June 27, 2004

Food Stamps

Best of the Web on Friday comments on an aspect of political correctness that has long irritated me:

"The U.S. government wants to end the stigma of food stamps--by giving them a new name to add to their new look," Reuters reports.

...Paper coupons... are to give way to electronic cards. Advocates of changing the name, Reuters says, argue that "a new name would remove the stigma associated with the coupons."

Okay, got it? Taranto's point:
...[T]hat's silly. The stigma doesn't come from the name. After all, there's no stigma to shopping at a food store or using postage stamps. If there's a stigma associated with food stamps, it's because of what they are--a government handout at taxpayer expense. Food "cards"--or whatever we end up calling them--would surely carry the same stigma. And if that helps encourage some people to avoid the government dole and work for a living instead, surely it's all to the good.
I agree. The perfect world would come equipped with a safety net strong enough to save people when they hit bad times... and uncomfortable enough that they have all the incentive in the world to get out of it as quickly as possible.

Posted by David Gaw in Current Affairs & Politics at June 27, 2004 10:08 PM

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Comments

Admittedly, I don't really know what food stamps look like, but I suspect they are... stamps. If you give someone a card instead, then to the next person in line, it would be indistinguishable from a credit or ATM card. So people would retain a bit of dignity.

I'm also guessing that rechargeable cards would be much less expensive for the government to produce and process. I'm surprised that's not given as a primary motivation for the change.

Posted by: Russell Lutz at June 28, 2004 10:11 AM