Food Stamps for the Rich

Sam Pizzigati Editor, Too Much online magazine

Thanks to the federal tax break for business meals, a single $1,600 dinner evening out for 10 execs will save a corporation $280 in taxes, more help from taxpayers than the $279 the average American family on food stamps receives for an entire month.

Sam Pizzigati edits Too Much, the online weekly on excess and inequality. He is an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. Last year, he played an active role on the team that generated The Nation magazine special issue on extreme inequality. That issue recently won the 2009 Hillman Prize for magazine journalism. Pizzigati’s latest book, Greed and Good: Understanding and Overcoming the Inequality that Limits Our Lives (Apex Press, 2004), won an “outstanding title” of the year ranking from the American Library Association’s Choice book review journal.