Today's reading, an article from The NY Times titled Food Stamp Use Soars, and Stigma Fades talks the increasing use of food stamps by our population and the decrease of the stigmas associated with it. The demand for food stamps is currently at record high going up every month and strikingly 1 in every 8 American and 1 in 4 children is fed by the use of food stamps. Thirty six million Americans are now using food stamps in order to help them survive. The reason for this sudden increase, the current recession we are facing which is making a significant number of people to lose their jobs. Unemployment is actually the number reason for someone to use food stamps. The minorities are also most likely to use food stamps. In fact, 28% percent of the entire black population uses food stamps, 15 percent of the Latinos and 8% of whites. The use by children is also especially high. For example, 46 percent of the children living in the Bronx live on food stamps. Support for the food stamp program reached a nadir in the mid 1990s but with efforts from Clinton, Bush and now Obama, the food stamp program is now bigger and stronger than ever. One of the steps taken for diminishing the stigma associated with food stamp was to change the name of the program to "the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program" or SNAP.
I was shocked to learn that such a high number of people are now using food stamps. I have actually never seen a food stamp nor heard about anyone using them. This could prove the point that there are still stigmas present with using them. I am glad the SNAP is now working better than ever because without those food stamps, people could use the federal aid for things like cigarette or drugs. At least, we know that people will only use the money for survival purposes. I now wonder what the effects of the increasing food stamp use now has on our country. How long will it continue increasing? Are people now getting too dependent on those stamps? How is it affecting our economy and our tax money?
I think with any type of benefit program, there are bound to be people who become too dependent on them. But just because it can create a dependence, one should not disregard the fact that these can be very helpful to those in need of this program.
ReplyDelete-Austin Lee
I think food stamp usage is generally a good thing, except for the cases in which people who are well off abuse their availability. One such case was mentioned in the article. I think food stamp usage will begin to level off as it is at high levels right now and our economy is slowly rebounding from the recession.
ReplyDeleteI get them dead beat looks from other people in the cashier line when I pull out my EBT card. But I recently found out you can buy skins to put over your ebt card so it doesn't look obvious. Ofcourse the cashier will know but at least the other people standing in line will not. Its called food stamps skin. Google it.
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