FedUpUSA

Archive for the ‘food stamps’ Category

How would you feel if someone told you that one of the largest banks on Wall Street makes more money whenever the number of Americans on food stamps goes up?  Unfortunately, this is something that is actually true.  In the United States today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps.  In fact, the number of Americans on food stamps has increased by a whopping 14 million since Barack Obama entered the White House.  All of this makes JP Morgan very happy, because JP Morgan has been making money by the boatload on food stamps.  Right now, JP Morgan Chase issues food stamp debit cards in 26 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.  The division of JP Morgan Chase that issues these debit cards made an eye-popping 5.47 billion dollars in net revenue during 2010.  JP Morgan is paid per customer, so when the number of Americans on food stamps goes up, they make more money.  But doesn’t this give JP Morgan an incentive to try to keep the number of Americans on food stamps as high as possible?  Of course it does.  JP Morgan is interested in making money as rapidly as possible. If JP Morgan can get more Americans enrolled in the food stamp program and keep them enrolled in it for as long as possible, that is good for business.

And the Obama administration is certainly doing what it can to help out.  Even though a whopping 46 million Americans are now on food stamps, the Obama administration plans to give out large amounts of money to organizations that are able figure out ways to get even more people enrolled in the program….

Despite the historic rise in food stamp use, however, the Obama Administration believes not enough people are receiving food stamps who should be and is offering $75,000 grants to groups who devise “effective strategies” to “increase program participation” among those who have yet to sign up.

In fact, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says that if we can get even more Americans enrolled in the food stamp program, that will be a great way to “stimulate the economy“.

Of course JP Morgan just loves all of this.  The more people they have in the system the better.

Christopher Paton, the managing director of JP Morgan’s “Treasury Solutions” business, made the following statement about the “food stamp business” that his firm is engaged in during an interview with Bloomberg Television….

“This business is a very important business to JPMorgan. It’s an important business in terms of its size and scale…Right now, volumes have gone through the roof in the past couple of years. The good news, from JPMorgan’s perspective, is the infrastructure that we built has been able to cope with that increase in volume.”

You can see more of the interview with Paton in the video posted below….

As the interview above noted, more than 40 percent of all food stamp recipients in the United States actually have a job.

This is an exciting “growth area” for JP Morgan.  As the middle class continues to decline, the number of “the working poor” in America is exploding.

Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs.  Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.  This trend is perfect for JP Morgan because it means that the number of low income workers that are eligible for food stamps is going to keep increasing.

And what makes all of this even sadder is that JP Morgan has outsourced many of the customer service jobs for its food stamp program to India.

Yes, you read that correctly.

When Americans that can’t find a decent job need help with their food stamps there is a good chance that they will be talking to a customer service representative sitting in India.

Isn’t that crazy?

When ABC News confronted JP Morgan about this, JP Morgan would not tell ABC which states have customer service calls sent to India and which states have them handled inside the United States….

JP Morgan is the only one today still operating public-assistance call centers overseas. The company refused to say which states had calls routed to India and which ones had calls stay domestically. That decision, the company said, was often left up to the individual states.

But JP Morgan doesn’t just handle food stamps.  JP Morgan also issues child support debit cards in 15 states and unemployment insurance debit cards in 7 states.

Of course JP Morgan is not the only big bank involved in this kind of business.  Several others are also making money in massive quantities on the backs of the poor.

The following example comes from a Huffington Post article….

Shawana Busby does not seem like the sort of customer who would be at the center of a major bank’s business plan. Out of work for much of the last three years, she depends upon a $264-a-week unemployment check from the state of South Carolina. But the state has contracted with Bank of America to administer its unemployment benefits, and Busby has frequently found herself incurring bank fees to get her money.

To withdraw her benefits, Busby, 33, uses a Bank of America prepaid debit card on which the state deposits her funds. She could visit a Bank of America ATM free of charge. But this small community in the state’s rural center, her hometown, does not have a Bank of America branch. Neither do the surrounding towns where she drops off her kids at school and attends church.

She could drive north to Columbia, the state capital, and use a Bank of America ATM there. But that entails a 50 mile drive, cutting into her gas budget. So Busby visits the ATMs in her area and begrudgingly accepts the fees, which reach as high as five dollars per transaction. She estimates that she has paid at least $350 in fees to tap her unemployment benefits.

There is something about all of this that just seems very, very wrong.

When we have good jobs, the big banks hit us with outrageous bank fees and they try to get us enslaved to credit card debt.

When we are down on our luck and become dependent on the government, the big banks still find ways of making money at our expense.

Why do the banksters always seem to win and we always seem to lose?

The Economic Collapse

The economic treadmill is throwing millions out of the middle class and into poverty.  In 2010 75 percent of unemployed received unemployment benefits while today it is down to 48 percent.  From unemployment to food stamps.

The economy is being pulled apart from the center as if two mighty horses on both sides were set to run in opposite directions of the financially strapped middle class.  This seems to be the current trajectory of our economic progress.  The ranks of the poor continue to grow while the financial sector continues to strive based on government favoritism and a strong form of corporatacracy.  Take this startling fact under consideration that last year 75 percent of the unemployed received some form of unemployment benefits. That figure is set to fall to 48 percent this year.  Part of the main reason has been the long-term structural unemployment in our economy.  The current economy resembles two different worlds and most Americans are still feeling the pangs of the recession that began in 2007.  The main question many are asking is where will this country be heading if the same financial sector that created rampant disorder in the last decade is still at the helm of the ship?  We can look at current trends and the results do not look promising.

The super long-term unemployed

It used to be the case that 99 weeks was the extreme end of the long-term unemployed.  But now we are seeing this lack of job growth continue even longer:

Over 30 percent of the currently unemployed have been out of work for one year or longer.  This stubborn unemployment is causing major problems in the fabric of our economy.  Many states have adjusted to provide 99 weeks of unemployment but the number of those not working is so large that 99 weeks is not enough and many fall off the benefit count.  Take for example the proportion of those that are unemployed and receive unemployment benefits:

What this chart highlights is the reality that many of the long-term unemployed are going to fall onto other safety nets like food stamps or other aid.  It is astounding how we can be seeing such structural problems yet the financial sector seems to be booming.  It is booming not because it has earned it in the typical capitalist sense but they have earned it by stealing it.  Unlike the unemployed person that runs out of benefits, the too big to fail simply rewrite laws and call up their Federal Reserve counterparts and draw on their unlimited credit lines.  Of course the burden is then largely place on the middle class that is simply struggling to stay in place without falling further and further behind.

Read the rest at My Budget 360

How does a country end up 15 trillion dollars in debt?  30 years ago, we were just a little over a trillion dollars in debt.  How in the world do supposedly rational people living in “the greatest nation on earth” allow themselves to commit national financial suicide by allowing government debt to explode like that?  It almost seems like there should be some sort of official ceremony in Washington D.C. to commemorate this achievement.  It really takes something special to be able to roll up 15 trillion dollars of debt.  To get to this level, we really had to indulge in some wild spending.  For example, did you know that the U.S. national debt grows by more than 2 million dollars every single minute?  All of this debt has fueled an unprecedented boom of prosperity for the last 30 years, but now that prosperity is drying up.  Today, there are over 45 million Americans that are on food stamps.  America is being deindustrialized at a blinding pace and there are not nearly enough jobs for everyone.  Poverty is exploding all over the nation, and millions of families have lost their homes to foreclosure.  Unfortunately, there are zero solutions on the horizon.  The leaders of both major political parties seem even more clueless right now than in past years.  We really could use some hope, but hope is in very short supply.

When evaluating the health of America’s economy, it is important not to look at the short-term numbers.  Rather, the key is to look at the long-term trends and the balance sheet numbers.

For example, if a mother and a father gave their teenage kids a bunch of credit cards and told them to go out and buy whatever they wanted, that would create a lot of “economic activity”, but it would also send that family to the poorhouse really quickly.

Well, we have basically done the same thing as a nation.  We are drowning in debt, and all of this debt is going to destroy us financially.

Unfortunately, the federal government continues to spend money as if there was no tomorrow.  Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP.  Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.

When you are running up a credit card, it can be a lot of fun and it can seem like there aren’t any consequences.

But when it comes to debt, there are always consequences.  The following is what former Republican Senator Alan Simpson (of the Simpson-Bowles Commission) recently had to say about the horrific debt crisis we are currently facing….

“It’s very simple. If you spend more than you earn, you lose your butt”

In the United States, we love to have the government spend money on all sorts of things, but we never want to pay for it.

So the debt just keeps piling up higher and higher.

A lot of Republicans say that spending on social programs has gotten out of control.  A lot of Democrats say that spending on the military has gotten out of control.

They are both right.  As I have written about previously, the U.S. military accounts for close to half of all the military spending in the world.  In fact, U.S. military spending is greater than the military spending of the next 15 countries combined.

Yes, we will always need a very powerful military, but we can have one without going broke in the process.

But an even larger problem is our rampant spending on social programs.

The following comes from a recent article by Janet Tavakoli….

In 1950 spending for social programs was only one percent of the total Federal Budget. As the economy grew, social programs expanded to include Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Unemployment Compensation, Supplemental Security for the Disabled, and educational programs. In 1983 as the United States pulled out of an ugly recession and brought inflation under control, social programs consumed 26% of the budget. In fiscal year 2012, they’ll eat up an estimated 57% of the budget.

Tens of millions of Americans have become absolutely addicted to government money.  Nobody ever wants “their government benefits” to be cut, but nobody ever seems to want to have their taxes raised to pay for them.

To get a really good idea of how government transfer payments have absolutely skyrocketed over the years, just check out this chart.

Obviously, the course that we are on is not anywhere close to sustainable.

To say that the “war on poverty” was a failure would be a huge understatement.

The more money we seem to spend on social programs, the more that poverty seems to grow.

Right now, there are over 45 million Americans on food stamps.  The economy is supposed to be “recovering”, but the number of Americans on food stamps has grown by over 8 percent in just the past year.

Food stamps are the modern equivalent of the old-fashioned bread lines.  The federal government is now feeding an almost unbelievable number of Americans.

According to the Wall Street Journal, nearly 15 percent of all Americans are now on food stamps.  That means that approximately one out of every seven Americans is dependent on the federal government for food.

That is not just a crisis – that is a total nightmare.

So what can be done?

Well, we certainly shouldn’t let our people starve in the streets.

But handouts should only be a temporary solution.

What these people really need are good jobs.  Unfortunately, our “leaders” have created a business environment in this country that is incredibly toxic, and they have stood by as millions upon millions of good jobs have been shipped out of the country.  That is one of the reasons why I write about the insane trade policies of the globalists over and over and over.  The American people need to understand that globalization is going to mean a continuing loss of jobs for this country and it is going to result in the destruction of the middle class.

If we are not going to provide good jobs for American workers, then we are going to have to pay higher taxes in order to feed them and take care of them.

But what happens when the “safety net” breaks?

Even now, a lot of state and local governments all over the country are flat broke and they are cutting back on assistance for the poor.

The following is a brief excerpt from a recent article about this issue that was posted on the Fiscal Times….

For years, hundreds of thousands of people in dire straits – mentally or physically disabled, homeless and unemployed, ineligible for federal welfare, disability, or food subsidies – could generally count on state or local government largesse for modest handouts of cash to help scrape by. Under the rubric of “General Assistance,” these down-and-out Americans received modest payments – often no more than a few hundred dollars a month – to help defray the cost of necessities including rent, food, clothing, toilet paper, aspirin, phone cards, and bus tickets.

But in the midst of the worst recession of modern times and changing attitudes about the poor, many states have been gradually chipping away at general assistance programs or eliminating them altogether. Only 30 of 50 states currently offer any form of general assistance – down from 38 in 1989. And just this week, Washington State formally ended its “Disability Lifeline” program for an estimated 18,000 to 22,000 economically desperate residents.

Sadly, even more of us may be joining the ranks of the poor soon.  The layoffs just keep on coming.

Normally, most major store closings do not happen until after the holiday season.  You see, the reality is that most troubled retailers tend to want to bring in one more year of holiday sales before they finally shut the doors.  If you announce store closings before the holidays, that is going to make holiday shoppers less likely to shop at those stores.

So that is why some of the recent store closing announcements have been so troubling.

For example, it just came out that all 46 Syms and Filene’s Basement stores are closing.

Also, Gap recently announced plans to close 189 stores in the United States.

So if this is what we are already seeing now, what is going to happen after the holidays?

That is a very good question.

So many jobs are being lost all around the nation.  These days, there is massive competition for just about any job that is available.

People are getting desperate.  They just want to be able to pay the bills and take care of their families.

The other day, thousands upon thousands of people lined up to apply for casino jobs in south Florida.  Scenes like this are going to become even more frequent in the years ahead.

So do our politicians have any solutions?

Of course not.

The worst of the Republican candidates are actually at the top of the polls.  The cold, hard truth is that Romney, Cain and Perry are all clueless when it comes to the economy.

Of course you might as well call Barack Obama “Captain Clueless” when it comes to the economy.  Obama keeps giving great speeches about jobs while at the same time signing more “free trade” agreements that will send thousands more businesses and millions more jobs out of the country.  Even the CEOs on Obama’s jobs creation panel are shipping huge numbers of jobs out of the United States.

Obama gave a speech in Washington D.C. today that exemplified his clueless approach to the economy.  During the speech, Obama made the following statement….

“If Congress tells you they don’t have time, they got time to do it. We’ve been in the House of Representatives, what have you guys been debating? John, you’ve been debating a commemorative coin for baseball? You have legislation reaffirming that In God We Trust is our motto. That’s not putting people back to work. I trust in God, but God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work”

First of all, Obama is not putting people back to work.  He has been helping big corporations ship jobs out of the country at a record pace.

Secondly, how does he know what God wants?

A lot of people actually think that the phrase “God helps those who help themselves” is in the Bible.

But it isn’t.

A while after the Obama speech, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney made matters worse when he told reporters the following….

“I believe the phrase from the Bible is ‘The Lord helps those who help themselves”

But once again, there is no such verse in the Bible.

Okay, so quoting a “mystery verse” from the Bible is not that big of a thing at the end of the day, but this is yet another example of how the Obama administration just can’t seem to get anything right.

Look, everyone makes mistakes once in a while.  I know that I certainly do.

But when you are wrong about almost everything almost all of the time, that is a major problem.

Especially when you are the president of the United States.

But both political parties are to blame for the mess that we are in.  Budget deficits exploded during Republican administrations just like they have under the Democrats.

Both political parties are responsible for us being 15 trillion dollars in debt.

Both political parties are responsible for 45 million Americans being on food stamps.

Both political parties are responsible for the fact that there are not nearly enough good jobs.

If Barack Obama, Mitt Romney or Rick Perry is elected in 2012, we are just going to have more of the same.

America is running out of time.  If we are going to change course, we need to do it immediately.

The borrower is the servant of the lender.  We are enslaving ourselves and we are enslaving future American generations by going into so much debt.

Shame on the politicians that have rolled up so much debt in our name and shame on us for continuing to send those same politicians back to Washington D.C. time after time after time.

It is so sad to watch what is happening to America.

The Economic Collapse

It appears that GDP data revisions are not the only thing that the administration enjoys fudging with in order to make the Chinese ministry of Truth seem like a real ministry of truth. After last month the data for April food stamp recipients indicated the we may, just may, be reaching an inflection point in the foodstamp participation following a mere 60 thousand jump in those receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), today’s just released data confirmed that the BLS and BEA may have had a hand or two when determining this latest data series. Because the just announced jump in foodstamp usage of over 1.1 million is entirely out of the blue, and as the chart below shows, is the highest single monthly jump in Foodstamp participation since mid 2009, when eligibility requirements were adjusted. Yes, that’s 45.8 million people (obviously an all time record) living on foodstamps which amount to the whopping $133.80 per person (an increase of $0.54 M/M) and $283.65 (an increase of $1.29) per household. Obviously, annualizing the latest monthly rate of 1.1 million people, it means that over 13 million Americans will live on about one third what the cheapest iPad costs in about a year.

But wait, there’s more. Digging into the numbers reveals something pecuiliar: virtually the entire surge in monthly SNAP participation is due to one state alone: Alabama, which saw those living on foodstamps jump from 868K to 1.762MM. Is this merely a grand rehearsal for the Jefferson County bankruptcy? Did the state see a mass surge in foodstamp use as hundreds of thousands are trying to game the system in advance of what will be an apic Chapter 9? And if yes, what does that mean for all the other states which will promptly follow in the footsteps of Jefferson County, and for US foodstamp participation?

Which begs the question: will Obama be the first president under whose rule total foodstamp usage hit 100 million? Surely, by then there will be a Nobel price for destroying one’s middle class better and faster than any communist in the history of the world, so at least there will be something to memorialize it with.

h/t Papa and John L

ZeroHedge

If you do much grocery shopping, you have probably noticed that the cost of food has been rising at a very brisk pace over the past year.  So why are food prices rising so fast?  According to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, inflation is still very low and the economy is improving.  So what is going on here?  When I go to the grocery store these days, there are very few things that I will buy unless they are on sale.  In fact, I have noticed that many of the new “sale prices” are the old regular prices.  Other items have had their packages reduced in size in order to hide the price increases.  But with millions of American families just barely scraping by as it is, what is going to happen if food prices keep rising this rapidly?

The food prices are especially painful if you are trying to eat healthy.  Most of the low price stuff in the grocery stores is garbage.  Eating the “typical American diet” is a highway to cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

But if you try to stick to food that is “healthy” or “organic” you can blow through hundreds of dollars in a heartbeat.  In fact, the reality is that tens of millions of American families have now essentially been priced out of a healthy diet.

Soon there will be millions more American families that will not even be able to afford an unhealthy diet.

Some recent statistics compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics are absolutely staggering.  According to a recent CNBC article, over the past year many of the most popular foods in America have absolutely soared in price….

Coffee, for instance, is up 40 percent. Celery is 28 percent higher while butter prices rose 26.4 percent. Rounding out the top five are bacon, at 23.5 percent, and cabbage, at 23.3 percent.

Unfortunately, it looks like the trend of rising food prices is accelerating.  Just look at what the CNBC article says happened in the month of April alone….

Just in April—the most recent month for which data is available—grapes went up nearly 30 percent, cabbage jumped about 17 percent and orange juice surged more than 5 percent.

Meat is becoming more expensive as well.  Since March 2009, livestock prices have risen by 138%.

So when Ben Bernanke tells us that inflation is very low, that really is a lie.  On the stuff that people spend money on every day (like food and gas), prices have gone up dramatically.

Sadly, this is not just a phenomenon that is happening in the United States.  The truth is that the entire planet is rapidly approaching a horrific global food crisis.

Over the past year, the global price of food has risen by 37 percent and this has pushed approximately 44 million more people around the world into poverty.

When food prices rise in the U.S. it may be painful for millions of American families, but around the world a rise in food prices can mean the difference between surviving and not surviving.

That is why it has been so alarming that the global price of wheat has approximately doubled over the past year.

But it is not just wheat that has been soaring.  Check out what a recent Bloomberg article had to say about what has been happening to many key agricultural commodities over the past year….

Corn futures advanced 77 percent in the past 12 months in Chicago trading, a global benchmark, rice gained 39 percent and sugar jumped 64 percent. There will be shortages in corn, wheat, soybeans, coffee and cocoa this year or next, according to Utrecht, Netherlands-based Rabobank Groep. Prices also rose after droughts and floods from Australia to Canada ruined crops last year. European farmers are now contending with their driest growing season in more than three decades.

Even before this recent spike in food prices the world was struggling to get enough food to everybody.  It has been estimated that somewhere in the world someone starves to death every 3.6 seconds, and 75 percent of those are children under the age of five.

So what is going to happen if food prices keep on rising at the current pace?

That is a very good question.

We really are starting to move into unprecedented territory.  Nobody is quite sure what is going to happen next.

So why is all of this happening?

Well, a lot of people are blaming the Federal Reserve.  All of the “quantitative easing” that the Fed has done has flooded the financial markets with money.  All of that money had to go somewhere.  Much of it has pumped up the prices of hard assets such as oil, gold and agricultural commodities.

But it is not just the Fed that is to blame.  The truth is that central banks all over the world have been recklessly printing money.

When the amount of money in an economy goes up, the purchasing value of all existing money goes down.  In the United States, that means that your dollars will not go as far as they did before.

But it is not just monetary policy that is affecting food prices.  In 2010 and 2011 we have seen an unprecedented wave of natural disasters and crazy weather.  This has caused problems with crops all over the globe.

In addition, U.S. economic policies are also playing a role.  At this point, almost a third of all corn grown in the United States is used for fuel.  This is putting a lot of stress on the price of corn.

Also, there are some long-term trends that are not in our favor.  For example, the systematic depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer could eventually turn “America’s Breadbasket” back into the “Dust Bowl”.  If you have not heard of this problem I would encourage you to do some research on it.

Things are going to get a lot worse, but already America is having a really hard time feeding itself.  According to Feeding America’s 2010 hunger study, more than 37 million Americans are now being served by food pantries and soup kitchens.

So is that number unusual?

Yes, it sure is.

The number of Americans that are going to food pantries and soup kitchens has increased by 46% since 2006.

That is not a good trend.

Another stat that I talk a lot about in this column is the number of Americans on food stamps.

Right now, there are 44 million Americans on food stamps.  Nearly half of them are children.

How did we ever get to the point as a nation where more than 20 million children end up on food stamps?

It is estimated that one out of every four American children is currently on food stamps, and it is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point in their lives before they reach the age of 18.

So what is going to happen if the economy gets even worse?

What is going to happen if there really is a major food crisis in this country someday?

Food prices have been going up for decades and they are going to continue to go up.  But the frightening thing is how fast they are increasing now.

As the U.S. middle class continues to be destroyed, the number of Americans that can’t afford to buy enough food is going to continue to rise.  Food prices are rising much faster than wages are, and that is not likely to change any time soon.

Food is rapidly becoming one of the most important global economic issues of this decade.  The farther one looks down the road, the bleaker things look for the global food situation.

I hope you are prepared for that.

The Economic Collapse

From November to December of 2010 487,000 Americans were added to the food stamp program.  Keep in mind this all occurred while the stock market continued to soar and has rallied nearly 100 percent from the lows reached in March of 2009.  Working and middle class Americans barely have enough to pay for the monthly bills so speculating in Wall Street is likely the least of their concerns.  The data on food stamp usage usually trails the current calendar date by one quarter.  The latest data we have is from December of 2010.  However, we are adding roughly 300,000 people per month to the food stamp program called SNAP.  If that is the case, as of today we now have 45,000,000 Americans participating in the food stamp program.  We’ve noted trends in the economy where people line up at mid-night during certain key dates in the month at Wal-Mart locations waiting for their debit cards to refill so they can purchase food for their families.

One of the troubling aspects of this recession is the hidden aspect of the financial pain that it is causing.  Many people have no idea their neighbor is in foreclosure until the home is taken back by the bank.  It is hard to see this in action and people don’t speak up because of embarrassment.  Also with the media thumping its chest about recovery many blame their own failings for their misery.  And with the movement of food stamps from embarrassing paper coupons to debit cards, many have no idea how many of their fellow Americans are receiving food assistance.  The debit cards blend in with most any other piece of plastic Americans carry in their wallets.   The reality however is that 14 percent of our entire population (man, woman, or child) is on SNAP.  There has been little stopping this trend.  And this is something that has been going on for well over a decade but not many were paying attention because of the massive credit induced housing bubble and the lack of a voice for this group:

Source:  SNAP

This is the highest percent of Americans on food assistance since the Great Depression when there was no food assistance early on aside from local charities.  Yet this is somehow an economic recovery.  A Wal-Mart executive was quoted as saying:

“(NY Times) There are families not eating at the end of the month,” said Stephen Quinn, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Wal-Mart Stores, and “literally lining up at midnight” at Wal-Mart stores waiting to buy food when paychecks or government checks land in their accounts.”

Even in more affluent neighborhoods and in states like California where the impression is that everyone is flush with money food stamp usage is on the rise:

“(NC Times) More than 218,000 San Diego County residents were receiving food stamps as of mid-February, a whopping 70 percent increase from just two years ago.

Since January 2010, the number has gone up by about 49,040, county supervisors were told Tuesday as they adopted a 58-point blueprint to speed up delivery of food assistance.

The increase in recipients stems from a continuing sluggish economy and what managers of the county’s food stamp program and advocacy groups said are improvements in the application system that resulted from talks between the two.

“We’ve seen dramatic increases in demand,” said Dale Fleming, who oversees the food stamp program for the county. “We’ve also changed the way we do business.”

But despite the higher numbers, advocacy group representatives say the county still has a long way to go to make sure people aren’t going hungry.”

This trend hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down.  And this is also a reason dollar stores have done so well during this recession as people shift from wants to absolute necessities:

Family Dollar and The 99 Cent store are up 89 and 54 percent respectively in the last five years.  These dollar stores have also shifted the inventory they carry from random plastic goods to having much more food to reflect the needs of the community.  And many people who never thought about shopping frugally are now being forced to:

“(Sign on San Diego) John Sanchez had never stepped foot inside a dollar store until last April. That’s when he was laid off from his job and was forced to make some drastic budget cuts, including getting back to basics for a buck. Now, even though he’s returned to work, it’s hard to get him to shop anywhere else.

“I always thought dollar stores just sold junk and were for the really low-income (consumer). I was shocked when I saw that they sell a lot of the same stuff as the grocery store or drugstores. And it’s all just a dollar,” said the 61-year-old San Diego resident, as he exited the 99 Cents Only store in Clairemont pushing a cart filled with produce, bakery items, toiletries and a variety of cleaning products. “Why would anyone want to pay more for the same thing?”

Many working and middle class Americans are now confronting the realities of a shrinking middle class. Decades of complacency and Wall Street corruption and government assistance has allowed the core of our economy to be gutted out.  When does the media ever bring up the fact that 45 million Americans are on food assistance?  This is never brought up even though it truly reflects the health of our working class economy.  In other words, the media does not care about working and middle class Americans.  Many are owned by large corporations that want to continue selling the message that everything is fine and dandy.  If you really look at the data this recession is still going on even though it ended officially a long time ago.  Austerity is on the rise and it won’t be televised.

My Budget360