Joel Leggett has posted a short book review of a story about a man who refuses to take Federal handouts. I remember this story from the New York Times about people who live on nothing but food stamps:
About six million Americans receiving food stamps report they have no other income, according to an analysis of state data collected by The New York Times....The map breaks down the data in several different ways.
Their numbers were rising before the recession as tougher welfare laws made it harder for poor people to get cash aid, but they have soared by about 50 percent over the past two years. About one in 50 Americans now lives in a household with a reported income that consists of nothing but a food-stamp card.
What I find odd is how many of the people are in the South, outside of urban areas. I realize that the rural South is poor, but it's a good place for growing food -- one would think that there would be less need for rural Southerners to buy food. Even poor, you'd expect that they would (as we do) substitute much of their food needs out of what they can produce.
Freakonomics says that may not be true:
Is it cheaper to grow your own food? It’s not impossible but, as my little ice cream story above illustrates, there are huge inefficiencies at work here. Pretend that instead of just me making ice cream last weekend, it was all 100 people who live in my building. Now we’ve collectively spent $1,200 to each have a few scoops of ice cream. Let’s say you decide to plant a big vegetable garden this year to save money. Now factor in everything you need to buy to make it happen — the seeds, fertilizer, sprout cups, twine, tools, etc. — along with the transportation costs and the opportunity cost. Are you sure you really saved money by growing your own zucchini and corn? And what if 1,000 of your neighbors did the same?I have trouble buying that. Specialization is efficient, yes, if there is work to do. However, there aren't really any "opportunity costs" if you're otherwise unemployed. This is true especially in a region like rural Kentucky where there are few new jobs coming online, so there's little reason to devote a lot of time to looking for work.
Seeds are not that expensive, if you're talking about 'enough food to feed a family of four,' for example. Many things like seed cups can be made out of re-used jars or other things that might have been thrown away (soda cans? Yogurt cups? Paper cups?). If you're starting with the model of making an expensive luxury item like ice cream, sure; but if you're just talking about staples, of course we can grow them cheaply at home. This is how most people live worldwide, where population density is often much higher.
It's also how we used to do things here, before the idea came along that the government would pay you to do nothing. Charity is a great virtue, when it comes to helping those who can't help themselves. I'd hate to think that one in fifty Americans really can't, and some of them living on good earth that could bring up corn or wheat, vegetables, fruits and peppers.
Folks in the cities, sure, I understand you can't grow your own food. I grew up in poor, rural Georgia though, and I know perfectly well that most of us could.
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