A Foodstamp Recovery and the Soft Tyranny of the Welfare State

Jay Cost, writing at the Weekly Standard Online, called the current economic recovery a “food stamp” recovery. He noted that since June 2009, when the economy officially began to recover, the number of food stamp recipients increased by almost 10 million to about 44 million now. He also noted that after nearly two years, this recovery is horribly anemic compared to historic standards. full text

I think this something we all intuitively know without digging through the economic data. But, the “food stamp” phenomenon is frighteningly telling.

Ultimately, it is a food rationing program in response to failed household economies. The program began in the mid-1930s in response to a failed US economy. But times are changed. Considering the US Census Bureau estimates there about 113.5 million households in the US, it means nearly 40% are dependent upon a food rationing program to put bread on their tables and are not economically self sufficient.

I know of one middle class professional’s whose descent from affluence to food stamps followed an all too familiar path: a household shattered through divorce; personal saving depleted through college tuition; poor investment decisions on dreams of unrealistic returns; and overextended, all-to-easy lines of credit.

There is more. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, citing recently released US Census Bureau figures, the number of family households in the City of Milwaukee headed by a married couple fell below fifty percent for the first time in 2010. In 1990 it was 62%, 55% in 2000, and 49.5% in 2010.

Meanwhile the number of school children receiving free or subsidized school breakfasts and lunches has increased to 32 million from 16 million in 2006, according the US Department of Agriculture. And now under a regulatory scheme implementing the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, the USFDA is telling schools just what they can and cannot serve up for lunch – no more than a cup a week of starchy vegetables like potatoes, corn and peas, for example.

You can see the pattern. How long is it before our generous food stamp vouchers become ration cards in the name of promoting “healthy” diets?

When the household economy fails, the soft tyranny of the Federal welfare state fills the void.