Because it puts an extra $1,000 in everyone's pocket, not just the poor, so everyone will have additional money to spend on higher quality goods, driving up dem

Because it puts an extra $1,000 in everyone's pocket, not just the poor, so everyone will have additional money to spend on higher quality goods, driving up demand along the entire spectrum of price/quality for a given item. I'm not a huge fan of subsidies because it distorts international markets and hurts other countries (mainly poor ones), but a better alternative might be to give large corporations a tax incentive to pay their minimum wage workers more, or provide them with additional benefits. Redistribution of wealth through the government is a great idea in theory, but it eventually breaks because you get a crooked politician in office or someone who can't manage the redistribution program effectively, as we're seeing in the US (look at our current debt problem). Plus, redistribution programs involve the government, which is an unnecessary step and complicates the process. If you encourage corporations to just pay their employees more, governments don't need to 'tax the rich' to 'feed the poor'.