People on Foodstamps - 46.3MM. Record.

[Tsing Tao]

Remember, going from bad to worse is still "change".

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/over-46-million-americans-foodstamps-first-time-ever

While the capital markets may be cheering that in the past month 120,000 people supposedly found jobs, even if these were largely temporary or part-time just in time for the year end shopping sprees, we wonder how they will react when learning that according to the latest update from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), some 423,000 Americans found their way to minimum way subsistence, courtesy of Food Stamp handouts from Uncle Sam. Since the start of the Second Great Depression, food stamp participation has increased by 18.7 million, and is now at an all time higher 46.3 million. All Bush's fault, or something. At least the chart below appears to be plateauing... Actually, sorry, no isn't.

 

[pspr]

It's a sign of the Obama Times. Although, of all handouts the giverment does, food and food stamps are by far the least evil of the bunch.

 

[Tsing Tao]

Can't agree. Some folks with a SNAP card are huge abusers of it.

 

[Trader666]

Odumbo's counting on the parasite class to help him get reelected so he can really "change" America:

For decades, Democrats have suffered continuous and increasingly severe losses among white voters. But preparations by Democratic operatives for the 2012 election make it clear for the first time that the party will explicitly abandon the white working class.

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/the-future-of-the-obama-coalition/

 

[Ricter]

Yeah, Obama, why did you cause the Great Recession??

 

[377OHMS]

Quote from pspr:

It's a sign of the Obama Times. Although, of all handouts the giverment does, food and food stamps are by far the least evil of the bunch.

I'm not sure what to think about foodstamps.

Here in s.cal I am occasionally the only one in the grocery store checkout line that is paying for his groceries with real money. Not at the Trader Joe's or Bristol Farms but at Albertsons.

I remember particularly a hispanic couple in front of me that looked well dressed and I had seen them get out of an Acura in the parking lot. Among the items they were buying was a bunch of shrimp cocktails and a 12-pack of Redbull. They used a plastic debit card that california issues for food assistance.

The conflict is that most of me thinks that *nobody* should go hungry in the USA and particularly not children or elderly people. Another part of me doesn't want to pay for shrimp cocktail and Redbull for people that are clearly middle class.

I'm glad there is food assistance available but what happens when everyone is receiving it and they're just using it to buy shrimp cocktail?

 

[Tsing Tao]

Quote from Ricter:

Yeah, Obama, why did you cause the Great Recession??

Don't be a dunce, Ricter. We all know he didn't cause it. But he was elected on promises he would change what caused it. He was elected on a promise to make things better.

How's that turning out?

 

[Tsing Tao]

Quote from 377OHMS:

I'm not sure what to think about foodstamps.

Here in s.cal I am occasionally the only one in the grocery store checkout line that is paying for his groceries with real money. Not at the Trader Joe's or Bristol Farms but at Albertsons.

I remember particularly a hispanic couple in front of me that looked well dressed and I had seen them get out of an Acura in the parking lot. Among the items they were buying was a bunch of shrimp cocktails a 12-pack of Redbull. They used a plastic debit card that california issues for food assistance.

The conflict is that most of me thinks that *nobody* should go hungry in the USA and particularly not children or elderly people. Another part of me doesn't want to pay for shrimp cocktail and Redbull for people that are clearly middle class.

I'm glad there is food assistance available but what happens when everyone is receiving it and they're just using it to buy shrimp cocktail?

Exactly! +1

 

[pspr]

Quote from Tsing Tao:

Can't agree. Some folks with a SNAP card are huge abusers of it.

I won't argue with you on abuse. That needs to be stopped somehow. What I'm saying is that I don't find fault with giving people food even if it comes from the government.

Ohms is right, though. The abuse by some really can make one angry even though you don't want anyone to go hungry. In some ways the program is broken but we've got to fix it, not end it.

 

[Ricter]

Quote from Tsing Tao:

Don't be a dunce, Ricter. We all know he didn't cause it. But he was elected on promises he would change what caused it. He was elected on a promise to make things better.

How's that turning out?

Things are getting better, and certainly things have changed. But if there's no progress being made on lowering the stratification (and its attendant meanness and fear) of this society, no progress being made on regulating banks and Wall Street, whose fault is that? I mean, you want Obama to fail at those things, right?