Excellent D&C editorial
I agree with every word of this, though fair use laws dictate that I can only excerpt portions:
It’s hard imagining anyone living on a daily food allowance of $3.50. Yet that’s what the federal government expects of millions who depend on food stamp benefits.
Such an expectation is outrageous, particularly for what’s still one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
New York Sen. Chuck Schumer is pushing overdue legislation that would increase food stamp benefits. But since the program is up for reauthorization this year for the first time in more than a decade since Congress froze benefits, lawmakers should overhaul its provisions.
(snip)
Lawmakers from this region such as Republican Rep. Randy Kuhl, a member of the House Agriculture Committee, which oversees the food stamp program, should join Schumer. They must help end the shamefulness of human hunger in a country where pets increasingly are overfed
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The comments on the D&C essay forum were mainly against the article. I find it dismaying when people think just because they can work that everyone’s life situation is the same. Forget about the widow who is just diagnosed with cancer and has 3 kids to feed. Forget about the man who lost his job and has a mortgage to pay. Perhaps his savings were dissolved by paying for unforeseen medical problems or he had a disabled child to care for. And even if the people are playing the system, kids still pay the price of going to bed hungry.
I agree. I was pretty disgusted with the comments on the D&C about this article primarily pertaining to providing blanket statements over an entire population of people. However, it isn’t that suprising and in one of my graduate classes we had a lengthing discussion on moral reasoning with the focus stating that there are three basic levels of moral reasoning; 1) Pre-Conventional 2) COnventional 3) Post Conventional. In brief, pre-conventional moral reasoning states that people do “what feels right” or make decisions based on how somehting makes them feel or perhaps based on what they have done regardless of how same or different the circumstances might be. I found most of the comments at the D&C to fall under that level of reasoning, which unfortunately is a level that more of us operate under more often than we may like to or should.
Another comment to add to this discussion; in the D&C comment sections there were a number of people who noted that the indivduals associated with the food stamp program should be required to undergo some sort of educational nutritional program in order to receive benefits. I am reminded of Muhommad Yunus, recent winner of the Nobel Price Prize and founder of the Micro-Credit “Bank of the Poor” Grameen Bank in Dhaka, Bangladesh who never tied any kind of training to ANY lending program he has headed or been associated with. His success rate is significantly higher than that of any of lending program in the world, far surpassing ANY effort made by the World Bank, UN, etc. all of which tie their lending efforts to training and educational resources. In other words, I doubt that any level of training would help reduce the rate of the hungry in our world. Furthermore, where do they want the funds to come from? They want to add internal costs into the program, but want to reduce the amount of aid per person? Makes no sense to me.
This is a very frustrating topic for myself. I identify myself as a staunch liberal, but topics like this prove me to be much closer to the middle than I’d like. I have seen like one of the posters on the D&C forums a few people with food stamps purchasing things that def don’t “stretch the budget.” I make a very good living, and only budget around 60 a month in food for myself.
Sample budget:
Breakfast: bowl of Weggies Cereal - should last 1 person at LEAST a week, at $2a box. Add in $2 for a gallon of milk, which should last a week for cereal and 8oz a day
Lunch: Sammich. $1 for a loaf of Wegmans Italian Wheat bread. $4 for a pound of turkey sandwich meat, and $4 lb for cheese (less at the public market!) the meat and cheese should last 2 people all week, along with the bread.
Dinner: Ground Beef $2 lb, Chicken Breast 2.60lb. 6oz is the standard serving size for meat, correct? So 3 servings for a lb. Rice can be purchased for lbs on the dollar in large sizes. Fries are under $2 lb (but unhealthy!!) and beans, frozen veggies and the like are under a dollar a lb.
Breakfast is under 50 cents a day per person. Lunch is ~50 cents per person. Dinner can be a whole 2.50 per person! I usually average around $2 for dinner.
The real issue here is that we give them what amounts to money, with no oversight. I’m not worried about the people who fell on hard times and are trying to right a sinking ship. Those people will eventually get back on their feet and get off stamps. I think Food Stamps should be modeled after the WIC coupons. They should get 350 a month, but it should be specific stuff. they should be able to request x money for beef, rice, chicken, turkey, cheese, milk, bread, etc.
Great comments, Daedalus. BTW, love your handle. One of my old college friends is actually named Dedalus (different spelling). One thing that bothered me about the comments on the D&C forums was the thinly veiled contempt for people who are overweight and/or who are struggling financially. Requiring people to get nutritional counseling before receiving food stamps seems so condescending and is placing judgment on people as a condition for helping them. I’m assuming many on food stamps are already troubled enough so that they don’t need any added judgment. I know many families who had to resort to food stamps temporarily and it all had to do with sudden, unexpected major life emergencies, and none of them were “out for the government dole.”
Exactly. The pyschological impact of being poor, overweight and unable to feed your family is already devasting enough without placing other ties into the program. As you stated, the thinly veild contempt for any of these people of totally disgusting as is the thinly veiled attempt to put the blame squarely on their shoulders and grant an excuse for pulling more funding out from under their feet. To be frank, the poor stand little chance of pulling themselves out of extreme poverty without outside assistance whether it be in the form of food stamps, credit, etc.