Once again, how’s that recovery thingy working for ya? From the Wall Street Journal:
More people tapped food stamps to pay for groceries in September as the recession and lackluster recovery have prompted more Americans to turn to government safety net programs to make ends meet.
Some 42.9 million people collected food stamps last month, up 1.2% from the prior month and 16.2% higher than the same time a year ago, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Nationwide 14% of the population relied on food stamps as of September but in some states the percentage was much higher…
One federal program I don’t have much complaint about is food stamps – regardless of what else is going on, no one in America should ever go hungry (though, of course, we must continually check to make certain we aren’t just supporting layabouts who can find work if they’d but try). But you can’t build an economy on food stamps – nor on unemployment benefits. We need work – and not just any, old work but work which creates wealth.
We’ve been entirely asinine in our economic policies since the start of the recession. We should be building and expanding farms, factories and mines but all we’ve done is bail out banks and tinker around with nearly useless things like “green jobs” and “shovel ready projects”. If we’re going to spend trillions more (and we will) over the next few years, then we should at least get something out of it – next “quantitative easing” by the Fed should result not in more money for the banksters but, instead, involve flashing some cash at people who hold down real jobs. If Bennie and the boys had wanted to do something at least modestly useful they could have sent every living American $10,000 each over the past three years…certainly would have done more for the economy than helping crooks stay rich (and we’d be no more bankrupt today for doing that than we are, anyway).
Unfortunately, I don’t think too many people in DC even realize what the problem is, let alone have any conception on how to fix it. Look for more people to be thrown on food stamps and unemployment…our economy burns down, our leaders fiddle away…
HAT TIP: Mish’s
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