New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn’t want people getting fat off of government aid, so he’s trying to make soda and other sugary drinks ineligible for Food Stamp purchases.
The New York Times reports Bloomberg asked the United States Department of Agriculture to let the city ban its 1.7 million food stamp users from getting their soft drink on with Coke and its dastardly cousins.
The mayor has gone after soda before, having attempted to coax the state to tax sugary beverages.
How far do you think the government should go to restrict Food Stamp use?
New York Asks to Bar Use of Food Stamps to Buy Sodas [The New York Times]
More From Consumerist
-
Lawsuit Seeks To Block New York City Ban On Big Sodas
-
Niagara Falls’ Plan To Lure Young People With Student Loan Payoffs Is Working Splendidly
-
Book Returned To New York Public Library Almost 55 Years Overdue
-
Don't Get Your Hopes Up If You Live In New York City & Really Want A Walmart To Move In
-
NYC Unveils Newest In Teeny Tiny Living With Winning Micro-Unit Apartment Design
From a practical viewpoint (never mind that people poor enough to use food stamps are already living a miserable life regardless of what they eat or drink), boxing in the lifestyle of poor people is likely to lead not to healthier living, but to seeking alternatives to gain more freedom to choose. This would include crime (likely selling drugs as that is what most turn to when they need cash) and under the table employment. I grew up in a poor rural area and I saw this first-hand.
Rather than micromanaging how the poor use assistance, energies would be better spent elevating their status and providing reasonable jobs. At the moment, on average, there are 5 applicants for every available job, and it would be logical to conclude that unskilled work has more applicants than skilled work. This is a social issue that needs to be dealt with on a macro level, not on a micro one. If you think poor people aren’t miserable enough with the potential to buy junk food for comfort, then you’ve never been very poor.
Legislation like this is social management at a late stage. You can’t re-write people’s lives after a certain point, at least not in a free country. Live with the fact that people are going to eat things you personally don’t approve of and do things you don’t like, and just get on with your own life and be glad that you aren’t in circumstances where the best part of your day is opening up a can of Coke and a bag of chips. People don’t eat crap food because they love their lives or themselves. They eat it because they’re so miserable it’s all they’ve got, and you want to take that away from them because you’re worried that a tiny piece of your paycheck pays for a tiny bit of their food. The few cents you pay toward food stamps doesn’t entitle you to tell someone else how to live or what to eat, and I’m not sure why anyone would feel they need that power. Tax money is tax money, whether they buy milk, bread, beans, or Coke and chips. It’s still coming out of your paycheck all the same.
Holy shit! A reasonable, well thought out argument. I’m in love
Please pencil my name in on the membership list of your Fanclub. ^_^
And while we’re at it, can we get people using food stamps to stop using the food stamps at the store, then push their cart full of goodies out to their SUV with dubs and lighting, then lock up the car and head over to the nail salon. This is not stereotyping. This happens every day in my neighborhood. I yell at my kids about sneaking the extra box of Fruit Roll Ups in my cart because my budget can’t handle it, but the “card” people don’t seem to mind throwing an extra box or two in their cart and then strolling over to the local Asian nail salon for a relaxing mani/pedi. The entitlement factor in this country has spiraled out of control. Someone needs to rein these folks in.
How sure are you, that it’s their SUV? Maybe it belonged to a friend, or their parents, or an amicable ex-spouse? Hell, maybe it was the rental that their insurance company provided for her use, after their “ho hum normal” sedan was totalled?
Because, you know what? I’ve never, ever, in my life, known someone who owned an SUV and was on any kind of benefits whatsoever.
It was always my understanding that only non-taxable food items were allowed to be paid for with food stamps. Is it true that one can purchase junk food with food stamps? Does anyone know if it varies by state?
It was always my understanding that only non-taxable food items were allowed to be paid for with food stamps. Is it true that one can purchase junk food with food stamps? Does anyone know if it varies by state?
Junk food isn’t taxable, either. At least not in Massachusetts.
Store brand is cheaper than bottled water. Some rural areas the water isn’t drinkable (my mom’s house for instance, too much sulfur.) I’m on disability myself. I buy soda with food stamps. I always get diet. The thing people aren’t taking into consideration is the bureaucracy needed to administer something like this. Do we really want food companies lobbying for their brand to be acceptable, and others to be just a little too unhealthy? How about shoppers? It’s already a pain to know what is and isn’t food stamp eligible. Food made in store is often not eligible, because somehow if it’s made in the store that makes the store a restaurant. Food stamp aid is such a small portion of public assistance. Junk food is usually cheap. If people want to help people eat healthier give more money in food stamps (raise the eligibility minimums) or subsidize healthy foods.
Are the ” healthier ” alternatives practical and cost effective? Are they accessable? So a bottle of OJ will be cheaper than a Coke?
That’s an excellent point about access to drinkable water. The whole point of food stamps is to stop someone from starving to death and yet they are restricting the calories that many need good or bad. Yes I can see banning tootsie pops or Budwisers but many need calories.
And one of the problems with so called healthier food is it’s time sensitive like fruits. You can let cans of soda sit weeks on end and they still will be good to drink. You can’t do that with many fruits/juices.
Just remember that the purpose of food stamps was to prevent people from starving so if you don’t want inner city NY kids to show up on an infommercial showing their rib cages like a third world orphan so you’ll donate to the charity I’d make sure food stamps recipients have the choice and process to get calories. Also remember food and health education/knowledge is an issue on to it’s own
Too bad that more and more and more and more and more of our freedoms are being taken away. I see the pro and con side of this, but there are many, many, many more important issues than this…..come on.
This seems like a hot button topic!
I used to work at a Grocery Store and saw Food Stamp Abuse. When something the people thought should be covered wasn’t, I was yelled at like it was my fault. I think some restrictions should be applied. Though I’m not familiar with food stamps anymore, I can’t give an opinion on what those restrictions should be, maybe no more Doritos?
State’s money, state’s decision. Deal with it.
Actually, it’s not hte State’s money at all. Ever. Food Stamps is a FEDERAL program, funded by the Department of Agriculture.
Additionally, once they put it in a person’s hands, it’s THEIR money, not the governments’ anymore. The only reason Food Stamps are restricted at all is because, in their (now-extinc) PAPER form, they were an entirely separate currency from the traditional “reserve note” dollars.
But, and let me make this absolutely crystal clear: once the government hands to me any amount of food stamps and says “these are yours” … they are MINE. And they cannot, furthermore, simply “take them back” without affording me my right to Due Process, because it is my property.
Exactly the same as the normal, reserve-note dollars sitting in my checking account are.
Actually, it is the person entitled to the benefits’ money, not the State. The State just facilitates getting it to the people who need it.
I work at a store where a customer used a bridge card (Michigan’s version of food stamps) to purchase pepsi that was on sale. After the purchase, he went outside, emptied all 108 cans of pepsi, then used the bottle return to get 10.80 cash refund. Turned out to be his mother’s card, so he basically stole from her and the taxpayers.
As reprehensible as that was … one person’s act of fraud certainly does not justify reducing the rights and privileges of millions of other people.
O_O
What a mistake expanding some of these comments holey moley. People care a lot about food lol.
I understand that some people believe food stamp recipients shouldn’t be allowed to purchase anything but necessary food (sugar, eggs, milk, veggies, meat, etc.), but who are we to tell others what they can and cannot purchase with the benefits given to them? It is no longer ‘your money’ once deducted from your paycheck, so I don’t wanna see that argument.
I am disabled and receive benefits. For those who think us benefit receivers are lazy and don’t want to work, you couldn’t be more wrong. I’m very young, and I want to work but I cannot do.
It truly saddens me, and upsets me that my fellow people think like this. God forbid you or your spouse become disabled…
This is for PAX and anyone else who finds themselves unable to support themselves through no fault of their own. I have no problem with you purchasing the food you want and need.
Because Guess What Folks – We’re All In This Together. Period. The ratio of honest people vs. dishonest people just milking the system is 4 to 1. And I’m betting not each and every one of the commenters here Not on food stamps or Whatever are perfect little angels either. Lots of fraud/crime/Whatever carried on by lots of folks not on food stamps.
Life is short and HARD, make your choices, I’ll suport you as much as I can because I believe in Life and The Pursuit Of Happiness, however naive that may be. And I would you PAX would do the same for me if he could. Christ some of you are so damn harsh.