Usage of food stamps among low and no-income families has spiked since the collapse of the U.S. financial system four years ago. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, average participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamp program, has increased 70 percent since 2007. And economists have warned that usage of food stamps won't go down until unemployment improves.
This Thanksgiving, 42.2 million Americans will be on food stamps, according to the Economic Policy Institute. This is larger than all of the population of Canada.

How long do you think it will be before the average person realizes that all of the employment and cost of living figure the government keeps putting out, are completely manipulated.

I know how you feel. A friend of mine is a professional and she has been out of work for two years and is losing her house. All of those payments for all those years and the bank gets to keep it all.
That's robbery.

Yes.

Just because you are employed it does not mean you don't qualify for assistance.

Well in those modern times you can work 12 hours a day and still require food stamps. Why if you demand a decent wage, you can just get replaced. Burgers cost about the same for 30 years now, why do you think is that?

I was under the impression that the government unemployment numbers were based on the number of people currently receiving unemployment benefits. These are the recently unemployed. There are at least twice as many who have been unemployed past their benefits.

Also, there are of course, many low income full and part time workers on assistance, but I imagine that the number of people on food stamps may reflect more on the actual unemployment numbers.

SNAP is a joke. I am on workers comp and social security disability, and because my fiance went back to school full time we don't qualify for it, and we are a family of 5. If she wasn't in school we would qualify no questions asked. She had to pick up a job @ at least 20 hrs per week to be considered and now they are saying we are over the limit, and trust me between my 80% of what I used to make and hers we ain't rolling in the dough. But I myself would rather juggle bills every month than depend on those idiots. We just shop smart and sometimes it's actually cheaper to eat out than to buy and prepare, who would have thought that????

Originally posted by MichiganSwampBuck
I was under the impression that the government unemployment numbers were based on the number of people currently receiving unemployment benefits. These are the recently unemployed.

Unfortunately, not all of the recently unemployed qualify for those benefits. With state government coffers running low, most businesses do not want to have to pay a separated employee anything towards unemployment. Many people I've met at the county career center have said their company confabulated reasons to dismiss them rather than lay them off and have to keep paying them. Corporate greed. Sad.

No, I don't believe the unemployment numbers are correct. They don't account for the long term unemployed and of course, I think they manipulated the numbers for their own purposes leading up to the election. That being said, the "new" job numbers we see and hear about are not good jobs. Most of them are low skill, low pay with crappy benefits. Heaven help you if you get sick while working one of these jobs. It's a pretty crappy situation and there is no easy answers.

Our country has been here before and we made our way back from it. We can argue about "what" was done but the results are and were obvious...we pulled out of the depression of the 1870's and the Great Depression of the 20's and 30's. So...it CAN be done...if we as a collective want to do what is required.

Or we can individually take the position "screw you, I got mine" and let nature "thin the herds"...

There are many that just do not care...a sign of our times that was not so prevalent "back in the day". Young and old and rich and poor "used" to care about the "country" doing well and being the best...now they only care about the self. They say they are pro-America and pro-Life but they will watch our country burn and their neighbors starve. The country has evolved in a way that they disagree with so they want to see pain on those they blame for it...and in many cases.... the blame can be found in a mirror.

Originally posted by TheOtter

Originally posted by MichiganSwampBuck
I was under the impression that the government unemployment numbers were based on the number of people currently receiving unemployment benefits. These are the recently unemployed.

Unfortunately, not all of the recently unemployed qualify for those benefits. With state government coffers running low, most businesses do not want to have to pay a separated employee anything towards unemployment. Many people I've met at the county career center have said their company confabulated reasons to dismiss them rather than lay them off and have to keep paying them. Corporate greed. Sad.

So true, I work a seasonal job for the county in which I reside, I get "laid off" for the winter and get no unemployment. They bring me in weeks after the season opening and let me go right at the close. No raises, no benefits, and no over time.

I bust my behind to be the best, but get no appreciation at all. They are greedy, cheap and don't want me to believe I have any value to the job or any job security. Don't need the help getting uppity and desiring a living wage. They can find another chump just like that if I don't want the job next season, so no worries for them.

I have to make the following point clear, my little rant is about upper management and general working conditions, the lower management and customers were great and did appreciate my efforts.

Food stamp nation.

We had a chance to do something about it.

But America reelected the Food stamp President.

We, as a country, have no shame anymore.

Single mothers having kids out of wedlock...straight on food stamps.
Getting laid off because of unions and Obamacare...straight to food stamps.
Putting off going to college because you can go....straight to food stamps.

We have record number of people on food stamps because that is exactly what this administration wants to happen.

They have you right were they want you.

Get you hooked on government freebies then demonize any politician that wants to stop it.

Democrats will be in control until a great Depression rocks us all, then they will come in with other government programs that will try to fix the problem that was caused by the government in the first place.

Yes the time are great. Been looking for work 2 years, I found it.
Salvation army bell ringer.


2 associate degree

and living in detroit

Why wouldn't I use food stamps? Oh yeah, i haven't left my parents basement, oh silly me

If it was 7 a.m. on a crystal clear morning and somebody from the government called me and said the sun was rising, well . . . I'd go out and check.

I don't believe a single word any government official anywhere has to say about anything because you can be damned sure that whatever it is they're spouting off about, they've spun it into a web through which only their interests can pass.

You know, this may sound funny but were it not for the 42 million on food stamps, would we have a Thanksgiving next year or at least in the years ahead? Yes it is a traditional holiday but the stark reality is that families have to make choices about how money is spent. The $50-$100+ spent on turkey and all the trimmings is money that could have been better served elsewhere.

Growing up, we always went to Grandma and Grandpa's house. There were one or two turkeys cooked depending on how many would be there (Mom was one of eight children and there were plenty of grandchildren) The turkeys were given from were people worked, generally it was Mom and/or Aunt Louise (they worked at the same place) Dad's work turkey generally went to his Mom and Dad for Christmas dinner. So that left the sides. All the children (that is to say the Aunts and Uncles) would bring a dish or dessert of some sort. The vegetables (green beans, corn potatoes, etc) all came from Grandpa's garden. So the total investment by each family was generally in the $5-$10 range and fed upwards of 40 people including children.

But today is different. Mom and Dad just had my younger sister and I. She is married with three children and I live so far away that I rarely attend. So it becomes a feast for seven. Not a bad turn out. But gone are the days of turkeys from work so there is that expense. Gone are the days of garden grown vegetables. Their Thanksgivings are generally Mom cooks the lion's share of the dinner and sides and my sister cooks a couple sides and the desserts (except the pumpkin pies...Mom does that or if I do if I can come up).

But what I am getting at is that the traditional meal is expensive in both time and money today. That there are 42 million on food stamps means that the turkey farmers get paid for raising those turkeys. Otherwise there would be 42 million eating TV dinners and remembering past holidays in silence and depression or maybe visiting a shelter for their meal. In either case there are no fond memories being built for the children. No sense of tradition being instilled and the whole affair would be gone within a generation or two.

Now there are those that would argue that it is their hard earned tax dollars feeding those people. That they should work to pave their own way. But think how much that dinner would cost if Tyson, Butterball and Pilgrim (the big turkey sellers) didn't sell as many this year and wouldn't buy as many turkeys from the farmers next year as a result? Oh, those work turkeys that were given to a few of the other Uncles but not needed, they ended up going to shelters for their dinners... as were mine when I had them given to me when I worked at a place that gave them...thought you would like to know about that.

You know as I read back past these posts, it brings home just how bad it is out there. Its worse than the 1930s but the gov has learned how to spin everything to make it look good. We have cities like detroit that look like war zones as the poor strip away anything of value to sell, but the media remains quiet, being told that if people don't know, it will increase spending and fix everything.
Spend? With what?