4 ms·
>Should the government also be providing even more necessary items like food I guess you've never heard of farm subsidies. Our food prices are almost completel
by muhfuhkuh 16y ago
>Should the government also be providing even more necessary items like food
I guess you've never heard of farm subsidies. Our food prices are almost completely controlled by the government, which is precisely why it is so cheap. No one goes hungry in America, because famine costs about 2 dollars a person at the corner store or McDonald's to completely eliminate. And, for those that can't afford that, we have WIC and food banks/pantries or church-run soup kitchens (also indirectly subsidized due to non-profit or church tax status).
You'd basically have to try really hard to starve in this country.
- orangecat 16y agoI guess you've never heard of farm subsidies. I have, and we should get rid of them. But they're not actually that large in relative terms: $20 billion/year per Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidy#United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidy#United_Sta...). That comes out to around $60/year per American, and even if it goes entirely to lowered food prices (no), that's a small fraction of what we spend. Furthermore, even if you were right and there was massive subsidization of food prices by the government, how much you pay is still directly proportional to how much you consume, so there's still some pricing signals in the market. Those signals are almost entirely absent in our "free market" (not) health care system: http://www.thefreemanonline.org/headline/doctors-are-government-employees/ http://www.thefreemanonline.org/headline/doctors-are-governm... And, for those that can't afford that, we have WIC and food banks/pantries or church-run soup kitchens (also indirectly subsidized due to non-profit or church tax status). Sure, and welfare for those who need it is a good thing.