Food Stamp Usage in the USA

Discussion in 'Politics & Current Events' started by Revolt, Nov 9, 2012.

  1. Revolt

    Revolt Member+

    Jun 16, 1999
    Davis, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  2. SpencerNY

    SpencerNY Member+

    Dec 1, 2001
    Up in the skyway
    Uhhh, not really. Looks pretty evenly spread out.
     
  3. soccernutter

    soccernutter Moderator
    Staff Member

    Tottenham Hotspur
    Aug 22, 2001
    Near the mountains.
    Club:
    Tottenham Hotspur FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    You know that is from 3 years ago.
     
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  4. That Phat Hat

    That Phat Hat Member+

    Nov 14, 2002
    Just Barely Outside the Beltway
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Japan
    Other than the heavy patches of dark blue in the Deep South and that the top 15 counties are all in solid red states, sure.
     
  5. JohnR

    JohnR Member+

    Jun 23, 2000
    Chicago, IL
    Read the fine print. Nearly 1 in 4 children in the U.S. receive food stamps. Damn. And that 25% of American children live in such poverty matters to whom? The Republicans who fight tooth and nail for the top 1%? The Dems who fight tooth and nail for the middle class?

    That's right, for neither. Obama nominally cares, a bit. But not enough to enact any real programs. Republicans, not a whit. They're happy to take votes from white food stampers in Kentucky but otherwise, these takers can die in a fire.
     
  6. Cascarino's Pizzeria

    Apr 29, 2001
    New Jersey, USA
    Fox's "takers", both in social program $, money received back from DC compared to what is given and military cheese is always slanted toward red states. It's why they stay red. They're leeches.
     
  7. JohnR

    JohnR Member+

    Jun 23, 2000
    Chicago, IL
    For what it's worth, I found a map of food stamps by state. 12 states were in the highest bracket, more than 21%. 4 blue, 8 red. For what it's worth.

    Maine
    Michigan
    West Virginia
    Kentucky
    Tennessee
    South Carolina
    North Carolina
    Alabama
    Mississippi
    Arkansas
    New Mexico
    Oregon
     
  8. soccernutter

    soccernutter Moderator
    Staff Member

    Tottenham Hotspur
    Aug 22, 2001
    Near the mountains.
    Club:
    Tottenham Hotspur FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  9. ceezmad

    ceezmad Member+

    Mar 4, 2010
    Chicago
    Club:
    Chicago Red Stars
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I guess this is as good of a thread for this as I am going to find.

    I and Minerva were having a discussion about the poor, and I ran into some interesting numbers.

    http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-08-30-1Asafetynet30_ST_N.htm

    “More than 50 million Americans are on Medicaid, the federal-state program aimed principally at the poor, a survey of state data by USA TODAY shows. That's up at least 17% since the recession began in December 2007”

    Yes we spend close to 525 Billion per year (2010) to fight poverty, yet poverty keeps kicking our ass, what up with that?

    Would 1 trillion per year help?


    Here is a list of programs

    http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-02-02/safety-net-programs/52939824/1

    NPR’s take
    “One half of all jobs in the U.S. today now pay less than $35,000 a year. Adjusted for inflation, that's one of the lowest rates for American workers in five decades.”

    http://www.npr.org/2012/08/04/158141728/how-americas-losing-the-war-on-poverty

    If you are a single parent with 2+ children, this is a big issue for sure, 35K is not poor but with children it would be struggling, especially for people living in urban areas.

    Obiously many of us here agree that employers have no raised wages to keep up with inflation and some others here would argue they are not keeping up their side of the “social contract”

    I personally do not think they ever did, but that is another argument.


    Not all programs are just to help the poor, some like unemployment insurance help people stay out of poverty.

    http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/14/news/economy/poverty_government_assistance/index.htm
     
  10. ceezmad

    ceezmad Member+

    Mar 4, 2010
    Chicago
    Club:
    Chicago Red Stars
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Obviously not all 525 Billion spent fighting poverty goes to the actual poor, we could argue that perhaps lass than 50% go to the actual poor, a lot goes to profits of companies providing services for the poor (health clinics, companies that run food programs) and a lot of it goes to the people that work helping the poor, private and public employees.



    So would it not be better economically (but perhaps impossibly politically) to just hand the poor cash?

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/09/13/if-the-us-spends-550-billion-on-poverty-how-can-there-still-be-poverty-in-the-us/



    525 billion / by 50 poor people is a little more than 10,000 per year. (More than 11K if the poor are less than 45 million).


    Obviously another way to help fight poverty would be to increase the minimum wage to about 12.00 per hour, but only about 2-5 million Americans earn the minimum wage (about 2 mil in 2007) and that that may cause more unemployment (I still think it should be done, but I do not think it will be enough).

    http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060731141616AAHMyZd
     
  11. mak9

    mak9 Member

    May 21, 2005
    Toronto, Canada
    Club:
    Real Madrid
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  12. Boloni86

    Boloni86 Member+

    Jun 7, 2000
    Baltimore
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Gibraltar
    Impossible logistically. You give people a check for $12,000 on January 1st ... they'll be broke and homeless by April 1st.

    As it is people can barely ration food stamps on a monthly cycle.
     
  13. JohnR

    JohnR Member+

    Jun 23, 2000
    Chicago, IL
    When I was in my 30s, my dad had his Social Security checks sent to me. I would then dole out partial payments via Western Union wires. Otherwise, he'd blow it all on booze and a whore by Day 3, and be in a Salvation Army flophouse on Day 4.
     
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  14. superdave

    superdave Member+

    Jul 14, 1999
    VB, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    To me, payments to the poor are the price we, as a society, pay for our jihad against inflation. It's just immoral to have a society that has decided 2% is the ceiling for inflation, and anytime inflation gets above that, it's time to stomp on the brakes and throw people out of work.
     
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  15. ceezmad

    ceezmad Member+

    Mar 4, 2010
    Chicago
    Club:
    Chicago Red Stars
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Well inflation does hit the poorest the most, I mean we complain that wages are lower today in real terms than they were in the 60's, imagine if we had 5% inflation.
     
  16. HerthaBerwyn

    HerthaBerwyn Member+

    May 24, 2003
    Chicago
    Stop building aircraft carriers and stuffing them with gold plated aircraft.

    Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
    Dwight D. Eisenhower
     
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  17. superdave

    superdave Member+

    Jul 14, 1999
    VB, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    That's not true.

    It's just weird to me that you make this blithe yet wholly untrue assumption.
     
  18. ceezmad

    ceezmad Member+

    Mar 4, 2010
    Chicago
    Club:
    Chicago Red Stars
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Ok run away inflation.

    Controlled moderate inflation can actually be good. Inflation is actually worst for people that save money, the poor do not have money to save so perhaps you are right and is not the poor that suffer (as much) as is people that have savings, I guess the rich have lots of savings, but I assume they have better access to better saving options than say me with my shitty interest return on my Brazil 2014 savings account.

    I guess the trick is how much inflation is too much, other wise Iran will end poverty any day now.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/02/w...n-prepares-for-worse.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

    Here is one poor person being helped by Inflation.
     
  19. Q*bert Jones III

    Q*bert Jones III The People's Poet

    Feb 12, 2005
    Woodstock, NY
    Club:
    DC United
  20. Boloni86

    Boloni86 Member+

    Jun 7, 2000
    Baltimore
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Gibraltar
    Frontline is the best ...

    For me the must see informative TV every week is :

    Meet the Press
    Up with Chris Hayes
    Frontline
    Charlie Rose (depending on guest)
    Anything Ken Burns
    Stewart/Colbert

    other than that it's hit and miss ... small doses of MSNBC(Alex Wagner!), BBC and PBS

    would add Bill Maher too if I had that channel
     
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  21. Q*bert Jones III

    Q*bert Jones III The People's Poet

    Feb 12, 2005
    Woodstock, NY
    Club:
    DC United
  22. dna77054

    dna77054 Member+

    Jun 28, 2003
    houston
    Tap water is practically free, what a waste of money for something that give you no nutritional value.
     
  23. Q*bert Jones III

    Q*bert Jones III The People's Poet

    Feb 12, 2005
    Woodstock, NY
    Club:
    DC United
    Never heard of caffeine, eh?
     
  24. Cascarino's Pizzeria

    Apr 29, 2001
    New Jersey, USA
    War on unions is a war on good paying jobs. Corporate profits are super-duper. Wages flat or declining. You do the math.
     
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