Why do people think they have a right to police what poor people eat?

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:01]Why is it that so many folks love, absolutely love to try to police what poor folks get to eat? Let me show you something. I just purchased this rotisserie chicken at this grocery store behind me. Did you know that folks who are on SNAP or what we used to call food stamps cannot use their benefits to buy the hot chicken? If the store doesn't sell the chicken, they can put it in the refrigerated section and the next day we're okay if folks use their SNAP benefits to buy cold one-day old chicken. We just don't want them to have the hot fresh chicken. It's just one of the many ways we try to control them.

[00:00:43]You may have heard last week in Florida, they enacted a measure to keep folks from using their benefits to buy so-called junk food. The argument being, "Hey, it's not healthy. Why would you buy that on my tax dollars? It could lead to issues and then I'm going to have to pay for your medical treatment.

[00:01:00]The argument about the hot chicken is in their mind it is akin to going out to a restaurant or at least getting takeout.

[00:01:07]And I work very hard to go to restaurants and they should work very hard too. Of course, the vast majority of people on SNAP do work. Often times two jobs. 60% of folks on SNAP are employed. We're not really subsidizing those folks. We're subsidizing the corporations and companies that they work for that refuse to pay a livable wage. I'm telling you all this because last week there was a bipartisan bill that was introduced that would finally let folks on SNAP buy hot chicken and other such products.

[00:01:44]I'm all for this. I think this is very humane. I'd love to know your thoughts.

[00:01:48]Why is it that we love to control what poor people eat? Tell me your thoughts.