Let's say you get free reign to replace these types of programs, whether it be free market, government subsidized etc. What would you do? Second question: Libertarians and some classical liberal leaning republicans often state the free market can take care of the poor and that Americans are generally very generous and would pick up the tab on their own free will. How many of you have given to a needy person or a charitable organization that does so on your behalf?
In my youth, the 40's and 50's, it was very common for people to help those in need, as well as simply sharing with others our surplus production and things we no longer had a use for which were still serviceable, and many of us still do. Although I'm not a religious church goer, I also do remember the Pastor of the Church my Grandmother belonged to coming by the house to inform us of a family or a person who was down on their luck, unemployed or out of work who needed help, asking others if they could do something for them. But that was when communities were made up of persons who were considered friends and/or neighbors, and politics was an insignificant part of daily life.
You assume I think food stamps should exist in the first place. They are massively abused and should be completely eliminated. When people spend other people's money on energy drinks and other crap that is not essential then there is a huge problem. If you are hungry then go to the food pantry like people used to do where you got a bag or two of groceries that didn't include stupid (*)(*)(*)(*) like Redbull. Furthermore I want someone to answer me why after literally trillions of dollars spent on combating poverty that the rate is virtually the same today as it was prior to the War on Poverty. I mean in liberal land just creating a bunch of government programs and throwing money at it solves every problem right? There are no more hungry people today than there was prior to all this nonsense. All that has happned is that help has migrated from more local and efficient sources like Salvation Army type charities or food pantries and soup kitchens to much less efficient and far more wasteful food stamp programs.
If you want to argue a point, you need real facts to back it up. Unfortunately for you, your assertion simply isn't true, in fact, opposite. Social spending has had a tremendous effect on poverty. The more that's spent the larger the reduction. http://www2.hawaii.edu/~noy/300texts/poverty-comparative.pdf Secondly, how is the salvation army or food pantries more efficient? People who work for the salvation army must be paid a wage. It costs money to operate a building, run food storage fridges and other overhead etc. Food stamps does not. It costs little more than the actual dollar value of the food. It also allows the free market to best decide how to feed poor people. The majority of the people I know on food stamps do not waste money on red bull. You'd be unable to feed yourself if you did so.
If things like this were common place I wouldn't be advocating it. I grew up in a poor family. My parents frequently reached out to churches for help and were given none.
You are missing the point entirely. With the EBT card people are constantly buying things like energy drinks and other nonessentials yet very expensive items. One energy drink costs as much as a gallon of milk. This is wasteful spending of taxpayer money. Salvation armry and other charities are run by donations and volunteers with a small number of paid personal which are usually former unemployed people that are given jobs. In other words those programs are self funded and don't use any taxpayer money but they also employ people that previously didn't have jobs. Can you say any of those things about the EBT program. What you are trying to do is focus purely on administration and completely ignore the waste of the system. It is also curious that you pointed to that link because your very own source says there has only been a -.8% difference between 1986 and today. Curious that you didn't even bother to read you own article. Was that .8% worth over $20 trillion dollars since 1960s?
Well get rid of the crap from the list of beverages and food, in this case, and cap food spending per item at $5 but one can also use coupons.
