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Food stamps do little to alleviate hunger; increase government dependence.

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by YankeeFan, Nov 21, 2013.

  1. old_tony

    old_tony Well-Known Member

    Some might argue the programs are working just as they were designed to work.
     
  2. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Right. And the malfunction in the system is that poor people are not taught and/or trained to contribute in ways that would add value to the economy, thus bringing them wages in exchange.
     
  3. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    I would add, Dick, that the real problem is that the relationship between corporate profits, the incomes of extremely wealthy individuals, and the well-being of the working class are disconnected as they haven't been in quite some time in America, if ever.

    Put simply, putting the burden on private employers makes sense because that's where the money is. When companies are stockpiling billions of dollars in cash and there are millions of people -- working people, mind you -- who have to choose each month between food and rent, that's not a good society. The definition of capitalism and the forces clamoring for it have gotten more extreme over the last 30 years, to the point that a CEO of the 1970s wouldn't recognize the world we're living in.
     
  4. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    You know cran, I am in complete agreement with you here. I too think we have a broken system that perpetuates poverty. However, I doubt you and I agree on the mechanisms by which that system perpetuates poverty, and therein lies the rub. You see rich folks getting richer and think that's what making more people poor. I see a system that imposes, essentially, a 100% marginal tax on poor people and think that might have something to do with their remaining poor.
     
  5. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    In the '70s, low-wage workers were needed, because there was less mechanization and outsourcing. So low wages weren't that low. The work performed by low-skill workers has become devalued, largely by technology. I think that SNAP and probably a higher minimum wage are good policy, but only acting as a bridge in a more comprehensive plan that has to include better education for the lower classes, so that they can become skilled and valuable again.
     
  6. old_tony

    old_tony Well-Known Member

    ^^^^^^^^

    This is the point exactly. Way too many people believe that people are poor because others are rich, when the truth is that most people who are poor are poor because they've done exactly all the things that lead to poverty -- dropped out of school, had kids out of wedlock, got involved in drugs, etc. None of these things were done to them by some "evil" rich person.
     
  7. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    It starts and pretty much ends with the bolded portion. Fix that, you fix 99 percent of the rest of it.
     
  8. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    Fortunately, that's not the society we live in. There are not millions of working people who have to choose each month between food and rent.

    DW made the point earlier that this is one of those topics that's really hard to do quick-and-dirty but acceptable research, because the data are so totally conflated with whatever ax is being ground. And I wholeheartedly agree. Take "hunger in America" ... it's not what you think it is.
     
  9. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Yeah. Everybody says that. The reality is that with automation, that working class will never be as valuable as it was. So it's either going to be government support, or mandate private-industry support (higher minimum wage etc.), or a lot of people continue to live well below the line.

    Remember what minimum wage was when we were growing up? It was what you'd get in your summer job during high school. Now it's what people try to live on.
     
  10. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    But there are. And without SNAP, there would be millions more.
     
  11. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Or Door No. 3: A more educated and skilled working class that can viably sell their skill set.
     
  12. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    As an individual "How To Succeed" Plan, this is fine, but as social policy it's just a conservative fantasy that sounds good and lets them keep more of their money. Between automation and globalization, the gap is just too large, and industry is never going to have a reason on its own to pay living wages.
     
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