In an opinion article written in the Wall Street Journal, new decisions on food stamps are announced along with statistics to reason why the recent decisions made were not wise. The article doesn't list the writer or writers of the piece, but the Wall Street Journal itself is a trustworthy, professional source of news. The Journal has delivered reliable news to citizens since 1889 and is the largest newspaper in the United States today.
The writer addresses the issue of food stamps and how the difficulties in attaining them have changed throughout the decades. It was recently decided by the Senate that they would not cut 20 billion dollars from the projected 770 billion dollars that will be spent on food stamps for the next decade. This article is written in a simplistic manner that can address audiences from teenagers to adults though the impact of the decision made clear in the article may not mean as much to younger readers. The availability and price food stamps affects all citizens and the decisions recently made are strongly urged against by many readers as well as the writer of the piece.
A point is made clear through the logos technique in this article. The writer uses statistics to show how attaining food stamps has changed. In the '70s, when the food stamps were first introduced, they were given to one in fifty Americans. Today, the ratio has risen to one in seven. This increase has doubled the cost of the stamps, leading us to the huge, 770 billion dollars that we will spend on the stamps in the next ten years. The changes through the years have resulted in increased ease for food stamp applicants. An example in the article was that unemployed members of wealthy families qualify for food stamps.
The writer makes his point clear towards the end of the article when he admits that food stamps are needed for come citizens, especially in the current economic state we face. However, the amount of money that was decided on spending on the food stamps is a lot. The writer strongly suggests that this number is much too high, and that some of the money allocated to the food stamps would be of better use on other issues.
I agree with the writer in that 770 billion dollars is a very large amount for food stamps. While a a lot of people do indeed need this help, I think we can save a lot of money by tightening the process in which people qualify for food stamps. We seem to have gotten lazy in this very important aspect of the food stamps, and it may be that a lot of people who are using the money allocated do not need food stamps with their specific situations. An interesting fact in the article was that food stamps are actually advertised and encouraged for the average citizen. In one specific case, food stamps were advertised as a means of dieting. This is not what food stamps were meant for and I don't support the decision to allocate 770 billion dollars to people who don't need help providing for themselves or their families. Unfortunately, with the loose way in which we provide these food stamps and the large sums of money we allocate to them, our hard-earned money is often going to people who don't really need it.
The article itself was written very well and I appreciated its clarity. The writer makes a lot of good points and supports them with reliable facts and statistics. He provides many interesting facts that draws in readers and forces them to think about the issue at hand.
To read the article about food stamps, click here.
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