USA 2008: The Great Depression
By David Usborne
The Independent UK

Tuesday 01 April 2008

Food stamps are the symbol of poverty in the US. In the era of the credit crunch, a record 28 million Americans are now relying on them to survive - a sure sign the world's richest country faces economic crisis.
New York - We knew things were bad on Wall Street, but on Main Street it may be worse. Startling official statistics show that as a new economic recession stalks the United States, a record number of Americans will shortly be depending on food stamps just to feed themselves and their families.

Dismal projections by the Congressional Budget Office in Washington suggest that in the fiscal year starting in October, 28 million people in the US will be using government food stamps to buy essential groceries, the highest level since the food assistance programme was introduced in the 1960s.

The increase - from 26.5 million in 2007 - is due partly to recent efforts to increase public awareness of the programme and also a switch from paper coupons to electronic debit cards. But above all it is the pressures being exerted on ordinary Americans by an economy that is suddenly beset by troubles. Housing foreclosures, accelerating jobs losses and fast-rising prices all add to the squeeze.

Emblematic of the downturn until now has been the parades of houses seized in foreclosure all across the country, and myriad families separated from their homes. But now the crisis is starting to hit the country in its gut. Getting food on the table is a challenge many Americans are finding harder to meet. As a barometer of the country's economic health, food stamp usage may not be perfect, but can certainly tell a story.

Michigan has been in its own mini-recession for years as its collapsing industrial base, particularly in the car industry, has cast more and more out of work. Now, one in eight residents of the state is on food stamps, double the level in 2000. "We have seen a dramatic increase in recent years, but we have also seen it climbing more in recent months," Maureen Sorbet, a spokeswoman for Michigan's programme, said. "It's been increasing steadily. Without the programme, some families and kids would be going without."

But the trend is not restricted to the rust-belt regions. Forty states are reporting increases in applications for the stamps, actually electronic cards that are filled automatically once a month by the government and are swiped by shoppers at the till, in the 12 months from December 2006. At least six states, including Florida, Arizona and Maryland, have had a 10 percent increase in the past year.

In Rhode Island, the segment of the population on food stamps has risen by 18 percent in two years. The food programme started 40 years ago when hunger was still a daily fact of life for many Americans. The recent switch from paper coupons to the plastic card system has helped remove some of the stigma associated with the food stamp programme. The card can be swiped as easily as a bank debit card. To qualify for the cards, Americans do not have to be exactly on the breadline. The programme is available to people whose earnings are just above the official poverty line. For Hubert Liepnieks, the card is a lifeline he could never afford to lose. Just out of prison, he sleeps in overnight shelters in Manhattan and uses the card at a Morgan Williams supermarket on East 23rd Street. Yesterday, he and his fiancée, Christine Schultz, who is in a wheelchair, shared one banana and a cup of coffee bought with the 82 cents left on it.

"They should be refilling it in the next three or four days," Liepnieks says. At times, he admits, he and friends bargain with owners of the smaller grocery shops to trade the value of their cards for cash, although it is illegal. "It can be done. I get $7 back on $10."

Richard Enright, the manager at this Morgan Williams, says the numbers of customers on food stamps has been steady but he expects that to rise soon. "In this location, it's still mostly old people and people who have retired from city jobs on stamps," he says. Food stamp money was designed to supplement what people could buy rather than covering all the costs of a family's groceries. But the problem now, Mr Enright says, is that soaring prices are squeezing the value of the benefits.

"Last St Patrick's Day, we were selling Irish soda bread for $1.99. This year it was $2.99. Prices are just spiralling up, because of the cost of gas trucking the food into the city and because of commodity prices. People complain, but I tell them it's not my fault everything is more expensive."

The US Department of Agriculture says the cost of feeding a low-income family of four has risen 6 percent in 12 months. "The amount of food stamps per household hasn't gone up with the food costs," says Dayna Ballantyne, who runs a food bank in Des Moines, Iowa. "Our clients are finding they aren't able to purchase food like they used to."

And the next monthly job numbers, to be released this Friday, are likely to show 50,000 more jobs were lost nationwide in March, and the unemployment rate is up to perhaps 5 percent.

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Typical European talking out of his ass. Food stamps were done away with years ago.

Benefits are provided on an electronic card that is used like an ATM card and accepted at most grocery stores.

More people receiving foodstamps then ever before in history is not a valid slant? I would think it is a good barometer of the status of people getting by in this country.

You should really research before you cut & paste. You wouldn't look like a moron.

http://www.fns.usda.gov/fsp/

Maybe you should actually read the points I made. Many people in life have been poor, or even homeless, however most get out of that within 6 months. This is a small trend and most will bounce out of it. It is a tiny blip. That is what I will ADD onto my points, but considering you completely dismissed it all I wouldn't put it pass you to say something else totally not relevant to reply to the points I put forth.

Food stamps achieved by your own fault, your own inability to manage your money is whose fault exactly? The governments, business, or your own? Well, considering your slant I have a feeling the individual responsibility concept is something you don't believe in.

I am not sure what you are posting here but they transfered literal foodstamps to a debit card years ago but the benefit is still very much alive and well.

Food stamps are the symbol of poverty in the US. In the era of the credit crunch, a record 28 million Americans are now relying on them to survive - a sure sign the world's richest country faces economic crisis.

Food stamps, not the food stamps program. Relying on them, not it. The author of the article is talking out of his ass.

As you do not know me, I will dismiss most of that but I do consider personal responsibility very important. And unwise choices many many many people make. Do we punish them for it? No, they will have to deal with what they made. I have a feeling that there is a little more involved here than just people who made bad choices if we were to interview all of them but I will let that be your job as you are more concerned with the ideal of people are poor by their own fault.

The monies on the card are still considered foodstamps and can only be used for food just as the original foodstamps were. I am not sure of your point

More people recieving foodstamps then ever before in history is not a valid slant? I would think it is a good barometer of the status of people getting by in this country.

Either that or a good barometer of the upshift of immigrants coming into this country to collect from it.

Or, it is saying that people spend too much money on needless things, or things that they couldn't afford (such as homes) that brought them to the poor house and are getting themselves and more debt. I wouldn't pass it by stupid debtors to spend so much that they forget about one thing, they kinda need money to eat.

You have a 'feeling' that there is more involved? Such statments coming solely from feelings are baseless and unproductive cause they show a true lack of education and knowledge of the subject to input real discussion. Truly there is far more to the economics of the entire country, because it is complex and what brings people to a brief poverty is as well.

HOWEVER, you cannot dismiss the facts that high foreclosures are because people got themselves into a deal they know they couldn't afford AND many people have gotten themselves into debt SIMPLY because they were over-indulgent.

I was being facetious but have at it man, you have all the answers, OBVIOUSLY so carry on then.

again corporate america not maintaining their part again they should not lend the money to those that can not afford it

and if at the time they could afford it then the guy that wrote the article may have a point

how many do you know that have been downsized to a much less paying job

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but i agree try not to over compensate with material things

to many fall into that trap and a lot of it is keeping up with the jones well thejones can go way ahead if they think that way for all i care

Well that is not true so it must be the other.

Immigrants do not get foodstamps unless they are refugees and then they only get them for 8 months to help them get started.

And how would you know it is not true? You have immigration numbers to support that? 1,266,264 were given permanent status in 2006 alone. I bet at least some of them were collecting benefits that year as well.



Really? What law bars legal immigrants from the foodstamps program? I've never seen it. Maybe you could point it out for the rest of the class?

As a matter of fact I can at that. Legal immigrants cannot get foodstamps until they have been here for five years past the date of entry on their green card, well, I do not think they call it that anymore, but regardless. I did the eligibility for the foodstamp program for 11 years. I am not sure where you can look up this on the internet but I know you can call your local welfare or foodstamp office and they will tell you the eligibility rules.