Boo Radley
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2009
- Messages
- 37,066
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- Political Leaning
- Liberal
While I agree that increased food stamp recipients is a bad thing, I really don't see why this is a death knell for the US.
Among other things:
• NYC has a balanced budget -- despite the increase in food stamp spending. In fact, NYC's budget is required by law to balance, and surpluses are held to cover for future deficits. Does YOUR city or state do that? (Answer: Almost certainly not. Few cities or states require balanced budgets.)
• New York State pays more in federal tax revenues than it receives in services. Does YOUR state do that? (Answer: 50% of states pay more than they receive. Many so-called "red" states like KY, VA, AL, LA, AZ etc receive significantly more funding than they pay back in taxes.)
• Public assistance and SSI have been flat in NYC for years:
• The benefits aren't that generous. 1 person gets $200 a month, or $50 a week, or $6 a day, or $2 per meal. Helpful as a supplement, difficult if that's all you've got. Ever try to live off of $6 a day? We're talking beans and rice, not steak and lobster.
And food can cost 10-20% more in NYC than in many other cities. So go on, take the Food Stamp Challenge! See if you can live off of a food budget of $180 a week. Maybe we can make a fad diet out of it, 'cause you will almost certainly lose some weight. :mrgreen:
• The cutoff for food stamps in NYC is (iirc) around $14,000/year. Due to the cost of living, if you live in Brooklyn, that's the equivalent of $8,000/yr in Dallas or Kansas City, or $9,500 in Chicago.
• Bloomberg is a social moderate and an environmentalist, but a fiscal conservative.
In fact, one of the ways NYC saves a lot of money is by focusing on the kinds of environmental issues which reduce the city's energy costs.
So again, while I do see increases in food stamps as a bad thing, and hope it will drop back to normal rates as the economy picks up, it sounds an awful lot like the heathens of NYC are still keeping their budget much more in line than most other cities, that other forms of assistance haven't increased anywhere near as much, and the benefits are not especially generous.
I.e. unless the mere mention of "food stamps" makes you break out in hives, I don't see why this is anything more than an indicator that NYC and the US are still dealing with the effects of the recession.
And if this s the case, then I would have no real concerns.