{"id":16258,"date":"2018-02-01T18:14:23","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T02:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=16258"},"modified":"2018-02-01T18:14:23","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T02:14:23","slug":"how-about-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/how-about-you\/","title":{"rendered":"How about you?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 47 years of life, I\u2019ve never experienced the United States as politically polarized as it is today.\u00a0 To be honest, I was not alive – or too young to remember and not personally affected by – The Great Depression, Richard Nixon scandal or Vietnam War polarization.\u00a0 However, economics and globalization have always fascinated and intrigued me \u2013 especially how both these concepts are connected to social problems.\u00a0 My social work career, focusing on individuals, groups, families, organizations and communities who are vulnerable and oppressed, is directly linked to systemic oppression \u2013 especially economics, poverty, and policies. Karl Polanyi\u2019s writings in The Great Transformation<\/em>, The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time<\/em> is fascinating in that not only does Polanyi utilize existing social theories, he is under-credited with developing some innovative social theory of his own.<\/p>\n

One of Polanyi\u2019s most poignant concepts is \u201cembeddedness\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cThe term \u201cembeddedness\u201d expresses the idea that the economy is\u00a0not autonomous, as it must be in economic theory, but subordinated to politics, religion, and social relations.\u201d[1]<\/a> Social theory\/systems theory would support this.\u00a0 \u201cThere is, for Karl Polanyi, an ongoing political struggle between the \u2018dis-embedding\u2019 force of the free market and the \u2018re-embedding\u2019 efforts of social protection. It is one very useful way of understanding the politics of modern capitalism.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 Studied historians will agree that understanding and evaluating history is essential as it offers the only \u201cextensive evidential base for the contemplation and analysis of how societies function\u201d [3]<\/a> and people need to have some sense of how societies function simply to run their own lives but even more so run their communities and governments.\u00a0 Karl Polanyi chose to understand the economic problems of the period by studying the history of ideas that constituted them. \u201cHe said that to understand pivotal historical events, including the breakup of the Gold Standard and the breakdown of international relations during the first half of the twentieth century, we have to consider the role of economic thought accumulated over centuries which influenced how those events took place and were understood.\u201d[4]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 While there are many economic thoughts which could be highlighted, one controversial economic program which affects my research population, refugees resettled in the United States, is SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).\u00a0 I think it\u2019s important to help you, the reader, understand its history\u2026<\/p>\n

Speaking of economics, there is a profound misunderstanding in the United States in how and why the SNAP (formerly food stamps) program developed.\u00a0 Most people assume the program was aimed at helping feed unemployed people living in poverty.\u00a0 The reality is food stamps were created out of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the early 1930\u2019s as a federal agriculture policy designed to increase farm prices and help sustain American farmers suffering from the economic upheaval of the Great Depression.\u00a0 \u201cMassive crop surpluses led to low prices for farmers. At first, President Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s administration tried paying farmers to plow under surplus crops and kill livestock. In theory, decreasing the supply would raise farm prices incentivizing farmers to get their crops to market. But the plan was met with outrage from hungry citizens who said they could have put the destroyed \u201csurplus\u201d food to good use.[5]<\/sup><\/a>\u201d\u00a0 The early Great Depression was marked by a \u201cparadox of poverty amidst plenty.\u201d After Roosevelt\u2019s failed attempt to supplement farmer\u2019s income he tried another plan. Government purchased excess crops at a set price and distributed them at little or no cost to poor Americans. \u201cThis system was also met with criticism, this time from the sellers of food goods. Wholesalers and retailers were upset that government distribution bypassed \u201cthe regular commercial system,\u201d undercutting their profits.\u201d[6]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Fast forward to the current SNAP system in which USDA is still<\/u> the funder and beneficiary of SNAP.\u00a0 President George W. Bush understood this, and sanctioned a USDA study that found that $1 in SNAP benefits generates $1.84 in gross domestic product.<\/p>\n

There are two systems at play here \u2013 social benefit and economic benefit.\u00a0 Socially, SNAP provides the following:[7]<\/a><\/p>\n