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Look Who's Using Food Stamps Now
By
Jaya Saxena
Published Mar 16, 2010
Modified Mar 16, 2010
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By
Jaya Saxena
Published Mar 16, 2010
Modified Mar 16, 2010
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With the economy the way it's been, many young folks are now finding themselves—by IRS standards—quite poor. Poor enough to be eligible for things like food stamps paid by your taxpayer dollars, which they are using to buy Japanese eggplant. Salon writes about the latest trend of the nouveau pauvre: young graduates applying for the benefits in overwhelming numbers.
In recent years, the government has relaxed restrictions on eligibility for healthy adults without dependents. The maximum income to be eligible for food stamps for an able-bodied adult in New York is $14,088 a year. A record 38 million Americans are currently on food stamps, and though most of them are still the "traditional recipients" (elderly, single mothers), a large amount of young, educated adults now count as "working poor." But they're bringing their greenmarket standards to the welfare line.
One New York blogger told Salon "I'm sort of a foodie, and I'm not going to do the 'living off ramen' thing"—he then mentions a dinner of roasted rabbit with butter, tarragon and sweet potatoes that he made using his food stamp money. "It's not a thing people feel ashamed of, at least not around here," he said, "It feels like a necessity right now." Another AmeriCorps volunteer frequently uses his stamps at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, feeding his "flexitarian" diet. Does this mean the "living off ramen" rite of passage is dead?
Tagged
benefits
food stamps
hipsters
nouveau pauvre
poor
Jaya Saxena
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