USA 2008: The Great Depression (The Independent)

[kpete]

USA 2008: The Great Depression

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

Tuesday, 1 April 2008


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.

more at:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/usa-2008-the-great-depression-803095.html

[fasttense]

1. The new electronic card is also a way of hiding the hungry from us.

"The recent switch from paper coupons to the plastic card system has helped remove some of the stigma associated with the food stamp program. 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 program is available to people whose earnings are just above the official poverty line."

Instead of seeing huge bread lines, we Americans can pretend the 2,000 families a day being evicted from their homes (over 1,000% increase as compared to the republican Great Depression) are just moving down to good rental properties. How the starving masses become invisible people. Can you see them?