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

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.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 03095.html

This article was a British news source that made controversial mainstream news. The photo on that article was taken a few years ago in 2005. It was a coat drive they have in Manhattan every year.

We are in a serious recssion, but I dont see people jumping off buildings and comitting suicide like the REAL great depression of 1929 when the stock market crashed. I think a lot of people today made real bad finanical decions, like the houseing market that gave loans to people who has bad credit and couldnt afford them.

I guess only time will tell.... the gas prices and rise in food is a killer i will tell you that.

Well, we don't need the British news telling us that people are losing jobs in record numbers, we are seeing it ourselves, it's happening to family and friends. During Feb. there was a loss of about 60,000 jobs, and last week it was reported that in March some 80,000 people lost their jobs. Thankfully for us, where I live we are actually experiencing a workforce shortage, everywhere we look help is wanted, and housing is kind of short, but the pay is pretty good. The rise in food and gas prices keeps increasing, but the amount people are receiving in food stamps has not increased at the same pace-it's hard to still make ends meet when you don't have steady cost of living increases as well. The difference will be how people adjust, what they spend their foodstamps on, how they adjust their diet, instead of the pizza or sodas will they get other items that can go a long way, do with less meat for example. We experienced a similar situation in the late 70s early 80s-let's see how well we can adjust. On top of all of this a record number of baby boomers has already begun to retire, truck drivers are stopping, and the weather is causing major damage to food items we bring in from other countries.