Day: October 30, 2025

There is a game going on politics that food stamps go to the poor; that they are paid to the poor. But food stamps are not cash – they are a value loaded onto a plastic card given to the exceptionally poor – and spent at retailers. The poor never see the money, and while they do get food as a side-effect of payment to retailers, mostly it is a transfer payment from the government to convenience markets and Walmart.

The people at most risk of losing food stamps are not the poor, but the retailers. The debate should be over these businesses – do they deserve so much government subsidies especially when they sell such unhealthy convenience foods to the poor? Maybe it’s time for society to move away from supporting the food stamp and instead spend that money at improving local food systems such as farmers markets and offering more public education on cooking and food preparation on a budget, that could help not the just poor but the public at large.