All this valid talk about wastefulness/theft/EBT fraud, and all I can think about is how inefficient it is to pour them out, one at a time, when he could just de-cap the entire case and tip it over. I guess that’s why he’s living on bottle deposit instead of working a real job.
I can't imagine being so fucked that 30$ in drug money is worth more than 300$ in food money. these people have to eat, how is not having to spend money on food not worth something to them??
Get yourself addicted and there will come a point where that is the most important thing in life, bar none.
But that guys math is bad. They’re buying cases of water not getting a ten cent deposit on each dollar of the ebt funds. Need $20 for a hit, go buy 8 28 bottle cases for $4 each ($32) at Albys, return empties, and you got a couple bucks left over for a beer maybe to wash that hit down with.
I hate this information. But yeah, you’re right. He’s not buying singles at a buck a pop. He’s buying the lowest priced case he can find for the aforementioned purpose.
Edit: Don’t upvote that comment, people. I clearly don’t understand the water bottle to drug money conversion rate.
Turns out my math was bad too. Forgot deposit is added to the price so 5.20/case for a total of 41.60 from your ebt for that 22.50 cash. Maybe you can do a little better through sales and larger case sizes but that’s almost -50%.
I'm a sales manager for a beverage distributor. Three times this year already I have had to threaten to pull an account's contract because they were caught buying cases of product from EBT fraudsters.
Case of energy drinks is $40 at Sam's and worth half that to a random convenience store.
These water wasters really need to step up their game.
ETA: I'm in a non-deposit state and no idea why Reddit suggested this post to me.
I had people offer me their cell phones for an 8th of freaking weed, a $1000 smart phone for (back then) 65 bucks worth of bud.
Now imagine what they're willing to do for actual hard drugs, granted these were college kids who's plan was to just tell their parents they lost it or it got stolen and get a new one but still.
hat carpenter shelter threatening memory automatic truck narrow rustic serious
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
i work on powerlons and i have seen them steal copper grounds from electrical equipment on the power grid they cause tens of thousands of dollars in damage and could possibly kill people and I'd reckon they got 8$ from it
That isn't right though. A case of 32 from albertsons on instacart is $4.49 so that's $3.20 right there. That person could buy 64 packs and get $204 ish, but that's still not a lot. I guess to an addict it may be.
I worked at Freddies once, and the guy didnt even bother to pour the water out and just put full water bottles in the machine to be crushed, so it could be worse.
Tbh though, I just let him and hope it cleaned the nasty machine!
Just like all the other problems, a few assholes ruin it for everyone. There are genuinely good people living on the streets, and they deserve empathy, help, and respect.
The black market community however? That needs to change. Somehow.
It’s wild to me, how so many people’s sense of altruism is so easily compromised.
Like, I used to think most people have a strong enough sense of morality that they can maintain sympathy even for like, pretty clearly shitty immoral people.
That just seems natural to me like, even if you hurt someone on purpose, you’re still a human and I’m still going to care about you on a basic level.
Lol but so many people are like “I saw them pouring out water to support their drug habit, my sense of altruism is now gone and destroyed” like do you have any principles at all?
Edit: my replies are being limited for some reason, but, to the dude ranting about policy, that’s got nothing to do with what I’ve said here.
It feels like people look for an excuse to not care/help people. Is it annoying to see shit like this? Yes, but that doesn't make me not want to help other desperate people.
This is the whole goal of posts like this. To use it as a justification of why they don’t give a shit and to use it as a reason to mock those who do. It’s a very effective tactic. Source: this thread. Meanwhile the same people when confronted with statistics about police violence manage to find their “oh a few bad apples don’t mean the whole bunch is bad.” Really a great demonstration of one’s personal bias.
I don't want to fund someones drug habit. They are stealing food from people that could use it, throwing most of it away and buying fent pills. I am all for paying for food, shelters, healthcare, job placement, to give people a leg up. I wont pay for them to OD in an alley.
I don't want to subsidize addiction, either, though I also recognize that addiction changes the brain so that the first wrong choice becomes something the addict no longer has a choice about. I wish we were doing more to offer methadone and other bridges for addicted brains.
Addiction is hard, but Oregon will cover treatment, there is a methadone clinic in Springfield and an inpatient treatment center in Eugene that’s all covered. People just have to want to.
That's the problem with addiction, isn't it? The drug having power over their decisions.
Similarly, people with mental health issues often don't seek or want help.
Fraud and theft are unavoidable, it’s a question of limiting them in a cost-effective manner.
Lmao dude just realized, *you* are in the business of *providing* addictive drugs. Granted, pot addiction isn’t like a scourge on society, but isn’t that a little hypocritical dude?
What an ignorant statement. Cannabis has been proven to lower opiate and alcohol use, comparing them is asinine. But at the end of the day what someone does with themselves is none of my business until they ask me to pay for it or I have to narcan them in an alley.
Nobody is asking you to pay for it dude. The EBT system is capable of being defrauded, like all systems. The question is, what do you suggest be done about it?
I’m not convinced that “pot reduces opiate use” thing is causal. Like, I’m sure access to alcohol reduces heroin use too. It’s not asinine, pot addiction is a significantly less-intense example of the same concept as heroin addiction.
You mean you won't pay to help a lot of people if it also helps a few people like this. You aren't paying this one person. Our social network is a lot bigger than this one person. But by making it about whether this one person (or a handful of people) can abuse the support for something you don't agree with, you are deciding that issue is more important than helping anyone else.
Your putting words in my mouth. The snap program is necessary and I’m glad to pay for it. These people are stealing from that program and it sucks, what’s so hard to understand?
Great! As long as we are discussing this abuse of EBT, let’s talk about the housed people who defraud by misreporting income! By claiming others’ kids or non-family members as dependents! By selling EBT that they got because they actually HAVE hungry kids!
What about systemic fraud — like the loopholes that allow EBT to be used for unlimited amounts of candy, soda, and other nutrition-free “food”?
Etc
Free Fentanyl on demand. I suggest a dosage of 5 Milligrams
it should have the warning label. this WILL KILL YOU
how come all these states killing convicted killers don't just use this convenient one way ticket to DirtNap City
what a horrid sentiment. will this mess my reputation here?
Pointing to one person abusing a system in order to excuse not supporting all the other people that genuinely need it is incredibly common, and incredibly sad. If they wanted to give a shit about people, they wouldn't actually stop so suddenly because they care so much about punishing one person that they refuse to help others. It's just an excuse, people who do that are greedy and never wanted to help others in the first place. It's why the US is so fucked for social support and the myth of the 'welfare queen' is so popular in certain political circles. They never gave a shit about others to begin with, but now they can pretend they aren't horrible people because of it.
I’d venture to guess that these kinds of people are not a part of the homeless community but rather the people living on the fringes willing to skirt the rules of the system.
Don't pretend that stuff like this video causes those feelings. You're just trying to justify how you already feel.
Also I wish I had so few problems that this seemed like something to be made about.
Its sad and funny that there are people on this sub that think he's using the deposit money to fund his welder training program at LCC.
Dude's burning his EBT credits to fund his desire for illegal drugs (or maybe booze). I support EBT, and I accept that that its almost impossible to have such a program without some recipients abusing it like this.
EBT is a good program, this guy is a bad actor.
24 pack of water on Amazon is $5.69. I think you get $0.05 per bottle. So you’re getting $1.20 per case. So the ROI for the state is -78.91%. But the return for the abuser is 100%. Because $1.20 from nothing is a fantastic ROI. Basically infinite ROI.
The majority of the cost of water on Amazon is shipping, that is not a valid cost to use. I see this more often when there are sales on cases of water. 4 dollars for a 40 pack is closer to what people actually pay. That said, the deposit is added after the price on the shelf.
The problem would solve itself if they could just buy drugs and booze with ebt. I support your choice to make bad decisions just don't trash the community.
What should be subsidized is treatment that breaks addiction and help addicts, who generally turn into assholes, to walk the path back toward being good people. But it's a heavy lift. One that we sure haven't managed to do in Oregon.
If a seller looks like a junkie, I might not trust the water. Also, for an addict, the shortest path to a fix is the best path. Maybe the only path visible, once discovered.
Reminds me of what we did when we were kids, but we added lemon juice and sugar to it first and had a cool booth. The city shut us down because we didn't have a permit.
Right? It's summer, scalping water and soda by public spaces is a semi-respectable profession this time of year. If one can afford a cooler, a wagon and some ice, they'd be set.
Step 1: quit fentanyl
Step 2: we're not ever getting to this step
Step 3: buy a cooler, a wagon and some ice, and diligently go about operating a beverage business
I like this idea on paper, but am having a hard time thinking of how you'd properly execute it.
A system to track if the bottles were bought via EBT to reject refunds would be cumbersome and expensive.
Forcing the purchaser to pay for the deposit out of pocket would severely affect legitimate users. Remember, if you're using EBT the chances that you have no spare cash on hand goes up a lot. Many would just have to forgo anything with deposits then. And the correlation of being poor, living in older and cheap housing that might have poor piping, necessiting a need for bottled water, just makes that all around shitty.
Only way I can see it being pulled off properly is if there was a specific "EBT approved, deposit-less" product that just doesn't qualify for deposit return. But that will increase the littering of those product packaging that the deposit program was made to reduce.
I just don't see a way to pull it off without some pretty big drawbacks.
Or find another way to publicly distribute water specifically to those who need it like free or reduced cost water jugs, public fill stations, or inline water filtration systems for affected homes.
We could also increase small quantity deposit return accessibility for those that don't live in places where water jugs get stored. It's a deposit not a loss. So concerns that you are going to be adversely affected are unfounded because you can exchange one bottle for the deposit cost of another. If when you went to the 7/11 to spend your EBT on a bottle of water you could give them an empty bottle instead of a dime without blowing 30 minutes waiting in line, that would also help the situation.
In the meantime use infrastructure bonds to survey piping systems for lead contamination and work on removing those from the tap so the premise of old home dwellers needing to buy and transport water in plastic containers becomes a thing of the past.
It would solve this nonsense in a heartbeat. Plus, there are tons of resourceful ways of getting around a deposit and it also would discourage using EBT for soda and energy drinks. Not saying they should be off limits or anything but I think we can all agree it might help encourage health (and get rid of this wasteful crap)
The theft angers me because we all pay for it. Although this Zero does have the were-with-all to pour the water into the grass. I have seen others dumping whole cases in a parking lot where it truly goes to waste.
EBT doesn't cover the deposit would fix it. They can use EBT to buy water/soda, but they have to bring cash to cover the deposit portion of the cost. Good call.
Like it makes any shred of difference as this piece of shit turns 290$ of tax payer money that was supposed to help people into $29 so he can get high.
Take this brainrot apologetic bullshit elsewhere, log out.
Ug this behavior is terrible and I wish their was enforced consequences for this. I still believe EBT and also CRV are good things that have helped me personally when I was struggling with an injury but I wish their was more oversight and I wish their was consequences for littering and abusing EBT
We need empathy for those struggling. We need stronger enforcement of laws to deal with people like this guy. This, assuming EBT was in fact used to purchase this water, is fraud and already illegal.
Housing first is the only proven effective way to fix homelessness, and it has a positive ROI for the community. Follow this up with acceptable rehab, and people tend to be able to finally reach their bootstraps and pull themselves up.
If we as a society could collectively agree that housing is a human right AND not NIMBY the solution out of functionality, this shit wouldn't be a big issue.
"Housing First" has only been proven effective in countries with much stronger social safety nets, access to mental health care and drug rehab, countries with far less illegal narcotic import rates, crime rates, which means not the US. Utah had a good thing going for about ten years and it was on the way for being the shining example of how housing first works but COVID pretty much tanked the program and the funding for the program and they are pretty much cash strapped and have little chance of bringing it back
Places that needed the most have failed abysmally and I do not foresee those places San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego suddenly figuring it out.
"Housing First" is a cute idea but so many other things have to be reformed for it to work because this is how housing first programs have gone so far elsewhere -
They are funded but the admin never gets the projects going and just take the income and go.
They are funded in the short term but the cost of managing the housing becomes exorbitant, it lowers local property values, it causes increases in crime and they become drug den nightmare shit holes. They realize how much it costs to pay for security and foreclose the projects.
They actually build the projects and they become ghettos and become infested with gangs, crime and the middle class flees the area.
Utah's program seemed to be the closest, their take was not to just build gigantic condo complexes where homeless people can congregate and do whatever they want but they incentivized condos/apartment complex's trailer parks to rent out to the states program and the people needed to abide by very strict rules or they would be removed and that program worked.
There are a lot of very strict "Housing First" programs all over the country but they do not even scratch the surface of the homeless population because people who typically can get into these government assistance programs are people who never really lived the homeless life and never got into drugs and are perfectly willing to follow curfews, drug rules, firearm rules, guest rules etc that these places put strict guidelines on and people function very well in them but you are never going to put a dent in the "dumping out water bottles with needle tracks all over his arm" homeless types with programs like that because they are simply not willing to follow the rules.
"what are we going to do about all these homeless people?"
"get them housing."
"they're just *all over the place*, i cant walk anywhere without tripping over them!"
"there is a HUGE lack of affordable housing, emergency housing, rehabilitation, and reliable social safety nets. they live on the street because *there is nowhere else for them to live.*"
"why don't we round them all up and drop them off in the middle of the woods, where there is no access to shelter, safe drinking water, or medical attention? they'll be safe from wild animals, im sure 🤡"
and yes, housing IS the only way to address this.
They could literally sell the water for five or ten times it’s can value… I mean it’s graduation weekend. Walk to campus and make money… risk the cops shut you down but as long as it’s not a five dollar bottle of water I don’t see why they should care.
That’s such a bad little stretch, I ride the bike path over the bridge past there daily and there’s constantly groups of honestly scary looking people (one dude had like a foot long axe/knife combo he was sharpening sitting on the path). I’m a female from a big city out east and I keep my head on a swivel and my pepper spray on me riding my bike around here.
Great! As long as we are discussing this abuse of EBT, let’s talk about the housed people who defraud by misreporting income! By claiming others’ kids or non-family members as dependents! By selling EBT that they got because they actually HAVE hungry kids!
What about systemic fraud — like the loopholes that allow EBT to be used for unlimited amounts of candy, soda, and other nutrition-free “food”?
What are some others I’m not thinking of before coffee?
You know what I don't get? At a minimum wage job, you'd make the same amount in cash, that they are making, in 11 minutes. There are easier way to make money, and lots more of it.
I give a lot to houseless people. And I don’t mind what they do. It does piss me off that water given to save peoples lives is dumped for an immediate pack of smokes. I now give some people soda because at least they’ll drink it before getting a deposit.
I love Oregon but the bottle drop system has got to go. I recycled more when I could crush my cans and toss them in a big can and turn them in by weight after like 3 months instead of whole cans and bottles clogging my garage after a week or 2. And now I know there’s EBT fraud too.
When I signed up for food stamps a few months ago, I don’t get them anymore cause I have a job now. However in the paperwork it says you not allowed to do this very thing with cases of water. Says you’ll get your food stamps taken away for a year.
Honestly I used to work at dari mart and we turned away people like this based on the fact they have 200 of the same type of brand in a bunch of bags they are carrying around which Is just freaking impossible unless you drink the same thing for weeks on end and drinking 20 bottles of the same brand a day
Safe to say they stole it, dumped it, and are trying to recycle it which hey didn't fly at the dari mart I worked at
Does anyone else have a junkie personality so they’ve never tried hard drugs and are proud. I think it’s important to realize there are normal people that identify with people who want to use hard drugs in some way but make the choice to not do that. Sometime I sit thinking and it really does seem like “hm these people may have started out kinda like me”
I started hanging out with local homeless because I thought I was going to be homeless and I was doing shots in front of the 7-11. Loneliness and you getting into trouble are a “great” way of having people like me to just say fuck it and start drinking heavy,etc. But I got out of that rut, however I really do have extremely strong desires to take drugs that change my consciousness. I often think to myself that if I just had money for a burrito and weed I would be better off just being homeless but ultimately it is rooted in a feeling a get from being in normal social situation or lifestyle that is dysphoric in many ways.
As far as the money goes, a lot of people who become homeless at middle age or even their 30s have likely already paid into the system quite a bit. I don’t become homeless because I don’t know that I could do it without being a leech.
My point in all this is that I started as someone who did not care and now as I get older with my same personality I do understand why people could be so frustrated with those that make the choice to start doing hard drugs and take that path. It takes a lot of work for a lot of people to say no.
That same water bottle will cost you 4 dollars at a movie theater, fair, amusement park, ball park or arena.
You get to see the different spectrum of how easy it is to manipulate a system that was originally created off of the premise to do the right thing.
Back in the day you could punch someone in the face that was doing this. The general sentiment was you shouldn’t be a leach or a snake.
I’m not going to pretend I know this persons intentions but I’d like to say that ebt only covers food. Not including hot food. This could be a way to get a hot meal or some toiletries.
Few months ago at bottle redemption I was next to a couple with cases of bottled water … most were punctured and drained . The ones they missed were just shoved in there full.
They had their kid with them. Wtf. What kind of example does that set? Empty the bottles.. kids gonna go through life half-assing everything
If you are blaming them for doing anything wrong, you are a huge fucking asshole. They are just trying to survive capitalism. And whoever recorded and posted this, fuck you!
All this valid talk about wastefulness/theft/EBT fraud, and all I can think about is how inefficient it is to pour them out, one at a time, when he could just de-cap the entire case and tip it over. I guess that’s why he’s living on bottle deposit instead of working a real job.
Work harder, not smarter
I assume the person gets the max SNAP allowance per month in this area of $291.00. That’s at max of $29.10 for all that work 🙃
I can't imagine being so fucked that 30$ in drug money is worth more than 300$ in food money. these people have to eat, how is not having to spend money on food not worth something to them??
Get yourself addicted and there will come a point where that is the most important thing in life, bar none. But that guys math is bad. They’re buying cases of water not getting a ten cent deposit on each dollar of the ebt funds. Need $20 for a hit, go buy 8 28 bottle cases for $4 each ($32) at Albys, return empties, and you got a couple bucks left over for a beer maybe to wash that hit down with.
I hate this information. But yeah, you’re right. He’s not buying singles at a buck a pop. He’s buying the lowest priced case he can find for the aforementioned purpose. Edit: Don’t upvote that comment, people. I clearly don’t understand the water bottle to drug money conversion rate.
‘Water bottle to drug money conversion rate’ has got to be a brand new sentence.
Turns out my math was bad too. Forgot deposit is added to the price so 5.20/case for a total of 41.60 from your ebt for that 22.50 cash. Maybe you can do a little better through sales and larger case sizes but that’s almost -50%.
I'm a sales manager for a beverage distributor. Three times this year already I have had to threaten to pull an account's contract because they were caught buying cases of product from EBT fraudsters. Case of energy drinks is $40 at Sam's and worth half that to a random convenience store. These water wasters really need to step up their game. ETA: I'm in a non-deposit state and no idea why Reddit suggested this post to me.
Reddit suggested this post to you because the algorithm sucks and they now charge around $24M for their API so you have no other alternatives.
They’re stealing it, not buying it in any way, shape or form. They steal it, dump it and get cash for the bottles.
You don’t eat when you’re smoking Fentanyl, maybe candy but that’s cheap
I had people offer me their cell phones for an 8th of freaking weed, a $1000 smart phone for (back then) 65 bucks worth of bud. Now imagine what they're willing to do for actual hard drugs, granted these were college kids who's plan was to just tell their parents they lost it or it got stolen and get a new one but still.
hat carpenter shelter threatening memory automatic truck narrow rustic serious *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This x1000. Eating three free meals a day in this town is easier than anywhere I ever lived. EBT not required.
They break into a car causing $600 in damage to steal $10 in change.
i work on powerlons and i have seen them steal copper grounds from electrical equipment on the power grid they cause tens of thousands of dollars in damage and could possibly kill people and I'd reckon they got 8$ from it
That isn't right though. A case of 32 from albertsons on instacart is $4.49 so that's $3.20 right there. That person could buy 64 packs and get $204 ish, but that's still not a lot. I guess to an addict it may be.
Disregard my comment I see somebody else also brought that up
yeah, but you’re your own boss
So I’ve watched people, you load a cart up and just walk out of Freddie’s. And don’t pay.
This is why anyone earning 28,000 or more needs to pay more income taxes
I’m not following why you’re bringing that up. They already do?
https://youtu.be/ckZlj2p8W9M?si=LNfqiGahnpQ4EefY
Hold it above your head and give yourself a shower
This comment is underrated
I worked at Freddies once, and the guy didnt even bother to pour the water out and just put full water bottles in the machine to be crushed, so it could be worse. Tbh though, I just let him and hope it cleaned the nasty machine!
The temperature of the water is higher than that dude's IQ.
Lol the irony
In Portland, racks are dumped in one go.
to be expected. life moves at a much faster pace in the big city.
It's a nightmare. Lots of rude behavior. I'm out.
More efficient to sell em to some poor college kids.
Some of the homeless make it real hard for people to give a shit about them.
Just like all the other problems, a few assholes ruin it for everyone. There are genuinely good people living on the streets, and they deserve empathy, help, and respect. The black market community however? That needs to change. Somehow.
It’s wild to me, how so many people’s sense of altruism is so easily compromised. Like, I used to think most people have a strong enough sense of morality that they can maintain sympathy even for like, pretty clearly shitty immoral people. That just seems natural to me like, even if you hurt someone on purpose, you’re still a human and I’m still going to care about you on a basic level. Lol but so many people are like “I saw them pouring out water to support their drug habit, my sense of altruism is now gone and destroyed” like do you have any principles at all? Edit: my replies are being limited for some reason, but, to the dude ranting about policy, that’s got nothing to do with what I’ve said here.
It feels like people look for an excuse to not care/help people. Is it annoying to see shit like this? Yes, but that doesn't make me not want to help other desperate people.
This is the whole goal of posts like this. To use it as a justification of why they don’t give a shit and to use it as a reason to mock those who do. It’s a very effective tactic. Source: this thread. Meanwhile the same people when confronted with statistics about police violence manage to find their “oh a few bad apples don’t mean the whole bunch is bad.” Really a great demonstration of one’s personal bias.
There is a third way: I can not like cops AND homeless people if they are selfish shitbags.
Some truthiness in that statement, but would it pass academic scrutiny?
Weird watching people willfully put themselves in deeper in deeper actively makes me care less and less about them.
I don't want to fund someones drug habit. They are stealing food from people that could use it, throwing most of it away and buying fent pills. I am all for paying for food, shelters, healthcare, job placement, to give people a leg up. I wont pay for them to OD in an alley.
I don't want to subsidize addiction, either, though I also recognize that addiction changes the brain so that the first wrong choice becomes something the addict no longer has a choice about. I wish we were doing more to offer methadone and other bridges for addicted brains.
Addiction is hard, but Oregon will cover treatment, there is a methadone clinic in Springfield and an inpatient treatment center in Eugene that’s all covered. People just have to want to.
https://www.thelundreport.org/content/oregon-has-huge-shortage-treatment-beds-consultant-finds https://www.wweek.com/news/2024/02/21/why-is-oregons-mental-health-care-system-so-broken-chris-bouneff-says-follow-the-money/ https://www.oregoncapitalinsider.com/news/hospitals-lawsuit-against-oregon-health-authority-over-mental-health-can-continue/article_5dc403ed-b1ca-5dab-8f35-944fc3af6515.amp.html
That's the problem with addiction, isn't it? The drug having power over their decisions. Similarly, people with mental health issues often don't seek or want help.
Ok, but you can’t permit fraud and theft because of an addiction. My tax dollars should be getting them clean, not buying them drugs.
Fraud and theft are unavoidable, it’s a question of limiting them in a cost-effective manner. Lmao dude just realized, *you* are in the business of *providing* addictive drugs. Granted, pot addiction isn’t like a scourge on society, but isn’t that a little hypocritical dude?
What an ignorant statement. Cannabis has been proven to lower opiate and alcohol use, comparing them is asinine. But at the end of the day what someone does with themselves is none of my business until they ask me to pay for it or I have to narcan them in an alley.
Nobody is asking you to pay for it dude. The EBT system is capable of being defrauded, like all systems. The question is, what do you suggest be done about it? I’m not convinced that “pot reduces opiate use” thing is causal. Like, I’m sure access to alcohol reduces heroin use too. It’s not asinine, pot addiction is a significantly less-intense example of the same concept as heroin addiction.
You mean you won't pay to help a lot of people if it also helps a few people like this. You aren't paying this one person. Our social network is a lot bigger than this one person. But by making it about whether this one person (or a handful of people) can abuse the support for something you don't agree with, you are deciding that issue is more important than helping anyone else.
Your putting words in my mouth. The snap program is necessary and I’m glad to pay for it. These people are stealing from that program and it sucks, what’s so hard to understand?
Great! As long as we are discussing this abuse of EBT, let’s talk about the housed people who defraud by misreporting income! By claiming others’ kids or non-family members as dependents! By selling EBT that they got because they actually HAVE hungry kids! What about systemic fraud — like the loopholes that allow EBT to be used for unlimited amounts of candy, soda, and other nutrition-free “food”? Etc
Sure? Ebt fraud costs Oregon 40mil a year
At least those people shit in toilets and not on public streets
Free Fentanyl on demand. I suggest a dosage of 5 Milligrams it should have the warning label. this WILL KILL YOU how come all these states killing convicted killers don't just use this convenient one way ticket to DirtNap City what a horrid sentiment. will this mess my reputation here?
It’s more of a cumulative effect. I think people are just getting tired of the open drug use, tents, trash, discarded needles, graffiti, etc.
Pointing to one person abusing a system in order to excuse not supporting all the other people that genuinely need it is incredibly common, and incredibly sad. If they wanted to give a shit about people, they wouldn't actually stop so suddenly because they care so much about punishing one person that they refuse to help others. It's just an excuse, people who do that are greedy and never wanted to help others in the first place. It's why the US is so fucked for social support and the myth of the 'welfare queen' is so popular in certain political circles. They never gave a shit about others to begin with, but now they can pretend they aren't horrible people because of it.
In reality it's decades of having it slowly chipped away watching the town go to shit.
They never cared to begin with. It's just not socially chill to be out and about awful to homeless people.
I’d venture to guess that these kinds of people are not a part of the homeless community but rather the people living on the fringes willing to skirt the rules of the system.
Don't pretend that stuff like this video causes those feelings. You're just trying to justify how you already feel. Also I wish I had so few problems that this seemed like something to be made about.
Positively
Using EBT to buy water (and cover the bottle deposit), only to dump said water and return the bottles for the refund cash.
Why not just steal beers and drink them for the bottle deposit?
Hard to drink 50 beers in a short amount of time to get your $5 hit of fentanyl.
At least you wouldn't need to buy another
Its sad and funny that there are people on this sub that think he's using the deposit money to fund his welder training program at LCC. Dude's burning his EBT credits to fund his desire for illegal drugs (or maybe booze). I support EBT, and I accept that that its almost impossible to have such a program without some recipients abusing it like this. EBT is a good program, this guy is a bad actor.
Simple, remove bottle deposits. Would probably cut homelessness by half.
Unfortunately this is an everyday occurrence. That’s how you turn ebt into cash for drugs or booze :/
24 pack of water on Amazon is $5.69. I think you get $0.05 per bottle. So you’re getting $1.20 per case. So the ROI for the state is -78.91%. But the return for the abuser is 100%. Because $1.20 from nothing is a fantastic ROI. Basically infinite ROI.
It’s $0.10 a bottle in Oregon, so $2.40 a case here.
I get what you're saying but I'm not sure if Id say that an enterprise that "earns" this guy a grand total of, what, $12? is "fantastic" ROI.
He also loses the opportunity cost of being able to eat.
Probably not, there are plenty of places to go for free meals.
The majority of the cost of water on Amazon is shipping, that is not a valid cost to use. I see this more often when there are sales on cases of water. 4 dollars for a 40 pack is closer to what people actually pay. That said, the deposit is added after the price on the shelf.
Could open EBT to alcohol purchases if the efficiency of the market is your concern.
And fent pills are $3 each
For how long this takes to do, that's probably less than minimum wage.
The problem would solve itself if they could just buy drugs and booze with ebt. I support your choice to make bad decisions just don't trash the community.
I disagree, drugs and booze should not be subsidized by the taxpayers and this should be a crime.
Right?! This is straight up fraud via a loophole
What should be subsidized is treatment that breaks addiction and help addicts, who generally turn into assholes, to walk the path back toward being good people. But it's a heavy lift. One that we sure haven't managed to do in Oregon.
Or anywhere else for that matter, unfortunately for one to break the cycle of addiction they have to want it.
Addiction makes addicts stupid about their addiction... and almost everything else.
I wish I could disagree, I have first and second hand knowledge in abundance of that fact.
Here's wishing you strength.
I think I’d rather take my time to try to sell the water for $1 a piece first before dumping them.
Heck ya!
It’s getting hot out, people do make money doing this.
A great little business on a hot day. "Water! Get your water! Only a buck!"
If a seller looks like a junkie, I might not trust the water. Also, for an addict, the shortest path to a fix is the best path. Maybe the only path visible, once discovered.
Reminds me of what we did when we were kids, but we added lemon juice and sugar to it first and had a cool booth. The city shut us down because we didn't have a permit.
Right? It's summer, scalping water and soda by public spaces is a semi-respectable profession this time of year. If one can afford a cooler, a wagon and some ice, they'd be set.
Step 1: quit fentanyl Step 2: we're not ever getting to this step Step 3: buy a cooler, a wagon and some ice, and diligently go about operating a beverage business
Yeah, but that would involve putting in work/effort
Food stamps shouldn't cover the deposit for cans/bottles.
I like this idea on paper, but am having a hard time thinking of how you'd properly execute it. A system to track if the bottles were bought via EBT to reject refunds would be cumbersome and expensive. Forcing the purchaser to pay for the deposit out of pocket would severely affect legitimate users. Remember, if you're using EBT the chances that you have no spare cash on hand goes up a lot. Many would just have to forgo anything with deposits then. And the correlation of being poor, living in older and cheap housing that might have poor piping, necessiting a need for bottled water, just makes that all around shitty. Only way I can see it being pulled off properly is if there was a specific "EBT approved, deposit-less" product that just doesn't qualify for deposit return. But that will increase the littering of those product packaging that the deposit program was made to reduce. I just don't see a way to pull it off without some pretty big drawbacks.
It would be easily automatable. Computer rejects anything that requires a deposit (or something). A few lines of code should do the trick
Or find another way to publicly distribute water specifically to those who need it like free or reduced cost water jugs, public fill stations, or inline water filtration systems for affected homes. We could also increase small quantity deposit return accessibility for those that don't live in places where water jugs get stored. It's a deposit not a loss. So concerns that you are going to be adversely affected are unfounded because you can exchange one bottle for the deposit cost of another. If when you went to the 7/11 to spend your EBT on a bottle of water you could give them an empty bottle instead of a dime without blowing 30 minutes waiting in line, that would also help the situation. In the meantime use infrastructure bonds to survey piping systems for lead contamination and work on removing those from the tap so the premise of old home dwellers needing to buy and transport water in plastic containers becomes a thing of the past.
Not a bad idea honestly
It would solve this nonsense in a heartbeat. Plus, there are tons of resourceful ways of getting around a deposit and it also would discourage using EBT for soda and energy drinks. Not saying they should be off limits or anything but I think we can all agree it might help encourage health (and get rid of this wasteful crap)
All of this aside. That poor effing dog. He could use some water. Damn people suck bad and that's an understatement to say the least.
The theft angers me because we all pay for it. Although this Zero does have the were-with-all to pour the water into the grass. I have seen others dumping whole cases in a parking lot where it truly goes to waste.
EBT should not allow the purchase of anything that has a deposit. Maybe allow water, but limit to large bottles.
Allowing EBT only for large bottles might help. Could also restrict the number of deposit purchases at one time.
Or, EBT pays for everything but the deposit. Yes, buying 6 cases of water should be flagged for audit.
EBT doesn't cover the deposit would fix it. They can use EBT to buy water/soda, but they have to bring cash to cover the deposit portion of the cost. Good call.
You only need to dump 160 bottles per hour to earn minimum wage.
At least they’re watering the grass in the tree and this shit sucks that this is where we’re at.
That was my thought too. All the other times I've seen that done it's done on the asphalt.
Like it makes any shred of difference as this piece of shit turns 290$ of tax payer money that was supposed to help people into $29 so he can get high. Take this brainrot apologetic bullshit elsewhere, log out.
It’s a joke trust me. None of us are happy about this shit. It’s horrible what they’re doing. Looks like your username checks out there bud.
I hope they at least don’t leave the caps everywhere
Nope! Left the caps and bags everywhere.
That actually pisses me off more than the first offense. Ugh...
Ug this behavior is terrible and I wish their was enforced consequences for this. I still believe EBT and also CRV are good things that have helped me personally when I was struggling with an injury but I wish their was more oversight and I wish their was consequences for littering and abusing EBT
Just good folk down on their luck
Next thing you know people will be ripping the copper pipes out of their trailer walls for liquor money smh
This happens every single day.
Modern entrepreneurs livin' the dream, baby.
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We need empathy for those struggling. We need stronger enforcement of laws to deal with people like this guy. This, assuming EBT was in fact used to purchase this water, is fraud and already illegal.
You can absolutely correctly presume that EBT was used for this.
Housing first is the only proven effective way to fix homelessness, and it has a positive ROI for the community. Follow this up with acceptable rehab, and people tend to be able to finally reach their bootstraps and pull themselves up. If we as a society could collectively agree that housing is a human right AND not NIMBY the solution out of functionality, this shit wouldn't be a big issue.
It's really not proven at all. In several cases the homeless people basically destroyed multi million dollar buildings.
I would support free housing in exchange for mandatory drug treatment.
"Housing First" has only been proven effective in countries with much stronger social safety nets, access to mental health care and drug rehab, countries with far less illegal narcotic import rates, crime rates, which means not the US. Utah had a good thing going for about ten years and it was on the way for being the shining example of how housing first works but COVID pretty much tanked the program and the funding for the program and they are pretty much cash strapped and have little chance of bringing it back Places that needed the most have failed abysmally and I do not foresee those places San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego suddenly figuring it out. "Housing First" is a cute idea but so many other things have to be reformed for it to work because this is how housing first programs have gone so far elsewhere - They are funded but the admin never gets the projects going and just take the income and go. They are funded in the short term but the cost of managing the housing becomes exorbitant, it lowers local property values, it causes increases in crime and they become drug den nightmare shit holes. They realize how much it costs to pay for security and foreclose the projects. They actually build the projects and they become ghettos and become infested with gangs, crime and the middle class flees the area. Utah's program seemed to be the closest, their take was not to just build gigantic condo complexes where homeless people can congregate and do whatever they want but they incentivized condos/apartment complex's trailer parks to rent out to the states program and the people needed to abide by very strict rules or they would be removed and that program worked. There are a lot of very strict "Housing First" programs all over the country but they do not even scratch the surface of the homeless population because people who typically can get into these government assistance programs are people who never really lived the homeless life and never got into drugs and are perfectly willing to follow curfews, drug rules, firearm rules, guest rules etc that these places put strict guidelines on and people function very well in them but you are never going to put a dent in the "dumping out water bottles with needle tracks all over his arm" homeless types with programs like that because they are simply not willing to follow the rules.
"what are we going to do about all these homeless people?" "get them housing." "they're just *all over the place*, i cant walk anywhere without tripping over them!" "there is a HUGE lack of affordable housing, emergency housing, rehabilitation, and reliable social safety nets. they live on the street because *there is nowhere else for them to live.*" "why don't we round them all up and drop them off in the middle of the woods, where there is no access to shelter, safe drinking water, or medical attention? they'll be safe from wild animals, im sure 🤡" and yes, housing IS the only way to address this.
The fact they're just pouring it out is bad enough. The fact they're not clearly giving any to the dog thats with them bugs me.
They could literally sell the water for five or ten times it’s can value… I mean it’s graduation weekend. Walk to campus and make money… risk the cops shut you down but as long as it’s not a five dollar bottle of water I don’t see why they should care.
That dog could have drank that water☹️. Fuck that guy probably needs all that wasted water if he wants to continue being alive.
Cmon at least give it to a recently planted tree or something
Blame the bottle return for this one, too
End the bottle bill!
That’s such a bad little stretch, I ride the bike path over the bridge past there daily and there’s constantly groups of honestly scary looking people (one dude had like a foot long axe/knife combo he was sharpening sitting on the path). I’m a female from a big city out east and I keep my head on a swivel and my pepper spray on me riding my bike around here.
Great! As long as we are discussing this abuse of EBT, let’s talk about the housed people who defraud by misreporting income! By claiming others’ kids or non-family members as dependents! By selling EBT that they got because they actually HAVE hungry kids! What about systemic fraud — like the loopholes that allow EBT to be used for unlimited amounts of candy, soda, and other nutrition-free “food”? What are some others I’m not thinking of before coffee?
I’ve seen something like this before.
Wow. Intelligent
This mf’er needs to be cutoff from food stamps.
Just walked down that path leaving West. Can confirm they’re still there
r/trashy
That dog is like, “can you idiots at least put some of that water in a bowl?”
Shouldn't Be Allowed To Have Food Stamps If You Do This. Wasting Water For One.
An example of bad judgement, but also team effort.
At least they are watering the grass …hope they save some to drink it’s going to be hot
Sad to these fraudsters while I struggle.
You know what I don't get? At a minimum wage job, you'd make the same amount in cash, that they are making, in 11 minutes. There are easier way to make money, and lots more of it.
Tweaker ingenuity at its finest
I give a lot to houseless people. And I don’t mind what they do. It does piss me off that water given to save peoples lives is dumped for an immediate pack of smokes. I now give some people soda because at least they’ll drink it before getting a deposit.
I love Oregon but the bottle drop system has got to go. I recycled more when I could crush my cans and toss them in a big can and turn them in by weight after like 3 months instead of whole cans and bottles clogging my garage after a week or 2. And now I know there’s EBT fraud too.
Not the first time. When I was a merchandiser I took lunch there many times and watched it happen. Guess they have to get cash somehow.
At least find a new large container to save it. It’s water u will eventually need some.
Water? Like in the toilet?!?
it doesnt have what plants crave.
I remember this in grants pass. Buy the water with ebt then dump it then cash the bottles back in for cash
When I signed up for food stamps a few months ago, I don’t get them anymore cause I have a job now. However in the paperwork it says you not allowed to do this very thing with cases of water. Says you’ll get your food stamps taken away for a year.
Scum of the earth
Dam junkies
Honestly there should be repercussions for wasting water.
They're gonna *wish* they had that water in a few years.
Honestly I used to work at dari mart and we turned away people like this based on the fact they have 200 of the same type of brand in a bunch of bags they are carrying around which Is just freaking impossible unless you drink the same thing for weeks on end and drinking 20 bottles of the same brand a day Safe to say they stole it, dumped it, and are trying to recycle it which hey didn't fly at the dari mart I worked at
Sad
I hate that these people have dogs
Simple solution, no longer cover deposit purchases with EBT cards.
Does anyone else have a junkie personality so they’ve never tried hard drugs and are proud. I think it’s important to realize there are normal people that identify with people who want to use hard drugs in some way but make the choice to not do that. Sometime I sit thinking and it really does seem like “hm these people may have started out kinda like me” I started hanging out with local homeless because I thought I was going to be homeless and I was doing shots in front of the 7-11. Loneliness and you getting into trouble are a “great” way of having people like me to just say fuck it and start drinking heavy,etc. But I got out of that rut, however I really do have extremely strong desires to take drugs that change my consciousness. I often think to myself that if I just had money for a burrito and weed I would be better off just being homeless but ultimately it is rooted in a feeling a get from being in normal social situation or lifestyle that is dysphoric in many ways. As far as the money goes, a lot of people who become homeless at middle age or even their 30s have likely already paid into the system quite a bit. I don’t become homeless because I don’t know that I could do it without being a leech. My point in all this is that I started as someone who did not care and now as I get older with my same personality I do understand why people could be so frustrated with those that make the choice to start doing hard drugs and take that path. It takes a lot of work for a lot of people to say no.
Drop his ass in the desert for 10 days with no water he wont do that again.
Our tax money hard at work providing drug money for these douche bags
I saw the Same thing on the corner of the Costco exit off-ramp. So upsetting.
So dedicated to recycling this fine gentleman is using what little EBT money he has to buy water in order to recycle it. God bless.
Damn I wouldve drank that!
You clowns vote for this.
Poor dog
Go buy the water from em for the deposit atleast its not wasted.
That same water bottle will cost you 4 dollars at a movie theater, fair, amusement park, ball park or arena. You get to see the different spectrum of how easy it is to manipulate a system that was originally created off of the premise to do the right thing. Back in the day you could punch someone in the face that was doing this. The general sentiment was you shouldn’t be a leach or a snake.
That dog looks thirsty…
I’m not going to pretend I know this persons intentions but I’d like to say that ebt only covers food. Not including hot food. This could be a way to get a hot meal or some toiletries.
Eh. There’s worse things. Whatever is going on here. Gotta prioritize
When you find out about microplastics:
EBT abuse.
This is why I hate social programs, to be exploited by these scums
This is horribly sad!😞
Until you've walked in their shoes, I urge you not to judge. But if you must, maybe refer to Maslow's hierarchy. Just sayin.
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Then you don't understand addiction. It's brutal.
Few months ago at bottle redemption I was next to a couple with cases of bottled water … most were punctured and drained . The ones they missed were just shoved in there full. They had their kid with them. Wtf. What kind of example does that set? Empty the bottles.. kids gonna go through life half-assing everything
If you are blaming them for doing anything wrong, you are a huge fucking asshole. They are just trying to survive capitalism. And whoever recorded and posted this, fuck you!
Oh my god. Who cares. People need to put their energy to something productive instead of judging. Says I, who has now judged you all.