Got EBT? You get Amazon Prime for half of what I pay. - Granite Grok

Got EBT? You get Amazon Prime for half of what I pay.

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TMEW has a Prime account – I know because I pay the bill for it.  That’s fine, as she’s been getting quite a number of educational toys for the Grandson.  But we pay full boat and we are loyal customers.  But now, somebody else gets a cut rate?

People who receive government assistance are now eligible for a discount on Amazon Prime, the online retailer announced Tuesday. (Published Tuesday, June 6, 2017)

People who receive government assistance are now eligible for a discount on Amazon Prime, the online retailer announced Tuesday.

Customers who have a valid Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card qualify for the discounted $5.99 monthly membership, half the regular price, for one year. It includes free two-day shipping on more than 50 million eligible Amazon items and same-day delivery options as well as unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Prime Video, photo storage and subscription savings features.

EBTs, a card commonly used to disburse funds for government programs including

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Women, Infants, and Children Nutrition Program (WIC), can’t be used to pay for membership. Amazon says it plans to expands its discount offering in the future to benefit people on government assistance programs that do not use EBT cards.

Money is fungible – if you shop at a grocery store in the last few years, you’ve watched someone ahead of you make two transactions – one for the TANF/ SNAP / WIC stuff and then a cash / credit card for beer, expensive seafood or cuts of beef, alcohol, and the like. I certainly can’t afford it and if I was on assistance, I certainly wouldn’t be using my scarce cash except on really basic needs.  But hey, if our tax monies are taking care of the basics, I guess they feel free to spend their own on luxuries.

I prefer the flipping of that last sentence: if you are buying ANY kind of luxuries, you don’t need Govt assistance.  Hard hearted, cold hearted?  No.  But should we insist that our assistance is for basics as a hand up and not a hammock in which to game the system. The safety net is supposed to be just that – but not anything more.

Now, Amazon can do what it wants and at the price it wants.  That doesn’t mean that I have to like it.  I do have a question:

Is Amazon going to limit purchases for those using EBT cards to just the basic safety net items?

Oh, this too – why shouldn’t ALL of us get the discount?  These tech titans are about “equality” and “equity” – this certainly isn’t demonstrating it.  In fact, it’s downright discriminating, eh?

Full Disclosure – GraniteGrok is an Associate of Amazon.  If you click to Amazon from us, we get a bit of coin which goes right into the running of the ‘Grok (but not our pockets).

(H/T: NBC Chicago)

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