U.S. All-Time High: 35.851 Million People Need Food Stamps

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the number of U.S. citizens who obtain food stamps each month, reached a new all-time high. Inconceivable 35.851 million Americans obtained food, each for $ 133.31 dollar per person in July 2009, based on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) with their credit cards.

This is a huge increase of +725’621 recipients or from +2.1% compared to the previous month and +23.4% respectively incredible +6.791 million people compared to the same month last year,  with 29.059 million needy at that time.

> The explosive rise in food stamps recipients on a monthly basis. < <

In 1970 4.3 million people were recipients of food stamps and the program caused costs of 577 million U.S. dollars. In 1990 20,1 million needy already received support and the expenses increased to 15,4 billion U.S. dollars. In 2000, 17.2 million people obtained food stamps, the cost rose to 17.1 billion U.S. dollars.

The costs of the SNAP program literally exploded in July 2009,  to a new monthly all-time high. Just in July,  SNAP swallowed 4.78 billion U.S. dollars in direct aid, without the costs of bureaucracy. Projected over the year it can be estimated, that the costs of direct grants will be  50.38 billion U.S. dollars, in 2008 it was 34.611 billion U.S. dollars. As part of the U.S. economic stimulus program 2009  (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act), amounting to 787 billion U.S. dollars, 20 additional billion U.S. dollars  to the food program for the needy, will flow in the next 5 years. This also explains the rise in public attention to the needy from 31% to the same month last year to now $ 133.31 per person.

Even today’s 35.851 million needy are only one part of the bitter reality, because to get to the “enjoyment” of the credit for food expenditure, able-bodied adults from 16 to 60 years old have to prove, that they are willing to look for work and accept any work , plus employment or training programs. The discouraged workers who have given up looking for a job, fall through the unemployment statistics, as well as  through the SNAP network. Adults without children can generally only apply for a maximum of 3 months to the SNAP program. Nearly 76% of the food stamps go to families with children, of which are 61% children with one parental unit.

As a condition for indigence, the poverty line is used. The poverty line is currently defined by SNAP for a 1 person household with $ 903  net income per month and for a 4 person household with $ 1838 net!

In marked contrast to the financial instruments for the capital markets, the obtainable food for the poor is heavily regulated. Beer, wine, liquor, cigarettes, tobacco, pet food, cosmetics, medicines, vitamins, restaurants, even fast-food premises are excluded from the reference (for details: PDF Snap / Retailers).

The exponentially increasing number of needy clearly shows the failure of recent economic and fiscal policy under President Bush as well as under Obama!

The job loss  in the United States accumulated on a huge -6.929 million lost jobs since January 2008! The feedback of this disaster is clearly visible in the growing poverty of the population. According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2008, the poverty rate rose to 13.2% or 39.8 million U.S. citizens, compared to 37.3 million in 2007. The number of U.S. citizens without health insurance rose further, to an incredible 46.3 million in 2008 (45.7 million in 2007) or at a rate of 15.4%, including 7.3 million children.

The amount of income of the lowest 20% of households and the unequal distribution of income explain the additionally growing poverty.

> Click to enlarge the image. The income distribution by quin-tiles (fifth parts) including the top 5%. The top 20% of households generate 50% of all income. The top 5% even 21.5% of income. The bottom 40% of households reached, however only a 12% share of total income. The situation of the lowest 20% is dramatic, with a share of only 3.4% of the income pie! The lowest 20% of U.S. households in 2008 achieved an average real (inflation-adjusted) annual income of only 11’656 dollars! Since 1969, with $ 10,031, the real income only rose by +16.1% respectively +1’625 dollars. Data Source: Census.gov

All these unspeakable conditions are a declaration of bankruptcy, given the incurred and planned bailouts, liquidity support and credit of the State and the Federal Reserve in the amount of downward revision is now 11.536 billion dollars, according to Bloomberg. Currently, around 3.025 billion dollars flowed in real.

Data Source: SNAP Program

I translated the article by Steffen Bogs.

Sigh and bye

Zalia (Polignostix)