The poor don't get lazy overnight

Budget cuts to food stamps will hurt the economy

by Jim Gehrke
Published in the The Mankato Free Press, Sunday, November 17, 2013

Jim Gehrke works at Minnesota Valley Action Council in Mankato, Minnesota.

The Free Press recently published the results of an online poll, asking readers if America provides too much aid to the poor. While the poll provided an opportunity to air opinions (a slight majority felt “too many people receive government assistance”), it may be more enlightening to not only consider a few facts, but rephrase the question.

Because the problem isn't that too many people are receiving government assistance. The problem is that too many people need government assistance.

The first step in differentiating between opinion and fact is recognizing that many Americans have a peculiar propensity for conflating poverty with morality. There's a line of reasoning that says if someone is poor, it's probably their fault. They're unwilling to work, and lulled into dependence by all that sweet, sweet government money.

That's an opinion. Here's a fact:

In 2000, there were about 16,300 people living in poverty in the nine counties of south central Minnesota, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. After a couple recessions, that number had swollen to 28,000 by 2011. Did nearly 12,000 of our friends and neighbors suddenly become lazy?

(Continued here.)