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Thread: weekend commentary - Soup Lines and the 'Stealth' Depression

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    Default weekend commentary - Soup Lines and the 'Stealth' Depression

    (snip)"Soup Lines And The Stealth Depression


    Professor Kevin Depew was discussing the continuing woes of housing as well as soup lines in today's Five Things You Need to Know: Mortgage Woes Stubbornly Persist.

    Let's consider point number five, Soup Lines.

    Where Are the Soup Lines?

    In response to a recent piece on The Modern Stealth Depression, some of the outraged letters I received asked how in the world someone could claim we are entering a new depression when there are no soup lines, no starving people in the street. Well, the simple answer is that's why it's a stealth depression. Despite the rapid transfer of information across the globe, we still have a way of only seeing what we want to see.

    According to the Akron Beacon Journal, demand for food from the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank increased by 14% year-over-year in the first six months. At the same time, agencies that receive food are reporting an increase of 20% in the number of people being served. Food distribution at the food bank increased by 7% in the second quarter alone.

    The figures are out there, you just have to dig beneath Paris Hilton residential ad spoofs to find them. In the Sarasota, Florida Herald Tribune today there's an interview with Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of the nation's largest food bank network. The network feeds 25 million people annually through food banks around the country.

    Escarra says a survey of the network's 200 food banks in January showed a 20% increase in demand over the prior year. Escarra estimates there are 35 million Americans "living without knowing consistently where their next meal will come from." Escarra said she expects this to be "pretty severe for the next 18 months at least."

    Ohio Food Bank Needs Rising

    Let's take a closer look at the articles Professor Depew referred to.

    The Akron Beacon Journal is reporting Food bank says need keeps rising.


    Demand for food from the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank is increasing rapidly. The food bank released statistics Wednesday showing that for the first six months of this year, compared with the same period last year, food distributions increased by 14 percent.

    At the same time, agencies that receive food are reporting an increase of 20 percent in the number of people being served. Food distribution at the food bank increased by 7 percent in the second quarter of the year compared with the first quarter, said Dan Flowers, president and CEO of the food bank.

    At the current rate of distributing food to area shelters and food cupboards, Flowers said, the agency could distribute 14 million pounds of food this year, compared with 12 million in 2007.

    As a result, Flowers said this is "a historic and unprecedented time in the history of the anti-hunger movement."

    Sutton, who has volunteered at the food bank, spoke of the "newly poor" who are receiving help from food banks. She said she has heard of people who "used to be donors to the food bank and now are in need of services."

    "Almost daily, the number of people seeking food assistance continues to rise," Flowers said.

    For more on the food bank, go to the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank.
    Insight Into Hungry U.S.

    The Herald Tribune is reporting From food bank's chief, insight into hungry U.S.

    Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of the nation's largest food bank network, stopped in Sarasota on Wednesday on a weeklong tour of Florida.

    Escarra left her job as vice president of customer service at Delta Air Lines and took charge of America's Second Harvest in 2006.

    The network feeds 25 million people annually through food banks around the country. It distributes 2.2 billion pounds of food, enough to make it comparable to the largest grocery chains in the nation.

    Q:How much has demand at food banks increased nationally, and who is visiting them?

    ESCARRA:In January we surveyed our 200 food banks and demand was up 20 percent over last year. We're seeing more and more people visiting food banks for the first time because they've lost their jobs or they're not getting raises. They can't afford vegetables or protein, the essentials of a good diet. Most of the people who come to food banks are on food stamps, but those are only $3 per person a day.

    Q : On the network's Web site, there is a lot of talk about "food insecurity." What does that mean?

    ESCARRA:There are 35 million Americans living without knowing consistently where their next meal will come from. I think that's pretty stunning. [ this is over 11% of the total US population of 304 million - sic ]

    Where Are the Soup Lines?

    In the Stealth Depression, food stamps and food banks have replaced soup lines. Florida, Ohio, and Michigan are already in a depression. More states will follow. Looks are deceptive. Just ask those foreclosed on, those with no job, or those working part time for economic reasons. It's a stealth depression for the simple reason most don't see it.


    Mike "Mish" Shedlock
    http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com"(snip)

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    Default Re: weekend commentary - Soup Lines and the 'Stealth' Depression

    I've been sending my surplus garden veggies to the Food bank for years now. This year the shelves are particularly sparse. I planted more food this year, too. Lots of squash on the way in about another 3-10 days I'll have soooooo much squash. Hopefully that will help the food banks.


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    Default Re: weekend commentary - Soup Lines and the 'Stealth' Depression

    ^^^ that's great, Paris ... and actually I will be doing the same with my surplus of tomatoes. However, in the grand scheme of things, even if a lot of us donate our garden surplus in August and September it will do little to help the situation in November and December. We're talking about 1 in every 9 Americans who are now dependent on either the government's social welfare programs or the generosity of the remaining 8 Americans for their next meal !

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    Default Re: weekend commentary - Soup Lines and the 'Stealth' Depression

    Quote Originally Posted by Melonie View Post
    ^^^ that's great, Paris ... and actually I will be doing the same with my surplus of tomatoes. However, in the grand scheme of things, even if a lot of us donate our garden surplus in August and September it will do little to help the situation in November and December. We're talking about 1 in every 9 Americans who are now dependent on either the government's social welfare programs or the generosity of the remaining 8 Americans for their next meal !
    All you can do is what you can do and if one does anything one should feel good about doing it.

    (I've been taking lessons from Rumsfield. )

    I was going to suggest canning or bottling the tomatoes but they may not be so keen on an unknown skill in that sort of thing.

    It is important to note that we have effectively hidden the soup lines in this country with food stamps and food banks. Back in the twenties I doubt there was any of that so it was just out there in the obviousness.

    I watched an old black and white movie version of The Grapes of Wrath and it's quite a sobering thing. I sure remember being homeless and going from friend's couch to friend's couch. Bad times. Bad times.

    I think that experience added to my pessimism and bullshit detector when it comes to MSM financial cheerleaders saying the economy is great while ... you all know my opinions. Poverty is not a theory for me man and I am pretty friggin careful about staying out of it.

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    Default Re: weekend commentary - Soup Lines and the 'Stealth' Depression

    I was going to suggest canning or bottling the tomatoes but they may not be so keen on an unknown skill in that sort of thing.
    funny that you should mention canning ... my grandmother taught me how to do this, and I just ordered something like 200 new canning jars to go with the ones I already had. But I'll still have more tomatoes than I will need to get through an entire year's consumption of canned tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, etc. And don't forget that with today's high energy costs, it's actually cheaper to buy 'distilled' tomato products like ketchup and tomato paste than to make your own ! As a result I'll be giving away surplus tomatoes !

    I watched an old black and white movie version of The Grapes of Wrath and it's quite a sobering thing. I sure remember being homeless and going from friend's couch to friend's couch. Bad times. Bad times.
    I've been there too. Don't forget that before I obtained my degree, and before I got up the nerve (and the boobs) to start dancing, I spent several years working at various 'unskilled' jobs. There were lots of times when my net earnings were actually LESS than the amount of money and equivalent cash value that were available to me by signing up for social welfare benefits / welfare / food stamps / WIC / subsidized housing / subsidized utilities. However, I was raised by parents who were very 'old school' about able-bodied people living off of the government, so I never signed up ... although a whole bunch of neighbors and acquaintances did !

    It also isn't really surprising to me to observe that today many of the children of those neighbors and acquaintances are also signed up for social welfare benefits ... in an upstate NY city where lighted signs on the roadside are advertising the availability of $12 an hour 'unskilled' jobs at a major local employer ! The reason that the $12 an hour job offer has few takers is, of course, that this level of income will render employees ineligible for social welfare and other gov't benefits, thus their actual standard of living will drop if they take the $12 an hour job but have to pay full price for food / rent / utilities plus health care co-payments versus remaining unemployed but eligible for these gov't benefits !


    I watched an old black and white movie version of The Grapes of Wrath and it's quite a sobering thing..
    Well, arguably, there is actually another big difference between the Grapes of Wrath unemployed versus today's unemployed. Back in the 30's, if there were no jobs to be had in one area the people would be forced to move to a different area. As painful as this relocation might have been, it did speed the economic recovery by hooking up available jobs with willing workers.

    In contrast, between unemployment benefits and social welfare benefits, with public housing subsidies / utility bill subsidies / medicaid benefits thrown in, it is now possible for LARGE numbers of 'permanently' unemployed Americans to remain in their 'economically dead' home city i.e. real unemployment rates that are higher than 10% with no hope of improvement. Detroit and Pittsburgh real unemployment rates are of course much higher than 10% ! In comparison to the Grapes of Wrath where Appalachian farmers became California farm workers, today the 'permanently unemployed' continue to grow in Detroit and Pittsburgh while illegal Mexican immigrants take whatever California farm work is available ! Ironically, the standard of living for the 'permanently unemployed' Detroit and Pittsburgh residents is higher than for the illegal Mexican immigrants working in California - well, at least it is until the illegal immigrants figure out a way to collect social welfare benefits for themselves i.e. popping out an 'anchor baby' !

    Circling back on topic, if Americans don't take the time to see for themselves what sections of Detroit and Pittsburgh are starting to look like, due to lack of mainstream media coverage, for most Americans they remain a mere unpublicized statistic in today's 'stealth' depression ! The 30's era 'soup lines' have indeed been hidden by food stamps and food banks. But the 30's era 'tent cities' have also been hidden by public housing / gov't subsidized rent and utility payments. And the 30's era 'job lines' have also been hidden by the Moral Hazard of social welfare benefit eligibility thresholds ... where it now 'pays better' to remain unemployed than to accept a $12 an hour job.

    ~
    Last edited by Melonie; 08-10-2008 at 05:55 AM.

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