Bloomberg notes that, as of 2007:
In Missouri, about 100 percent who were eligible [for food stamps] that year took advantage of the program, the highest rate in the nation, followed by residents of Maine and Michigan, at 91 percent and 89 percent, respectively …
Things have gotten much worse since 2007:
As the New York Times notes, “one in eight Americans and one in four children” receive food stamps.
Many economists and financial experts have said that we are in a depression. See this, this and this.
I hope they are wrong, or that – if we were in a depression – we’re out of it now.
But it is indisputable that the unemployment numbers are still grim. Specifically:
- More people will be unemployed than during the Great Depression
- Some of the top economists say that America has suffered a permanent loss of jobs
- By some measures, unemployment is worse than it was during a comparable time-frame in the Great Depression
- Vice President Biden said recently: “It’s a depression for millions of Americans”
Given the above, Stacy Herbert’s question of today is compelling:
The food stamps story seems to be one that keeps popping up; I guess food stamps are the soup lines of this Great Depression?
Note: At least some economists say that food stamps give more bang for the buck in stimulating the economy than just about anything else. And see this. But economic, political and moral questions surrounding food stamps are beyond the scope of this essay.
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*Of course* food stamps are the soup lines of this depression.
But they are so much less visible. We don’t have to feel the pangs of sympathy or guilt – that’s real innovation!
Not feeling the former is *much* more important.
We feel angry over people mooching off the government (until we lose our pay check and can’t afford groceries without them) instead of solidarity with our fellow man. This prevents any kind of organization.
Damn right. Like I said before, those moochers ought to eat their bootstraps if they’re so hungry and too lazy to pull themselves up by them.
Thank God we bailed out the banks and AIG, or else 25% of children in the US would be on food stamps!
It’s pretty difficult to qualify for food stamps! You can’t have much in the way of savings or assets (or you have to hide what you have well).
http://www.fns.usda.gov/FSP/applicant_recipients/eligibility.htm
Prepare for the FEMA camps, citizens. Your protein is needed by the State….
Along with the food pantries:
http://www.connecttristates.com/news/money/story.aspx?id=382106
http://www.missourinet.com/2009/11/26/missouri-food-banks-see-dramatic-increase-in-demand/
When the social fabric starts shredding, life may get a bit dicey for a while. It is too bad that the masses are trained to not see the class conflict they are part of. We are programmed to hate each other rather than the upper class that creates this oppression.
@psychohistorian said “When the social fabric starts shredding, life may get a bit dicey for a while. It is too bad that the masses are trained to not see the class conflict they are part of. We are programmed to hate each other rather than the upper class that creates this oppression.”
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The downtrodden need a leader, someone who does not come from politics, which is totally corrupted, to rally around. Someone perhaps like Martin Luther King.
I’m very surprised that no such person has seen the opportunity that exists in the dissatisfaction of so many today and tried to capitalize on it. All we see and hear are the same old talking heads in the MSM.
The downtrodden need a leader, someone who does not come from politics, which is totally corrupted, to rally around. Someone perhaps like Martin Luther King.
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HEADSTONE love!
No. I was only thinking of King as a public figure who was able to draw large crowds to listen to his message, to get them excited and motivated.
We don’t seem to have anyone with similar talents today.
Unfortunately America is systemically a far more mean and vicious place today than it was decades ago. The system is also specifically set up to co-opt anyone who tries to set out as an even remotely conventional reformer.
Also, even in King’s time he complained of how he was always coming under pressure from cowardly visionless “liberals” wanting him to sell out, settle for less, be patient, you’re demanding too much, it’s not “politically practical”. And as we’ve seen this year, that problem has gotten far worse.
The result is that anti-system leadership is far less likely to arise at all, and much less likely from what can broadly be called the “left” side.
So that’s the situation there.
On food stamps, the system considers those far better than soup kitchens because at a soup kitchen you actually have to dispense the food, while the food stamp system is set up to intimidate people and as much as possible deny food to those who need it.
Any activist needs to demand that this system be opened up, as well as say to the people that there is NO shame in food stamps; that the only reason you need them is because the corporations and the government collaborated in STEALING from you, so all food stamps are is their giving you back a penny on the stolen dollar.
The attitude on food stamps should be: I’ll take back my penny and use it to nourish myself while I figure out a way to get back the rest of the dollar they stole.
The much hated Bush the second attempted to remove shame from Food Stamps by calling them something like nutritional supplement program.
I had a friend start law school this fall. She was told by her student loan ‘executive’ that the best way for her to eat was with food stamps. He had the paperwork to sign up for them.
Don’t know any more details than this, she was unclear on some of it herself.
Yes of course they are.
Some interesting posts here today. Hard to tell if some are in jest or not?
No matter where I look for news and comment there is the group of ” I got mine and I’m sick of paying for these moochers” comments.
Look at the amont of the increase. Don’t you think many of these people were continuously employed for years before they had to resort to food stamps? Some of them may have even been co-workers of the “I got mine” contingent.
Glad you got yours. Hope you can hold on to it. I hope even more that you “I got mines” can see a way to help others that don’t this holiday season.
I will say that the “I got mine” mentality is what allowed the banks and corporations to take over our government and country and rape us until there was almost nothing left.
Merry Christmas
This program has a little to do with helping the poor (thankfully), and a LOT TO DO with helping the Farm Lobby. They’ve expanded the program to line their own pockets, while the real needs of the country’s working class poor remain unaddressed. The growth of the program is not an indicator of anything other than the power of Big Ag.
I am a Food Stamps worker and let me tell you something I know about this subject. Most of new applicants this year have never ever applied for Food Stamps before, and needless to say they feel embarrassed about their situation. But they think is much less embarrassing them going to a food pantry or a soup kitchen. Most of them have lost jobs, ran out employment and there are no job opportunities anywhere to be found. These are regular people who are going through a difficult situation right now. They are not moochers!!
I have to agree that there are probably some lobbyist getting some type benefits from the increase on FS participation, but seems to me that everything else in this country is like this. The rich people benefits from the less fortunate ones. CEOs get huge bonuses while the average Joe get laid off. Pharmaceuticals companies have a huge profit on prescriptions that most of the times we don’t even need it. Don’t even get me started on the health insurance companies. It is the American way, and it has been like this for decades. The rich is always getting richer and the poor, according to many are lazy people who purposely want to depend on government.
Maybe it is time to start showing some compassion for others. We never know what the future holds for us. Some people are poor by choice but most are poor because of circumstances.