At the end of last July, the Government launched the Youth Cultural Bonus, an initiative aimed at the 500,000 young people who will be 18 years old in 2022 and who can request this wallet card with 400 euros to spend only on cultural products.
Although the measure was celebrated by many -despite the initial doubts it raised, since it was not clear what exactly the central Executive was referring to with 'cultural products'- it surely has not given the expected result: only six out of 10 young people they have requested it, that is, more than two hundred thousand have not yet done so.
Specifically, the €400 Cultural Bonus can be spent on books, records, tickets to theaters and museums, digital purchases of eBooks, video games or audio-books, and although many young people have used it correctly, some have used it to , supposedly, profit and resell products purchased with this wallet card.
It is something that can be easily observed in Wallapop. Just by typing 'Cultural Bonus' in the search engine, you can find a series of articles from some users who sell them after having purchased them, as they themselves say, thanks to the Cultural Bonus.
For example, this is the case of two copies of the FIFA 23 video game, which are sold at €50 and €65, respectively. In both cases, both sellers affirm that they have acquired them thanks to the Cultural Bonus, and while the first explains that he sells it "because I need the money", the second does so simply because "I don't want it".
Another case, also on Wallapop, is a box with all the seasons of the hit series Game of Thrones, in Italian. According to the user who sells this pack, they gave him "double thanks to the Cultural Bonus" and that's why he sells it.
The latest example of the resale of items purchased with the Cultural Bonus on Wallapop is a set of nine books, "browsed once, practically like new", specializing in manga. During the preparation of this article, in the description of the product it was stated that it had been acquired through the Cultural Voucher, but after also publishing it by other means, the user has deleted this part of the information.
The Cultural Bonus initiative was added to other existing aid in some municipalities and autonomous communities, which also have programs aimed at promoting cultural consumption.
