Last Updated on November 1, 2025 by ThePublic
We all believe in the same basic idea: if you work hard, you should be able to live with dignity.
Yet today, millions of Americans who do work full-time still need government assistance just to eat. That’s not a failure of individuals, it’s a failure of the system they work within.
The truth is uncomfortable but simple. Roughly 44% of American workers earn less than a living wage. Many are employed by some of the country’s most profitable corporations, companies like Walmart, McDonald’s, and Amazon. These businesses pay so little that their employees qualify for public programs like SNAP (food stamps), Medicaid, or housing aid.
In practice, that means taxpayers are subsidizing corporate payrolls. Every dollar in public assistance given to low-wage workers is a dollar those companies didn’t have to pay to ensure their people could survive. Economists call this “corporate welfare.” It’s hidden in plain sight.
Critics sometimes ask, “Why are we giving food stamps to 40 million people? Doesn’t anyone work anymore?” The answer: they do. They bag groceries, stock shelves, deliver packages, and serve coffee, for wages that can’t support rent or healthcare in most U.S. cities.
This isn’t a partisan issue; it’s a moral one. Conservatives value self-reliance and responsible government spending. Progressives value fairness and dignity for all workers. Both sides lose when billion-dollar corporations privatize their profits but socialize their costs.
The solution isn’t cutting SNAP, that would only punish the people doing their best to get by. The real fix is ensuring work actually pays enough to live. That means fair wages, benefits, predictable hours, and corporate accountability when companies rely on public aid to prop up low pay.
We can all agree that food should come from a paycheck, not a public assistance line. But until the jobs we depend on become strong enough to stand on their own, safety nets like SNAP aren’t the problem, they’re the only thing keeping millions of working families afloat.
Ask yourself:
Should taxpayers be footing the bill for corporations that refuse to pay livable wages? Or should we demand a system where honest work earns an honest living?