Guest Post by Dan Calabrese
Incentives.
If I was on food stamps, I wouldn’t like this either.
I think that’s the point. If you can’t afford to buy your own food and you need the government to provide it for you, then you get it on the government’s terms. That’s usually what happens when someone else is supplying your needs. Don’t like it? Take every available action to get off food stamps and achieve independence, at which point you can buy whatever you want at the grocery store with your own money that you earned.
Until then, enjoy your Harvest Box:
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• Under the USDA America’s Harvest Box proposal, all Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participating households receiving $90 per month or more in benefits will receive a package of nutritious, 100-percent U.S. grown and produced food. Approximately 16.4 million households, or about 81 percent of SNAP households would be impacted by this proposal.
• The amount of food received per household would be scaled to the overall size of the household’s SNAP allotment, ultimately representing about half of their benefits. SNAP participants would receive domestically-sourced and produced food in lieu of a portion of their SNAP benefits.
• USDA would utilize a model similar to that currently used to distribute USDA Foods to other nutrition assistance programs to provide staple, shelf-stable foods (such as shelf-stable milk, juice, grains, ready-eatcereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans, canned meat, poultry or fish, and canned fruits and vegetables) to SNAP households at approximately half the retail cost.
• This proposal creates a new approach to nutrition assistance that combines retail-based SNAP benefits with delivery of USDA America’s Harvest Boxes supporting the President’s leadership on Buy American. This proposal is cost-effective, enhances the integrity of SNAP, and provides for states’ flexibility in administration of the program.
• The remainder of the household’s benefits will still be provided via the current Electronic Benefit Transfer card.
The Department of Agriculture estimates the change would save taxpayers $129 billion over 10 years by switching to defined packages that would presumably have a predictable, consistent cost. I’m guessing it would actually save a lot more than that precisely because people would hate being restricted to the Harvest Boxes, and at least a significant percentage of them would respond to the added incentive to improve their situations.
And of course, I’m sure part of the idea here is that people can’t trade or sell their food stamps or find some clever way to use them to get booze, cigarettes, drugs, etc.
Yes, the government would be picking out your food for you. Yes, that would be frustrating and no fun.
The point of food stamps is not to treat you to gourmet meals. It’s to prevent you from starving to death while you get out of the trouble you’ve gotten yourself in, whether that takes the form of unemployment, underemployment or some other type of financial mess. We want you to have food. We want you to live. But if you want the kind of food you prefer, that’s going to require you to earn your own money and buy it.
That is not an unreasonable proposition. You’re not supposed to like dependence on the government. You’re supposed to want to get off it as quickly as you can. If you get stuck with the Harvest Box and you still don’t make the changes necessary to improve your life, well . . . at least you’re saving the rest of us some money.
Will never happen. They are already complaining about how raciss it is and of course about how it will stigmatize those who have to pick up the boxes. (Maybe we could have Amazon deliver them discreetly?)
What they really should do is just give them a box of MREs each month and call it even. (and I’ll take ’em if they don’t want ’em)
It can easily be done by executive order. Fuck em
I’d be good with a bag of rice and some fishheads, a pack of tortillas and some refrieds, a couple watermelons and a chicken, or a pack of buns and sime burger in each box.
Choose one, there’s no mixing once you choose.
It can be done by Executive Order if the Court gives permission to do it and only to the extent that they allow it to be done, otherwise it can’t as many recent actions have shown.
Maybe we should change the XO process so the request is submitted directly to the Court and they can issue it if they approve and can it if they don’t, just to save time and troubles in the process.
Canned watermelon – by executive order.
It should be based on weight of recipient. If you are a shamu lard ass of 400 pounds, you get 1000 calories a day. If your BMI is normal you get 2400. This would save heaps on medical expenses, too!
Dammit man, that’s fucking genius! Trump should hire you immediately.
Scientifically – the amount of calories you receive will be inversely proportional to your weight – let’s say if your BMI > 33.
I’m guessing most of this will end up in the trash can. It’ll be like what happened when some places tried to get people to do 40 hours of work a MONTH to keep their benefits, most would rather do without.
No it won’t. It will be resold.
Somebody is going to get creative in every neighborhood and buy up the stuff people don’t want, and then resell it to people who will buy it.
But jars of peanut butter are not going to pull as much cash as the equivalent food stamps which would buy a jar of peanut butter.
Net result= actual food will be provided to these people, and they will have substantially less capability to transform it into cash, drugs, or alcohol.
Jars of peanut butter are not as fungible as EBT credit
I am so sick of seeing people in line ahead of me using an ebt card to buy better meat than I can afford. I but a steak maybe four times a year. Otherwise its 80/20 ground beef for me. A motherfucker with an ebt in front of me bought a damn beef tenderloin, over 150$. When I was a kid they gave out government cheese. Need to do that again. Bod of food is the right start.
The current food stamp program is basically giving money to children and sending them to the grocery store. Of course they are going to buy booze and candy, that’s what children do. Giving them food they don’t like sounds like a good idea.
Just mirror what Clinton did in 94-96, watch dems scream That’s Raycist!
But Ya’ll liked it when BillyBoy passed it.
I don’t believe this concept is unprecedented. Back in 1963 my family was struggling. I was young, and do not know the specifics; but, I do remember we made weekly trips to a government office and received what was called “surplus food”. I remember getting canned meat (very salty), cheese, powdered milk, and soy beans. The food was mostly in cans, probably excess, or nearing expiration dates, from fallout shelters. We kids did not like the beans, or maybe my mother just didn’t know how to prepare them. What she did do was use them to make bean bag toys and sell them at a local flea market.
Better short cell phone companies and tattoo parlors if this gets implemented.
I wonder if Spam Lite is included?
I have been saying for years that basic staples should be covered. For everyone getting all bent over the money spent on food stamps… I just look at the money spent on our military. How many years have we been in Iraq and Afghanistan? How much is given out in foreign aid?
True but two wrongs don’t make anything right.
I’m torn. I think it’s going to get worse especially if jobs jobs jobs don’t reappear.
I had a very short run teaching in an elementary school and my classes were held in the gym/lunch room…some of the kids that had free lunch would sell their meal tickets. At the end of lunch I would go through the trash cans inside the gym and pull out all the fruit and unopened containers from the lunch bags and take it home. You see, I was responsible for raising four children and a greedy ex-wife——screw pride, when you are living paycheck to paycheck you do what you have to do.
You were raising the wife too, was she of legal age even?
Obamas boys are gonna be pissed. They cannot drive their new BMW’s to the Whole Foods and use their EBT card and then drop by the steakhouse for their Friday night steaks. Instead they supposed to go home and cook their own shit, awe naw ain’t gown happen…..they gonna claim food poison and sue the govt. then they willl also try selling it at neighborhood farmers markets. You will all of a sudden think slavery done come back with all the farmers markets on street corners in the projects…..they will probably poison it out of spite harming those actually wanting to eat it from their rag tag corner market…You gotta love how Trump fights these libtards, he really makes it hard for them to keep calling everything rayciss….I mean why is high quality fresh usda farmed foods rayciss vs processed chemical laden restaurant foods? Why that be rayciss, huh? He even gives you a home and kitchen and tv and phone to cook the fresh veggies in, even suppplies you gas cards to get condiments…….and free electricity for your conditioned air in your section 8 abode, all because he wants to provide healthy fresh foods and Michael Obama would even be proud, right? Gotta love it. Who could oppose this? What would their opposition be?
All products found in a grocery store have UPC bar codes. Those products are categorized. It would be pretty easy to disallow an EBT purchase of snack foods, soda, etc.
I volunteer off an on at the food bank. Being new to Dallas it’s a good way to meet nice people… I got into it courtesy of NIAC (National Iranian American Council) who does this on an annual basis. There are lots of Iranians around here so there was a decent turnout…maybe 25 people. Something to think about next time someone wishes death on all mohammedans. I didn’t see any Jews around…maybe charity and community involvement isn’t their thing. (OKAY, I’m kidding! I wouldn’t have know if there were unless they were wearing a skull cap)….
For limited income people who qualify…working or not, they can come into a room that is equipped like a small store and pick the items they like into a cardboard box. The items aren’t priced and vary according to supply but they are apportioned by the box. Most of the items are either close, or slightly past the expiration dates or otherwise are deemed surplus and donated by large retailers such as Trader Joe’s. I think it’s a great community resource and if not for this, the food would go to waste anyway. No government is involved.
You don’t know what a semitic nose looks like?
There is a charity Jewish hospital in Tehran that has been given millions of USD equivalent by the government of Iran in recent years. This isn’t a Jew thing.
VOLUNTARY is the ONLY TRUE CHARITY. Everything else is simply THEFT!
Great stuff, Zara. That’s the way it should be done.
So let me get this straight? Several boxes of food with different names will land on the same door step of a 1 room Appartment.
That’s a prescription for a rat infestation.
Beggars can’t be choosers. If you’re in the position to be picky you’re not truly in need.
Our government has been too generous to food stamp recipients to the point there’s now a food stamp industry. I used to work in a gas station where people could buy any cold food products in the store which also included fountain drinks. I also know of certain restaurants such as Papa Murphy’s Pizza where people can purchase their pizza on EBT because the business is built around a “Take and Bake” model to capitalize on the food stamp loop holes. I also know food stamps trade .50 cents on the dollar as the EBT to dollar exchange rate.
One of the problems with SNAP cards, at least for those who have any pride in themselves, is that they look just like a debit card. Back when food stamps were just that, it was obvious when someone was using them and there was a social stigma about it. Many of the recipients were embarrassed to stand out in this manner. The cards eliminated that.
I’m against the cards because JP Morgan has built an empire off of those cards.
I’m not sure if I support trying to shame people or bring back the social stigma. I think ‘The Harvest Box’ is the best idea. It specifically picks food out for people (no potato chips, cookies, or soda) and delivers it to their doors. It completely cuts out a trip to the grocery store therefore cutting out big box grocery and bankers from profiting off poverty. I’m more offended by corporate welfare than individual welfare.
I think they should take it a step further and ban some awful foods (like sodey pop) and most junk food. Diabetes levels would drop like crazy.
What’s wrong with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.You live for a long time on peanut butter.
The government cheese was actually pretty good.
I remember it as a dry, crumbly cheddar type of cheese, maybe with a bit of colby mixed in it.
My Grandmother used to get it. She could never eat all she was given.
We always had a 5 lb block in the fridge back in the early 80’s.
Some points to think about.
I don’t know how many useless bureaucrats it now takes to load all these millions of cards with money, but THEY WILL ALL still need to be employed after this is implemented…..ALONG WITH additional lots of folks to manage the massive supply chain from coast to coast to get all this stuff coordinated, packed, and shipped. HOW MUCH MORE is this going to cost – than any prospective savings? And will anyone be honest with us about the math (I think we already know that answer)?
Who is going to deliver all these boxes? The USPS? Consider how big a truck some carriers would need to handle all of the boxes in some neighborhoods. A semi would have to pull up in front of some housing projects (or trailer parks) just to handle the volume. And what kind of volume are we talking about? And what if it isn’t the USPS? Is Amazon going to happily step up and take the multi-million dollar a month contract? Bezos has been putting together plans for an alternative to FedEx and UPS. Is this enormous SUBSIDY going to be just what he needs to put either or BOTH of these two competitors out of business? Is this what “making America great” is going to look like – just more crony-capitalism?? Frankly whomever gets such a monster contract will be receiving a HUGE welfare check from the US Government for their “services.” The main reason the USPS can deliver packages so cheaply is that they hold the government-enforced monopoly on First Class mail delivery. These billions of cards and letters generate enough revenue to allow the purchase and operation of way more planes and trucks than UPS/FedEx, giving them a financial advantage. Or, given how much the USPS now loses every quarter, is Trump just going to add these deliveries to the bill and make things even worse? Or is this to be an inter-governmental funds transfer to bail them out??
And what exactly is to be in these boxes. Every time I turn around there are more organic and certified Non-GMO products on the shelf. Triscuit is not advertising non-GMO certification and many others are working towards such a goal. When Monsanto has NO other customers for its frankenfoods, will these boxes be the government’s way of insuring that the US Government is “making Monsanto great again?”
Just wondering. Don’t expect any kind of answers to these questions during the non-debate that will ensue over this issue. Expect another back-room deal with a quick up/down vote along mostly party lines.
REAL welfare reform is certainly possible, but this isn’t it.
Wow. 4 downvotes so far and no comments? Is everyone just willing to believe that the government can do this “efficiently” without issues, higher costs, more crony-capitalist handours, etc. or are REAL concerns about this not welcome simply because “welfare reform” is to be applauded and not scrutinized – kind of like “military spending?”
And nobody who has read any of my posts should think that I applaud the theft and handout program that food stamps are. ALL government welfare to individual AND businesses should be abolished tomorrow. Private, voluntary, charities are ALL that should exist in our nation.
Don’t sweat the vote ratio. EL Coyote has a 112:1 down-up vote ratio, and he doesn’t complain.
Wear it with pride.
And they wonder why I get whiny. You want me to be happy, give me up-votes, baby!
Wow, no shit. You raised great questions about the logistics of it all.
Don’t feel bad. On the same topic yesterday, I simply stated that government involvement will insure that the quality of this food will be mostly very shitty. I even closed with a comment about me not giving a rats ass what free shitters eat. Yet, I got 6 votes down. Lol. Assholes.
You’ve been here long enough to probably notice that voting here is very lemming-ish. Like I said ,… assholes.
BTW, I voted you up.
Why on earth do you folks care how many up or down votes you get? It is a curiosity at best. You really need the herd to agree with you? You are in the wrong place if you need that level of self affirmation.
I’m really sick and tired of people (like you) who come along pontificating that concern over voting patterns should be of no concern. Get off your fucken high horse.
You simply want to pretend that a basic human psychological need does not exist …. the desire for validation.
EVERYONE, to one degree or another, desires to feel validated in some way. I’m not talking about validation as a person. I’m talking about validation of one’s personal opinion. The manner in which that way is expressed on TBP is via voting.
Sometimes a person doesn’t give a fuck about the down votes. Other times that same person does give a shit … especially if the topic is important to the person. Or, if they spent a lot of time/effort/research/thought in writing the post. It is only NATURAL to feel some disappointment at seeing a down vote. Unless you’re a Fucken robot, which you very well may be.
Now, I know I’m going to get down votes for this … because of the recent infestation of newbie snowflake commentors. So, thanks a whole damned bunch for starting out my day with me feeling invalidated, ya robot snowflake dweeb.
Stinky, what do your assclown fellow LARPERs Q and Brendan Dillybar say about it all?
Is it a Martian conspiracy? Is the time not yet ripe?
Are the Anons duking it out with the Assclowns?
Its not about validation. I read all the posts before me and NOBODY was raising some of these very basic issues about setting up a logistics nightmare (for the government that is…others could handle it) ON TOP OF the already massive welfare bureaucracy, handing over massive amounts of money to maybe another logistics company (more crony welfare), and what the content of this food will be given the decline in desires for GMO/Monsanto crap and NOBODY (when I had looked) had done anything but downvote. I was beginning to think that “welfare reform” had become an untouchable subject on this site. Glad to see I was wrong. I’ll be the first to acknowledge that Trump could probably put something like this in place in one of his OWN ventures, but when he proposes such a thing for the stooges of the federal government he is beyond naive to think that it will ever happen in a manner that would make him or those who support him, proud.
Martin, I gave you 2 up votes
Robert (QSLV)
Assuming 2 boxes a month per person / household, and, 10 postal delivery days every 2 weeks, it should be easy to apportion the delivery volume to allow the current carriers to handle the load.
“Our government has been too generous to food stamp recipients to the point there’s now a food stamp industry.”
I suppose that our govt has not been too generous to billionaires and multinationals that do not pay corporate income tax by recently giving them a trillion and a half tax gift, or to the oil & gas industry to whom our govt has given them trillions of dollars in tax breaks over one hundred years, nor to military contractors that charge vastly inflated prices for their hardware. I suppose that a better use of the food stamp money is to give it to the aforementioned parties.
Your rationalization has nothing to do with my comment. Quite frankly, you’re putting words into my mouth and making shit up. There’s been no mention on any of the comments of taking money away from food stamps to give to another group. You might want to read the comments slowly next time and pause for reflection.
You have really blossomed into a great contributor to this blog. I am not aware of any official powers but if I had them, I would christen you an official TBP Big Dog! Woof!
Colin Spenncer takes strawman argumentation to a whole ‘nother level.
Colon Spanner merely commented in a sarcastic tone that nobody is talking of reforming corporate welfare. You know, maybe send them care packages full of fruitcake instead of greenbacks.
For your information, Colon, government is a redistribution center collecting taxes from the poor and giving to the rich. Ain’t nothing fair about it.
Of course, they will throw you a bone once in a while to keep you from rioting or revolting.
Food stamps are corporate welfare, EC
I was aware of that, Captain Obvious.
The effort afoot is not to deny people stuff but to get more control over what they get. That way, Uncle Sugar Daddy can tweak the corporate profit. In a future time we shall have everybody on the food box program.
LLPOH says mfg jobs are going the way of the dinosaur. However, corporations gotta eat. Government will pay them to provide MREs (and cars, tv’s, cell phones, etc.) to all households. But you knew all that.
Anyone bitching about people getting free food please know/remember that the biggest welfare program on the planet is government itself. I really don’t care if people get free shit when our own government is looting the whole country.
You can’t separate the chicken from the egg in this self-fulfilling cycle of citizen theft and abuse. “Free” stuff is how the government pacifies the sheep while simultaneously sending them to slaughter.
Walmart will fight this, they’ll lose the pajama shopping white trash and nigras.
Man you’re naive. This will apply mostly to Whites. The “minorities” double and triple their welfare. They get city, state and Federal dollars. Whites get bupkus. My brother hurt his back legit and had to get an operation. They won’t schedule a good doctor and won’t give him his workers’ comp.
Resident Gump is an alien plant. He could save over a Hundred Billion by deporting illegals. Idiot won’t. He’s just killed himself. He’s expendable. The illegals want him dead, and this Judas deserves it. He’s a dummy.
White people are gonna get screwed over again. This plan is only in RED STATES. The damn Lincoln Party needs to take a dirt nap with their alien parasites. Plenty of fossil fuel diversity for these RETARDED TRAITORS. Its Natural Selection. Resident Gump and the Lincoln Log Cabin Boyz are TOO STUPID TO LIVE.
I always said our welfare system should be run by ex-Soviets. Enough food to keep you alive and healthy, nothing more. Poor people should be skinny, not obese.
I would add that in order to qualify for food assistance at all you must also grow a garden. May as well make it a learning experience for the free shitters if they’re gonna do it on our dime.
WHAT?!?? You mean I can’t microwave this stuff? How am I supposed to feed my five kids from six different fathers???
I wouldn’t mind getting this food package at all.
I think they’re probably going to arrange some kind of delivery service for these, since many of the people receiving them don’t have adequate transportation.
Think of the convenience! No wasting time going to the grocery store and standing in line, no traffic.
I guess many people with more refined tastes might object to being issued standard staples like this, but it wouldn’t bother me at all.
Half of them live in food deserts anyway due to high crime levels perpetrated by benefit participants.
Prolly will all be done by amazon anyway. Seems like a fine bezos monopoly. He would make it efficient to the point neither free shitters nor employees nor suppliers would want to be involved. Purrfect…
I simply cannot get my head around the concept of adults human beings being unable to provide their own caloric intake on a daily basis.
Logically the smartest thing to do would be to let these people starve to death and eliminate them from the gene pool. Of course that’s considered inhumane, but demanding that responsible people carry them on their backs for their entire taxpaying lifetime is equally cruel and onerous.
hardy, as much as I dislike sounding like a misogynist, these households are headed by lame-brain women. They have it in their head that a man somewhere has to provide for them, even if that man is not in any way responsible for the production of her kids.
EC
I read recently that they’re trying to get approval to allow people to buy pet food and supplies with their SNAP benefits. I say, since they’re spending MY money, if they can’t afford to feed themselves and their children, they have no business having a pet.
Watch out for The Walkin’ Dude’
Robert (QSLV)
Miss Lee said, “I never liked mothers. Not even my own.”
“My mother was a whore,” the man with the racing form said, not looking up from his paper.
“Mothers are full of shit,” Miss Lee observed and took off her leather coat. (1.304-306)
The Harvest Box would turn into a boondoggle of rotten food and logistical nightmares. How about you get a box of MREs for the month-no rotting, easily dispensed. I ate em’ for months while deployed. You get sick of them and maybe that will be enough to get off your fat ass and EARN your food like everyone else. If you don’t want to- enjoy MFer.
LMAO Just another stupid Trump idea. Not just because the idea is oozing with corruption even I can see, but If you really think the lobbist’s for the grocery chains will sit still for this, that’s a laugh. Your just transferring money from many pockets, to one, or two pockets. As with all things the government does, this will wind up costing more than the current system.