When the last straw falls

Remember this post?  In it I discussed the fact that we're still down between two and three million employed working age Americans (since December 2007) and have since then added an additional twelve and a half million working age Americans who should be working but aren't.  In other words, we've netted 15 million additional takers. 

It's apparent that this is the new normal.  Take a look at the Employment to Population ratio.  Not a budge since it cratered in 2010:

 

What we're seeing is the effect of the recession followed by massive injections of cash into the economy plus the extension of unemployment benefits to about 2 years.  After 2 years on the dole, it looks like the majority just give up working entirely.  Do they leech off of their families?  Do they transition to food stamps?

 

Well take a look at the data.  In just 4 years we've added 10 million new food stamp recipients.  Costs have ballooned by about 11.75% ($12 Billion).  

 

 

But this is just back to 2009.  If we go back to 2007, when the employment participation rate started tanking, food stamp participation was at 27.6 million.  We've added twenty million food stamp recipients, in those mere 6 years. 

 

Here's the change in SNAPS participation by state from Dec-2006 to Dec-2011. 

 

STATE	Dec-06	Dec-11	Increase
Alabama	550,777	916,345	365,568
Alaska	54,431	90,639	36,208
Arizona	539,127	1,137,378	598,251
Arkansas	386,783	507,466	120,683
California	2,026,945	3,904,099	1,877,154
Colorado	252,001	488,527	236,526
Connecticut	211,263	405,215	193,952
Delaware	66,203	148,525	82,322
District of Columbia	89,105	141,112	52,007
Florida	1,228,022	3,297,834	2,069,812
Georgia	962,272	1,885,046	922,774
Hawaii	89,744	173,143	83,399
Idaho	86,461	236,395	149,934
Illinois	1,257,981	1,879,585	621,604
Indiana	585,296	906,446	321,150
Iowa	235,877	403,116	167,239
Kansas	181,472	299,591	118,119
Kentucky	596,484	844,144	247,660
Louisiana	645,408	911,130	265,722
Maine	157,177	253,278	96,101
Maryland	312,282	710,675	398,393
Massachusetts	449,359	845,334	395,975
Michigan	1,196,830	1,843,646	646,816
Minnesota	268,071	536,629	268,558
Mississippi	430,092	651,696	221,604
Missouri	822,376	961,801	139,425
Montana	80,037	127,185	47,148
Nebraska	121,207	175,414	54,207
Nevada	118,787	353,889	235,102
New Hampshire	57,901	115,730	57,829
New Jersey	412,439	809,026	396,587
New Mexico	237,371	437,540	200,169
New York	1,799,460	3,068,575	1,269,115
North Carolina	880,734	1,660,591	779,857
North Dakota	42,736	59,600	16,864
Ohio	1,074,047	1,816,920	742,873
Oklahoma	427,671	622,774	195,103
Oregon	432,409	805,396	372,987
Pennsylvania	1,103,300	1,801,249	697,949
Rhode Island	72,852	170,547	97,695
South Carolina	546,081	869,018	322,937
South Dakota	59,607	104,007	44,400
Tennessee	859,037	1,288,879	429,842
Texas	2,437,782	4,179,010	1,741,228
Utah	126,277	285,824	159,547
Vermont	51,528	95,652	44,124
Virginia	513,883	908,527	394,644
Washington	544,730	1,102,830	558,100
West Virginia	269,389	345,833	76,444
Wisconsin	377,147	828,661	451,514
Wyoming	22,995	34,476	11,481
Total US	26,351,246	46,445,948	20,094,702

 

In this timeframe the SNAPS program added 20 million participants. Our population increased by 13 million. We're going down in flames, folks.  More takers, less makers.  We're going to see the best and brightest, the hardest working, most ethical people just give up. 

 

When the last straw falls, they'll go Galt.