U.S. Taxpayers On The Hook For $1.6 Billion In Free Cell Phones For Poor

U.S. Taxpayers On The Hook For $1.6 Billion In Free Cell Phones For Poor – Weasel Zippers

Old and busted: Food stamp president. New and hot: Cell phone president.

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Via TIME:

Last year, a federal program paid out $1.6 billion to cover free cell phones and the monthly bills of 12.5 million wireless accounts. The program, overseen by the FCC and intended to help low-income Americans, is popular for obvious reasons, with participation rising steeply since 2008, when the government paid $772 million for phones and monthly bills. But observers complain that the program suffers from poor oversight, in which phones go to people who don’t qualify, and hundreds of thousands of those who do qualify have more than one phone.

Last summer, a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review story shed some light on a government program that relatively few Americans knew existed. (Read more about it here.) The Lifeline program provides low-income Americans with free cell phones (basic ones such as those made by Tracfone, not smartphones) and covers up to 250 free minutes each month. As many as 5.5 million residents in Pennsylvania alone could qualify for the program, which is funded primarily by the Universal Service Fund fee added to the bills of land-line and wireless customers.

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New Dating Site Treats Members Like Prostitutes

New Dating Site Treats Members Like Prostitutes – Digital Life

Signing up for an online dating site and finding yourself facing constant rejection is a frustrating experience. It’s even worse if you’re certain that all those cyber-strangers would see what a catch you are if they would just give you a chance to impress. A new dating site offers a solution to this problem – by treating its members like prostitutes and clients.

The site is called WhatsYourPrice.com and it divides its members into two categories: “generous” and “attractive.”

The reason these categories exist? Because “generous” members are supposed to make offers to the “attractive” members in order to negotiate the terms of a first date. Yes, you read that right. According to this site, it should be perfectly commonplace for someone to pay a man or woman just to go on a date with him or her.

The way the transactions work is simple. A “generous” member finds an “attractive” member he or she is interested in and makes an offer. The attractive member then has a chance to accept, reject, or counter the offer with a new price. (Mind you, it’s also possible for “attractive” members to approach “generous” members and suggest how much they should offer.)

Once everyone agrees on the cost, the date is set and WhatsYourPrice.com’s part in the transaction is done – but not before it provides a few warnings to daters:

* NEVER send money to anyone you have not met in person, no matter how believable their story may be.

* When paying for a first date, we suggest paying 50% at the start and 50% at the end of the date.

* Any transactions involving Western Union (other than paying us) is 99.9% Fraud.

* Protect your privacy. Do not pay for a first date with a personal check.

WhatsYourPrice.com is free to join, but there are plenty of expenses associated with using it beyond the costs of dates themselves. Members are expected to purchase credits just to unlock the ability to communicate with their prospective paramours and there are also options for premium memberships which offer additional account features.

Brandon Wade, the founder and CEO of WhatsYourPrice.com and several other websites such as SeekingArrangement.com and SeekingMillionaire.com, explains that this is all worth it though – and possibly even better than throwing money into traditional dating communities:

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Yes, this sort of approach to dating seems sleazy to most of us and yes, it feels like WhatsYourPrice.com treats its members like prostitutes and clients — but as Gawker’s Adrian Chen explains, the site isn’t really suggesting entirely genuinely new:

Sugar daddies and their babies have been around since the dawn of commerce. But Whatsyourprice.com offers a slightly different form for those too busy for traditional romantico-financial relationships: The casual “mutually beneficial arrangement.”

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