Food Stamps Are No Free Lunch

I was just alerted that the op-ed I wrote was published in the Summit Daily News today. I also learned that it will be featured in a point, counterpoint in the Denver Business Journal next week. This is exciting for a couple reasons. For one, I rarely ever write for myself. 99% of the writing I do at my job is ghostwriting. It’s nice to have your name in lights every now and again. Secondly, I’ve only penned 3 op-eds in my life, this new one being the third. So far I’m 3 for 3 in getting them placed in newspapers across the state. Score!

In this op-ed I take on some basic economic ignorance I’ve seen spewed across the Internet. This bit of ignorance is the typical Keynesian story about stimulating the economy with government spending. In particular, I take on the food stamp and unemployment insurance “stimulus” fallacy.

Here is the link to the Summit Daily article.

What’s the quick takeaway? I’d say it’s this bit,

Since there is no magic money fairy, food stamp and unemployment programs have to get their money from somewhere. That somewhere is productive people — entrepreneurs, employers, employees, and anyone else who created wealth and earned money. Taking from wealth creators to give to wealth consumers does not “stimulate” our economy or make our country richer.

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