An interesting blog article by a college graduate on government assistance. It's almost entirely a first person article.
http://www.texasobserver.org/snap-judgments-college-graduates-dependent-on-food-stamps-are-on-the-rise/ Here's an excerpt so you can decide if you would like to check it out: *Two thousand dollars a month*. Thats the income cap to qualify for food stamps in Texas. Two thousand dollars a month for a family of three. My parents were teachers, no big paychecks or buyouts, but they were smart with their money and paid for everything with cash. I dont think they started using credit cards until I was an adult. They instilled their zero-debt policy in me as well, and the Discover card my mother put in my name when I graduated from high school still gets paid off every month. Were standing in line at Target. My husband pays for our groceries while I coo and cuddle my baby girl, whos gazing up at me from her expensive car seat in the front of the cart. My husband takes a white card out of his wallet, slides it through the machine, enters his 4-digit PIN, and looks down. The receipt prints. Niceties are exchanged. Plastic bags are gathered. I doubt the overworked cashier even notices were not paying with credit. Last April we joined the 46 million Americans living on food stamps, more accurately known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Four million of those people are Texans. The federally funded program provides food assistance to people who earn less than $24,000 a year for a family of three. Since 2007, Texas has added more than 1.4 million new food stamp recipients to its ranks. During the month of Aprilmy first in the programTarrant County provided food stamp assistance to almost 220,000 residents at a cost of more than $27 million, according to Texas Health and Human Services. That means 12 percent of folks living in Tarrant County are carrying little white plastic cards like mine. I never thought Id need the help. I once bought two bicycles for $800 from a fancy bike shop. I got the helmets too, at $30 each. Thats nearly $1,000 of sports gear collecting dust in the garage of our three-bedroom ranch-style house near Fort Worth. I have a masters degree in journalism. My husband was working on his MBA at the University of Texas at Arlington before he lost his job and before we ran out of money. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, the number of graduate students clinging to white plastic lifelines is growing. Between 2007 and 2010, the number of students receiving food stamps doubled. Some 360,000 highly educated Americans now eat breakfast, lunch and dinner courtesy of Uncle Sam. What gives? Decades of research says that lack of education and poverty go hand in hand. The overwhelming majority of food stamp recipients still lack a college degree, but now theres a surprising subgroup: 1 percent of food stamp recipients have a graduate degree, a number thats tripled since 2007. J - Ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation. - Henry Kissinger Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel. - Jo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:361442 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
