This may sound like blaming the victim, but I don't see why the man and his boy can't eat on $360 a month. But then he explained it, they eat a lot of Hamburger Helper. I saw the video this morning and then went out to the grocery store and checked the price of Hamburger Helper -- $5 a pound, $6 a pound, the Asian Beef Fried Rice variety was over $7 a pound. For that same $7, you can buy a 10 pound bag of rice. Now I can see why the SNAP benefits don't go very far. It isn't his fault, advertising has told him that this makes for a cheap meal. I bet you could make a steak and a baked potato for less.
The right wing is always ready to condemn food choices; no deli items, no to soda pop, no to candy, cigarettes, beer or wine. But so far, I haven't heard a peep out of them condemning the food industry that buys commodities for 20 or 30 cents per pound, runs them through automated production lines that use as little labor as possible, and packages them up at $6 a pound. But I guess you need that profit margin to pay for the advertising required to induce people to pay those prices. Capitalism at its finest.
What I'd like to see is for someone to say "NO" to these ripoff artists. All Hamburger Helper is, is noodles and some flavoring. No way should the government allow this item to be sold for more than about a buck-fifty a pound. Oh right, the government can't set prices, we have a free market. Well suppose then that the government just yanks Hamburger Helper off the list of eligible food items.
I wonder what would happen if the center aisles of the grocery store weren't supported by the government's nutrition assistance programs. Minor inconvenience for the poor, who would have to buy fruits and vegetables in their natural state, and meat and dairy. MAJOR inconvenience for Chef Boy-r-u-suckered, who would have to completely rethink their business model.
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