Well, she did start her story with, "So ...".
I'm 60-something, so I've seen a lot of people use food stamps and EBT cards:
NEVER had the impulse to be nasty;
NEVER saw anyone be nasty. Not in Silicon Valley, not in the Valley of the Sun (Phoenix. Scottsdale, and Tempe), not in the California Central Valley farming town in which I grew up. So I reflexive doubt her story, based on decades of experience.
But there's a better reason to dismiss her story as a
. She said,
... the lady in front of me used Food stamps ...
...
... INSTEAD OF LAUNCHING A 20 MILLION DOLLAR MISSILE AT A CAMEL'S ASS.
From
W'pedia's article on EBT Cards:State agencies work with contractors to procure their own EBT systems for delivery of SNAP and other state-administered benefit programs. In the United States, all SNAP benefits are now being issued via EBT.
...
For most of its history, the Food Stamp Program used paper denominated stamps or coupons worth US$1 (brown), $5 (blue), and $10 (green). In the late 1990s, the food-stamp program was revamped, and stamps were phased out in favor of a specialized debit-card system known as electronic benefit transfer (EBT) provided by private contractors. Many states merged the use of the EBT card for public-assistance welfare programs as well. The 2008 farm bill renamed the Food Stamp Program as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (as of October 2008), and replaced all references to "stamp" or "coupon" in federal law to "card" or "EBT."
.
EBT cards are issued in the format and appearance of a bank debit card. IOW, not easily distinguishable from an ordinary bank debit card or charge card. Note that
Buggee places herself between the lady supposedly using food stamps and the jerk. In the stores I use, the jerk would be so far back and his view so blocked by people, equipment, and groceries that he would not be able to see how the woman paid for her purchase, let alone distinguish an EBT card from an ordinary bank card.
So I don't think this incident happened at all. But if it did, it happened before 2000.
Did any DU-folk call her out on her anachronism?
ETA: Oops! I missed "superpatriotman"'s post. It took 22 responses before any DU-member sort of called her on her lie. Pretty pathetic.
