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What Happens When the EBT System Stops Working? — Civil Unrest when Governments go Broke?

472 views · Published 11 June 2016 · 3:00 · Indexed 6 November 2026

Channel: Mike Martins · 2016 · News & Politics

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Hey guys, Mike Martins here with the Mike Martins Channel.

I've been following something online that I think deserves a lot more attention: problems involving EBT and food-assistance benefits in the United States.

I'm here in Canada, and I'm not seeing much coverage of this on the regular news, so I've been following reports through social media, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other sources online.

The numbers being discussed are significant, with reports claiming hundreds of thousands of people were having problems accessing assistance.

Regardless of the politics surrounding welfare or government assistance, there's a much bigger question here:

What happens when people suddenly can't access the money they depend on to buy food?

There are families, single mothers, single people and others who depend on these programs. I'm not taking sides between the government and recipients. I'm saying that if there's a problem with the system, some kind of resolution needs to happen quickly.

We've already seen what can happen when electronic benefit systems experience major glitches. People can panic when they don't know whether their cards are going to continue working.

And that's what concerns me.

If millions of people depend on an electronic system for basic necessities, what happens during a prolonged outage?

Could communities handle it peacefully?

Could neighbours help neighbours?

Could people barter, share resources and work together?

Maybe this should also get people thinking about local food security. Communities could make better use of unused land, grow more food locally and become less dependent on systems that can potentially fail.

I'm going to continue following this EBT situation and adding important developments to this playlist.

If you're in an affected area or know more about what's happening, let us know in the comments.

Thanks for watching, guys.

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