Not surprisingly, when people have food stamps as their only source of income, they convert food stamps to cash at a (70%) discount. Why don't we just give people money? The recipients are in the best position to decide what (clothing? housing? soap? food?) is most needed; what is gained by restricting them?

Worse, there's lots of money used in making sure that food stamps are only spent on food. Stores need special machines to accept food stamps, stores need to apply to be in the program, enforcement against stores that break the rules, etc.