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President Joe Biden says 24 million Americans “suffer from food insecurity!”
News anchors were shocked that there is “food insecurity in the richest country in the world!” ABC hosts turned “insecurity” into “hunger.”
But in my new video, Rachel Sheffield, who researches welfare policy at the Heritage Foundation, explains, “Food insecurity is not the same thing as hunger. It just means that they had to rely on cheaper foods, store-brand alternatives … or reduce variety.”
Really? The alarm about “food insecurity” is based on that? Well, yes. Even the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in its fine print, admits that “for most food-insecure households, the inadequacies were in the form of reduced quality and variety of food rather than insufficient quantity.”
“They always want to create a crisis,” I say to Sheffield.
“Government programs want to keep themselves going,” she replies.
She’s talking about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; the Women, Infants and Children program; the National School Lunch Program and the other constantly growing handouts that make up America’s welfare system.
The biggest effect of these handouts is to harm the people they want to help. They harm people by making them dependent on government.
Before government’s War on Poverty began, Americans were steadily lifting themselves out of poverty. Year after year, the number of people living below the poverty line dropped.
That natural progress wasn’t good enough for us.
We (I include myself because I believed it, too) who wanted to reduce poverty declared “War on Poverty.” Welfare checks poured out. The poverty rate continued to drop for seven years. But then progress stopped.
What happened? Why did progress stop?
Because handouts taught people to be dependent.
Welfare payments did something remarkable. They created a new class of dependent people — a nearly permanent “underclass,” where generation after generation lives in poverty.
Today, government does things to perpetuate that, like claiming millions of Americans are “food insecure.” Charities raise money using the same language.
But the opposite is true.
“Americans consume too many calories,” says Sheffield. “Food insecure” adults are more likely to be obese.
When that became obvious, activists promoted a new myth: Poor people are overweight because they live in “food deserts,” neighborhoods where healthy foods are much less available. Michelle Obama talked about that a lot. She claimed some poor people had to take three busses to buy healthy food.
Nonsense.
When government officials first labeled “food deserts,’ they deviously ignored small stores, only counting stores with more than $2 million in sales. It’s true that one “food desert” Obama visited didn’t have a supermarket. But it had multiple smaller businesses selling fruits and vegetables. Government officials just didn’t count them.
Now the media claim college students are food insecure.
But most college goers gain weight at school! At school!
It’s bizarre that when obesity is the bigger problem, government hypes food insecurity. But of course, “that creates the rationale for expanding food assistance programs, expanding the welfare system,” explains Sheffield.
Expanding welfare seems to be the government’s goal. “We’ve spent more on the War on Poverty than all the military wars combined in the United States without any success,” says Sheffield.
Really? More than all our wars combined? Well, yes. We’ve spent $23 trillion on the War on Poverty. So far.
“Actually,” says Sheffield, “it’s been a success in one way. It increases dependence on the federal government.” That’s what bureaucrats consider success.
The handouts are good for the people who dole out the money. They’re good for politicians who get to look like “good guys.”
But they’re bad for poor people.
Before government handouts began, private charities helped people escape poverty. They encouraged people to learn how to take care of themselves. Work gradually lifted people out of poverty. “Work also has a lot of other benefits,” Sheffield points out. “It builds a greater sense of community, gives people access to resources and friend networks that help them improve in their lives.”
Encouraging self-sufficiency is so much better than what government does.
Every Tuesday at JohnStossel.com, Stossel posts a new video about the battle between government and freedom. He is the author of “Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media.”
reminds me of the song about having to pay for all the fat slobs “fudge rounds” . now i find out we are paying the kids to get fat while they learn to jihad and protest for the terrorists. depressing. think my tolerance is all used up.
Bravo, Mr. Stossel!
I remember seeing a commercial with George W. Bush’s wife saying something like “One third of Americans face hunger every day.”
Eh? They’re not actually hungry, they just “face” hunger??
Rubbish!
What did she know, born with a silver spoon in her mouth?
Gates, Soros and Swabe want it all under their total control
With very few exceptions people who don’t feed their kids are just stupid, lazy and selfish. Democrats are experts at cultivating these traits in people. Apparently puffed rice with room temperature powdered milk is a forgotten delicacy.
War on poverty results in increased poverty.
War on terror results in increased terror.
War on drugs results in increased drug use.
War on hate results in increased hate.
War on climate change results in increased climate change?
Coincidentally, all of those wars resulted in increased power and wealth for the purveyors of those policies. Merely coincidence, mind you.
Well, the “war on climate change” has produced a fair number of followers – but no change! Except, of course, in the fatness of the wallets belonging to the guys who sell the “green” solutions!
I’ve been on both sides of this fence. Yes, I have seen much I would call misuse of the benefits, but this is not true of everyone. Even without benefits, if you have $1 & some change, what would you buy to take home for your children? A loaf of generic white bread, or an apple? They pretty much cost the same. It’s almost like a trick—junk is more affordable & can be stretched further, but healthy is expensive. It can be accomplished though, if you plan & take the time to enquire of the health benefits of certain foods. I use powdered milk to this day, lol. But I wish someone would address this : say you’ve been homeless, or scraping by in someone’s spare room, & finally manage to get out on your own. Your deposits for utilities will be doubled because you’ve been off the grid, ditto for car insurance. It’s not easy to pull yourself out of the hole. But with prayer & perseverance, it can be done. One more thing—not everyone is fat because of fudge rounds. They may have a thyroid condition. Generalization may be necessary sometimes in speaking, but it can be unfair & unkind too. I have also seen this welfare become a generational thing, it’s a vicious cycle with no easy answers. If you’ve never experienced this sort of thing personally, don’t forget to thank God for your blessings. I’ve been “food insecure” all my adult life & consider myself greatly blessed.
The “food desert” idea is a fantasy of the progressive left to create another victim group they can rally around, and get sympathy and funding for, and of course feel good about themselves. It’s always about fresh produce, but this is someone sitting at a desk somewhere telling you what you should eat, wheher you really want it or not. You would have to read the USDA’s definitions on this which are reafily available and represent current policy to appreciate the stupidity. We taxpayers pay for this.
It is still true in this country that supply and demand can work and if someone can successfully open a business that serves needs of a commuity and earn a living at it, they wii do it. But they dont. Why is that?
Pretty complex answer here, but lets just slap the “food desert” bandaid on it, throw money at it and the problem is solved. just follow the social science. Amazing that after all the years and trillions of dollars spent on regulating behavior we still don’t get the fact that money is not always the solution. Money is not unmportant, but if it solved social problems the way the progressives envisioned it, we would not be in the current state we find ourselves.
The USA has an overweight underclass who consistently make poor dietary/lifestyle choices.
On to next topic . . .
The so-called War on Poverty has been a complete failure, for all the reasons listed. But, instead of ending funding, it is increased. Government handouts never get smaller. We have approached the point where there are more people in the wagon than pulling it. That’s when it breaks down.
A few summers ago we were at an RV park in Jacksonville, FL. The nearest supermarket was in a predominantly black neighborhood. I was struck by the tables and bins when entering the store full of cakes, cookies, chips, crackers, etc with sale prices like 2 for 1. The produce department was limited to a ten or twelve foot wall. The display was less than fresh and attractive. Beyond the checkout counters to the side was a pharmacy with a line longer than people buying groceries.
Is the War on Poverty and Food Insecurity being waged with the Department of Agriculture corporate interests and Big Pharma? Weaponizing chronic disease and disability for profit and government dependence seems to be winning that war.
when I ws a lazy roke college kid in the ’70’s I got food stamps. We got a list of “approved” types of foods we could buy with them. Things not on that list we could not buy with the tickets. Soda, ice cream, candy, prepared breakfast food, readymade foods like cakes and pies, were off the list.
So what COULD we buy with those little tickets?
Mean dairy, fish, eggs, cheese, fruits and vegetables, and bread. Most normal condients )jetchup mustard, etc) were OK.
Today I stand in the checkout lilne ad see carts piled high with boxed breakfast cereals, candies, premade cakes and pies, chips of all kinds, “snack foods”, readymade dinners, frozen pizzas, etc. I see their total at $300 for the cartful. MY cart is full of freach fruits and vegetables, meat, quality cheese, eggs, real yogurt, and my total us under a hubdred bucks. I also note that the folks with the overful cart of puff foods weigh about twice what I do., are half my age, can barely walk without huffing and puffing. I am blown away at their cost of “food” and I;m glad I DON”T see their pharmacy bills. I don’t need any drugs, but do take a few normal vitamin/mineral supplements. Guess who will live twice as long as the other?
BUt the free food gigs at the schools feed them garbge all week long, call it ‘food”, and train the kids to like the garbage they feed them.
Ya’d thin gummit would be doing the right thing, but then ya’d be thinking wring. Seems a plot to make America dependent upoin government for everything. Hmmmm.. can anyone hep me out here, I’ve got a vague recollection of having seen this meme in some history book somewhere…….
Like you, my shopping cart is filled with the same things. I can eat healthier than ever before, now that I only have to consider myself. My point earlier is when you are trying to feed a family on what the government gives—for a family of 5, $300 amounts to $60 a week. Not much. They make it easy to destroy your health by putting huge bags of sugary cereal at 2 for $5, & place a bag of apples at almost $6. A lot of things that sound/look healthy are deceptive as well. That’s why I say plan & look into nutritional value of what you’re buying. And while we have a choice, it’s not an accident what these choices are. They say 5 companies own almost all the food, the media, & let’s not forget big pharma, who also profits from these poor choices. Propaganda is everywhere, not just in politics.
It is not the U.S. government’s responsibility to feed you, that is the obligation of each person living in this country. You do that by working for a living.