The lady who drove a Mercedes to pick up food vouchers.

[Jenny A]

I'm always of so many minds about this sort of thing I don't know where to begin. No one has a right to a basic income just for existing. Welfare is a form of charity

When we give out of charity whether we are individuals, an institution, or the government, we have the right to limit or direct that gift. It is after all a gift. Whether the particular limitations on the gift make sense is open for debate when the government is doing the giving. But before we decide whether the limitations make sense, we first have to decide what the objective of the gift is. If it's producing healthy babies, WIC is much better than cash. Ditto if it's making sure children are fed.

However making or allowing someone to become dependent on charity forever should not be the purpose of charity. What this woman is saying is that it hurt her pride to be on welfare. Well, it should. It would hurt mine, whether the circumstances were my own making or not. If accepting charity doesn't hurt your pride, there's something lacking in you. It's one of the reasons good people prefer to support themselves.

But, I don't think that anyone should question what a person does with a gift, provided they are following the dictates of the giver. The government gave her the food stamps with certain restrictions. She wasn't violating those. Anyone who has a complaint should address it to the government and not the recipient woman in the check out line. Certainly no one has a right to tell her what to do with her other possessions.