More People Are On Food Stamps Because There Aren’t Enough Jobs

I’m flattered that the Commonwealth Foundation found it necessary to respond to my post comparing Tom Corbett’s food stamp asset test to a higher tax bracket for poor people.

Unfortunately, they mistook my criticism of the asset test for agreement with their argument that food stamps encourage dependence on the government:

They’re right on the overall effects of welfare, but wrong on what an asset test does. The newly announced higher asset limits for food stamps and the long list of exemptions give beneficiaries plenty of opportunities to build wealth while still receiving benefits. But as a whole, welfare programs encourage dependence. When families earn more their total income declines because as their salary increases, their benefits (which are worth more than their raise) are reduced.

Basically, there are two solutions to the problem of perpetual poverty. One solution is to expand food stamps to everyone so no one is needy. Or we can look at reforms that encourage independence and employment. Work requirements, time limits, and restructuring Medicaid to give patients the freedom to choose their own health care insurance are just a few ways to reorient the system.

Of course this is a total straw man argument, since no one is arguing that we should “expand food stamps to everyone.”

I am arguing that we should be generous with food stamp enrollment while there are still four unemployed people for every available job.

It’s disappointing, but not surprising, that CF doesn’t have the intellectual honesty to put that 52% growth in food stamps statistic in the proper context of 8% unemployment.

This is the worst downturn since the Great Depression. My view is that people are unemployed because the economy is not growing fast enough, and not creating enough jobs. It is literally not possible for all these unemployed people to find jobs when there are 4 people competing for every job. That’s just math.

So it’s not surprising that we have more people using food stamps. People can’t get jobs, and they are using the emergency safety net that the state provides to tide them over until there are more jobs available.

As the economy recovers, more jobs will be available, and most of the people now using food stamps will get jobs and get off the program.  

If the economy was growing at a normal rate, but we were seeing the same elevated number of people on food stamps, then we’d know there was a problem with the program, and it would be time to look at the eligibility requirements. But that is not what we are seeing. The program is working exactly as it should, expanding to absorb a larger number of people who legitimately can’t find work.