childersal wrote:
] Whenever someone says that this or that government program is
] absolutely necessary, I always wonder, "What did people do and
] how did they survive before the program?"
]
] If someone says food stamps are absolutely necessary for poor
] people's survival, I wonder how America's millions of poor
] immigrants made it. Unless I missed something, mass starvation
] is not a part of our history. Was there a stealth food stamp
] program during the 1700s and 1800s?

They did teach you about the great depression in school, right? A large percentage of the American population living in Brazil style shanty towns ("Hoovervilles") in huts constructed of mostly of garbage? Yes, people did die of starvation. Thats why these programs were put in place. This was a great deal less common in the 1700s because people hunted for food. You can't do that in modern american society. This isn't the wild west anymore. In this century your food comes from a machine, and if you aren't employed, you don't eat.

crankymessiah wrote:
] Whenever someone says that this or that government program is
] absolutely necessary, I always wonder, "What did people do and
] how did they survive before the program?"
]
] If someone says food stamps are absolutely necessary for poor
] people's survival, I wonder how America's millions of poor
] immigrants made it. Unless I missed something, mass starvation
] is not a part of our history. Was there a stealth food stamp
] program during the 1700s and 1800s?

It may or may not be helpful, but here are some statistics on (current day) global starvation:

 http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/Overview/famine.pdf