SIX MILLION IN THE U.S. HAVE NO INCOME BUT FOOD STAMPS

ome six million Americans—one in 50 people in the US—are living on no income other than $100 or $200 a month in food stamps, according to an analysis of state data by the New York Times. The number of people who reported that they are unemployed and receive no cash aid—neither welfare, nor unemployment insurance, pension benefits, child support or disability pay—the newspaper reported, has jumped by 50 percent over the last two years, as the recession has taken hold.

According to the January 3 article, the number of people reporting no income tripled in Nevada over the past two years, doubled in Florida and New York, and increased nearly 90 percent in Minnesota and Utah. In Wayne County, Michigan—which includes Detroit, where half the population is unemployed or underemployed—one out of every 25 residents reports an income of only food stamps. In Yakima County, Washington, the figure is one out of every 17.

The figures reveal the vast scale of human suffering in the US as the new decade begins and puts the lie to talk of an economic “recovery.” The 6 million people in households reporting no income—which includes 1.2 million children—is equivalent to the entire population of Indiana or Massachusetts, or the combined populations of Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Boston.

Such a social catastrophe underscores the indifference of the Obama administration, which has done virtually nothing to provide relief to those who have lost their jobs, homes and livelihoods—even as it spares no expense to shore up the fortunes of the financial elite and fund its ongoing wars.

The number of people without an income has been on the rise since 1996, when Democratic President Bill Clinton and the Republican Congress ended welfare as a universal entitlement, a status the federal relief program had enjoyed since its inception in the 1930s. Pledging to “end the cycle of dependency,” the Democrats and Republicans imposed lifetime limits on benefits, drastically reduced the level of cash assistance, and imposed restrictive “workfare” and other requirements on further aid.

Despite the increased need for relief, Obama has opposed any additional funding for what remains of the welfare program, called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Since their peak in the 1990s, welfare rolls are down nearly 75 percent, the Times reported.

“Many of those who would have received cash assistance in past recessions are not getting it now,” Judy Putnam, a spokesperson for the Michigan League for Human Services, told the World Socialist Web Site. “Only a third of the state’s children living in poverty are getting cash assistance compared with two-thirds before ‘welfare reform’ in 1996. People in Michigan are heavily dependent on food stamps.”

With jobless benefits covering only half of the unemployed, food stamps—which provide an average of $1 per meal per person, or around $100 per person each month for individuals or families earning up to 130 percent of the official poverty level—have become the safety net of last resort. A record 36 million people—one in eight people and one in four children—now rely on the food stamp program. The joint federal-state Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is expanding by 20,000 people per day, but is still estimated to serve only two-thirds of those who qualify.

An earlier Times study showed there are more than 200 US counties where food stamp usage shot up by at least two-thirds, including Riverside County, California, most of greater Phoenix and Las Vegas, a ring of Atlanta suburbs, and a 150-mile stretch of southwest Florida from Bradenton to the Everglades. The study found there are over 800 counties where food stamps feed one third of all children.

Late last year, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis released a study showing that 50 percent of all children and 90 percent of African American children will receive food stamps at some point before their 20th birthday. “Rather than being a time of security and safety,” said Mark Rank, Ph.D., one of the authors of the report, “the childhood years for many American children are a time of economic turmoil, risk, and hardship.”

The January 3 Times report focused on Florida, where the number of people with no income beyond food stamps has doubled in two years and more than tripled along the southwest coast, where a housing boom turned into a bust of foreclosed and abandoned homes. According to state data, those without income were split evenly between families with children and individuals. Those affected were also racially mixed—about 42 percent white, 32 percent black, and 22 percent Latino—with whites making up the fastest growing segment during the recession.

This plunge into destitution has affected wide layers of the population. The Times article cites a middle-aged mother of two, Isabel Bermudez, who moved from a Bronx housing project to sell real estate in Florida. Once enjoying a six-figure income, a house with a pool and investment property, she lost her job and home and ran out of unemployment benefits. Ms. Bermudez’s sole income is now $320 a month in food stamps. “I went from making $180,000 to relying on food stamps,” she told the newspaper, adding that without the program she wouldn’t be able to feed her children.

The increasing reliance on meager food stamp allowances exposes the absence of anything that can properly be called a social safety net in the US. The situation will only get worse, as both the Democrats and Republicans prepare to slash what remains of publicly funded programs in order to pay for the multitrillion-dollar Wall Street bailout and expansion of US military action around the world.

The theme of Obama’s State of the Union address—expected early next month—will be long-term deficit reduction and a further demand that the American people reduce their consumption. The White House is backing a bipartisan commission to recommend major cuts in basic social programs along with regressive taxes on consumption, and Obama’s budget director, Peter Orszag, has said the administration will take measures to reduce the deficit in its next budget due out in February. Such actions will throw millions more into poverty.

The social crisis facing working people—depression levels of unemployment, home foreclosures, the growth of hunger, poverty and homelessness—is the most graphic expression of the failure of capitalism, an economic system that benefits the wealthy few at the expense of the vast majority.

In the midst of this worsening situation for the working population, it was reported last week that the top three banks—Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley—which received tens of billions in public funds under the Troubled Asset Relief Program—will hand out $49.5 billion in end-of-year cash bonuses and stock awards. All told, US banks will dispense an estimated $200 billion in total compensation.

The Obama administration is continuing and accelerating the transfer of wealth from working people to those who are responsible for precipitating the worst economic breakdown since the Great Depression.

Nearly a year after his inauguration, President Obama has demonstrated he is nothing but a tool of the financial oligarchy. The very future of the working class depends on the development of a mass socialist movement against this administration, both big business parties, and the profit system which they defend.

Jerry White
Source

Views: 29

Comment

You need to be a member of 12160 Social Network to add comments!

Join 12160 Social Network

Comment by I811st on January 9, 2010 at 10:46am
In 2007 , more than 43% of all Food Stamps and more than 41% of all unemployment checks issued in the United States were to illegal aliens. And to further salt the wound, immigration "reform" is imminently lurking right around the corner. Si Se Puede!!!

"Destroying the New World Order"

TOP CONTENT THIS WEEK

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE SITE!

mobile page

12160.info/m

12160 Administrators

 

Latest Activity

tjdavis posted a video

Charlie Kirk: Grief And Outrage From Turning Point USA in Phoenix

We went to Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA headquarters in Phoenix to talk with people who were there to pay their respects.►Join my community to get exclus...
1 hour ago
Doc Vega posted blog posts
1 hour ago
Burbia commented on Doc Vega's blog post This Memorable Anthem Given by Nick Freitas Hit the Nail on the Head Please Listen!
6 hours ago
Doc Vega posted blog posts
yesterday
Doc Vega commented on Doc Vega's blog post A Few More Rats in Your Skull Concerning Charlie and the Rampaging Left
"cheeki kea, Yes that was released on to book sites 19 hours before the tragic event and also there…"
yesterday
Burbia commented on Sandy's video
yesterday
Sandy posted a video

Charlie Kirk Was Terrified Of Israel

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
yesterday
Sandy posted a photo
yesterday
cheeki kea commented on Doc Vega's blog post A Few More Rats in Your Skull Concerning Charlie and the Rampaging Left
"The internet is fractioned that's for sure but it never sleeps and the big question of the day…"
yesterday
Burbia commented on Doc Vega's blog post A Few More Rats in Your Skull Concerning Charlie and the Rampaging Left
"It seems America has many meanings to many people. The internet has fractioned everybody. I had…"
Thursday
Doc Vega commented on Doc Vega's blog post Plausible Explanation Behind Recent Cryptid Sightings in the Wild!
"Cheeki kea I'm glad that the giant Moa downsized to this turkey looking land walker.!"
Thursday
Burbia commented on Burbia's blog post Charlie Kirk Assaination
"I don't know what difference if any that he was also a member of Council for National Policy.…"
Thursday
Doc Vega commented on Burbia's blog post Charlie Kirk Assaination
"I remember when they found out that the united Council of Churches worldwide had been funding…"
Thursday
Doc Vega posted a blog post

A Few More Rats in Your Skull Concerning Charlie and the Rampaging Left

 Political violence and death has been perpetrated for a long time now in America. The Democrats…See More
Thursday
Burbia posted a blog post

Charlie Kirk Assaination

September 10th 2025 in Utah Turning Point USA CEO has been assassinated. Coincidentally,  answering…See More
Thursday
Doc Vega posted a blog post

Bow to Your New Masters

 Dr. Jerome Corsi reports that the discovery of a new wireless system that can corrupt any…See More
Tuesday
cheeki kea commented on Doc Vega's blog post Plausible Explanation Behind Recent Cryptid Sightings in the Wild!
"Wow I never knew penguins got down sized also over time. I knew of the Moa which is really now a…"
Tuesday
Sandy posted a video

Civalyze meme

meme ad for a fake drug that would do away with black fatiguecivilyze you're not racist your just exhausted
Monday
Burbia posted a blog post

Is the Timing of Alex Jones and Charlie Sheen Connected?

Alex Jones is sperging out.Charlie Sheen is coming out of the closet.Is this why Alex Jones is…See More
Sep 6
Doc Vega posted a blog post

Buying the Last haunted House on the Left (A partial autobiography)

Note to the reader, there are events here that are true and some that are fictional.Chapter IIt was…See More
Sep 5

© 2025   Created by truth.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

content and site copyright 12160.info 2007-2019 - all rights reserved. unless otherwise noted