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Put cheese in one hand and pride in the other, and see which one you can live on the longest. I'll be the first one to agree about other forms of welfare, but you really, truly must have food to survive *now*. You cannot work without food, you cannot go to school and learn on an empty stomach, and there is no reason why not.

We produce vast quantities of food. American agribusiness is astounding, and few people even realize how big it is. It is comparable to our military-industrial complex in scale. It is America's shining enterprise.

Certainly people will benefit who "shouldn't", but a heck of a lot of people will benefit who should.

If it was a money handout, or a medical entitlement, or an educational entitlement, you can honestly debate giving it away for free. Even rent can be seen as a luxury. But not food.

Again, warehousing all the food to keep it off the market costs the taxpayers lots of money, so denying people this food for "moral" reasons actually *costs* us all money.

And I cannot embrace a morality that ever suggests that people should be starved "for their own good." Luxuries, maybe. Even life-saving drugs, perhaps. But not food.

Are you really arguing that these folks would "starve" if they didn't have "free" cheese from Uncle Sam? C'mon. That kind of guilt tripping has no basis in fact.

Moreover, you're starting premise is flawed. You can indeed "eat" pride and more importantly build on it. This is the story of America. A hundred years ago, there were far more poor people than today but less than one percent received any government aid. The poor things didn't starve as a result. They were resourceful (they had to be!) and built a vast system of mutual aid. It is one of the great achievements in American history.

More importantly, this pride gave them the motivation to move up the ladder and ensure that their children also progressed. If you destroy that pride by "encoraging" folks to suck the public tit (even in a small way), you will do far more farm than any benefit provided. You're point about ending waste is also beside the point. The best solution to that problem is to end farm subsidies. Such a reform would do far more to help the poor (via lower prices on food) than you're policy of chipping away yet more at their pride and resoucefulness.