SNAP Hits Another Record: Doubles in 4 Years

[FaninAma]

http://dailycaller.com/2012/12/09/food-stamp-use-reaches-another-high-in-september-47-7-million-participants/

Cloward-Pivin strategy anybody?

I thought the economy and unemployment were improving.

[OU_Sooners75]

It is if you count all those out spending their free government money! Lol

[diverdog]

It is if you count all those out spending their free government money! Lol


You guys do understand that most of the people on food stamps are either elderly or working poor...including a lot of vets and current military members.


To be very honest we are victims of a really messed up job market that goes back decades when women moved enmasse into the labor market and then we allowed almost unlimited immigration. We have a glut of labor and there is no incentives on the part of companies to pay well.

[yermom]

especially if they can pay less than needed to survive and let the government handle the rest

[FaninAma]

DD, so the number of working poor and elderly poor have doubled in the last 4 years and quadrupled since 2000?

BTW, the bogus inflation numbers are killing social security recipients since they use the bogus numbers to calculate the COLA.

Again, the more government spends the more people fall into poverty and the wider the income gap becomes. One of these days this will become evident to even the staunchest progressive.

[FaninAma]

especially if they can pay less than needed to survive and let the government handle the rest

I don't disagree with you on that opinion. That's part of the reason the income gap keeps getting wider. The large corporations benefit much, much, much more from deficit spending that subsidizes their( the corporation's) bottom line via cheap subsidized labor.

[diverdog]

DD, so the number of working poor and elderly poor have doubled in the last 4 years and quadrupled since 2000?

BTW, the bogus inflation numbers are killing social security recipients since they use the bogus numbers to calculate the COLA.

Again, the more government spends the more people fall into poverty and the wider the income gap becomes. One of these days this will become evident to even the staunchest progressive.

That is very possible. The baby boomers are aging and many of them are not prepared for retirement. Plus we have a huge problem with folks who are underemployed.

Let me ask you what is your solution?

[yermom]

don't be poor.

[olevetonahill]

.
Let me ask you what is your solution?

http://weaponsman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/pop-art-revolution-che-guevara-revolution-poster.jpg

[diverdog]

http://weaponsman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/pop-art-revolution-che-guevara-revolution-poster.jpg

vet the poor have always won the revolutions. So that is not a good solution.

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

vet the poor have always won the revolutions. So that is not a good solution.they won the recent one here without bloodshed, and demonstrated why they are poor, and content to stay that way, at the same time.

[sappstuf]

You guys do understand that most of the people on food stamps are either elderly or working poor...including a lot of vets and current military members.


To be very honest we are victims of a really messed up job market that goes back decades when women moved enmasse into the labor market and then we allowed almost unlimited immigration. We have a glut of labor and there is no incentives on the part of companies to pay well.

It is estimated that a couple of thousand active duty members are on food stamps... Out of 48 million. In another words, it isn't even worth discussing.

I actually know one of those 2000.... They have 5 kids and his wife doesn't work. It wouldn't hurt my feelings if they no longer received food stamps and she had to go work.

Lifestyle choices should have consequences.

[diverdog]

It is estimated that a couple of thousand active duty members are on food stamps... Out of 48 million. In another words, it isn't even worth discussing.

I actually know one of those 2000.... They have 5 kids and his wife doesn't work. It wouldn't hurt my feelings if they no longer received food stamps and she had to go work.

Lifestyle choices should have consequences.

sapp:

i am just pointing out that we have labor problems. Like the middle class can no longer live on a single income.

[olevetonahill]

sapp:

i am just pointing out that we have labor problems. Like the middle class can no longer live on a single income.

Guess not, Especially if ya got 5 dayum Kids to feed an clothe

[Midtowner]

Lifestyle choices should have consequences.

There are plenty of folks who are unemployed or underemployed through no fault of their own. Once you're laid off, it's tough to get back into the same job you had experience in or could make a certain wage in and there are a lot of backgrounds which don't lend themselves to hanging out a shingle or opening up a consultant business.

And of course you have on the other side of the equation where big, profitable companies like GE don't pay very much tax at all while we're asking middle class students to take on more student loan debt in order to get an education to join the middle class. What's even worse for some of those kids is that if they get the education and don't get that job, the student loans are non-bankruptable and when fees and interest start piling on, they'll become a hole impossible to dig out of.

The numbers? About half.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/05/only_half_of_recession-era_col.html

It's not a lifestyle choice, it's that the government subsidizes one group of folks (wealth/corporations/etc.) and until now, we haven't really been talking about who is going to pay for that subsidy. In 2010 alone, corporations received over $200 billion in tax subsidies.

http://www.ctj.org/corporatetaxdodgers/CorporateTaxDodgersPR.pdf

One of the biggest problems out there is that we allow corporations to defer reporting their income by parking that income in offshore tax havens. Right now, about 1.2 trillion is parked overseas probably waiting for some sort of tax holiday which we'll inevitably need to have. The bigger that number gets, the more pressure there'll be on Congress to help repatriate it.

[FaninAma]

Get rid of the Federal Reserve and deficit spending. Promote private sector GDP growth and not government driven GDP growth. Promote saving and not consumerism/debt. Make other nations play on a level playing field in regards to trade.

The US has the biggest economy in the world. We generate the biggest demand for goods in the world by far. Why have we made it so easy for other countries top come in and take over our markets and destroy our manufacturing base?

World trade agreements have destroyed this country. We are essentially no better than any other nation with a commodity driven economy. We export agricultural products and debt. That is it.

[SanJoaquinSooner]

Get rid of the Federal Reserve and deficit spending. Promote private sector GDP growth and not government driven GDP growth. Promote saving and not consumerism/debt. Make other nations play on a level playing field in regards to trade.

The US has the biggest economy in the world. We generate the biggest demand for goods in the world by far. Why have we made it so easy for other countries top come in and take over our markets and destroy our manufacturing base?

World trade agreements have destroyed this country. We are essentially no better than any other nation with a commodity driven economy. We export agricultural products and debt. That is it.


Really? http://www.worldsrichestcountries.com/top_us_exports.html

[FaninAma]

Really? http://www.worldsrichestcountries.com/top_us_exports.html

Why don't you subtract how much we import of those very same items and see what the net is. I bet it adds up to oh somewhere near our trade deficit of several hundred billion dollars a year.

And how much of those products we do export get most of their components from outside the country, ie. steel, the individual components of the electronics products. And why are we exporting oil when we import twice that amount?

BTW, our biggest export is still debt.

[badger]

Population is getting bigger, food prices are getting higher... of course the food stamp numbers are going up.

[FaninAma]

Population is getting bigger, food prices are getting higher... of course the food stamp numbers are going up.

Have the population and food prices doubled in the last 4 years? Quadruped in the last 12 years?

Of course food prices are going up. That's what happens when you run a huge deficit and devalue your currency. No surprise there.

[badger]

Have the population and food prices doubled in the last 4 years? Quadruped in the last 12 years?

When I was little soda could be bought from the machine for a quarter. I see it regularly for a buck or more. So yeah, I guess some food prices have quadrupled :)

I don't know how big our population is compared with before, but I'm pretty sure that there's more mouths to feed than ever before in U.S. history.


Of course food prices are going up. That's what happens when you run a huge deficit and devalue your currency. No surprise there.
Yes. Us overseas travelers don't appreciate the crappy exchange rate :(

[Midtowner]

In Oklahoma, our SNAP participation has increased 37% in the last 5 years.

[badger]

Is it like school free lunches, that states/areas/whoever gets kickbacks when more participate in the program?

Or, are we expanding the pool that is eligible for food stamps --- higher income, larger families, asset-rich income-poor, etc?

I know our economy has been in the crapper lately, but there must be some other reason than more poors

[Midtowner]

Is it like school free lunches, that states/areas/whoever gets kickbacks when more participate in the program?

When we hit 70%, we'll get a funding boost of about $1MM. Probably not a huge incentive, but we're right up there and may pass that level next year. Also, schools get more funding if they have more kids on free and reduced lunch (not to mention more recognition when those kids achieve highly).


Or, are we expanding the pool that is eligible for food stamps --- higher income, larger families, asset-rich income-poor, etc?

The pool isn't being actively expanded except from the forces of the economy. In other words, to the extent that we may be altering threshold qualifiers to increase the pool, no.


I know our economy has been in the crapper lately, but there must be some other reason than more poors

Currently only about 7:10 people who qualify for SNAP receive it. I'd postulate that these increases are brought about by people experiencing long-term poverty as well as increased public awareness as to the availability of these subsidies.