[garentee]

Originally Posted by JSB

Terrible for large numbers of people, though more of the population lived in rural areas in the past and were able to survive off of subsistence farming.

Welfare, food stamps, etc. --- think of them as riot insurance. Paying someone a pittance that allows them to survive (albeit in great poverty) isn't that expensive. If 5 to 10% of the population suddenly coudln't buy food, what would they do? They wouldn't sit around and die. They'd steal it, or mug people, or riot or whatever.

Paying for extra policing and repairing damage from large-scale rioting and looting would be a lot more expensive than handing out food stamps to people.

yup..