I imagine its not a big group but I suppose its a matter of how egregious they're willing to be / have no shame
We have a guy who purposefully showed the system was exploitable a few years ago by getting food stamps as a millionaire

I get there's an obvious hole in means testing when we poll only income and not assets, but it seems broken as hell if we're actually going to open a door specifically available for that, with unearned income counted towards work requirements. I mean, why would that ever be a thing? Unearned income isn't work. Its supposed to be a work requirement.

https://thefga.org/minnesota-millionaire-rob-undersander-exposes-food-stamp-loopholes/

Even if we look beyond outright millionaires, the option to satisfy the requirements by earning $580/month makes no real sense from a social justice point of view. The idea behind the work requirement, at least ostensibly, is that the recipients of medicaid should demonstrate a reasonable effort to provide for themselves to the best of their ability. By offering a flat benchmark, you make it easier for highly qualified persons to meet the threshold than for working-class people, which contradicts the "to the best of their ability"-part.

For example, take a lazy accountant who has no assets or dividend income and now works 4 hours per month as a freelancer for some old contacts from his professional network, all so that he meets the threshold, whereas a cleaning lady would have to toil for 80 hours at minimum wage.

This specific option is elitist and inherently privileges the members from higher social strata. Additionally, it privileges people living in higher-income cities or states over those living in poor, rural regions. Freeloaders in California will have an easier time getting to the 580 dollar benchmark than their counterparts in Alabama or Missouri.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Jul 14 2026 06:12pm