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35 Million Americans on Food Stamps: 12 Percent of U.S. Population on Food Stamps Highest Since Records Kept in 1969
My Budget 360
Sunday, September 27, 2009
There are a few statistics that you can look at to see actual human pain in the real economy. You can look at the recent stock market rally yet even a 50+ percent rally is unable to create jobs or stem the economic pain of those at the lower end of the economic spectrum. Looking at food stamp participation from the United States Department of Agriculture shows us a very disturbing picture. When we did a report on this in August of 2009 we had 34 million Americans on food stamps. In the span of one month, the number jumped by over a million.
The raw data shows us that a stunning 12 percent of our entire population is receiving some form of food stamp assistance. The program is now called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program but the theme is still the same. Let us look at some of the raw data:
Source: Sudden Debt
This is the highest percentage of Americans receiving food stamps since records started being kept back in 1969. The average person receiving assistance now receives $133 per month but even a number this low with such a high number of participants is costing the government $56 billion on an annualized basis.
Here are the top 5 states:
-1. Texas – 3.068 million participants
-2. California - 2.99
-3. New York - 2.57
-4. Florida - 1.77
-5. Illinois - 1.71
What is telling with the data above is that Texas has 24 million people while California has 37 million yet Texas has more people receiving food stamps. Florida and Illinois have nearly the same amount of participants although Florida has 18 million people while Illinois has 13 million people.
When we look at food stamp participation we see the real pain in the economy. I drive around many local areas in California. In many lower to middle class areas you will see department store traffic down to levels unseen in decades. Yet if you look at local dollar stores they are booming with traffic. People are asking about tent cities or soup lines but some of the “hidden” pain is mitigated by people simply buying at lower priced stores. After all, you can buy a loaf of bread, some sliced ham, a few cans of soup, and feed your family for a week. Although this is living on the margins you won’t be starving either but might explain why we haven’t seen a gigantic jump in tent cities or soup lines.
Yet there is a significant jump in traffic to local charities and shelters as you would expect in any deep recession. Those receiving food stamps will pump practically all the money back into the local economy. With $133 a month there isn’t much you can do. Yet it might be enough to provide a tiny buffer. I can only imagine how our country would look like right now if there were no food stamps or unemployment insurance. Can you imagine 35 million people out on the street in the United States of America?
Yet the stock market boosted by the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve is only helping the top bracket of our country. Most Americans have seen their hours cut, wages slashed, and are dealing with declining housing prices and a smaller stock portfolio. This is the reality on the ground. If we look at the real unemployment rate we are approaching Great Depression levels:
The headline unemployment rate is 9.7 percent. If we look at the government U-6 rate a broader and better indicator of the true employment situation we find that 16.8 percent of people are either unemployed or underemployed. A more broader measure already shows the unemployment rate at 20 percent. Some people have a hard time seeing this in action. Take a look at Detroit that has an unemployment rate of 28.9 percent. That is right, 28.9 percent of a city that once had 1.8 million people and was the hub of the automotive industry.
Even though the pundits and the Wall Street crowd are breathing happy in their custom made suits, the reality on the ground is very different. Those collecting food stamps are only growing. The unemployment rate is only moving up. It is hard for most Americans to except the “lagging indicator” argument when we are breaking records left and right. This is not your typical recession so why are we to expect that things will move out in a typical fashion? Ask those 35 million Americans if they feel the recession is over.
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23 Responses to “35 Million Americans on Food Stamps: 12 Percent of U.S. Population on Food Stamps Highest Since Records Kept in 1969”
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September 27th, 2009 at 7:38 am
As Obama said “A change you can believe in” (or not as the case may be)
http://www.openyoureyesnews.com/
william b travis Reply:
September 28th, 2009 at 11:28 am
supplemental nutrition assistance!
the majority of the people would be classified morbidly obese. have you ever looked at a line waiting for free cheese or other free food they are almost without exception a flock of fat lazy pigs the something for nothing crowd that supports the radical policies of our repressive government.
September 27th, 2009 at 8:46 am
This is EXACTLY what they want……..ALL Americans DEPENDENT on the Government for their most basic of needs, this is how they gain and maintain CONTROL over the people!
wildcat Reply:
September 27th, 2009 at 9:08 am
That is what is happening in the UK as well. It’s what we call the “benefits industry” – 25% of our property taxes go on public sector pension schemes, while another 30% goes on single parent families. There is a deliberate policy of breaking up families – any family going to be benefits office would be told that they would be financially better off if they separate legally, then they will both get a council house plus benefits. There has also been a deliberate policy of driving families out of cities by not building enough family-sized homes.
Just look at that news story about families and friends can’t look after each others kids without having to employ state approved child-minders. There had been a training scheme to get single-parent mothers back to full-time employment through training as child-carers, but no-one thought it would go as far as having Stasi-style education inspection team unit threatening to covert surveillance operations.
Better start checking those trees and bushes for concealed cameras, the underside of cars for tracking devices and the roof panelling for hidden microphones.
September 27th, 2009 at 11:10 am
I bet a big cut of that 12 percent AREN’T EVEN CITIZENS!
I bet the REAL number is more like 20 percent!
I bet if I were to need them I couldn’t get them!
I bet if a border jumper with no identity asked after me in the line it would get them!
They need to cut all the “help” of illegals OFF in this country, it’s part of the problem!
We don’t need the fed either!
william b travis Reply:
September 28th, 2009 at 11:32 am
we really don t need anything this government is claiming to offer
what we need is for these fuckers to get off our backs and let us live our lives unencumbered with their taxes and freedom killing schemes.
sic semper tyrannis
September 27th, 2009 at 11:26 am
get all the illegals out of our country noe.. if neighbors would start helping noe another again and care abotu their communities.. we wouldnt need govt. assistance. f the fed and the govt.all we need is each other.it takes a village to raise a child …not single parentry or dss.go back to the original 56 members of govt. we dont need that many senators and congressmen..too many different opinions and ears to listen to the ones who are most corrupt.
September 27th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
So that’s why they are all so FAT ! Better cut that out then !
william b travis Reply:
September 28th, 2009 at 11:38 am
there is an obesity epidemis in america
we hear that all the time
they blame pop and junk foods
but the real culprit is the government sponsored welfare programs
lets restrict what can be bought with OUR money
no processed foods, only fruits and vegatables whole grains lean meats
September 27th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
On the other hand, opportunities still exist. And, this administration is trying to push something they call ‘green’ jobs, which are related to trying to capitalize on the advantages and production of alternative energy technologies. Yes, there is bad news, but there is also GOOD news, and the good news is, the door is open for people that can muster up the gumption to walk through it.
Detroit fell apart because they were trying to satisfy a business model that was priced right out of feasibility. The unions wanted too much money, the health insurance companies that glued themselves onto the unions also wanted too much money, GM as one example was selling paper, a lot of people wanted a lot of money out of the sale of one vehicle, and none of the revenue generated got plowed into taking care of problems in Detroit, with the result, like Depeche Mode said, ‘all for themselves, after all’, but greed is good, right? Well, not if you’re eating your seed corn.
It’ll be a long time, picking up the pieces, and making things start to work again. There’s no real way around that. But, where there’s a will, there’s a way, and where there’s hope, there’s promise, and if people spend more time filling out job applications, and reading the news, and studying a little, to work on developing new job skills, they’ll be closer to the goal of being employed again, either part-time or full time.
Insofar as employment itself goes, 1 or 2 part-time jobs bolted together roughly equals 1 paycheck. You might end up working 40, 50, 60 hours a week to get it, but you have the other 100 hours a week to recover from it. It kind of depends on having a little personal stick-to-it-iveness, tenacity, whatever you call it, to not let your circumstances get the better of you, but rather, do your able best to create better circumstances for yourself, family, and others.
To some extent and degree, we are indeed captains of our own fate, or authors of our own misery, it kind of depends on the individual, their background and outlook, and how resourceful they are. A guy with a tent and a week’s supply of food is neither hungry nor homeless, and although camping may seem a foreign activity for some, it’s a thing that people still go and do every year when they get the chance to ‘get back to nature’. We’ve been living in fully electrified comfort with all the creature comforts one can imagine, and a credit card bill to match, for SO long that to live otherwise is a foreign and unpleasant experience, for some. But a person can adapt there, too. The pioneers did it, the tribes in the desert still do it, and if you don’t like the scenery, or the neighbors, it takes about an hour to ’sell’ your home and be off to some other locale where hopefully the pickings are better.
Did some bad things happen? Did some people get cleaned out, by the likes of Bernie Madoff? Did some corporations misrepresent their holdings and earnings, and are the authorities still looking for some of these people and their loot stashed overseas? You betcha. But, it’s not the end of the world, matter of fact in one sense you can kind of view the current situation as opportunity. Maybe a harsh awakening and an adaptation challenge, but hardly the end of all things etc.
Is it all The Government’s fault? No. People dug their own holes, and went for pricier and pricier surroundings, and deeper and deeper into debt, that was the thing back then, you wanted to have that good credit rating by buying a lot of stuff that way, and paying it off. But, the banks decided they’d like to get a big slice of that, started gouging people, and then the price of oil went through the roof, and that was sort of the end of the movie, save for government intervention. So, here we are, lots of folks sort of hanging on by their fingernails, learning how to can food, make their own clothes, clip coupons, plan their trips, maybe live things a little more rationally, and the lights are still on, and the Internets still works, and all is not lost. So, keep on looking on the job websites like Monster.com, the local paper, fill out applications, pull your socks up, put the kaibosh on the whining, and do your best, and with any luck at all, you’ll find a good opportunity. 500 million people from other countries where the people have it 10 times worse than we ever had, still waiting to emigrate to the United States, no competition, no pressure…no pressure…
srp511 Reply:
September 27th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
I got this in a email
What is happening in this country? Where are the LAWMAKERS??? Why subsidize factories outside USA????
I am really thinking selling all my belongings and moving out of here. (USA) Moving into a little German village / town where 2 + 2 is still 4…
USA is worst than PR and that is a lot to say!
Gore-Backed Automaker Secures $529M Taxpayer Loan
The federal government has loaned $529 million to Fisker Automotive Inc., a small car company backed by former Vice President Al Gore to help build a hybrid sports car in Finland that will sell for about $89,000, the Wall Street Journal reported. FOXNews.com
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Former Vice President Al Gore’s campaign to save the planet from global warming has netted him a Nobel Peace Prize, an Academy Award and now $529 million in taxpayer money.
The federal government has loaned $529 million to Fisker Automotive Inc., a small car company backed by Gore to help build a hybrid sports car in Finland that will sell for about $89,000, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Fisker isn’t the only automaker to reap millions from Uncle Sam. Tesla Motors Inc., which offers a $109,000 British-built electric Roadster, received a $465 million government loan. Tesla is a California startup that focuses on all-electric vehicles. It has won a number of celebrity endorsements and is backed by investors that have contributed to Democratic campaigns.
Critics question why vehicles aimed at the wealthiest customers are getting loans subsidized by taxpayers.
“This is not for average Americans,” Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, told the newspaper. “This is for people to put something in their driveway that is a conversation piece. It’s a status symbol thing.”
But Energy Department officials insisted that the loans were awarded only after a “detailed technical review” concluded the companies could eventually deliver a highly fuel-efficient hybrid car to a mass audience.
The government loans come from a $25 billion program established by Congress in 2007 to help automakers invest in the technology to meet a new congressional mandate to improve fuel efficiency. The Energy Department awarded the first $8 billion from the program to Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co., and Tesla, which are all developing electric cars.
Click here to read the Wall Street Journal story.
“…and your grandma, where she’s at?”
Von Kaiser Reply:
September 28th, 2009 at 8:52 am
If you want to leave the U.S to go to Germany,it’s like escaping from Guantanamo and ask for Asylum in Alcatraz. In Germany,If you are wealthy,you are a slave of the state.They have so much debts,their bank System is as Fu***-up as the american System or even more.Now the german government is trying to buy the social peace WHATEVER IT TAKES,so…If you think in Germany 2+2=4,then take 45% 0f 4 away,because this 45% is for the state,not for you.
The german bank System will be (maybe) the next bomb to blow…like in the 30’s.
Gute Nacht.
kibblebits Reply:
September 27th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
you said a lot.
remember if you cut employees hours then you also do not have to fullfill certain benefits such as health care for one.
then, as the united states chamber of commerce is so willing to break the law by demanding illegal aliens because “we have to have them”…..you are displaced.
what is even cooler as “cheap labor” is assimilated into our system, let us guess around 30 million…then they have kids….the price goes up. the kids are not illegal, and be americanized is not a freebie.
so to get to the nitty gritty…the movie soylent green, or logan’s run says it all. take those who are on food stamps and round them up. grind them and mix them in with hamburger and push it out for school lunches, meals on wheels, and so on.
the savings are immense. no more food stamp people, less for health care so that line gets smaller, labor comes in demand so wages go up with that demand and given that those who are not ground up can buy gm cars or ford cars….kerchunk, money in the bank!
September 27th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
There’s a pizza place by me so desperate for business they advertise on a big sign out front “we take food stamps (bridge card)”.
wildcat Reply:
September 27th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
And the casino’s have a sign saying “we accept pay cheques”.
September 27th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Add 1 to that number.
I just finished the online application for food stamps and any financial assistance that may be available to me. I was born in the United States, I am a veteran of the ARMY, I lost my full-time job over 3 years ago, I lost my 30 hour job 2 months ago due to company closure, I now live in my parents’ home again, and tonight I applied for food stamps.
My only liquid asset is a vehicle which will probably disqualify me for assistance, so I’ll likely have to decide which is more important: a vehicle for job searches and transportation to the grocery store or food stamps.
I’ve never been so low before in my life but I am grateful for what I have and I am not ashamed.
kibblebits Reply:
September 27th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
but you served to kill for Jesus and for “freedom” in other countries but it
becomes less here no matter who the president it.
when i got medevaced home and ets to colorado …i was told i did not qualify for
unemployment because i got hurt in vietnam.
the va said i was disabled at 0%, my wife and daughter was
told they could not have food stamps or anything because there was a man in the house.
what is the man in the house law. actually i dont care for the word racist…but this
is one of those born in racist legislation. the man in the house law was so lazy niggers
would get something for free.
excuse my speech…i am old enough to have lived through it and two tours of duty to a very ungrateful nation that lies daily through the dept of vet affairs. now it is new veterans same tricks. while we demand other nations to be responsible we are neither free nor fair.
as the employment situation gets worse, and there is no way one person can even work 40 hours a week (and a lot are down to 25)….remember this. the CSA is a blank call for sheeple to hate the flag and condemn slavery. but if your “working” can not even cover rent (why you are with your parents) then consider yourself living american born in america as a slave.
knowing what i have went through i could not do it twice in one lifetime. i would die young but i would take people with me.
my hat is off to younger people veteran or not. it dont add up.
situation is insane.
deCap Reply:
September 28th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Your story is touching and all too common.
I wish you the best and hope a “higher” time is in your future….and all of ours.
September 27th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
i meant “would not get something for free”
incorrectly i said only “would”
September 27th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
for those who freak out…i dont own any weapons
but if i had to do it twice…………………….
September 28th, 2009 at 7:19 am
With all those food stamps, they can afford to go out and buy GM food, wash it down with some flourided water and get in line for their swine flu shots. All while breathing chemtrailed air. Isn’t it nice to have such a benevolent government.
shocked and awed Reply:
September 28th, 2009 at 7:46 am
At least we’ll all have more time to watch TV!
September 28th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Millions of illegal aliens are on food stamps.
How many Americans are there?
What is the population of the USA?
We’ve been hearing 300 million for 3 decades. Those are 1980 statistics.
Probably 50 to 80 million illegals here in USA.
How many millions of legal immigrants with 100k being accepted per month?
Probably 800 to 900 million in USA>