Food stamps help feed the hungry in the USA. With the rising cost of housing and stagnant wages this program helps people who are unable to make ends meet.

Yes, some of the people who are on food stamps have been caught out taking advantage, but the scale of loss for the government is small when compared with other forms of government fraud. For instance the fraud carried out by the financial sector, or weapons manufacturers.

When people ask for help with their nutrition they are in genuine need. Asking for help with food can be humiliating. People in the USA are taught to be too proud to ask for help, and that if you can’t look out for yourself then you are a burden on society. Food scarcity is a real problem in the USA where 1-5 children eat food which was purchased with SNAP dollars.

People who need help feeding their family are not a drag on the economy in the USA, in fact SNAP dollars help the local economy where people spend their benefits, especially helped are small scale farmers who are able to accept SNAP dollars through local farmers markets. Many states match dollar for dollar benefits which people spend at farmers markets in an effort to get more fresh vegetables into the diets of the poor. Meaning that when you go to the farmers market with $10 worth of SNAP you receive $20 worth food.

---

---

---

Source

---

---

---

For people like myself SNAP doesn’t really provide enough for me to survive on. It is meant to be a supplement to other forms of income.

I earn a small amount of money through my social commentary, and another small amount through sales of the jewelry I make. Between the money I earn and the benefits I receive from SNAP I still end up at the soup kitchens and running out of funds by the end of the month. Bear in mind that I am smart about how I use my money, I am not out here with steak and lobsters, I am over here eating ramen.

When you think about the people who receive help with their food costs in the USA it’s easy to fall victim to the typical media narrative of welfare queens, baby mills racking up benefits by staying jobless and pregnant. This couldn’t be further from the reality. The reality is that one sixth of the people in the USA don’t have enough food to eat. These folks like me are doing what they can to scrape by in Trump’s America, and it’s about to become that much more difficult for the people who are already struggling as the fat cats in D.C. plan to further attack the underfed by forcing them to take drug tests to be eligible for assistance.

Drug testing people who need help with their food costs has been tried before. In Arizona the state found that out of the 87,000 people who were involved only one person was using drugs. Another state which wanted to drug test before helping was Florida, where there was a direct conflict of interest because of the company issuing the tests was owned by the governor’s wife. Other states which have mandated drug testing have had similar results, there is no money saved by these drug testing programs which are enormously expensive.

---

---

---

In the USA we already see people in jail because they were caught stealing food. Food theft will definitely increase when drug testing for SNAP is implemented.

The people who are addicted will become further alienated, instead of helping them to address the challenges of addiction they will be stigmatized and punished for their addiction. Pushing people off of food stamps will most likely increase crimes around hunger; increase the number of people incarcerated, and push up the cost of providing the SNAP program.

---

---

---

Source

---

---

---

States which have drug tested people who are on food stamps have been huge losers in the equation.

They end up spending way more on the drug tests than they save by cutting off addicts. Further it’s been deemed unconstitutional to drug test welfare recipients. The companies who issue drug tests use lobbyists to make their services mandatory. Otherwise government bean counters would do the math and quickly understand that it is a zero sum game. The state ends up losing out, as do the citizens. Only the drug testing corporations have any benefit from these programs.

My nation, the USA, wastes a tremendous amount of food. Fully one third of all food in this country ends up in the trash. Whether it’s grocery stores or restaurants, perfectly good food is thrown away for many reasons. It is considered a crime in many places to take food out of the trash, if the health department had it’s say i’m sure they would say it’s unsanitary. Also the companies which dump edible foods don’t want anyone to benefit from their losses. Which is why we see locks on dumpsters, surveillance cameras, and even razor wire protecting waste.

It’s a sad statement about our society that we are even considering this program to drug test food stamp recipients. We need to make feeding humanity a priority, and set aside the concept that anyone is unworthy of food. People who need help with food are already struggling, their poverty causes enough difficulty.

There have been many instances of shaming people who use food stamps. Whether it’s the mother who is putting together a birthday party or other celebration, or the student who is indulging in their once monthly steak. People who do not receive aid from the government look down on those who do. Taking it as a personal affront that someone who has asked for help is “able” to afford things which the person who doesn’t need help cannot justify. This is similar to lunch room shaming in schools, where students who cannot afford school lunches are given vouchers to cover the costs. Students who are poor are publicly shamed for their financial status. In the USA we are taught that discriminating against the poor is perfectly fine.

---

---

---

We are told that food stamps are a drain on the budget, that our nation cannot afford to spend so much money on feeding the poor.

The reality is that food stamps are only a small part of the annual budget, SNAP is a tiny part of the overall federal budget. The reality is that subsidies for food are a huge benefit to the citizens who are fed, as well as to the local companies who take those government dollars. I believe as a nation we should be more ashamed of handouts to the wealthiest people in our country than we are by hand outs to the poorest members of society.

The reality in the USA is that major grocery stores already use a variety of tactics to catch people stealing food. There are plain clothes security guards; closed circuit TV; RFID chips and other anti-theft technologies which track products inside the store to guarantee that people pay for their items. These tactics have led to more people being jailed for food theft. Imagine if you can, the feeling of sitting inside of a jail cell because you couldn’t feed yourself legally.

The people who have lost access to food stamps are forced to find other ways to feed themselves and their families. Panhandling or begging are common throughout the country. Dumpster diving, gleaning, and food pantries are all common place. Food pantries are overburdened, and have also been forced to screen their recipients in order to help those who meet certain requirements for assistance. Even though there is more than enough food to go around, we would only feed those who are deemed worthy of their calories.

---

---

---

---

---

---

All of this is happening with a backdrop of political campaigns fundraising with $1,000 dollar plates of food being served in swanky 5 star restaurants to people who have never gone to sleep with an empty stomach or wondering whether they should buy diapers or rice.

The people who make choices about who can eat and who cannot eat are the same people who are given tax dollars to pay for their sexual assault lawsuits inside congress and the senate. The people deciding whether I will be able to eat are the same people who give multi billion dollar no bid contracts to weapons manufacturers. The people deciding whether I get to eat are the same people who fund incarceration for profit. These government leaders are consistently invested in corporations which profit off of the laws which that pass. They are given lifetime retirement funds for their blatant self service. Then they justify cutting off food subsidies to the poorest people in this country by stigmatizing the poor for coping mechanisms.

---

---

---

Source

---

---

---

The USA is at the point where the citizens are being pushed apart by their class. The wealthy class are given special treatment in all aspects of government. The poor are punished and stigmatized for their lot in life, and poverty is nearly impossible to escape. Even higher education is no guarantee of a living wage in the USA. A family with two full time jobs doesn’t earn enough to afford housing in huge swaths of the country. This leads to situations where families are separated by CPS agents. Because if you cannot adequately feed and shelter your children they are taken from you and placed in foster care. Taking SNAP away from families will increase the number of children removed from their families as a result of poverty.

This concept, that we need to further punish and strip away the food benefits of the most needy in society is wrong, it is unethical and immoral. Telling people that they must suffer hunger because they are suffering addiction is the same as punishing a person for being sick. People who suffer addiction are generally unhappy about their addiction. Addiction isn’t a choice, it’s a chemical condition in the brain. Addiction is often caused by injury, people who were somehow hurt end up taking opiods to cope with pain, when the doctors consider the person recovered they remove the prescription, but the addiction remains. Once a person loses access to legal pain management they turn to illegal sources. There are cases of “pill mill” doctors who have been bought off by big pharma. These criminal doctors use their offices as a means to increase profits for pill manufactures. The doctors are creating the addicts on behalf of the opiate profiteers.

The USA does have a huge problem with addiction. The opiates are being created using poppies grown in Afghanistan. We have a situation where war profiteers are forcing policies which support opium production. We have a situation where political influence is wrapped up in drugs, guns and money. When you are eating a thousand dollar plate of food to fund a political campaign it’s difficult to understand the challenges of a person who is deciding between a pill to prevent withdrawal and a meal, which may be the only meal eaten for days.

---

---

---

Source

---

---

---

The political class in the USA has become disconnected from the people who the allegedly represent. There are 237 millionaires in congress.

Working jobs which pay $178,000 annually they have managed to rake in millions. All while receiving cadillac health insurance, and as I mentioned above a special fund to pay for any sexual assault charges which they receive while in office. Congress has become a place where people in power use their wealth to influence public policy regardless of whether it’s an actual benefit to society. We now have a government by and for special interests. A government which the common person cannot influence. We are living in a modern day oligarchy. The USA is nearing a perfect marriage of corporation and state. The drug testing companies are just the latest in the long line of private interests which want a portion of the budget to guarantee their board members yacht payments.

---

---

---

If you enjoyed this post, then you may like my other blogs about The haves and the have nots and The cost of war.

Thanks to Steemit Creators' Guild for their Proofreaders.

I am a proud member of these Discord channels which support the Steemit communities please join us!
SteemUSA
PALnet
Steem Star Network