It is strange if you do not want to be more reliant on the .gov

[benjamen]

http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/20/food-stamp-enrollment-skyrockets-as-unemployment-rate-declines/

“The agency even produced a document teaching recruitment workers how to “overcome the word ‘No,’” the Republican staff noted. “Recruitment brochures boast that every $5 dollars in food stamps spending generates almost twice that amount in local economic benefit and that communities ‘lose out’ when eligible people do not enroll. USDA even cites ‘a sense that benefits are not needed’ as a recruitment barrier to overcome.”


http://www.freep.com/article/201212...loyment?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

"Their concerns make a new finding all the more puzzling: Many people eligible for unemployment don't even bother to collect it."

"They're throwing the money out the window," says David Fuller, an economics professor at Concordia University in Montreal and co-author of the report, which analyzed Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

"...of the roughly 11.4 million who were laid off and eligible to collect that year, only about 5.7 million filed claims"

 

[pmbug]

Damn that 47% 23.5%! /jk

 

[Penn]

oh bull!! Most people who can collect stamps DO. We are getting to the point tho- that the program simply raises prices on food.

Consider that $128 is the average amount - now if the groceries cost $400 rather then $300- the stamps sort of cover inflation.

 

[swissaustrian]

Let's borrow money so poor people can eat crap from Walmart which plastic cards processed by J.P. Morgan:

 

[Jay]

todays topic (kinda) on SHTF.com:

snip:
So why are preppers hated so much?

It is because they are a direct challenge to the status quo. Just by prepping, preppers are proclaiming that they do not have faith in the system. But most people have complete and total faith in the system, and many of them do not like to have that faith questioned. As I have written about in other articles, polling has found that most Americans expect that the government will take care of them if disaster strikes. Most people have been trained to “trust the experts” and to “trust the government” all of their lives, and that conditioning can be very difficult to overcome.

http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/why-are-preppers-hated-so-much_12112012

 

[mike]

oh bull!! Most people who can collect stamps DO. We are getting to the point tho- that the program simply raises prices on food.

Consider that $128 is the average amount - now if the groceries cost $400 rather then $300- the stamps sort of cover inflation.

Excellent point. I never thought of it like that. Soon, you'll need food insurance to go grocery shopping.

 

[Jay]

oh bull!! Most people who can collect stamps DO. We are getting to the point tho- that the program simply raises prices on food.

Consider that $128 is the average amount - now if the groceries cost $400 rather then $300- the stamps sort of cover inflation.

a) I qualify for food stamps with a household of five and a reported income of 27,000, although we don't get food stamps.

b) I work for a grocery store, so perhaps I already get them!

c) my problem with the food stamp program is this: I quit working for my sister cause we got tired of calling each other names. I went to work for a local lumberyard, 800 a month before taxes and household of four. I had just bought a Dodge neon for 13,999. and made ONE payment on the car. I was disqualified for food stamps because the car was considered an asset, nevermind the bank owned it. That was when jobs were readily available, so I just went and got another job. Bing and I were looking at some old pictures the other day, and our pantry was a series of shelves on the kitchen wall. We had ONE can of beans. I didn't even know I was broke. Bing started selling eggrolls by word of mouth from our house and was making 400 dollars a week. Health department license was only 20.00. Can't do that anymore.

 

[bushi]

oh bull!! Most people who can collect stamps DO. We are getting to the point tho- that the program simply raises prices on food.

Consider that $128 is the average amount - now if the groceries cost $400 rather then $300- the stamps sort of cover inflation.

that is exactly what happens, Penn. People are only buying stuff, that they can afford - one way or another. Companies are always selling their stuff for as high a price, that they can sell it for. This is how price is (normally) discovered.

Enters government. Every time when government provides "special initiatives" for ANYTHING, long term, it just pushes the price of the "incentivised" item up, by the amount of government "help". Why? Assuming this is something, that people want to buy anyway, for maximum of $X of their hard earned dollars, and the government is providing "incentive" of $Y dollars - people will be willing to accept the final price of the item in question, equal to $X+$Y dollars - that they will not be able/willing to accept otherwise.

Guess who will know this even before government finishes implementing the "incentives" program - the companies, supplying that particular market... And remember, they are there not for charity, they are there to make loads and loads of profits. The more the better. Thus they will push the price up, because customers are now willing to pay $X+$Y, instead of just $X.

And the new price discovery takes place, over time.

It is as simple as that. "Affordable housing" govt. program in Ireland, is the most drastic example here.

Economics really IS simple, if you have two functioning brain cells and discipline, to follow through on your line of thought. No high-end math required, most of the time.