Economy

Demeter

(85,373 posts)

8. When The Formerly Rich Need Help Buying Food

Thu Dec 15, 2011, 10:01 PM

Dec 2011

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/12/15/143786950/when-the-formerly-rich-need-help-buying-food?ft=1&f=1001

The image of rich folks using food stamps to buy filet mignon is becoming the 21st-century version of the Reagan-era "Welfare Queen." GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has become particularly fond of the notion, claiming that people can even use food stamps for a trip to Hawaii. In a Nov. 30 appearance caught by ABC News, the former House speaker said: "They give food stamps now to millionaires because, after all, don't you want to be compassionate?" Unfortunately for the millions of Americans who could really use a trip to Hawaii right about now, that's not true. But increasingly, people who live in ritzy ZIP codes are finding it harder to pay for groceries, according to new data.

New Jersey's Hunterdon County, where the median household income is $97,874, led the nation in rising food stamp use, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by Bloomberg News. In Hunterdon, an idyllic-looking place of horse farms and covered bridges southwest of New York City, food stamp enrollment rose 513 percent from 2007 to 2010, from 232 people in 2007 to 1,424 in 2010. In that span, the percentage of households using food stamps more than doubled in six of the 10 wealthiest counties in the nation, according to the Bloomberg report. These folks, though, likely fell an income bracket or two before they signed up; persistent joblessness and people's inability to sell their homes were the main drivers of need, Bloomberg reports...

That hasn't gone without notice in Washington, where legislators have been making noise about banning millionaires from unemployment insurance and food stamps...SEE REPLY

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STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, December 16, 2011 [View all] Hugin Dec 2011 OP

Okay, here's the downside of me doing this. Hugin Dec 2011 #1

excellent n/t Po_d Mainiac Dec 2011 #2

Yes, I can do that mid-morning here tomorrow. Ghost Dog Dec 2011 #5

Please, excuse my lack of perceptiveness... Hugin Dec 2011 #87

This is what my firewall/site analyzer shows me, that's all. Ghost Dog Dec 2011 #92

... Hugin Dec 2011 #103

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Sorry about that. Hugin Dec 2011 #4

I suggest adding a link back to each previous day's thread, Ghost Dog Dec 2011 #6

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Got it! Hugin Dec 2011 #23

Yea! I am so glad to see this up Demeter Dec 2011 #7

When The Formerly Rich Need Help Buying Food Demeter Dec 2011 #8

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