Food Stamp Follies

Ah, the Food Stamp Challenge rears its paradoxical head again–this time among the leftists in charge of the economic sinkhole called Toledo, Ohio. County commissioners there are trying to live on what they claim is the average weekly food stamp benefit per person: $21.

All their food for a week for $21. (Or, as the Pravda of the Great Lakes calls it, “the same amount…that the U.S. government believes is adequate to feed themselves.”)

“We’re appropriately frightened to live on that little money,” says one of them. (I’m not sure which one–Toledo Democrat politics is so caught up in battles between the “A Team” and the “B Team” that I can’t keep track of who’s in office.)

No need to be frightened, Commissioner-person. Food stamps are not intended to replace the money you spend on food out of your paycheck. They’re a supplement to that income, intended to help out. Like a vitamin is a supplement that you take in addition to your food so that you get all your minerals and whatnot. You don’t stop eating regular food once you start taking vitamins, just like you don’t stop spending your own money on food once you start getting food stamps.

An example that even the economic wizards of Toledo can understand: if I look at my bills for the month and see that I’m going to be $100 short, and I come to you and ask to borrow $100, would you expect me to live just on that $100 that month? Wouldn’t that be dumb? If I’m getting that $100 as a supplement to my own income, why on earth would you think I would try to live on it and it alone?

Then again, if this stunt succeeds in getting the average food stamp supplement raised, people in Toledo will have more money with which to purchase locally created artwork and other essentials.

Much credit and many kudos to former Lucas County Commissioner Maggie Thurber, who is tracking this ridiculous stunt (and all the inane goings-on in Toledo) on her blog.