The parallels to the Roman Grain Dole[0] cannot be missed. The Cura Annonae warped Rome from top to bottom, from calories, to shipping, to politics, to military; nearly every aspect of Rome was touched by it. Heck, it likely outlasted Rome herself.

Those subsidies, like the current ones, run deep.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cura_Annonae#Politics_and_the_...