One of the most tragic parts of poverty, to me, is how it forces or encourages people to eat unhealthy food on a regular basis. This, in turn, leads to shortened life expectancy, and to even more tragic experiences with the broken health care system.
In a free market, without government meddling in the agriculture business, prices would go down, and more pesticide-free or non-GMO options would be available. Currently, the government subsidizes GMO food by its support of Monsanto, through a government granted monopoly. And in a free market, poverty is greatly reduced by prosperity and low unemployment rates, avoiding the problem from the start.
But we don’t have a free market. So here’s an article with many good reader comments on how to eat organic food with food stamps, or on a budget.
Don’t get me wrong, I think food stamps are a bad answer to the problem. However, since the government is encouraging poverty through picking favorites, high taxes, and onerous regulations, it’s important for people to think about self sufficiency, and to work within the system to support their families.
The author of the article above does take a few potshots at capitalism. But we don’t really have a capitalist system, as the free market has arguably been crippled since the early 1900s, so I shrugged it off.
