There's a core of a true idea in Dennis Prager's National Review Online column today urging an end to the Los Angeles school district's free-breakfast program. Pause to tally how many nutrition programs there are in the United States:
* Food stamps (known formally as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program);
* WIC, a feeding program for expectant mothers;
* School lunches
* Specialized programs for American Indians;
* Specialized programs for the elderly;
* Specialized disaster relief;
* Yes school breakfast programs.
* Plus I am sure others that I have overlooked.
Each of these has its own bureaucracy, its own rules, its own constituents. Reviewing all this you being to wonder: can't we just give money to people who need it?
More and more I am coming to feel it's time to give a second look to Milton Friedman's idea of a guaranteed annual income.
