If diet is linked to education and health...

If diet is linked to education and health, why doesn't the government further limit what can and cannot be purchased with food stamps/government assistance?

Other urls found in this thread:

nationalreport.net/new-study-reveals-89-percent-food-stamps-squandered-junk-food/
cato.org/publications/commentary/junk-food-stamps
qz.com/846882/the-idea-that-us-food-stamp-recipients-buy-more-junk-food-than-other-americans-is-a-myth/
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

Bread and circus. If poor stupid can't eat cheetos they have nothing to live for and will start causing greater unnecessary issues.

>muh freedoms
I believe a lot of big corporations (couldn't say which off the top of my head) lobbied to have their junk foods be food stamp eligible. Back when food stamps were a state level thing, the rules were stricter, and only a few states let poor fags get soda and chips on food stamps. When it became a federal thing, the federal guidelines were set inline with the least restrictive states.

>why doesn't the government

Impotence.

You're assuming the purpose of food stamps is health. It isn't. Also that the government gives a flying fuck about how welfare money is handled - largely that gets delegated to the states.

Person on food stamps buys expensive food: ZOMG, MY TAX DOLLARS!
Person on food stamps buys cheap food: LOL, SO LOW CLASS!

You sound like someone of privilege, (probably white) getting mad when someone of minority has something better than you. This just sounds like you want to justify your disapproval of anyone that isn't white having something better than you.

>I strongly and passionately believe that poor people should not be given foodstamps! If we start to provide impoverished people with greater nutrition assistance that allows them to regularly eat healthier, more expensive foods, then it might cut into the high obesity rates seen in lower income groups, and then who will I mock while pretending to be concerned about their health!?!?"

because healthy food is generally way more expensive per calorie

Why do Americans hate poor people so much?

you know you can buy cheap/healthy food..

>I strongly believe that poor people should survive on bread and water.
Fuck off back to /pol/.

>I think poor people should die a slow painful death because uhh... muh tax dollars... or something
KYS OP

same(poor)fag

legacy of calvinism and puritanism

So you think that poverty should be a constant state of deprivation, with no moments of pleasure or leisure. Poor people should be punished by their poverty because of their poverty.

Go fuck yourself.

not an argument

>If poor people would stop consuming food they would literally become millionaires overnight.
This is what republitards actually believe.

>he thinks that poor people buy a small amount of high quality food while on government assistance
Even those that get hundreds per week just spend it on overpriced garbage instead of actually healthy food, they just buy a shitload of it. Theres a reason those on government assistance are disgustingly fat on average.

This.

Poor people are cognizant of the fact that the money saved by buying cheaper food wouldn't significantly alter their life for the better, otherwise they would've done it already.

Being poor means being painfully aware of money. You're constantly calculating and making tradeoffs. They would do the math and know you'd get more utility from buying good good than in depriving themselves and dealing with the additional stress.

>Not providing people with Pizza Rolls and Coke is cruel and unusual punishment.

I don't see the problem with restricting provided goods to things like grains, fruits, veg, meat and dairy.

The worst is, if you want to be able to eat a decent quantity of food... you're a bit SOL if you're on assistance. And, from my friends with infants, despite how helpful it can be, fuck WIC for being too damn complicated. Even the clearly labeled things need to be bought in the exact right size, or they don't qualify. You've already got a (probably) crying infant with you. You're probably not used to having one around yet. Guess what? Time to distinguish one box of cereal from another based on size!!!

20 dollars is 2 bags of chips, 2 frozen pizzas and a 2L of coke.

Its also a bag of potatoes, carton of eggs, yogurt and some fresh produce.

Is there such a thing as richsplaining? OP has obviously never had to deal with money problems, and the psychological trauma associated with it.

Eating is a fantastic stress relief, and for some is the only relief they get from debt collectors, rising food and rent bills, and a crappy minimum wage job.

I think mansplaining covers it. It describes condescendingly explaining something from a position of privilege. It might usually be a man doing it to a woman, but in spirit, richsplaining, whitesplaining, whatever just fall under mansplaining IMO.

Now THIS is b8

No, that's fucked up. People who make less money than you deserve every opportunity to make bad decisions you're allowed to make- and on most of planet earth, right now, that includes eating pizzas and chips if you choose to do so. They don't have a fundamental human right to eat pizza, but they do have a fundamental human right to choose how to spend their money and their time. It's the systems that cause poverty- low wages, systemic discrimination, the enormous renters' bubble, and so on, and so on- that need to be fixed. Poor people don't need to be told how to behave, or told they can't complain- that's the privilege here.

Something something american values

Unless you're going on the rice and beans diet, it's not cheap enough for food stamps.

I get EBT and you know what? If I want a pizza, I'm gonna buy a fucking pizza. If I want a fucking soda, I'm gonna buy a fucking soda. Have I bought any of those items in the past few months? No, but I budget my money how I fucking need it. Being poor doesn't mean we're resigned to only buying discount vegetables and sacks of potatoes and rice every month.

I guess poor people aren't allowed to enjoy a delicious meal every now and then. Or Gaga forbid have a small treat. Nope, back to your boiled potatoes and cabbage, peasants! And gimme those cigarettes! Poor people don't get cigarettes.

>They don't have a fundamental human right to eat pizza, but they do have a fundamental human right to choose how to spend their money
Oh the ironing

>a fundamental human right to choose how to spend their money
>spend their money
>their money

Do you see where you went wrong? Did you completely miss the entire point of the OP?

It is legally their money. You can disagree with the idea of taxation, but once the government takes it from you, it's not longer your money.

If you're on food stamps, you really shouldn't be giving a fuck what anyone thinks of your status.

Bullshit. Poor people just use this as an excuse for their shitty diet. I grew up on foodstamps in section 8 housing. Ive known families with more food stamps than they could possibly use in a month.

That's beside the point anyway, OP's saying that those who are unemployed buy more junk shit, and because the money is coming from government assistance, they don't really see it as "their money" and had zero responsibility (and therefore made zero effort to get that money), and they will buy a fuckton of stuff they don't need

You are the problem

>you can't eat a good meal using vegetables, meat and dairy

t. never seen a stove

nationalreport.net/new-study-reveals-89-percent-food-stamps-squandered-junk-food/

cato.org/publications/commentary/junk-food-stamps

Low IQ + Shitty Life + Food stamps = binge time

Only if you're buying pre-packaged crap marketed as 'healthy food'. Oats and fruit for breakfast, vegetables and meat for lunch and dinner. Extremely fucking cheap.

Is there a source on that? I'm not saying it's not true, I'd just like to see the data or a psychological explanation of it.

Do you have a link to the actual Malbeck Data Institute study cited in your first source? They don't link it and I'd like to read it firsthand, and not through a biased source.

See

Weirdly accurate.

Apartment is in a gentrified area but still has the projects near it.

I see the people with food stamps load up on tons of junk all the time, carting bags of crap.

Then you have the 200lb black guy at the door of the grocery asking for a dollar and gets angry if you don't give him any because "you have a job" and he doesn't.

That first source is a satire site btw, second link is legit though

The first is a satire site. The second is not a study and doesn't have anything to say about how much of food stamps are used to buy unhealthy food or why they do, just that people on food stamps can do so.

>ZOMG
What a ridiculous faggot you must be

that's because it doesn't exist and is an absolute paint-eating retard who posted this same shit when he posted this stupid fucking thread on Veeky Forums, too. he's a gullible rube who's 100% guaranteed to have given money to nigerian princes in his lifetime

The problem is not with the idea of taxation, but with the idea of welfare. Now, helping people who have shitty period in life is good, but enabling them to be lazy and irresponsible fucks for the rest of their welfare-sustained life isn't.

This reads like a blog post

PSA
Welcome to 4 chan
Stop posting like you're on reddit
That is all

>Time to distinguish one box of cereal from another based on size!!!

It's always time to do that. It is never time to randomly grab shit off the shelves. This is not a good hill to die on.

or person with family on the left

single person on the right

why are you so retarded?

The only argument I've heard is that a lot of people live in areas where basically the only food around (that they know how to prepare, or have the means to) is the shitty junk food

dude, people sell their foodstamps all the fucking time. my gf's sister and co-worker both get more than they can use for their pile of kids so they're always trying to trade some for cash.

the thing that pisses me off the most is when people say you can't eat healthy and cheap. $5 of oatmeal and eggs will feed your kid a healthy breakfast for a week. beans, rice, potatoes are all cheap and straightforward to prepare. you just have to give a shit, and throwing more money at people won't make them give a shit

can you further explain this? Im a catholic and we are fucking commies, im trying to figure it out.

First of all, this seems to imply that poor diet is the cause of poor education, which is stupid. Having the government somehow magically fix the diets of idiots will not make them less idiotic.

Secondly, food stamps are already a massive distortion of the marketplace, that ruins utility on the aggregate. FURTHER restricting what can be bought with food stamps would effectively further consolidate the subsidies essentially being paid to food providers into an even smaller group of goods, which would cause an even greater market distortion.

IF your goal is to help poor people the most (PROTIP: This is not the goal of the government or of politicians) while causing the least interference in the economy and the wealth that it generates for everyone, you want a negative income tax. Which is where every citizen gets X Dollars per year, and are otherwise left to their own devices.

This works well because even stupid people usually have a good sense of how to cover their own ass with the resources available to them, and straight cash is the most versatile asset, and has the greatest utility per dollar of cost.

If you save $20 or more a week from your food bill by only buying ingredients, save that, and are healthy from not eating shitty for the next 20 years you suddenly have a much more lucrative outlook at middle age.

>fat family
Also people here forget families exist

To super-simplify things, religion in the US managed to pick up a strong strain of the prosperity gospel through a tortured reading of certain protestant positions - basically that a) you're either saved or damned and nothing you can do will change this state and b) you can get a good idea of who is and isn't saved based on their success in this life. The rich are right because they wouldn't be rich unless they were, the poor are wrong because they wouldn't be poor unless they were morally compromised.

That's not really relevant to what that user said. You don't get more cash that way. Standard, you get half the cash the stamps are worth. You sell your food stamps to buy drugs and alcohol and other things not allowed, it makes no sense to sell them and then buy food.

Agreed on it being easy to eat cheap and healthy though.

Families are smaller and split nowadays and looking ahead millenials arent going to have as many families. Also store bought junk food is getting more expensive to the point a lot of poor people now snack on cheaper slightly healthier things like apples, sunflower seeds, peanuts, popcorn, etc. or they go for donuts or get street cart food.

i guess i wasn't clear. point i was trying to make is that most people who get food stamps are getting plenty, they just aren't using it well enough and giving them more will not help improve their diet when they're already making poor choices to begin with

>it's too hard to read :(

Fuck you. I get fired if I don't tell your broke ass to buy the right size.

I guarantee you're fat.

I make fat stacks of cash and I'd be perfectly happy to have three quarters of it taxed away so my coworkers who don't want to work could sit at home and be lazy pieces of shit their whole lives rather then come in just for the money and amuse themselves for forty hours a week by being obstructionist asshats.

>poor diet is the cause of poor education
Reverse that and you're spot on.

>Secondly, food stamps are already a massive distortion of the marketplace, that ruins utility on the aggregate. FURTHER restricting what can be bought with food stamps would effectively further consolidate the subsidies essentially being paid to food providers into an even smaller group of goods, which would cause an even greater market distortion.
>I should be able to use taxpayer money to buy twinkies and takis and there's nothing wrong with this cycle
>even stupid people usually have a good sense of how to cover their own ass with the resources available to them
Nope. Do not confuse resourcefulness with leeching.

>t. commie nigger

Way I see it, if they're poor enough to get food stamps, they deserve to at least be able to drown their misery in junk food.
It's not like they'd get off of food stamps by eating healthy. It's the same drain on taxes either way.

>It's the same drain on taxes either way.
Its not. Fat/ generally unhealthy poor people cost a lot to keep alive because they contribute nothing and need a lot of healthcare. It would be a good idea to subsidize gym memberships if poor fatties would actually use them.

I think this is the most intelligent post I've ever read on Veeky Forums

>Reverse that and you're spot on.

Yes, that was my point. The OP seemed to imply it was the other way around.

If you don't want ANY state support of losers, that's fine. A defensible position if you actually understand it. But it's inarguable that these targeted, in-kind benefits distort the market, destroy wealth, and generally just exist as a backdoor subsidy to the whatever businesses people are using the government cheese to get shit from.

A negative income tax as I described would "help the poor" in the least disruptive manner possible.

We don't hate poor people. Like any other rational human beings, we hate poor people who want nothing except to continue to be a drain on the system, and do things like spend $300+ of taxpayer money on junk food every week, and then complain that they're not receiving enough welfare. For me personally, they don't have to be fat for me to hate them. Any person that does this, and any person that feeds children a diet of junk food, deserves nothing from the government. If you feed a homeless man, he has no reason to find a job. All you're doing is enabling him to stay alive long enough to panhandle his next meal.

Actually the average recipient of food stamps gets 126 dollars a month and in most states you can only be on food stamps for 3 months without a job if you're a non-disabled adult with no dependents.

If you don't hate poor people you're doing something wrong
t. straya

Not familiar with America but am post-grad econ student, iirc food stamps and some small program for single mothers are the only two programs that don't cause welfare traps

That's WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) and WIC only covers nutritious food. It's very limited compared to food stamps.

Foodstamps are a welfare trap. If you begin to make enough to not receive them, youre actually making less overall because your food expenses have risen more than your wage. Unless you suddenly double your income, it makes the most sense to intentionally stay below the income line.

We should just stick welfare queens in work camps and pay them with ingredients. That way they're giving something back and not eating an economy piece by fucking piece.

I miss that shit. Had an old coworker who was on food stamps. Sweet older Mexican lady. She was able to feed her husband and four kids on about half of what she got. So she sold the rest to us for 50 cents on the dollar. Fuckin loved getting to feed myself for dirt cheap

>bring back the factories for all the shit that is now made in China
>make welfare recipients work there
China status: BTFO
America status: made great again

>father has been homeless many times in his life
>father has been in prison many times in his life
a few things always stuck with me, he said:

1. food is the easiest thing to get when you are homeless. food is everywhere. dumpsters are overflowing with food, churches hand it out constantly, charities cant get rid of the shit fast enough. you just have to walk over and pick it up. it's free, you just have to fucking go get it, but most homeless bums are drug addled lazy pieces of shit who cant be fucked to walk 3 blocks to a church and load up on hearty stew every day.

2. dont give hobos money. ever. hobos always have some spending money from begging or stealing, any good hobo will have ~$20 on him at any given time. all of that money will go to drugs or alcohol or smokes, every last penny they save is for their addiction. dont give the homeless a single thing, they dont need food, and they dont need you to fuel their drug habits.

3. prison is not at all like movies make it out to be. prison is just boring. imagine that you didnt have a car, the power is out, and you're sick. all you can do is sit in your house all day and do nothing. other prisoners dont want to fuck with you since there is no point, crazy violent retards get shipped to ultramax, your regular county/state prison is full of regular guys who sleep all day since there is nothing to do but sleep, read, eat, and play board games. bores you to tears.

tl;dr poor people choose to be fat

>subsidize poor blacks/hispanics
>they grow 8 broodlings who in turn grow broodlings of their own
>welfare state collapses

we are experiencing this now, welfare is the largest mandated expense of the federal govt. nobody ever wants to talk about race issues, but social welfare is pretty much just about blacks and hispanics

it's probably just the white man and his devil work that they also happen to be the two least intelligent races that make up a large part of america, in addition to causing the majority of crime

whoops i mean #blacklivesmatter, had some badthink there for a second, its all socioeconomic, race doesnt exist, biology stops at pigment!

Like 80% of Americans are overweight or obese. They don't need more calories.

There's also shit like beans, rice, whole milk, and chicken thighs if you need more calories.

Jesus Christ, you niggers

I mean, the Yurop vs Mmerica debate is as old ad as 1776, but sometimes it's just painful to look at the lobbying you guys allow

Here in Italy the equivalent of "Foodstamps" can only be used for 'basic needs'.
You can buy yourself ingredients, not frozen pizzas.

The purpose of food stamps is to prevent the unprivileged from starving.
Junk food is a privilege, not a right.
Yet there's so many poor people in these thread acting as if it's in their right to buy shit with the government's money.

No it's not.
You don't have a right to junk food.
You should be grateful you even live in a country where you can get that kind of unwarranted handout.
You should be thankful you even get to EAT thanks to people richer than you, instead of complaining "Hurr durr I have the right to eat what I want"

No you don't.
You buy that right with money.
Which you don't have.

>People on food stamps literally buy the exact same shit as people who aren't on them, in the exact same ratios

It's all just calories anyway. It's not like you get more ebt if you waste it all at the star t of the month.

qz.com/846882/the-idea-that-us-food-stamp-recipients-buy-more-junk-food-than-other-americans-is-a-myth/

just buy less of it

>if you're a non-disabled adult with no dependents.

so if you shit out kids and claim diabetus it's all good
superb system my man

The main issue with poor people is that they live month to month, and have this misconception that they're "Good with managing expenses" just because they manage not to starve.

It's proven that being poor rewires you to make inefficient short-term decisions that will produce immediate, but inefficient, results. That's why they buy a bucket of KFC, thinking "This will feed me for a meal", while a normal person will buy a sack of rice for 1/4th of the price and think "This will feed me for a month".

For the same reason, they're very vulnerable to advertising.
Compared to an educated member of the middle class, the poor person will see an ad for some super organic scam food, and think "I can't afford that. Healthy food is not affordable".

And so, they will buy $20 of KFC.
A poor person will end up spending like $300 a month to feed themselves poorly (pun not intended), while a person with actual money will be spending LESS than a poor person buying real food.

Bottomline, you're expecting the dregs of society to behave like something they're not.

Well, someone has to look after those kids until they're school age and if you're on food stamps, you can't afford preschool or a babysitter.

>they buy a bucket of KFC, thinking "This will feed me for a meal", while a normal person will buy a sack of rice for 1/4th of the price and think "This will feed me for a month".

I will NEVER understand how it's so difficult to understand this. Brains don't run on money, but why does it seem like being poor makes you unable to understand such basic shit?

>No you don't.
>You buy that right with money.
>Which you don't have.

fuck you you privileged cunt go back to your ivory tower you dont know anything about being poor
the rich arent taxed nearly as much as they deserve to be and this post is proof
you think youre better than us or something just because you have more money? fuck you

>ooga booga pls gib more welfare

I was attending the birthday party of a family friend of my gf's dad's gf and it was motherfuck astound.

They were fattass lower class latinos (we're in commiefornia kek) and the main event was a McDonalds eating contest.

Someone put on a playlist from their iPod, and one of the notable lyrics from a Tupac song was "We need to change the way we eat". But that's just the way it is, and things will forever be the same.

And I was motorflock appalled by how they probably listen to that song multiple times a week, and have done so for a long ass time, and just don't give a shit.

Then again, at my job I assist a man who had his foot amputated due to complications of obesity+diabetes and his morbidly obsese wife still brings him countless liters of soda.

Fuck it

...

The US has the most progressive tax system in the world kek

Shouldn't that article be alarming, though?

Like, HOLY SHIT, THESE GUYS ARE POOR AND THEY WASTE THE SAME AMOUNT OF MONEY ON FOOD AS THE AVERAGE PATRIOT, THAT'S FUCKED

Because the average patriot is fucked

It's never enough for niggers
Soon enough they'll be asking for food stamps to be eligible for buying videogames

Because your brain basically short circuits the part that controls long term decisions and increases impulsive bullshit behaviors.
It's easier to skip an immediately filling meal when it's never been a question that you'll have money for one later.
The environment in a poor household trains you to eat whenever you can, not when you're hungry.

> inflation keeps increasing cost of ingredients and minimum wage never goes up Because the same people inflating the cost don't want to pay you to cover inflation
> Now those same people are kicking out the filth that pick said ingredients from the field so the cost shoots up even more and those poor farmers need more subsidies and tax breaks