this stuff) to tell the difference between buying milk and buying beer at a grocery store. I may be wrong, but this is my current understanding...
One other thing that's weird. A friend of mine's grandmother receives food stamps. It's a good program for her and really helps her out. The state monitors the food stamp use and if she stops using them the state stops sending them (and it's very hard to get them back). This makes sense, but recently she took an extended trip to visit family. The stamps still come, and someone else int he family has to use them (even if they don't need them) to make sure that the stamps don't stop coming while grandma's out of town. So *someone* sees this person probably buying some nice brand name food, maybe a steak, with food stamps and wonders, as you do, why that happens. Well, that's one reason. It just highlights the holes int he current system. In a perfect world those stamps would stop coming for a month and then resume. It would same the taxpayers money and her assistance wouldn't be interrupted. But that's not how it works. -Cameron On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 10:29 AM, Scott Stroz <[email protected]> wrote: > Here is what I don't understand. We have a flexible spending account for > medical expenses. We were given a 'credit card' to be used to pay for these > expenses. I cannot use the card at certain establishments (like > restaurants), the card will be rejected. > > Why can't we use similar technology to limit not only where people can buy > stuff from, but what they can buy, with government assistance? > > Another thing that chaps my hide is that I frequently see people using food > stamps to purchase name brand items and prime cuts of steak. If I needed > government assistance to pay for my groceries, you can bet your ass that I > would be buying EVERYTHING generic. More bang for your buck that way. But, > I guess if you are one of those people who are just looking for a handout, > you couldn't give a rats ass about actually spending the money wisely. > Honestly, I think if you are using food stamps or other government > assistance to pay for your groceries, you should not be allowed to buy name > brand stuff at ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:290765 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
