Food stamps are a necessary evil. This evil is necessary because we live in a capitalist economy.
It is easy to blame President Trump for the wave of hunger sweeping over America, and to an extent he deserves to be faulted. In the name of politically defeating the Democrats and imposing a right-wing agenda on all of America, Trump is forcing Democrats to accept cuts in Obamacare that would throw millions of Americans off their health insurance. They rightly refused (until Senate Minority Leader Schumer decided he is against having a spine), forcing a government shutdown that in turn temporarily stopped food stamps (or SNAP benefits, short for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Even though courts ordered Trump to pay the food stamps — which millions rely on for food — despite the shutdown, the president continuds to withhold them on the grounds that he shouldn’t give residents of Democrat-run states what they want until they fold on Obamacare.
For these reasons, Trump is immediately to blame for the hunger still being felt by millions. He played politics with the stomachs of millions of men, women and children, all so that he can destroy a program his base despises mainly because it was passed by a Democratic president. It’s disgusting, and he deserves all of the blame that can be heaped on him for these reasons.
On a deeper level, however, the problem isn’t Trump. The problem is an economic system that creates such rampant inequality, millions cannot afford their basic necessities.
Under a democratic socialist structure, such as the policies proposed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the final years of his life. In 1967 the civil rights leader argued that “the problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. These are the triple evils that are interrelated.” One year later he launched a nationwide crusade advocating a panoply of policies to provide permanent relief for the poor. This “economic and social Bill of Rights” included that every American capable of working receiving a guaranteed job; eliminating poverty through the provision of a universal basic income tied to the standard of living and inflation; phasing out slums and racialized neighborhoods through real estate and other necessary regulations; providing a quality education to every child; for marginalized groups impacted by social legislation to have a ” statutory right to play a significant role in how it shall be designed and administered”; and for every American to benefit from “modern science in health care.”
“We need an economic bill of rights,” King explained in a posthumous essay. “This would guarantee a job to all people who want to work and are able to work. It would also guarantee an income for all who are not able to work. Some people are too young, some are too old, some are physically disabled, and yet in order to live, they need income.”
One doesn’t need to support King’s specific proposals to broadly support a democratic socialist agenda. Huey Long, who served as an extremely powerful Louisiana senator and governor from 1928 to 1935, proposed a “Share Our Wealth” program capping individual fortunes at $5 to $8 million ($95 to $152 million as of 2025) and using the increased revenue to provide a basic income for families earning less than one-third the national average income, free higher education and vocational training, veterans benefits, pensions for the elderly, public works to create jobs and affordable health care. In Spain, the current president Pedro Sánchez is imposing policies to transition his nation to a green economy and eliminate deregulatory practices he describes as “neoliberal.” The Sánchez ideology recognizes that climate change provides nations with an opportunity to create jobs, as well as a moral obligation to protect the planet for future generations.
All of these programs, though proposed by very different men grappling with very different circumstances, point to a future in which food stamps would not be needed. By reducing the massive income inequality that causes the fewer than 4,000 billionaires to own more money (more than $16 trillion) than every nation in the world except the United States and China, democratic socialist ideas like those promulgated by King, Long and Sánchez pave the way to a future in which the conditions which render food stamps necessary gradually become a thing of the past.
I urge everyone who relies on food stamps to seek whatever services they can, wherever they can. I also urge them to challenge the premises of capitalism, as this is the ideological status quo that has put the hunger in their stomachs and the bellies of their loved ones.
We need to do more than stop Trump, a problem that exists purely in the here and now. To create a truly just world, we must extinguish the causes of hunger like it’s a fire and we have a fire douser.
Back Seat Socialism
Back Seat Socialism is a column by Matthew Rozsa, who has been a professional journalist for more than 13 years. Currently, he is writing a book for Beacon Press, “Neurosocialism,” which argues that autistic people like the author struggle under capitalism, and explains how neurosocialism - the distinct anticapitalist perspective one develops by living as a neurodiverse individual - can be an important organizing principle for the left.