False...when swiped, the available balance is supposed to be shown.

There is no other way this could work, if you thought about it.

if your neighbor has a card,do you know what the limit is? neither does walmart.

The inevitable outcome of the entitlement mentality and easy money at someone else's expense... It is the same mentality that thinks insurance fraud is acceptable... They fail to see or have consideration for the fact that productive people must make sacrifices to make up the difference. There is NO free lunch!

A real tragedy. I don't believe everyone who doesn't earn enough would sanction or participate in this sort of behavior, but obviously too many did. I'm trying to give the benefit of the doubt here.

On the other hand, I wonder if the same sorts of people would be in DC demanding that Walmart provide them with a "living wage" at the stores they're planning to build there?

At the very least the manager could have put some sort of cap on the amount he would honor from their 'purchases'. Wouldn't that have been a common sense precaution? Then again, to have allowed it at all before things got sorted out, was obviously a serious mistake.

I guess this is what I'm learning about...when people receive based on their 'need', it never ends. I was taken advantage of too much in my own life before I finally started to see it for myself. I didn't understand until I got to know some trifling poor folks personally...

I didn't mean phased out over time. I meant phased out as they earn more money, so that there's not a disincentive to earn more.

I don't claim to have a plan to solve poverty. I'm for benefits or programs of some type for poverty b/c poverty hurts everyone and there's no way to exclude people who don't pay from the benefits of reduced poverty. Gov't declared war on poverty once, and it didn't work. We should try again, but in a limited way.

This is not something Ayn Rand would probably agree with, at least based on the two books I've read.

I take issue with the "generous benefits" statement - from which magic pocket are those benefits going to come?
and why "phase out slowly"? If you're doing a god thing, keep on doing it; if you're doing a bad thing, stop doing it. Don't stop s-l-o-w-l-y.
also some number of the people you're talking about, as well as the incompetent who illustrate the Peter Principle, will NOT work for the same reasons you do: the enjoyment and pride of achievement. Somehow, they don't get that.

It's because "need" can't really be defined or measured, so no one can really argue with the guy who says "I need xyz" - the only thing you can say in return is "no you don't". Another example of words being used to mean whatever the speaker wants them to mean.

I agree. They should have said, "no." or put a cap on it the amount. Saying no would've been the better of the two options...trying to keep them under an arbitrary amount would've resulted in fights. What was their reasoning for NOT saying 'no'. Fear?

I don't know why poor people are always painted with an angelic brush because of their "neediness". Being poor does not automatically make people worthy of helping. This obvious abuse of generosity should tell us all something. A great number of them on the dole feel entitled to more....and more....and more of other people's hard earned money. And the fact that they just ditched their full-to-the-brim carts once the fun ended proves we are dealing with inconsiderate, lazy, ignorant people who have no regard for the inconveniences and WORK they cause others who have to clean up after them. I can only hope this was an eye-opening lesson to all who witnessed this disgusting behavior.

The benefits should phase out slowly. People would work for the same reasons my wife and I work even though we are approaching enough wealth to retire at a substance level. My reason is I get thrill out of putting together a $100 worth of parts to make something people want to pay $250 for. I think my wife is the same way about solving people's legal problems. Most of her clients are average people writing pretty big checks, so she and her two employees have to be awesome. Of course we also want more wealth. We have no desire to live a subsistence life.

"giving generous benefits to the needy"
why would anyone seek a job under that definition?!

The most damning part is they abandoned the filled carts once the cards started being rejected.

I doubt they even thought about the well-meaning manager. It was like wealth coming from heaven. To me this is far worse than the tiny bit of my quarterlies that go to fund this. I'd double that tiny bit if it would help people have the pleasure of getting something done, of being plugged in to an economy, of feeling like "People pay me for wireless modules, and I spend some of the money on stuff made in factories that buy my modules." How $hit gets done, though, is all black magic to them. Part of the problem is gov't makes makes you go through some work to get benefits, and people mistake jumping through benefit hoops for actual work. I'm for giving generous benefits to the needy, but this shows that some of those benefits aren't really beneficial to them. Hopefully it's just a minority. Many of those people were probably 20 years old and will be ashamed of their behavior in 20 years.

They could have said something like, this must be hard to manage. I'll give you an afternoon of my time and help you sort through these claims. no instead, they took advantage of the well-meaning manager, who said we'll honor purchases WITHOUT LIMITS. locust infestation

Yeah, I was disappointed when I showed up too late with my Looter Card in hand. So, I turned back & went home...of course I had to bum a ride you know... haha.

Actually, you think they will learn anything from this? Like, don't trust the gov't & instead rely on your own resources & ingenuity. I doubt it.

I'm not surprised this happened anywhere. When most people are told that they are 'owed' anything and everything just because they breath, this is the result. As I noted before, many had their free o phones to tweet their disgust at not getting their free food.

Walmart could have refused the cards, but didn't.

I hope that they have to 'eat' the loss....

Looters, moochers, trash. No respect for property or decency. They need to starve. Yes, I said it.