In the wailing and gnashing of teeth over SNAP, reality and some interesting numbers are being ignored. The overwhelming majority of people eligible for SNAP are low-income families with children, the disabled, or those over 60 years of age with minimal income.  https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/snap-provides-critical-benefits-to-workers-and-their-families

Some want to cast all SNAP beneficiaries as a drain on the economy by lazy grifters. Reality paints a different picture.

On average 28-48% of SNAP recipients report earnings in the prior month, 80% in the prior 12 months.

Wait, they’re working AND getting benefits? Yes, because they earn under the maximum income to qualify. For a family of 4 that is $2680/month take home pay. The poverty level in 2025 is,

Single: $15650

Married: $21150

Family of 4: $32150

Thus, the MAXIMUM amount they can earn to qualify is only $10.00 higher than the poverty level.

To put the minimum social security benefit in perspective (based on years of coverage rather than average earnings), a family would receive a monthly payment of $1642 if one worked thirty years.

This all relates to the decades’ long decline in lower wage earnings (with a corresponding rise in corporate and executive compensation) and, most recently, a decline in college-educated wage earnings, a first in history.

To put this in perspective, the current Federal minimum wage is $7.50. Working full time would earn $15,600 (lower than the Federally designated poverty level.)

But wait! Minimum wage was never intended for adults, right, they argue. It’s for kids working part-time jobs. Okay, let’s double the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour. Full-time employment generates $31.200 in income, still below the minimum poverty level for a family of four.

Adjusted for inflation, the federal minimum wage should be $26.00 an hour, putting these things in perspective. I’m not arguing it should be raised to that, but it should be considered when discussing why we have such a need for programs like SNAP to aid people who work. A need equal across all the states, red and blue, in a country with a Thirty Trillion-dollar GDP. The largest economy in history.

SNAP funding is not the problem. The fact that such need exists in this country with a government unwilling to face and address the real cause is the problem.

The real culprit is corporate greed.