[lotsofpulp]

In practice it would inform the market where to divert resources. If you want to give poor people help, then you should provide them cash. This preserves the purpose of transparent prices, which is to inform other suppliers in the market to enter to drive the price down.

However, this is not done as it's more difficult to corrupt and profit off of this since it is transparent how much help the poor are getting. It's easier to muddy the waters and steal from taxpayers by creating a byzantine system of tax breaks and subsidies.