Good points I agree mainly especially about the food stamps possibly affecting people not on them more than those one them. However, that could drive more people to be on welfare if the government is driving the prices of everything up. I wouldn't be surprised if 40% of the population is on food stamps a few years from now. People are going to be borrowing money like crazy because they're savings won't buy much. When does it end?Fixed. Obviously if you're on food stamps you dont really care how prices rise. It is the ones not receiving the bennies that tend to care more.
However, your general point is flawed. Food stamps dont just increase food prices by shrinking supply. Supply is pretty malleable for most items. If people start buying more Frosted Flakes, stores will eventually order more Frosted Flakes, and then finally more Frosted Flakes will get produced. That might lead to price fluctuations but they tend to be short term.
Food stamps increase prices by several ways:
A) Increasing sales of higher margin foods. ie People buy steaks on food stamps when they might just buy tuna or hamburger with cash. Therefore the price of meats in general rises because steaks have an increased % share of total meats sold.
B) Delay of hedonic adjustments. Yes, families make hedonic adjustments too! If you run into money problems, you start buying food in bulk when it goes on sale. For example, you might buy mac and cheese in the kraf box for years. Then one day you realize you can just buy a bag of the cheese powder, and a big ol bag of noodles, and make it yourself for a third of the cost. But this dont happen if you're on food stamps. So really, food stamps are as much a handout to the rich as they are the poor. Dont believe me? Look at the price of Kraft stock, symbol KFT. That is a company that should be being slaughtered in the market due to consumer retrenchment and downsizing. But thanks to Uncle Sugar, KFT is doing great.
C) People generally dont pay attention to prices when shopping on food stamps. Not till they are down to their last $50 anyway. This helps prevent demand from falling to reflect the dissatisfaction with the higher prices.
I don't see a transition to confederalism any time soon.
Good points I agree mainly especially about the food stamps possibly affecting people not on them more than those one them. However, that could drive more people to be on welfare if the government is driving the prices of everything up. I wouldn't be surprised if 40% of the population is on food stamps a few years from now. People are going to be borrowing money like crazy because they're savings won't buy much. When does it end?
I don't see a transition to confederalism any time soon.
Fixed. Obviously if you're on food stamps you dont really care how prices rise. It is the ones not receiving the bennies that tend to care more.
C) People generally dont pay attention to prices when shopping on food stamps. Not till they are down to their last $50 anyway. This helps prevent demand from falling to reflect the dissatisfaction with the higher prices.
My 3 lil brothers and I lived on WIC for a while. I find it to be a very beneficial program and helped us in rough times. I don't like it to see it to go away, especially for mothers who needed a little extra help.
What do you feel about restricting the items available for purchase to the necessities, essentially eliminating the use of taxpayer money to pay for luxury items like chips, cookies, pre cooked meals (think rotisserie chicken), soda, fruit rollups, steak, ect.?
People driving Escalades to the store and buying filet mignon and pate de fois gras with their food stamps is the 21st century version of Ronnie Reagan's welfare queen driving her Cadillac to fifteen different addresses to collect all her different government checks. They all know it's true because somebody somewhere swears they've seen it...WIC already does that. WIC is pretty much milk/bread/grains and its pretty restrictive in how people use it.
People driving Escalades to the store and buying filet mignon and pate de fois gras with their food stamps is the 21st century version of Ronnie Reagan's welfare queen driving her Cadillac to fifteen different addresses to collect all her different government checks. They all know it's true because somebody somewhere swears they've seen it...
Well, there is a difference between EBT and WIC BUT you can buy quite a few things that are not "necessities" with WIC such as baby formula, peanut butter, juice, ect.
A full list for WIC approved items can be found here.
http://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/wic...horizedFoodListShoppingGuide-7-5-2011.pdf.pdf
Well, there is a difference between EBT and WIC BUT you can buy quite a few things that are not "necessities" with WIC such as baby formula, peanut butter, juice, ect.
What do you feel about restricting the items available for purchase to the necessities, essentially eliminating the use of taxpayer money to pay for luxury items like chips, cookies, pre cooked meals (think rotisserie chicken), soda, fruit rollups, steak, ect.?
Well, there is a difference between EBT and WIC BUT you can buy quite a few things that are not "necessities" with WIC such as baby formula, peanut butter, juice, ect.
A full list for WIC approved items can be found here.
http://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/wic...horizedFoodListShoppingGuide-7-5-2011.pdf.pdf