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McDouble is 'cheapest and most nutritious food in human history'


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2 hours ago, Canada said:

The McDouble story is correct. It has a valid though unfortunate point. The Reagan example is not right. At all. It is only right in the very short run.

Food stamps should not be cut any more. It's the emergency room health care plan of "welfare". In fact, it has been cut to the point most people can't make it all the way to the next month without extreme penny pinching and some degree of other supplemental food access.

Inflation is a thorough going reality.

Is my Reagan story not right at all or only in the very short run? You do realize that it’s almost 40 years ago, don’t you?

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8 hours ago, Canada said:

The McDouble story is correct. It has a valid though unfortunate point. The Reagan example is not right. At all. It is only right in the very short run.

Food stamps should not be cut any more. It's the emergency room health care plan of "welfare". In fact, it has been cut to the point most people can't make it all the way to the next month without extreme penny pinching and some degree of other supplemental food access.

Inflation is a thorough going reality.

Food stamps are supposed to only be supplemental food access. 

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On 1/15/2019 at 1:05 PM, elfenix said:

vegetables aren't particularly calorie dense, so, no duh.  try eating 1,000 calories of broccoli. 

This.  It is worthless to judge nutritional value by calories alone. 

And as far as rice and beans go, even the OP ends with the suggestion that one can beat McD's on price by eating them.

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In the early 80s, Reagan’s Agriculture Secretary John Bock responded to claims of inadequate food stamp assistance by inviting reporters to shop with him in a typical lower middle class grocery store (I presume HEB wasn’t open). 

He was able to purchase enough food to feed a family - with stamps to spare - including whole chickens, potatoes, apples, oranges, cereal, milk, etc. A dietician verified that it was adequate for a healthy, balanced diet.

IIRC, he may have even picked up some brown rice and beans.

Those critics responded that it was demeaning to expect poors to cut up their own chickens and not have a infinite variety of foods.

It helps to be old enough to remember Reagan’s first term.

What Reagan's admin did with the buying all that stuff is follow what the original food stamps was designed to do for people, provide them supplemental food funds to purchase food to improve their diet. Originally people were required to purchase stamps in the amount of their normal food budget and the govt would give them stamps to purchase surplus food, 1939. When Kennedy restarted it in the 60's you still had to purchase stamps in the amount of your normal food budget and the govt would tack on a bonus to be used to purchase regular food at a grocery store or farmers market. The govt put out a Thrifty Food Plan that laid out guidelines on how to best utilize your stamps to feed you family a nutritious diet with your stamps. No prepared or restaurant foods were allowed. That changed later as did the requirement to purchase stamps to get the bonus. Your bonus became your food stamp allotment. Thus the food stamp bonus/allotment has never been about providing 100% of nutritional needs for poors. Poors were and are expected to use their own money to pay for most of their food.

 

The invisible donkey in the whole deal is that food stamps were never and are not about helping the poor (except for some poor farmers in 1939) it is about providing a channel for corporate welfare for big agriculture.

 

https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/short-history-snap#1939

 

Why do I know all this?

 

I worked for the Texas Department of Public Welfare for 25 years. Most of that time was spent programming the eligibility systems that determined your eligibility and issued your stamps via an ATP (Authorization To Purchase) which you would take to the Post Office to purchase your stamps. I was also a lead analyst for the state in the design and implementation of the Lone Star card ebt system.

 

As always OU sucks.

 

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24 minutes ago, MrPhlegm said:

What Reagan's admin did with the buying all that stuff is follow what the original food stamps was designed to do for people, provide them supplemental food funds to purchase food to improve their diet. Originally people were required to purchase stamps in the amount of their normal food budget and the govt would give them stamps to purchase surplus food, 1939. When Kennedy restarted it in the 60's you still had to purchase stamps in the amount of your normal food budget and the govt would tack on a bonus to be used to purchase regular food at a grocery store or farmers market. The govt put out a Thrifty Food Plan that laid out guidelines on how to best utilize your stamps to feed you family a nutritious diet with your stamps. No prepared or restaurant foods were allowed. That changed later as did the requirement to purchase stamps to get the bonus. Your bonus became your food stamp allotment. Thus the food stamp bonus/allotment has never been about providing 100% of nutritional needs for poors. Poors were and are expected to use their own money to pay for most of their food.

 

The invisible donkey in the whole deal is that food stamps were never and are not about helping the poor (except for some poor farmers in 1939) it is about providing a channel for corporate welfare for big agriculture.

 

https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/short-history-snap#1939

 

Why do I know all this?

 

I worked for the Texas Department of Public Welfare for 25 years. Most of that time was spent programming the eligibility systems that determined your eligibility and issued your stamps via an ATP (Authorization To Purchase) which you would take to the Post Office to purchase your stamps. I was also a lead analyst for the state in the design and implementation of the Lone Star card ebt system.

 

As always OU sucks.

 

Thanks for the additional info. I don’t doubt that the driving force was big agriculture (and groups representing smaller producers), but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that food stamps are not and never were about helping the poor.

Edited by ImissWallyPryor
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