Comments on: Hurricane Relief Debit (and Other) Cards Update http://www.bizzyblog.com/2005/09/29/hurricane-relief-debit-and-other-cards-update/ The Business End of the Blogosphere Sat, 06 Sep 2008 20:43:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Tom Blumer http://www.bizzyblog.com/2005/09/29/hurricane-relief-debit-and-other-cards-update/#comment-4931 Tom Blumer Tue, 14 Feb 2006 17:10:22 +0000 http://www.bizzyblog.com/?p=579#comment-4931 Thanks for your reply. I agree with the fact that visibility is improved and that it is a good thing. My point was that the ATM capability circumvents visibility. It's been a few months, but I had two issues. One was making sure only eligible people got the debit cards in the first place, and that eligibles weren't able to double up, and second that the money would be spent on recovering from the disaster (and not on, say, designer clothes, as was noted in the previous posts). The GAO just ripped the entire operation in a report released yesterday, and the debit card handling and screening was involved: http://www.usatoday.com/money/2006-02-12-katrina-fraud_x.htm http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/gao.pdf Effective compassion monitors what is done with the charitably given money. It's what differentiates the effective charity of a century ago from the throw-money-around charity of today: Walter Williams on Why Health Care Is Not a Right; Olasky on Effective Compassion http://www.bizzyblog.com/?p=1419 Thanks for your reply.

I agree with the fact that visibility is improved and that it is a good thing. My point was that the ATM capability circumvents visibility.

It’s been a few months, but I had two issues. One was making sure only eligible people got the debit cards in the first place, and that eligibles weren’t able to double up, and second that the money would be spent on recovering from the disaster (and not on, say, designer clothes, as was noted in the previous posts).

The GAO just ripped the entire operation in a report released yesterday, and the debit card handling and screening was involved:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/2006-02-12-katrina-fraud_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/gao.pdf

Effective compassion monitors what is done with the charitably given money. It’s what differentiates the effective charity of a century ago from the throw-money-around charity of today:
Walter Williams on Why Health Care Is Not a Right; Olasky on Effective Compassion
http://www.bizzyblog.com/?p=1419

]]> By: Tim Sloane http://www.bizzyblog.com/2005/09/29/hurricane-relief-debit-and-other-cards-update/#comment-4930 Tim Sloane Tue, 14 Feb 2006 16:53:53 +0000 http://www.bizzyblog.com/?p=579#comment-4930 Only just saw my quote. I take some small issue with your tone. Prepaid instrunments provide remarkable visibility into spending without limiting where it can be spent. This new capability offers greater visibility than any other payment option. I would be cautious about how we use that information and visibility. A $250 air conditioner may appear to be inappropriate post-Katrina, but if it enables a dis-placed family to live in a friends garage than it is money well spent. Who do you think should be the arbitar and how much will we spend to monitor the influx of data across all of this spending? I don't think we want to go back to giving cash or checks, since they offer no visibility at all - but visibility will encourage monitoring and action and these activities add cost to administrative overhead. Only just saw my quote. I take some small issue with your tone. Prepaid instrunments provide remarkable visibility into spending without limiting where it can be spent. This new capability offers greater visibility than any other payment option.

I would be cautious about how we use that information and visibility.

A $250 air conditioner may appear to be inappropriate post-Katrina, but if it enables a dis-placed family to live in a friends garage than it is money well spent.

Who do you think should be the arbitar and how much will we spend to monitor the influx of data across all of this spending? I don’t think we want to go back to giving cash or checks, since they offer no visibility at all - but visibility will encourage monitoring and action and these activities add cost to administrative overhead.

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