Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Well, howdy there internet people, it's Belle again. So today, we're going to talk about replacing Snap with MREs, because of course we are. So, the right wing has come up with a solution to the cost of Snap. Now to be fair, this is a solution floating on social media, and I haven't seen a politician suggest this, yet. But you know it's coming.
The idea is to replace SNAP, which is obviously a wasteful program, with MREs. For the uninitiated, those are meals ready to eat.
Chapter 2: What are MREs and why are they proposed as an alternative to SNAP?
They're military rations. So here are the general through lines on this. Quote, so I've got the solution. We give them MREs. If they're good enough for troops, they're good enough for SNAP. There's, we already have these and they can eat them as they cycle out. And there's, if we give them MREs, everybody will get a job tomorrow.
That one might be a joke, but the joke itself is based on the idea that recipients are lazy or it's fraud or whatever. Most recipients are children, the elderly, and those with disabilities.
Okay, and then this is one I got. Why don't we give them MREs? That way, we know the money isn't being wasted. This is one of those simple solutions. For every complex problem, there's an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.
I get it. In fiscal year 2024, SNAP cost about $100 billion. That's expensive. Okay, so if we switch out SNAP for MREs at $189.30 per case divided by 12 is $15.77 per meal times three meals per day times 30 days per month is $1,419.75 per month times 42 million recipients. That's $59,629,000,000 and change per month. So the current yearly cost of SNAP would be exceeded in two months.
And that doesn't include shipping. It's cheaper to be a good person. But let's steel man this. We don't really have to use MREs. We could use tailored operational training meals. They're packaged differently, have different components, and are less expensive. Following the same math, that's only $21 billion and change per month. So still more expensive.
running over the current cost in just five months. And we haven't touched on shipping or the fact that these aren't really the best meals for kids, the elderly, those with disabilities, and so on. Look, one of the main issues is the belief that people who need help are somehow in need of punishment, that they deserve to be in the situation they're in, and in fact deserve worse.
They deserve to be punished for allowing themselves to be in that situation. I reject this whole premise. I'm going to suggest that if we have 42 million people needing food assistance, that maybe the problem is the growing income inequality in this country and the policies that cause that.
The billionaires have you wanting to punish children and people with disabilities so you don't look at all their subsidies and tax breaks. One last math problem. Roughly $100 billion per year for SNAP divided by 42 million people, $2,380.95 per year per person divided by 365 days per year, $6.52 per day. If your plan costs more than that per day, it's a simple solution to a complex problem.
And if you're talking about moving physical products, don't forget to include shipping. Anyway, it's just a thought. Y'all have a good day.
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