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US Households On Foodstamps Hit Record High
Record Dow, record S&P, record debt, record plunge in gold, and now: record US households on foodstamps. What's not to like. While today's gold selloff may be confusing to everyone, one can scratch off some 23,087,886 US households, or the number that according to the USDA were on foodstamps in January and just happen to be a fresh all time high, as the likely sellers, especially when one considers that the average monthly benefit to each household dropped to a record low of $274.04. This number probably ignores, for good reason, the once every four years fringe benefits of Obamaphones and other such made in China trinkets.
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"The economy is moving at a record-setting pace."
This is how the news will be reported.
Food stamps have replaced soup kitchens.
The cause is the same: Economic depression.
Speaking of food records...
...our broccoli is going gang-busters.
And our pea, carrot, and rabbit production are all off the charts!
That makes me hungry for a Five Guys hamburger and fries. Fruits and vegetables suck.
"Foodstamp Barry". Nice legacy.
Exactly. Currently at 47,772,108 with a rate of more than one million per year (easy), Barry will smash the 50 million mark. Quite a legacy!
This article is obviously false, dow and sp are at high levels, gold is smacked, bitcoin "bubble" has burst. Economy is lovely and peachy.
SARCASM par excellence.
Fruit is better than most candy, chocolate not included
I called it.
I stole it from you. lol
+1
I was just in a Five Guys and noticed that they had a 2009 GQ magazine clipping on the wall saying, "Best $5 Burger a Man Can Eat."
Unfortunately, the hamburgers are now $6.25.
Fuck you, Bernanke!
In regards to hamburger, our family milk cow's steer from last year returns from freezer camp this week.
Right! I never go out to eat, but I was out the other day and needed food. Stopped at a 5 guys. A regular burger, extra small fry and small drink was $11. To me, that's a lot of money for some pretty average food, at best.
In Europe the 20% Sales Tax makes anything inedible when you factor the restaurant makes less than the taxman and the food is the bit that gets downsized and adulterated
Doritos and iPhones is the new Bread and Circuses.
Let me fix that for you - Bread and circuits
Soon enough, we will all be on foodstamps. Well, if you lucky to find any food.
..and soon we'll all have "health insurance coverage" that no doctor will accept.
Today's situation in the USA is so similar to YUGOSLAVIA in the 90's.
this building is a prime example of a failed health care funding mechanism... vacant for more than 20 years…
http://www.vesti-online.com/data/images/2011-02-08/129118_klinicki-centa...
Lean forward.
As in, Bend Over Here It Comes Again.
Well they sure as shit shouldn't sell their gold now to buy food
Lazy ZH recycling old posts ... wait -- wut?
"What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time." Ecclesiastes 1:9-10
"Change has come to America"
Cloward & Piven.. The only plan functioning properly in the USSA,
This is merely the beginning. We're about to have hyper-inflation here in the US with all the liquidity injections. This'll be awesome!
OT: http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=logarithmic&chdeh=1&chfdeh=0&chdet=1366056000000&chddm=52453&chls=IntervalBasedLine&cmpto=NYSEARCA:UDN;NYSEARCA:USO&cmptdms=0;0&q=NYSEARCA:SPY&&fct=big&ei=GCZsUaifDcbL0AHqVA
Can we have hyper inflation while salaries continue to stagnate and record #'s of people go on the government dole? It's a real question. They're printing like there is no tomorrow. We should have massive inflation. But, nobody can get a raise, so, they aren't buying anything unless they have to. So, we should have deflation. What's it going to be?
Think late 70's early 80's. I wasn't around then myself, but looking at the historical data, mirror mirror on the wall...
I was and that was not the same as now. Were a dying economy, with nothing to do. Who needs people any more we've got robots. Problem is robots don't buy anything, except s&p 500.
You still need people to buy the robot porn.
Correct. Scarcity is going to be the real problem. Water, food, fuel. Barring a whole bunch of fusion reactors coming online soon, the standard of living for the 7+ billion or so is about to change. In particular, in the 70's/80's they were able to increase the oil available to the world. Total world oil production has been flat since 2007. Adapt or die bitchez. Humanity isn't just another ponzi, it's the ponzi. Hunger games for all.
I was around then. This is different. A lot of the inflation then was energy based. There wasn't nearly the levels of debt that we see today. Volcker was able to raise rates and not bankrupt everyone (just some). Sometimes I like to listen to that old song "Ball of Confusion" by the Temptations.
But what the hell do I know.....
Correct. No way rates can go up now. Moreover, the world's energy output has actually climbed since then. Unfortunately, it has now been flat since 2007. Yet, there are still 7+ billion people competing for a higher standard of living. Hunger games for everyone...
I was around. We had 2 choices for Prez. Someone that couldn't create jobs and one that possibly could and having a job was pretty much the only way to survive. Last year we had 2 choices. A guy that doesn't require anyone to work to eat and someone that might get you a job but you would need to work.
Between 1974 and 1980 M2 velocity was exploding and labor costs were rising at unprecedented rates. Velocity has now been in a steady decline since 1997 and is currently at its lowest level since it was first recorded in 1957-1958. Labor no longer has pricing power and unions are just trying to preserve jobs, forget about wage increases.
Yeah, the unions did so well with Hostess...
Think late 70's early 80's. I wasn't around then myself, but looking at the historical data, mirror mirror on the wall...
I was also around then. It was where I leaned to keep the grove boss happy by tipping him 3 boxes of oranges and not asking him where my SS deduction was going since he never asked for my number
Except that wages rose rather quickly then. I worked for a second tier computer company then (IBM was the first tier, all by itself) and my salary increased nearly four-fold from late 1973 to 1981. One year the company even gave an across-the-board increase to everyong to keep up with inflation. I think that mid-year raise was, percentagewise, more than I got from 2008-2010.
"Can we have hyper inflation while salaries continue to stagnate and record #'s of people go on the government dole? "
Fed gives money to the Banks. Banks destroy, hide or warehouse the money. No inflation!
Money has to actually get into the hands of the people who will spend it to have inflation and holy shit if the amount of money printed in the last 4 years ever does.
Some day the dam will break. It will probably start with a trickle.
Inflation and deflation are two sides of the same coin. For some period of time which has already started we will "see" inflation in the thing we need and deflation in the things we own (including the return on our labor). The pace on this will accelerate until the wheels fall off. Only we won't see that part as clearly as it will look like WWIII. It will be WWIII.
A simultaneous increase and decrease in the money supply is patently impossible. However, you can have bifurcated prices for different goods...
What we have is simply cost push inflation... costs can only be pushed up on things we need... simple as that.
This is why I put "see" in parenthesis. Didn't feel like writing the disclaimer about the real definition of inflation.
The latest GDP number was 0.35%. How can you have inflation when no one will buy anything but food and rents are not rising?
http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/images_lessons/816_em816_figure11.gif
and keep this in mind
http://energyforumonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Consumer-spending-on-oil-as-percent-of-GDP-1970-2007-CRS-EIA.png
How, easy. Scarcity. Tell me, what would you be willing to pay for something you need to survive, but that is in short supply?
Tell me, what would you be willing to pay for something you need to survive, but that is in short supply?
How much can you pay? I know people driving further to work for less while paying more for gas to get there. Budgets reduced to food, rent and gas.
Considering recent ZH post re tunnel people and hill people, and other posts about car camps etc, your then down to gas and food. your transportation breaks down your fucked.
It is damn easy to get trapped in the nether land never to return. So many of them you never see because they are not where you go. YET, i.e. your eligble too
None of that is sustainable, that's the fucking point.
You know those old superhero cartoons, where both guys had laser eyebeams and they hit an impasse when fighting each other? That's what we have here - massive deflationary forces meet massive inflationary forces causing a standoff. At some point one will overwhelm the other and win; the problem is, there's no good guy to root for, either one is going to crush us.
Not at all. It's more like some medieval knight holding up a shield (deflation) to a dragon's breath (inflation) and a bit of the fire singes his hair every now and again. There is an inflationary bias in pricing because some of the printed money inevitably leaks through the primary dealers, et al., and is passed down the line. While it is largely contained, it is absolutely not fully contained.
How can you have inflation when no one will buy anything but food and rents are not rising?
Exactly. Proof of just how bad it really is out there. "Out there" being the people that no longer statistically exist. The Banks will just swap what they have around until they own everything. The only need for government will be to protect the banks.
Awesome. And just wait until the full ObamaCare taxes take effect. The damned gov already upped our SS taxes 2% this year. What happens when healther insurance goes up on average 33%. For me, that's more than $2,000. Hmmm... should I pay my mortgage, electric bill, or car payment this month?
I know the feeling, my premium just went up 20%. sitting here pissed off thinking about all the silver I could buy with that fiat.
Well at least you get health care, after Obamacare my employer just cut our hours so we are all part time now.
In 1099/self employed nation, I encourage you to become familiar with line 29 of your 1040. It is to healthcare what the mortgage interest deduction is to housing... I know I keep harping on it, but as more and more people become independent contractors (performing the same jobs they did as an employee the day before), the amount of deductions opens up tremendously... tax revenue is going to get crushed as everyone moves to part time work and independent contracting... this is just the tip of the iceberg. [in this case, you'd be moving a deduction from 1040 schedule A (subject to 7.5% agi limitation) to line 29 of your 1040 (an above-the-line deduction); huge difference].
Schedule C FTW!
You have to be really, really poor to get food stamps. How's that Hopey-Changey thing working out?
The cut off for food stamps in Hawaii is $69,000 for a family of four.
or you can just LIE..that is what 80% of the applicants do I bet...at least the ones in front of me at the grocery do..they are not POOR...nicer clothes than I have..
funny that- I never see this kind of thing mentioned on CNBC. BUY STAWKS!
...the average monthly benefit to each household dropped to a record low of $274.04.
Well, this probably means that there are more single-person "households" on food stamps now than ever before which are dragging the average household size/benefit down even as benefit totals are skyrocketing.
I bet the chart of single, able-bodied, 18-54 yr. old males on food stamps over the last seven years looks like a hockey stick.
Remember: 1) EBT cards are cash handouts for all intents and purposes. 2) JPM makes more $ for each new recipient.
http://markets.ibtimes.com/ibtimes/news/read?Symbol=321%3A1161460&GUID=23891368
We need to break more windows to boost the economy.
Is that a plug for Linux?
Windows has a history of breaking itself.
To paraphrase the late Margaret Thatcher:
The problem with food stamps is that sooner or later you run out of other people's food !
Let the piece of rusty iron rest...Mickey Mouse.
Breaking Windows is so quaint.
We need a modern, 100's of millions of steeple size breaking of windows, roofs, highways, factories.... to get the boom restarted. Civil war would work.
Otherwise we are stuck with cripple curb cuts, New theatre wings on high skools, wind farms, farms,lesbian violence shelters, and too small as Krudman says projects.
Nope, war is the answer. Cry fiat and release the hounds of rehypothecation!
How 'bout, leaving your snow tires on all summer... 'for the economy, officer'.
I would like to offer personal thanks to Ben Bernanke whose policies focussing on unemployment have been a wonderful success.
Just think where we would all be if he hadn't printed many trillions of dollars. Also Mr Kruggman should be nominated for another Nobel prize, just because such a fabulous smart guy.
They have saved many a banker from having to sell a mansion or two, and kept them from the low grade caviar queues.
Ben is going to need bigger duct tape to keep this hollow 'economy' from disappearing
up its own a hole.
Krugman would let forth the Kraken if he could, why bother with windows.
You're doing a heck of a job, Benny.
Further proof, you can't eat gold, but those EBT cards are FUCKIN DELICIOUS!
As soon as Food Stamp W-2 forms can be used to verify income for home loans, the housing market will reach escape velocity!
Bernanke = Quantitative Eating
QEBT to infinity!
CORRECTION
Persons residing in America including millions of illegal aliens collecting food stamps. Many, even most, are NOT AMERICAN.
The more you make at Chinese wages the less Americans have to pay for the imports unless welfare gets very generous. The only way to reverse this process is import controls - but it might not get reversed - too many people are doing very nicely under the current game plan
The more you make at Chinese wages the less Americans have to pay for the imports unless welfare gets very generous. The only way to reverse this process is import controls - but it might not get reversed - too many people are doing very nicely under the current game plan
+1 for the status quo; -99 for everyone else.
I believe that the USA as a whole has recently changed from being a net food exporter, to a net food importer, which is another symbolic sign of the times, as the American tragedy accelerates. Of course, the ways that the government subsidizes the agribusiness (profit from junk food produced in unsustainable) systems, makes the whole food stamp thing look relatively trivial in comparison.
The distortions start at the top, and then work their way down to the people at the bottom of the social pyramid. Toroidal vortices of force backed frauds drive BIGGER DISTORTIONS. The government applies an inverted pyramid system of subsidizing all the worst things, in the worst ways, which then spreads out through the food stamp programs, at the bottom of that social pyramid system.
It fits inside of that insane system of triumphant frauds that the single best plant source for food is hemp, BUT, cultivating that has been criminalized for decades, due to the success of propaganda campaigns to demonize that plant. Hemp is the single best plant source of protein and oil. Hemp is better than soybeans or corn in several different ways, BUT, American farmers are not allowed to grow hemp for food, while they are massively subsidized to grown certain kinds of corn and soybeans, and so forth, which are then primarily fed to animals, in ever increasing spirals of inefficiency and sickness. Poor people are being subsidized to purchase unhealthy junk food, pretty well along every different dimension of analysis one looks at this ...
The growth of the food stamp dependent population is symbolic of all the other ways that Americans are more and more completely controlled by legalized lies, backed by legalized violence, everywhere, in everything, in a proportionately backwards Bizarro Mirror World: a social experiment regarding what happens when dishonesty, backed by violence, becomes too successful.
In that context, it is just about impossible to rationally estimate how collectively insane we are! The sequence of short-term "successes" driving the triumph of force backed frauds is distorting everything further and further, towards a finally psychotic degree of distance from relatively more objective realities.
Ever increasing dependence on food stamps manifests inside the context where America as a whole has become a runaway system of legalized lies, backed by legalized violence, which has gotten so bad that it now continues to get automatically worse at an exponential rate. Thus, we can also expect America to allow millions and millions more poor immigrants to come, so that the collective problems are even more guaranteed to be impossible to resolve in any good ways.