Woonsocket, Rhode Island
A look at a dystopian community where one third of its citizens are on food stamps.
From
The Washington Post:
Food stamps put Rhode Island town on monthly boom-and-bust cycle
The economy of Woonsocket was about to stir to life. Delivery trucks were moving down river roads, and stores were extending their hours. The bus company was warning riders to anticipate �heavy traffic.� A community bank, soon to experience a surge in deposits, was rolling a message across its electronic marquee on the night of Feb. 28: �Happy shopping! Enjoy the 1st.�
In the heart of downtown, Miguel Pichardo, 53, watched three trucks jockey for position at the loading dock of his family-run International Meat Market. For most of the month, his business operated as a humble milk-and-eggs corner store, but now 3,000 pounds of product were scheduled for delivery in the next few hours. He wiped the front counter and smoothed the edges of a sign posted near his register. �Yes! We take Food Stamps, SNAP, EBT!�
�Today, we fill the store up with everything,� he said. �Tomorrow, we sell it all.�
At precisely one second after midnight, on March 1, Woonsocket would experience its monthly financial windfall � nearly $2 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. Federal money would be electronically transferred to the broke residents of a nearly bankrupt town, where it would flow first into grocery stores and then on to food companies, employees and banks, beginning the monthly cycle that has helped Woonsocket survive.
Three years into an economic recovery, this is the lasting scar of collapse: a federal program that began as a last resort for a few million hungry people has grown into an economic lifeline for entire towns. Spending on SNAP has doubled in the past four years and tripled in the past decade, surpassing $78 billion last year. A record 47 million Americans receive the benefit � including 13,752 in Woonsocket, one-third of the town�s population, where the first of each month now reveals twin shortcomings of the U.S. economy:
So many people are forced to rely on government support.
The government is forced to support so many people.
The solution to these problems is so simple that it is criminal that the government isn't doing something. But that would require some giving up of Federal Power and we all know how that will play out...
Posted by DaveH at March 17, 2013 12:17 PM