Reliance on food stamps in order to have enough to eat is at an all time high, to the point where one in four children are dependent on them.
The Obama administration has been pushing to put as many people on food stamps as possible. Not only does this increase the power of government over people, who become so dependant that they dare not bite the hand that feeds them… or at least didn’t used to dare to bite.
A violent brawl erupted recently in East St. Louis in a line at a food stamp office. The propensity of welfare addicts to explode into violent mobs is well known, but that this violence is occurring in what is effectively a modern-day soup line is chilling for many reasons.
Food Stamps, as with much of the welfare out there, does not cure poverty, or lift anyone from it. It simply masks the de facto Depression we are living in under President Obama. In the 1930’s people had to stand in soup lines, wear their clothes until threadbare, and otherwise scrimp and save; the poverty and lack of jobs was obvert and manifest.
Since the current downturn and so-called recovery, the civilian employment, as a percentage of population, had fallen by 5% rapidly; since then, the employment ratio has stayed flat, and been permanently depressed. One must remember that the Great Depression actually had many more “up” years than “down” years, though the growth was tepid and punctuated by massive downturns.
In more modern times, the poverty is there, but it is covered up by welfare. From food and housing, to sports shoes and game consoles, people are still unable to find a job (assuming they even want one) yet are able to appear as if they are earning enough to live well.
Therein lies the problem. The superficial prosperity, or at least superficial lack of poverty, can only be maintained by the perpetual and growing handout from an all powerful Leviathan. This is the ultimate effect of “food justice.”
But what happens when the Leviathan breaks down, even if it is for a short period of time? The dominoes would fall fast and there is great doubt that anything could stop them. Matt Bracken presents us with what is probably a best-case scenario that limits the damage to the level of the first Mad Max movie, rather than to the Road Warrior. The food stamp office violence noted above would certainly explode, and the façade built up by welfare would collapse. People would die.
Perhaps food riots are indeed nigh.
