What We Need Is More People on Food Stamps

The Law By Frederic Bastiat

Food stamp use is at an all time high. In 2011, more than 46 million Americans—about one in seven—received food stamps. But President Obama’s Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack doesn’t think that’s enough.

The US Department of Agriculture would like to see more people utilizing their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The department believes that one reason more people don’t sign up is individual pride. In order to combat the deleterious effects of self-respect,

…. the department is offering non-profit groups the chance to receive $75,000 grants for projects designed to boost food stamp participation among those who are eligible but have yet to sign up. The Department of Agriculture believes that the SNAP program is “severely underutilized” and says that 33 percent more Americans who are eligible to receive food stamps have yet to apply, thus the need to offer federal grants to sign more citizens up.¹

Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack believes that food stamps are good for the economy. After all, it puts “people to work,” because whenever they are used, “someone’s got to stock it, shelve it, package it, process it, ship it–all of those are jobs.”

We’ll take it as a given that Vilsack never read Frederic Bastiat’s Essays on Political Economy. He should have.

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