This post is a result of an email exchange I had with a fellow author. If we discus politics and society by email we are out of range where we could potentially throw things at one another so 911 does not need to be called.
SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) is really an auto industry benefit.
For a very long time, longer than most would care to admit, urban dwellers didn’t give a shit about agriculture or where food came from. Slowly that is changing thanks to massive food recalls and widespread illness. Chipotle, McDonald’s, ready to eat salads, the list goes on and on. Yes, I deliberately left the word “shit” in so you would think about where E. Coli really comes from.
If you visit this interesting time line link you will see the very first Food Stamp program was created in 1939. It’s primary goal was to let poor people eat surplus food. We did not have today’s storage technologies. All surplus food would spoil creating health problems and disposal costs. There were people who would gladly eat it, but they didn’t have the money to buy it.
Some 18 years after that program went away, FSP (Food Stamp Program) came back to life as part of the Farm Bill. Why there? Elected officials from urban areas wouldn’t vote for it unless they got something too. Kind of like Paul Ryan’s bribe to another senator to get the tax bill through. He called the bribe a carve out, but it really was a bribe.
Today the farm bill gets held up by partisan bickering because Republicans want to decimate SNAP adding 20 hour work requirements, etc.
I understand where they are coming from. There is an awful lot of fraud. I’ve had to drive my mother to Aldi’s after she had eye surgery. Watched people pay with the Link card and wheel carts out to shiny new Caddy’s, Lincoln’s and BMWs. I’ve also seen red necks living in a trailer buying food via SNAP and driving home in their 8MPG 4WD with giant tires. When they get home the yard is filled with ATVs, dirt bikes and other pleasure vehicles which aren’t included in any of the calculations.
But I also see the dark side of where they intend to go. The part time work requirement will create a labor force working below minimum wage. Any industry where tipping is allowed is also allowed to pay dramatically below minimum wage. Many part time jobs don’t pay minimum wage either. It’s easy to get around. Hire people on a per project basis and pay for project completion. House painting and yard mowing are two things which come to mind.
That’s why I was pushing for and will continue to push for “The Ethics in Income Act.”
We have some problems with minimum wage.
- It exists. There is a set wage rather than a mathematical function based on total executive compensation.
- The set minimum wage isn’t a living wage. Anyone actually working should make enough to not qualify for food stamps/SNAP.
- People would rather buy a new car, ATV, iPhone, whatever, than budget for food.
I don’t know if it still exists, but, car payments and insurance were used to calculate net income for food stamps. If you go out and buy a luxury vehicle you cannot afford, you now qualify for food stamps. If you go out and buy the $4K beater you can afford, you don’t qualify for food stamps. Why not lease that Cadillac Escalade if the government will buy you food.
Like the mortgage fraud which lead to The Great Recession, this is another one of those things government officials know is going on and doing nothing about. SNAP has become an auto-industry benefit. You’ve seen all of those “bad credit, no credit, no problem” commercials. SNAP makes it possible.
