Some times I think that the ideological opposition to welfare from corporate types and politicians is not really an opposition. It's a political ploy. They know that they all benefit from welfare programs in one way or another, but they also know that Fox News fans are gullible and undereducated, besides being moral pygmies; they know there are a whole lot of those people; and they know that if those people are blaming welfare recipients for all their woes, they won't stop to notice who is really responsible.Much like grocers in the stamp towns of the late 1930s, grocery chains today continue to bring in increased sales from SNAP receipts during recessions. Remember last winter when stimulus funds expired and Wal-Mart disclosed lower than expected fourth quarter profits? While Wal-Mart refuses to disclose its total revenues from SNAP, it is estimated they took in 18 percent of total SNAP benefits in 2013, or close to $13 billion in sales. They publicly reported lower earnings per share as “the sales impact from the reduction in SNAP benefits that went into effect Nov. 1 is greater than we expected.”
SNAP recipients, then, are not the program’s only beneficiaries. Businesses profit handsomely from them, too. How ironic that in today’s concentrated grocery-retail market, the chains most ideologically opposed to welfare spending benefit the most from this welfare program. Even more ironic is the fact that the idea behind SNAP originated with grocery men in the 1930s who saw a way to route welfare spending through their businesses.
Salon
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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