Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Surprising food stamp stats

From the NY Times:

The area with the most food stamp recipients in the city last year, 63,328 people, was Community Board 5 in Brooklyn, which includes the neighborhoods of Cypress Hills, East New York, New Lots and Starrett City. The area with the fewest recipients, 2,312, was Community Board 1 in Manhattan, which covers most of the lower part of the island south of Canal Street. Since 2001, several areas have had a startling increase in food stamp use, mirroring a national trend. Community Board 13 in Queens, which includes Bellerose, Cambria Heights, Floral Park and Queens Village, has had a 205 percent jump in the number of recipients. Nearby, Community Board 12, encompassing Hollis, St. Albans and South Jamaica, has experienced a 184 percent rise. No district in the city has had a drop in the number of people receiving benefits through the program.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

well if all your marketing of this program is in minority areas DUH don't be surprised if they start applying in big numbers....

Are there any reporters that can figure this stuff out?

georgetheatheist said...

The Roman poet Juvenal had it right - panem et circenses [bread and circuses].

Welfare food is today's panem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panem_et_circenses

Anonymous said...

The more people they have on gov't programs, the happier they are.

They DO NOT want people to take care of themselves. They cant get control that way.

Control the housing, and control the food, and you control the people. If the only place you can get food and shelter is from the government, you wont rise against the government.

Anonymous said...

No, I disagree. We have people on these programs because the economic base of America has been chipped away for years. Keeping people from starving to death is the least the pols can do.

In the meantime, start up the work, even if it is only to require a few days of work in exchange for government benefits. People idle at home will eventually be unfit for work as their skills rust and they develop bad habits.

Anonymous said...

Ralph McTell : Stranger To The Season Lyrics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7E-2YfPF68


A man without a job is a stranger to the seasons
The April rain will soak you like the worst November brings
And we're tired of the excuses and the carefully worded reasons
Without Winter there's no Summer
Without Autumn there's no Spring.

When the factories close down the life bleeds from the town.
Some politicians tells us, 'move and build another home',
But weren't they voted in to lead us?
No one said they had to feed us.
If they'd get us back our jobs
Then we would take care of our own.

Chorus
For a man without a job
Is a stranger to the seasons
No music to the cycle of the changes will he hear.
Like a band without a drummer
There's no Winter, Spring, or Summer
There's no rhythm to the passing of the
Months that make the year.

Everyone is poorer for the millions
Who keep growing
Whose season stays at Autumn
And whose only colour's grey
Though we get by on the dole
It feeds the body, starves the soul
And stirs the bitterness that's growing
In the ones who've been betrayed.

Chorus

Anonymous said...

It's time for some Soylent Green!