[Vision2020] Economist Rankings of the World's Greatest

[Andreas Schou]

> A quick phone call to our local food bank and a brief conversation with its
> director informs me that the "food banks frequently run out of food" answer
> to my question is nonsense, at least here in Latah county. I was told that
> since the banks inception such a thing has never happened.

Right. Back when I was running a food bank, there were three large
categories of item that we frequently ran out of:

(1) Things you can't buy with food stamps, but which are available at
food banks: tampons, diapers, toilet paper. Note that, without food
stamps, everything would fall into this category.

(2) Things which serve critical needs, but which weren't donated
frequently enough: baby food, meat, canned vegetables, rice, ramen,
dried and canned soup and other pre-prepared meals (critical for the
homeless, people living in SROs and motels without access to other
housing).

(3) Perishable items like meat. The rural food banks had it better
than we did, because they used roadkill.

The things we never ran out of were, unsurprisingly, the things
provided by the government. And, frankly, we never would. The USDA
subsidizes food banks by providing food directly to the Idaho Food
Bank Warehouse. FEMA subsidized our food bank by providing roughly
$8,000 to buy USDA-surplus food from the Idaho Food Bank Warehouse.
If it weren't for food stamps (and if it weren't for David Beard over
in the law school) they'd be running out of every other type.

This particular system is remarkably less efficient, both in terms of
market distortion (agricultural subsidies; government purchase of
surplus food) and logistics (large, government-run warehouses to hold
food) than using the private food distribution network to get food to
hungry people.

> Lets drag this back to the core of the question instead of arguing the
> peripheral issues. What is it about a food bank that is shameful?
>
> g
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Andreas Schou" <ophite at gmail.com>
> To: "g. crabtree" <jampot at roadrunner.com>
> Cc: "Dave" <tiedye at turbonet.com>; "vision2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 1:31 PM
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Economist Rankings of the World's Greatest
>> On Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 1:00 PM, g. crabtree <jampot at roadrunner.com> wrote:
>>>  It is much easier to commit fraud with food stamps.
>>
>> Um. It's virtually impossible to commit fraud with an EBT card without
>> the collusion of a supermarket. Food stamps are no longer in a form
>> where they're independently transferrable. Fun fact: the US government
>> now spends more money per year on welfare fraud prevention than they
>> have ever lost per year to welfare fraud.
>>
>>> In addition, what is it about food stamps that make them less "shameful"
>>> then utilizing a > food bank?
>>
>>> What makes them better?
>>
>> Reliability? Food banks frequently run out of food.
>>
>>> g
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Dave" <tiedye at turbonet.com>
>>> To: "vision2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>>> Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 11:50 AM
>>> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Economist Rankings of the World's Greatest
>>>
>>>
>>>> How about food stamps?
>>>>
>>>> Dave
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> g. crabtree wrote:
>>>>> Spoken like a man who can't come up with a coherent answer for a rather
>>>>> straight forward question.
>>>>>
>>>>> "Just what mechanism for assistance do you envision that an "affluent
>>>>> and
>>>>> technologically advanced" nation might come up with that would be less
>>>>> shameful?"
>>>>>
>>>>> Perhaps you simply were confused by my presentation. I'll try again.
>>>>>
>>>>> Privately operated food banks efficiently provide a needed service. How
>>>>> do
>>>>> you think it could be done better?
>>>>>
>>>>> g
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Windows, OSX, or Linux is the same choice as:
>>>> McDonalds, Burger King, or a (real) Co-Op.
>>>>
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>>>
>>>
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>>