I’d say it is expanding largely because so many people are out of work. That 9.1% is a misleading number –it doesn’t count the majority of those who’ve been out of work for more 2 years, nor those who’ve become too dispirited to keep looking.
Here’s the problem with food stamps. I know, because I was on them briefly when, as a full-scholarship college student, I was injured at one of my jobs (no-compensation, just loss of the job as a result and hospital costs to cover) and, because of the multiple broken bones in my foot and ankle lost my other two jobs (gymnastics instructor and security guard doing midnight-dawn shifts). I found a part-time telemarketing job but was still forced to go on food stamps to make ends meet. Several weeks into the job I was offered the chance of an extra shift one week when a co-worker called in sick and so, of course, jumped at it. For working ‘too many hours’ as a result of that one shift (total earnings $12 before taxes) the $70 in monthly food stamps I was getting –back in ’92 — was completely suspended for 3 months. I literally survived until my bones healed by getting food out of dumpsters when restaurants closed for the night and threw away the food they couldn’t sell the next day. Yes, you were penalized and penalized hard for trying to get ahead. There was no ‘well let’s just remove that 12 bucks from what the government is giving you’ –as, indeed, I expected when I took that shift, thinking this was a good thing — no, there was only the message of don’t be stupid enough to dare be industrious or try to put your life back together. That is the problem with the food stamp system.
