Food Stamps

We always look at the Department of Agriculture data. It is cumbersome, not even in pdf, and never in xls, but after a bot of effort we get the following on Food Stamps.

First we see a long term historical growth.

Now above we have 2005-2012. Note we almost a tripling in total benefits, approaching $80 Billion per year and a total number of beneficiaries approaching 50 million. That is almost 18% of the population on Food Stamps!

 The above is from October 2010 through October 2012, a two year window. Note the cost increase.

DoA is one of the largest Government agencies. It subsidizes everything from Food Stamps to almond growers. We must remember this as well as DoD.

The above is the Participation Rate, namely the percent of total population getting Food Stamps. It has exploded. It normally runs 8% but this year, 2013, it will near 18%. Despite the bias of Gibbon, Rome fell because of reliance on bread and circuses. It seems we are going that way.