ilovetv: Taking your points in order..

1) If you have an iPhone and your find yourself unemployed, it *IS* a necessity. You need to be available at any time for an interview or ANYthing that could lead to a job. There are MANY people who have given up land lines entirely because a cell phone IS the cheaper alternative. If I had to give one up, it WOULD be the landline. Given that, staying on your plan is usually the cheapest option because you're locked into a contract for a couple of years.

As far as net access goes, at least on my plan, it's bundled in. If I got REALLY desperate, I could give up my 'regular' internet access (I have what used to be called Fios up here) while still having access via my phone.

I have to tell you, I see here what I saw in my ex-wife - an inability to consider circumstances other than one's own experience. What I'm talking about above is ESPECIALLY true for younger people and THEY have higher unemployment rates. In an extreme case, a person can still be available for work WITH a cellphone and WITHOUT a permanent address.

2) As to the food stamps/lobster thing - until we have a nationwide databse of what UPC codes can and can't be used for Food Stamps, we'll have this problem. Right now, we can easily flag the difference between 'food', tobacco and alcohol. But knowing the difference between, say, a box of pasta and a box oc Velveeta is splitting hairs finer than the government does. It'll do "categories", as near as I can tell, but not finer than that.