In the Shopping Cart of a Food Stamp Household: Lots of Soda

[meadowlander]

86. Yes this.

Where I used to live the tap water was brown sludge.

It doesn't make good sense to buy drinks when the water is free and drinkable, but if you have to buy drinks because the water isn't free, and you're having difficulty feeding yourself, it makes more sense to buy something caloric than it does to buy bottled water.

On the other hand, I have mixed feelings because a lot of people are just addicted to soft drinks. My mom drinks nothing but diet coke - easily 10 cans a day and despite the fact that her kidneys are shot and her doctor has told her to stop. To me, it's a huge waste of money that is transparently making her ill but she hasn't been able to cut back or substitute with something else.

I would support not subsidising the soft drink industry via SNAP on the condition that we upgraded our infrastructure to provide high quality free water to every residence. Since we've failed so many of our citizens by not providing them with the basics in terms of potable water and access to affordable nutritional food, I don't think the place to start chipping away at the problem is sticking our noses in grocery carts.