No, Poor People Don't Spend All Their SNAP on Sodas
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Speaking of fake news, most of what you read that shames poor people for the food they choose to buy with their benefits is as fake as a Russian political troll. For example, a piece in the National Review characterized SNAP recipients as people who spend all of their benefits of sugary soda and then turn around and sell the soda for guns and drugs.
This is outrageous, and if you don't believe me, will you believe the U.S. Department of Agriculture? Their study of one major retailer found no significant differences between patterns of expenses between SNAP and non-Snap recipients. Another study by the USDA found that people with SNAP were no more likely to buy sugary sodas than anybody else was. Actually, a newer USDA study even found that Snap recipients spent a greater percentage on milk than soda than the non-SNAP people.
Sources for these studies are at the end of the article.
Let's Keep Poor Shaming Out of School
Poor shaming is wrong in any context, but it's really wrong to do it to children. Some schools have actually been caught taking a young child's food away for a negative balance, and many will only offer a cold sandwich instead of the hot meal the other children get. These are not typically good or healthy sandwiches either - but cheap processed meat on white bread.
The schools ADMIT that they have this policy to embarrass the child to get them to go home and collect lunch money from their parents. A few states have made the "cheese sandwich shame" illegal, and the federal government has discussed it. In this current political climate, poor shaming kids isn't likely to vanish soon.
Why Poor Shaming Will Never Help End Poverty
Everybody has to know that poor shaming is wrong. People end up on the wrong sides of their budgets for a variety of reasons, including an unexpected job loss, physical and mental illnesses, or an underprivileged upbringing. Are poor people lazy? Many probably work harder than you do, but they don't make as much money as you or are responsible for other people.
Here are some interesting figures about SNAP recipients from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
- Almost 70 percent come from families that include children.
- Over 25 percent include disabled or seniors in the family.
- Illegal immigrants, people on strike, and the majority of college students don't qualify.
- The average recipient of SNAP got a little over $4.00 USD a day.
- The efficient SNAP program actually spends over 90 percent of the budget on food.
- The MAJORITY of SNAP families have a wage earner.
Poor People Aren't "Other" People; They are People
Actually, poor shaming makes the problem worse. Current talk about freeloaders who live it up on cheap sodas because of your tax money increases the chance these people will stay poor. Shame decreases self-esteem, so people who need help the most will be less likely to seek it out.
If you think shaming people out of poverty works, it doesn't. However, you can bet that poor people do feel the shame. Remember that a rising tide will lift all boats.
Sources and Further Reading
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/food-stamps-snap-soda-nyt/
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/u-s-schools-rethink-lunch-shaming-policies-humiliate-children-meal-debts
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/aug/24/research-poverty-shame-links
https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/10/29/proven-way-reduce-poverty/KSMVN9DUaOILiA2I7TTOXO/story.html
https://www.cbpp.org/research/policy-basics-introduction-to-the-supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap
Photos: Pixabay
Do You Know How to Reduce Poverty?
I'll do my share here in the next few days by voting upon and commenting on RELEVANT comments. You don't necessarily have to agree with me.
You know a good way to end poverty? It's by developing an economic system that works for everybody, and in some cases, that means that some people pay taxes to help other people eat.
IMO, this has gotten even worse in the current political climate. For instance, they want to go to the extra expense to drug test people who get benefits -- and every time the do it, very few tests come back positive. Obviously, poor people must be on drugs -- not.
Yeah, I think it's just part of this divisive scapegoating that's being used to manipulate politics. #SAD
Father forgive them they know not what they say
I feel that a resurgence of supportive communities could help with poverty. Sadly we have been torn apart and barely even know the people on our streets any more.
However, the internet is becoming a great tool for connecting us again with initiatives where people are starting to grow and share food, start community gardens and grow in the verges.
Instead of making others feel ashamed, we can be showing them they needn't be and listening to each other's stories.
Gosh, I know I chat more with connections online than I do with my neighbors. Some community support projects are fantastic, but they aren't everywhere.
Ditto! It doesn't help that I'm awkward face to face with most people!
Shaming people for being poor is kind of like shaming a kid for not knowing how to read. Prosperity is often a matter of skill, not motivation. This is particularly true of the example you gave where schools were shaming kids about lunch money.
To put it differently, shaming is a way of saying "you're a bad person", rather than, "you're making a mistake". Again, this is a question of skills. It is a question of skills on both parties. The target of the shame lacks the skills to do better. The person doing the shaming lacks the capacity to teach the skills that a poor person would need to do better. I have often observed that people are more interested in "teaching a lesson" of pain than teaching the skills to do better.
One reason that people tend to punish before teaching skills is that it is often assumed that people are motivated to be poor, or lack motivation to do better. I seriously doubt that poor people look in the mirror in the morning without wanting to improve their life. I believe that with investigation, we will find that most people want to do better, but lack the skills to do so.
Another reason people will choose to punish rather than to teach a new skill is that punishment is what they learned from their own parents. When a parent punishes a child for a mistake, there is no empathy for the child on the part of the parent. There is only an expectation of a certain result without consideration of the skills required to achieve the desired result. When kids are punished, they lose the ability to have empathy for themselves. When those same kids grow up, they lack the capacity to have empathy for others, unless they have a corrective experience that shows them they are worthy of love, and self-love. With empathy for oneself, it is easier to ask for help and to learn new skills.
I believe that poverty can be relieved and potentially eliminated by teaching skills, and doing so without shame, and with empathy and compassion. Empathy is required to relate to student on a personal level. Compassion is required to remember that no one really wants to suffer. We all want to do better.
The skills for prosperity must be taught and cannot be bought. Such skills provide the resilience required to achieve the goals one must meet in order to prosper. It is this resilience that gives people the hope they need to try and do better.
I agree with you mostly, and you've got a great way with words! However, there are plenty of people who are well suited to working as clerks in a store or doing other jobs that just don't pay that well. Some folks are disabled and can't work, though people tend to have a little more sympathy for them. As the studies show, most families that get assistance with food do have at least one person who works. Something's wrong when people can't live on their income, and it's not something wrong with the people.
Generally, I've found that low wages have more to do with public policy decisions than how economics works. This is something I learned from one economist I've been following, Dean Baker at the Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR). He's been compiling data for more than a decade to show that policy choices over the last 40 years in the United States have been designed to redistribute income upwards.
I agree with you that some people are more suited to simpler jobs than others and that doesn't mean they should be paid so little that they require assistance from the government. Along those lines, I'm exploring the idea that a currency that operates independently of the government might actually be fair enough that government assistance won't be required. I'm thinking that if banks aren't the issuers of the currency, as in fractional reserve banking, then the temptation for self-dealing is vastly reduced. Just a thought, anyway.
I appreciate your compliments about my use of words. Writing is something that I really enjoy, so it's always nice to get feedback.
Having skills doesn't necessarily mean you get out of being poor. We currently have a situation where the employment situation is such that hundreds of highly skilled people are out of work. There are so many applications for the few jobs available that many of them will be staying out of work for a long time to come. These people a classed as "too qualified" for "menial" jobs and are being turned away. So I feel assumptions can't be made for any situation.
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