Food Stamp Nation by Pat Buchanan

[flintlock]

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=212741

Food stamps are feeding children abandoned by their own fathers. Taxpayers are taking up the slack for America's deadbeat dads.

Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Time for American men to "man up" or face the consequences. Personally I wouldn't care if we dropped them from planes on the Taliban.

[don]

Re: Food Stamp Nation by Pat Buchanan

Flint, you'll appreciate this. Blaming all one's troubles on the ex is a familiar refrain on construction sites, used to justified skipping child support. I have a buddy that came unglued with these jackasses and on more than one occasion, laid them out. He has his own issues- he's a Nam vet- but he had zero tolerance for these BS whiners and would simply drop them, not from airplanes but from a standing position to a prone.

[Fiat Currency]

Re: Food Stamp Nation by Pat Buchanan

I was explaining to my daughters over dinner the other night, that soon America will have 42-43 million people living on food stamps. Sometimes numbers like that are hard to understand. So I told them - that is basically the ENTIRE population of Canada and Sweden combined.

You should have seen the looks on their faces

[we_are_toast]

Re: Food Stamp Nation by Pat Buchanan

$700 billion for a few millionaire bankers! (not including FED money)

$50 billion for 40 million lowest income Americans who might have to choose between homelessness and eating!

DAMN those hungry kids for crashing our economy!

Among the reasons is family disintegration. Forty percent of all children in America are now born out of wedlock. Among Hispanics, it is 51 percent. Among African-Americans, it is 71 percent.

Brilliant Pat! In the midst of a FIRE caused depression, let's distract everyone and blame it on black and brown hungry kids!
What a piece of crap he is.

[ASH]

Re: Food Stamp Nation by Pat Buchanan

$700 billion for a few millionaire bankers! (not including FED money)

A lot of that $700B was recovered, (even if I don't believe Geithner's most rosy estimate). But, coincidentally, CBO's current estimate for the final cost of TARP is more like $66B... which is on the same order as the current annual cost of the food stamp program (~$56B).

More importantly, the food stamp program is an on-going expense that is incurred every year; TARP was a one-off (so far).

Most importantly -- did you read Buchanan's essay? He does not blame anything on black and brown hungry kids, but rather their parents.

In my opinion, Buchanan's argument that growing reliance upon food stamps demonstrates how public assistance begets dependence is flawed, because he fails to consider how the economic opportunity for American workers to provide for themselves has changed over time. Falling competitiveness of American labor, the falling pricing power of labor, and the growing redundancy of unskilled American workers, are a big part of the story. Automation and the labor arbitrage that comes with global trade inevitably means there will be growing numbers of Americans whose labor is not worth 1st world subsistence. Food stamps (some paying "double fare" while others "ride free", as Buchanan puts it) are baked in the cake, unless either productivity takes a big hit (requiring more hands) or American labor somehow recovers cost competitiveness.

For the record, I do believe that public assistance begets dependence. But I also believe that's not the whole story. Larger forces of technology and trade seem bound to push us toward a larger dependent population, and greater income stratification.

[we_are_toast]

Re: Food Stamp Nation by Pat Buchanan

A lot of that $700B was recovered, (even if I don't believe Geithner's most rosy estimate).

More importantly, the food stamp program is an on-going expense that is incurred every year; TARP was a one-off (so far).

Most importantly -- did you read Buchanan's essay? He does not blame anything on black and brown hungry kids.

Those bankers would be out of a job if it weren't for the TARP bailout and QE1 from the FED. Don't even get me started on the billions in tax breaks the wealthiest of Americans get every year!

I most certainly read the essay. The quote is directly from the essay.

Don't fool yourself ASH. With everything else that is going on in the world, the timing of an essay about how bad people on food stamps are, just before an election, and very specifically pointing out African American and Hispanic participation without mentioning that the majority of recipients are white, is nothing more than racist fear mongering to appeal to the worst of a voters values. Buchanan isn't stupid, he knows exactly what he is doing. This is pure politics, and it's the absolute worst kind of politics.

I see you added to your comments, and we'll find much in agreement, but a reasonable discussion of this issue wasn't Buchanan's intention. I actually have other points of agreement with Buchanan (outsourcing jobs), but this is crap, pure crap, and nothing but crap!

[flintlock]

Re: Food Stamp Nation by Pat Buchanan

I was going to add that what Buchanan left out was the horrible job prospects that many parents are left with. But how does that excuse deadbeat dads Toast? Or is that just another "freedom" Americans should be left with? "The right to hump".

Don, your comment rings so true you have no idea. My one remaining employee blames everything on his ex. He's constantly behind on child support. That doesn't stop his trips to Friday Margarita Nights or eating lunch out every day. Boo hoo.

[vinoveri]

Re: Food Stamp Nation by Pat Buchanan

DAMN those hungry kids for crashing our economy!

Brilliant Pat! In the midst of a FIRE caused depression, let's distract everyone and blame it on black and brown hungry kids!
What a piece of crap he is.

Did you read the same piece I did? I really can't understand how you could come to the conclusion the he is "blaming" the victim", and make no mistake, those hungry kids are the victims, the victims of the choices that their parents made or did not make, and those choices are directly or indirectly to the social policy of the central planning types who are blind to the concept of culture and that the family is the fundamental unit of society.

Buchanan is simply making the point that government policies have encouraged not only dependence on social assistance, but (and he doesn't make this point expressly, but has in the past) the breakup of the family, a fact which not even a left wing socialogists can deny contributes to poverty) is a key reason leading to the cycle of poverty. Even Elizabeth Warren and other left of center thinkers recognize this.

Thinking is the hardest thing to do, and that's why most don't do it. Truth is what it is. Don't run from it b/c it threatens long help beliefs; embrace it.

[vinoveri]

Re: Food Stamp Nation by Pat Buchanan

In my opinion, Buchanan's argument that growing reliance upon food stamps demonstrates how public assistance begets dependence is flawed, because he fails to consider how the economic opportunity for American workers to provide for themselves has changed over time. Falling competitiveness of American labor, the falling pricing power of labor, and the growing redundancy of unskilled American workers, are a big part of the story. Automation and the labor arbitrage that comes with global trade inevitably means there will be growing numbers of Americans whose labor is not worth 1st world subsistence.

Good points, and I would suggest each has resulted in large measure due to government policies, most particularly education including socialization and a deemphasis of virtue and excellence over self-esteem, the entrance of women into the work force en masse (great for business to surpress wages), and free trade of course, and the financialization of our economy. The growth in government over the past generation has gotten to point where I would not be surprised if more than 50% of the population (and more than 75% under 35) take it for granted that the government can sustain the country and will take care of them. The Emersonian Self-reliance ethic has long since been sacrificed at the altar of central planning and top down economics. We are not a nation of shopkeepers anymore.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: Food Stamp Nation by Pat Buchanan

I supect Buchanan's piece is entirely political.
Newt Gingrich is back in the business of issuing talking points for how Republicans should speak, all together on the same topics with the same words.

He recently advised that repubs say "democrats are the party of food stamps, republicans are the party of jobs"

Lo! and Behold!
A couple days later Mr. Buchanan publishes a feature piece on the perils of food stamps, chock full of references to the Great Society, FDR, and the decline of America.

[GRG55]

Re: Food Stamp Nation by Pat Buchanan

...Don, your comment rings so true you have no idea. My one remaining employee blames everything on his ex...

The tragedy of unmet expectations...

[Rajiv]

Re: Food Stamp Nation by Pat Buchanan

I was going to add that what Buchanan left out was the horrible job prospects that many parents are left with. But how does that excuse deadbeat dads Toast? Or is that just another "freedom" Americans should be left with? "The right to hump".

Don, your comment rings so true you have no idea. My one remaining employee blames everything on his ex. He's constantly behind on child support. That doesn't stop his trips to Friday Margarita Nights or eating lunch out every day. Boo hoo.

I think one thing that is missing from your evaluation is the evaporating real value of income earned. Let me take the federal minimum wage $2 per hour in 1974 and $7.25 per hour in 2009. If I look at that using shadowstat inflation rates, minimum wage in 2009 should be $9 BLS and $30 with Shadowstat CPI. From personal experience, I can say that living expenses wise, Shadowstats is closer to reality than BLS is.

This income devaluation may have much more relevance when evaluating the behavior of "deadbeat" dads than the motives that are being imputed to them.

[DSpencer]

Re: Food Stamp Nation by Pat Buchanan

A few comments:

1. The fact that banksters and politicians have screwed us severely, doesn't make 40 million Americans on food stamps a meaningless issue.

2. The idea that "falling competitiveness of American labor" is a big factor is misleading in my opinion. If it's so hard to feed your family in America then why are immigrants flooding into the country to find work and support their families? They do the jobs that most Americans, including those on food stamps, are unwilling to do. I agree it may be hard to find good jobs that get you a nice house and a fishing boat, but that's different.

While there may be exceptions, most people on food stamps are in no danger of starving or even "going hungry". My first job was as a grocery bagger and then cashier. I could almost always tell who was on food stamps before they paid because no one else in their right mind would spend that much money on meat products. And after paying with their food stamp debit card, they usually had a separate order for cigarettes and beer. Somehow every American seems to scrape up the cash for the necessities: TV, Beer, Cigarettes and a cell phone.

It's just another part of the attitude that being born in America entitles you to free food, money, healthcare, education, etc at somebody else' expense.

3. Food stamps = votes.

[don]

Re: Food Stamp Nation by Pat Buchanan

The tragedy of unmet expectations...

Human Nature

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: Food Stamp Nation by Pat Buchanan

...
This income devaluation may have much more relevance when evaluating the behavior of "deadbeat" dads than the motives that are being imputed to them.

Nah.
I suspect it has ever been thus around the world for folks of simple means.
"bastard" is a very old word.