See Is a Cookie a Type of Candy? Supermarkets Have a New Food-Stamp Conundrum: Eighteen states are moving to restrict what SNAP funds can buy, but permissible products vary from state to state by Jesse Newman and Laura Cooper of The WSJ.
This article shows how hard government policy can be and how hard it can be to write a policy clear enough to achieve the desired objectives. Excerpts:
"Beginning last year, the administration has sought to strip soda and junk food from the program by encouraging states to restrict what food-stamp recipients can buy."
"Inside Baesler’s (Baesler’s Market of TERRE HAUTE, Ind), fresh cinnamon buns from its bakery are still eligible for purchase with food stamps, according to the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, which oversees that state’s program. So are the mini doughnuts in a nearby Valentine’s Day display. Gum, fruit strips and candy bars aren’t."
"grocery executives said that determining which products are food-stamp eligible and which aren’t has become a complex undertaking."
"retail employees have been sifting through state-issued flow charts, scanning product bar codes and checking ingredient lists across thousands of goods in stores. Then they need to catalog them correctly in computers used at checkout."
"Historically, food-stamp recipients have only been barred from buying goods such as alcohol, tobacco, supplements, hot foods and live animals."
"Retail executives and industry groups said guidance from USDA and many state agencies on how to implement the new restrictions has been insufficient. That has caused confusion"
"inconsistencies across states would allow a SNAP customer in Idaho to buy a chocolate-covered cookie candy bar (because it contains flour), but not a milk-chocolate bar (because it doesn’t). The same customer could buy both products across the border in Utah, and neither if they traveled to Arkansas."
[there are] "lines at checkout counters as clerks tell longtime customers they can no longer use food stamps to buy soda or candy."
"The USDA . . . didn’t issue standard definitions for terms such as “candy” and “soda.”"
One Executive "worries that an employee will accidentally sell a banned item to a SNAP customer, jeopardizing a given store’s eligibility to participate in the program."
I used the book The Economics of Public Issues in my micro
classes. Chapter 1 is called "Death by Bureaucrat." It discusses how the
Food and Drug Administration can make either a Type I error or a Type
II error.
Type I error: The FDA approves a drug before enough testing is done and when people take it, there are harmful side effects.
Type II error: The FDA tests a drug longer than necessary to stay
on the safe side. But people might suffer because the drug is not yet
available. 80,000 people died waiting for Septra to be approved.
The FDA would usually rather make a Type II error because the public can
blame the FDA if a Type I error occurs.
Things might be similar with food stamps or SNAP. We could make it easy for recipients to shop, letting them use food stamps for lots of items. But then they might buy some "bad" goods. That would be a Type I error.
Or, we could make it hard for them to buy things, having lots of restrictions. But then some "good" items would be excluded. This would be a Type II error.
Solar Panels, Tradeoffs and Type I & II Errors (2022)
Zombies might return and fighting them is art as well as science (2021)
Remdesivir and Type I & Type II errors (2020)
The Paycheck Protection Program and and Type I & Type II Errors (2020)
The FDA, Masks and Type I & Type II Errors (2020)
Do FAA drone regulations illustrate the tradeoff between Type I & Type II errors (2018)
Maker Of Thalidomide Apologizes (2012)
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