US: Record Numbers On Food Stamps

United States sets another food stamp record: Households on food stamps at new peak and more Americans live in poverty compared to the entire population of Spain.

From Here

The gap between rich and poor in the United States continues to grow in-line with food stamp usage.  Many Americans watch in dismay as they view countries like Spain rip its self apart by a massively discontent and unemployed youth movement.  Many probably watch thinking that somehow, our problems can never come close to what is being experienced abroad.  The irony is that we now have more Americans on food stamps than the entire population of Spain.  That is right, more Americans are living food stamp payment to food stamp payment versus the entire population of a county literally suffering in depression.  Yet somehow, the narrative playing out in the economy is all around a booming real estate market (profits to investors) and the peaking stock market (most Americans don’t even own stock) are big windfalls for all.  Yet the gains are being captured by a small portion of the population.  This is how we can reach these seemingly dichotomous situations where poverty rises in the shadow of a booming stock market.

The amount being funneled out in food stamp payments is at a record level.
Food stamps are operated under the SNAP umbrella, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.  The amount given out each month is relatively small, something like $275 on average per family.  The income thresholds are strict and you have to have virtually no assets to your name to qualify.  Given that one-third of Americans have absolutely no savings, this low bar is being met by millions of families.  The program was never designed as a permanent landing place for families but it does appear more people are having a tough time moving away from the program.  While we are still over 2 million jobs below where we started in the recession of 2007, we are up a whopping 22 million people that now receive food stamps and disability payments since the recession hit.

People can try to polarize the data but the facts are abundantly clear and that is America is creating a large structurally poor segment of the population.