Why Should You Get Food Stamps

“The poor”; this phrase, for many, evokes an image of a slovenly middle-aged man, sitting on a street corner, his hand holding out a grimy cup with a few dirty coins in it. We fight constantly against racism and sexism, but prejudice against the poor is something that is often overlooked, forgotten. The poor are not an amalgamation of laziness and stupidity; every single person is at risk for falling into poverty. Well-educated college graduates, businessmen, single parents, teachers; a few medical or family emergencies or accidents can easily place any of the aforementioned into poverty. When we forget that the poor are people just like us, people with ambitions, plans, and dreams, it is easy to justify cutting government benefit programs.

We cannot let ourselves forget so easily. Government benefit programs are crucial resources for people with financial difficulties, giving them the tools to build their life back up again. It is terrifyingly easy to get caught in a downward spiral of getting into an emergency, borrowing to cover the expenses, and repeatedly incurring more debt to try to pay off the original debt. Of course, we can point fingers, and say they should be prepared, but when you are battling a stage four cancer, money evaporates like ethanol, unless you were lucky enough to have a million dollars sitting around gathering dust. Illness does not pick and choose; Medicaid is extremely important for those who cannot afford treatment and have to choose between their health and feeding their family (which could include ailing parents, and not just children).  Other government benefit programs, such as food stamps, help people in the same way; they provide a way out for people who have fallen on hard times.

A common misconception among those against government benefit programs is that if you give people assistance with healthcare or food, they will become reliant on governmental aid, and will try to manipulate the system so that they do not need to work. If you look hard enough, it is definitely possible to find people who match this description, but they comprise of maybe 2-3% percent of the people who use government programs. The rest are most certainly trying to alleviate their situation and stop using government benefit programs. To qualify for most governmental aid, you must be almost destitute and in very dire straits; it is not a lifestyle that most will consciously choose for themselves, for the rest of their lives. To say that they would, if you would not, is again to say that they are ‘other’, ‘separate’, ‘different’; it reinforces the idea that poor people are lazy misfits, and that people who are not poor got where they are now through their own hard work. While hard work most certainly is necessary for success, so is luck. We should not blame people for not being lucky.

These programs are not perfect. The system more than occasionally misses the targeted demographic, and can be inefficient and bureaucratic. To improve the effectiveness of these programs, cutting down on unnecessary paperwork is a must. We also need to make sure that the people reviewing applications are held to higher standards, and that the laws regarding these government programs are free of exploitable loopholes and are as straightforward as possible. These changes are most certainly difficult to make, and will take a very long time. The legal changes especially, will take years, perhaps decades, to change. However, we should not be daunted by these challenges when overcoming them can bring help to so many. Government benefit programs are an important resource, and we must work together to make sure that they are easily available to people who need it most.