SNAP strains, youth baseball's class divide, and Meta's bug bounty

Adrian Ma (0:01)

N-P-R.

Waylon Wong (0:06)

This is The Indicator from Planet Money. I'm Waylon Wong.

Ricky Mulvey (0:09)

I'm Ricky Mulvey.

Adrian Ma (0:10)

I'm Adrian Ma. And this is Indicators of the Week.

Ricky Mulvey (0:17)

This is the show where we share our favorite numbers from the news.

Waylon Wong (0:20)

Today, we'll be covering food benefits, America's favorite pastime, and Meta's war against bugs.

Adrian Ma (0:26)

That's coming up after the break. So it's Indicators of the Week. Up to bat first, we have Waylon Wong.

Waylon Wong (0:40)

No joy in Mudville. My indicator has to do with the change to the funding model for SNAP, which is the government's food assistance program. The federal government is drastically scaling back how much of the administrative costs it will cover for states. The feds and the states used to split these costs 50-50.

Now, under a change that took effect this month, states will be on the hook for 75% of these costs. That is my indicator, 75%.

Ricky Mulvey (1:08)

So how much money are we actually talking about here?

Waylon Wong (1:10)

The federal government estimates that I will save about $17 billion over the next five years. That works out to around $3 billion a year.

Adrian Ma (1:19)

So states have to come up with this money now?

Waylon Wong (1:22)

Yes, and this is the challenge. The Center on Poverty and Inequality at Georgetown Law crunched the numbers, and it says some states with above average poverty rates like Mississippi and West Virginia will see their SNAP costs quadruple or more.

Ricky Mulvey (1:37)

Geez.

Adrian Ma (1:38)

I know.

Ricky Mulvey (1:38)

These states are going to have to either cut other programs or raise taxes, and that might be tough on residents who are already struggling.

Waylon Wong (1:46)

Yeah, or states might have to reduce access to SNAP.

Adrian Ma (1:49)

I mean, lots of Americans have already lost their SNAP benefits because of changes to the program.

Waylon Wong (1:54)

Yeah, so under the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, the federal government expanded work requirements for SNAP last year. Then after that, you saw SNAP participation fall. There's one estimate from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities that says participation is down 13 percent. That's more than five million people who used to get these food benefits and don't anymore.

Ricky Mulvey (2:14)

I mean, just in the anxiety spiral, is there a possibility that some states will just not offer SNAP at all?

Waylon Wong (2:20)

I mean, that would be the most extreme option. But last year, more than 20 governors signed an open letter saying they could be forced to leave the SNAP program entirely because it's going to be so hard to replace this federal funding.

Ricky Mulvey (2:33)

OK, let's move to Adrian. Adrian, what is your indicator?

Adrian Ma (2:38)

So my indicator is $10,000 a year. That is how much some parents are spending to have one six-year-old child play in a youth travel baseball league.

Waylon Wong (2:47)

Oh my gosh. I believe it, though. I'm a parent in the suburbs. I believe this.

Adrian Ma (2:52)

We're not talking about your parents' little league baseball or softball team that's run by volunteers. We're talking about a for-profit league of the kind run by companies that are worth tens of millions of dollars.

Ricky Mulvey (3:04)

This show is getting darker and darker.

Adrian Ma (3:07)

That is right. This number actually came from a Wall Street Journal article about the growing industry around youth baseball, specifically leagues that are owned and operated by private equity firms.

Ricky Mulvey (3:18)

And private equity, sometimes they add debt, raise prices. That's kind of their thing.

Waylon Wong (3:23)

And they're showing up everywhere now, because you think about there's all these restaurant chains and dry cleaners and car washes, and now we're throwing youth baseball onto the pile.

Adrian Ma (3:33)

Yeah, add America's pastime to the list. As we know, private equity is good at making money, and in this case, they are making it from the parents.

So some of examples of the kinds of things they're paying for in these leagues, they often get charged an admission fee to attend a game, which could really add up if you're attending dozens of games. They also can easily spend a couple hundred dollars a year on a special app that tracks their kids' stats, or even a subscription service that live streams their games. And those costs are on top of what they're already spending on equipment and travel.

Ricky Mulvey (4:08)

It's such a shame. It's America's pastime. I grew up playing it with families of all income ranges, and it's a community game.