151_Pr00f
All Star
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/29/opinion/sutter-lake-providence-income-inequality/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
When the gap between rich and poor is as wide as it is in Lake Providence, it becomes almost impossible for people to imagine themselves on the other side.
It becomes all too easy, as many do, to argue that "entitlement" programs such as food stamps are holding back people on the south side of the lake. They don't have enough incentive to work hard and get ahead. They become lazy, complacent, dependent.
A closer look at how these programs work reveals another picture.
Forty-five percent of the parish's residents receive food stamps, or SNAP benefits. The average payout is $1,492 per person per year.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture spent $12.3 million in 2012 subsidizing farming in East Carroll Parish through direct payments, insurance breaks and other subsidies, according to data compiled by the Environmental Working Group, which tracks government farm subsidies.
The average farmer who gets a commodity subsidy in the parish received $20,554 in 2010, according to the group. The most highly subsidized farmer that year in East Carroll Parish got more than $655,000 from that one subsidy program.
Look at that number again.
$655,000.
Farmworkers I spoke to made about $7.25 to $10 an hour, even after decades of work. Even in East Carroll Parish, where the cost of living is certainly nothing compared with major U.S. cities, those wages won't support a family. Business owners and farmers here are fond of saying they can't pay higher wages.
That's hard for me to believe after looking at the subsidies.
"It's really just an unprecedented income guarantee program," said Scott Faber, the Environment Working Group's vice president for government affairs. "It's absurd."
When the gap between rich and poor is as wide as it is in Lake Providence, it becomes almost impossible for people to imagine themselves on the other side.
It becomes all too easy, as many do, to argue that "entitlement" programs such as food stamps are holding back people on the south side of the lake. They don't have enough incentive to work hard and get ahead. They become lazy, complacent, dependent.
A closer look at how these programs work reveals another picture.
Forty-five percent of the parish's residents receive food stamps, or SNAP benefits. The average payout is $1,492 per person per year.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture spent $12.3 million in 2012 subsidizing farming in East Carroll Parish through direct payments, insurance breaks and other subsidies, according to data compiled by the Environmental Working Group, which tracks government farm subsidies.
The average farmer who gets a commodity subsidy in the parish received $20,554 in 2010, according to the group. The most highly subsidized farmer that year in East Carroll Parish got more than $655,000 from that one subsidy program.
Look at that number again.
$655,000.
Farmworkers I spoke to made about $7.25 to $10 an hour, even after decades of work. Even in East Carroll Parish, where the cost of living is certainly nothing compared with major U.S. cities, those wages won't support a family. Business owners and farmers here are fond of saying they can't pay higher wages.
That's hard for me to believe after looking at the subsidies.
"It's really just an unprecedented income guarantee program," said Scott Faber, the Environment Working Group's vice president for government affairs. "It's absurd."
I swear I don't see y people aren't sparking revolution.