The Organic Prepper When people think of the average EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) card user, they envision a career welfare recipient who has 12 kids by 11 different prison-residing fathers. Because of this notion, when the story broke this weekend about the EBT system failure, many of the responses were quite cold, callous, and even downright spiteful.
Of course, the rioting through Wal-Marts across the nation certainly didn’t help. Within hours the shelves were razed. The abandoned shopping carts of melting food and the carefully selected hungry spokespeople on the mainstream news just served to reinforce the conception that those who were left to go without groceries deserved to miss a few meals.
But….who IS the average EBT user?
Nearly 48 million Americans receive assistance to buy food, which is up from 32 million when Barack Obama took office. While we know there has been a concentrated effort to get more people to accept assistance, the sheer volume of those who cannot afford food anymore is a symptom of the greater economic problems plaguing the country. It’s also important to note that in some states, if a person’s ex-spouse is in arrears for child support and has his or her wages garnished, the custodial parent receives that payment through the EBT system.
For example…
- The median household income in America has dropped for the 5th year in a row, according to the US Census Bureau.
- Over 1/3 of Americans who are able to work are unable to find a job – 36% of the population is unemployed.
- Obamacare is turning us into a part-time nation. For every full time job created in the United States in 2013, we’ve created four part-time jobs. Employers are not hiring people full time if it means they’ll have to pay for skyrocketing insurance benefits.
- More than 2.3 million residential properties were foreclosed on in 2012, leaving families displaced when they could no longer afford their homes.
- 50% of all Americans are considered “poor” or “low-income” according to the US Census Bureau.
- The unemployment rate in the U.S. has been above 8 percent for 40 months in a row, and 42 percent of all unemployed Americans have been out of work for at least half a year. (source)
- Those often being hit the hardest are those just entering the labor market. For example, about 53 percent of all U.S. college graduates under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed last year. Most of the jobs that are available for young college graduates (or for the rest of us for that matter) are crappy low paying jobs that often come with no benefits. In the United States today, one out of every four workers makes ten dollars an hour or less. Now, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.(source)
Over the past decade, many formerly middle class people have been cast into poverty through no fault of their own. They’ve lost their jobs, their homes, and their cars. When you have no job, or you have a job that pays only minimum wage, how can you keep the electricity on, keep your children clothed, and still feed your family? Through the deliberate impoverishing of the middle class, people are being controlled and enslaved. Innocent children, through no fault of their own, are going hungry – for some of these kids the only meal that they get in a day is the free lunch offered at their school.
So before you say, “So what?” or “Well, I had to pay for my groceries – I have no sympathy for them”, stop for a moment and think about why formerly hardworking people may have had to sacrifice their pride and accept some help. Think about the jobs that are no longer available. Consider the hours that are no longer offered at once full-time jobs.
Some people abuse the system. Illegal immigrants are encouraged to be on the dole. We can all tell stories about the “welfare queen” with an iPhone and a grocery cart full of steak and lobster.
But for a large percentage of formerly middle class Americans there has been a mighty fall – one deliberately set up by our own government, by the banking system, and by the “1%”.
There but for the grace of God go I.
For many people the economic collapse has arrived. Their “end of the world” event has already occurred in the form of a job loss, the foreclosure of the family home, or an illness that has caused such massive personal debt that there is truly no way out of it. Less than 60% of Americans who are of age to be in the work force have a full time job. When you tally that, it means that more than 100 million people are out of work. More than 100 million people in the United States have no jobs. For more than 100 million people, the economic collapse has arrived in full force. (source)
How do we fight back?
If you are lucky enough to still be gainfully employed, it’s time to become self-sufficient.
This is how we will be able to withstand the assaults on our freedom. Every bucket of rice you put away, every seed you save, every bite of food you grow – is a strike against the machine.
Those of us who prepare for the difficult times ahead are the ones who stand between the total domination of the powers that be and the freedom that they would take away from us. By understanding how hunger can be used against us, and then taking the initiative to prepare for that grim day, we can’t be controlled as easily as those who have spent years accepting the handouts and trudging along with the herd.
By making intelligent choices to ensure our survival and that of our children, we can resist. Every meal that you put away keeps you a little bit safer from tyranny. Every seed you plant hardens you against threats and bribery. Your self-sufficiency is what will keep you free. (source)
Be thankful that you have had the foresight and the means to prepare for the eventuality of a further economic decline. Remember that the mainstream media and the government have a vested interest in widening the chasm between the “haves” and the “have-nots” because a divided populace is an easily conquered populace. Don’t be manipulated. Practice compassion. You don’t know the circumstances that caused the person in line in front of you to be swiping a card to feed his or her family. They just might be victims of a system determined to enslave.
Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca
– See more at: http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/the-average-ebt-user-may-not-be-who-youd-expect-10142013#sthash.FdTMLp7E.dpuf
Let us not only analyze the last few years……concerning wages to the average household………go back to the latter 1970’s…and come forward to this day. The losses in income through planned enslavery of our average families, is massive….and people wonder……..Well! Where did the program of food stamps come from? I believe its planned to bottle us up. Returning from Nam, just out of the Army, in summer 1970…….I recall, someone mentioning that food assistance was available should I need it. And I have little money. You can bet on that…My parents did not nor could they afford to provide for me….I was 25……Well…Take care of your self and I did…I at the time, could not imagine myself going somewhere and signing some paper to receive free food……I would have none of it………
The whole picture was different then…….Wages that were paid would actually allow a person to live……
Now look at the Got-damned thing…..People want to work……But…..their not being paid for it……..Yes! They get money………so damn little of it they can’t pay for basic living expenses………and then they are called nasty names for being in the situation they find themselves in!
It’s way past high time to end this bullshit of ripping off the guy next door…kind of thinking…………in other words, you and I
I have been both an employee and an employer mostly the later…I can say, of nearly any person who desires to be employed……….And I sincerely mean this………Pay them well, very well, provide them with the tools(skills and so forth) needed to accomplish what one asked them to do and treat them with personal dignity and respect and as an employer, always catch their back side…….and you as an employer know what you get in…. return? The finest workforce on the planet…….bar none………..And thats still true to this day…….
So don’t give me this bullshit of the lowly american worker………or lazy american………I am talking about people who live in our country at the lowest level……..Talent is where you find it…………and there is plenty of it there……..
Our United States is available for a new beginning…….
Poor education or not…….It’s mostly about leadership, and truthfully having a heart for the next man………..”that part can’t be faked”……….
People! We still have got it……..Don’t ever forget that……..
Yes rbeason, I wish you were around when I needed a job. I had nothing but shitty employers for my work history.
To hell with it, I’m just gonna kick back on the couch and do what all the EBT card users do.
Put a smile on your face anyways 🙂 lol………… P.S. If the fed govt. can do it why not us. They live off of our dime so why not us all live off of our dime eh. 🙂 🙂 🙂 Think about it people – we pay these guys to do what they do and then we all bitch about what they do so now then why doesn`t every one else do what the govt does and live off of the sysem so that the system implodes – KA BOOM . 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
wrong………..wrong………wrong………..
all the way around and so much of diggerdan…………..comment
You missed guys………what I had to say,……..
about the spirit of being of each of us………..and it has nothing to do with.,…….well get on board for the free ride………….
Here’s it……to speak about………………
Born……..a person
Acculturation of point of birth and time within a decade……….
Go Get It……
All time frames within this picture are not the same………Certainly, they are not.
Talents remain available within each……..
And you are telling me that today is less so available for progress than any previous time frame? Explain that to me!
Today is totally controlled in comparison
to days gone by. One opens a small
business and you are bombarded with
regulations. One invents a car engine
which can run on 100 miles per gallon
and the patten is shelfed or the inventor
goes missing. It takes a lot to get
an invention on the market. It’s all
about control, who you know,
and who you are a threat to. Small
ranchers are being forced out so
the money corps can have control.
Much like Walmart, one of the most
destructive corp for the little guy.
OK Leita…..but
Put a break on that.
Cause, in the end, what you are saying is that we are lost……….
Nonsense……….
Again! Nonsense.
We are not lost.
Fortune favors the Bold
And I learned that from someone
else……….
So I wish to enliven the idea…
and for you to carry it onward……..
No, were not lost. But we have to take back what we lost.
We know what we lost but it slipped away while we
weren’t looking. A show of force and determination (not violence),
but comrade.
My I want to say
Leita….
that I am one hundred percent on board with you………
and that any of my passion spoken here which may have been …….as Bob Dylan’s song………..Blown in The Wind
not taken too seriously on your part……..
It is never, on my part, to put anybody down on this site or any other site………either.I have the highest regard for the individual ……….as I myself are but one………
There has to be a leader that the people will look up to. I had thought
of Bo Gritz but I don’t think he is too active these days.
Egypt does it very well. Amazing.
Leita…….
I want to ask?
Specifically I am speaking in all this roundtable of us within the usa….
what do you mean via the remark of Bo Gritz……..cause this is new to me?
My question is simple,,,nothing more than those words!
Have you ever heard of Bo Gritz?
Hey, rbeason, I am getting off as I have to wind down in order for sleep
to embrace me. Nice interaction. Thank you. Keep the faith, its
bound to happen.
thats right Leita
Mark me for what ever you wish……….
I have never heard of
Bo Gritz>>>>…
I am a shagebrush boy
from the planes………….
God though, rattle snakes don’t scare me………generally I let them live……
they go on their way
same as any other living creature….
including the both of us…….
Honestly I have not come upon a rattle snake in years………of my first 25 years though, they were about….just be aware……….
God……..being born, raised, in Montana must be a place others are not imaginative with……….I understand……..also, I have no idea of what living in a modern city is about………there is a connection, not replete, either, of relevance, mostly though, I would call myself ignorant on the subject………..oh! I will quit, Now……think I have ran my course……..
Amen Brother,..amen!!!
Sorry not buying this one.
I’am your huckleberry…….. take a shot.
Thats a line out of the movie…..thombstone… with Val Kilmore playing Doc. Holiday………. I am not a person of violence………this movie though………very violent…rises to the epic of myth of our american being…………
So! What is it you want to say?
🙂
I am delighted with the stirring of the fuzzy parts that sometimes come by this or any other web site……….especially those sites which have liberal policies as this one……..The Very Best Site of The Web…..where most anyone can get their words in……..then suddenly,
that voice slinks away………
by their very own inner voice…….
Wow ………how conversation works…..
Henry has it correct in that let people talk……….
Thank you Henry and staff………
🙂 double that rbeason buddy 🙂
I guess he didn’t have much to say…LOL!
The above comment is true. I took a job as a desk clerk for a hotel
in my local town and made $1.85 per hour. My very good health
insurance was $3.00 a week with emergency room visits 100%
paid. I had a nice apartment, a car payment (TR6), went on vacation
every year, bought nice clothes, etc. After a promotion to bookkeeper/
secretary, I made $4.50/hr. Then I decided to get a college degree
with loans and scholarship. After graduation, I made $18.00/hr. I have
realized as the yrs. progressed, that I lived much better in 1973.
The cost of living now is out of balance brought about by greed. The
corps profit margins keep getting higher and higher.
I know…….and you are correct…..
I am very sad………
The greatest sadness I have is What is To Be Done About This!
I do believe, that although no answer is clear to this question, we as living each day, should not give in to despair……….Have I ever? Ya, for a short time, Then…pops up the realization of the beauty of life itself………and so I take a leaf of that and am reminded of what was, what is, what will be………the pulsating vibrant heart of each of us, and then comes the realization………well, its been that way since the written moment of paper…….china I am told invented modern paper…….and so…………..tally HO…..and I am not English……
Carry on, be happy………
Oh, Wish there was someone close at hand to get into this a bit further………No Man Is An Island……..Woman either………
We are a country of sniveling socialists whose fathers and grandfathers died in senseless wars for freedom that cost us more than we ever gained.The outcome of these wars have culminated in an ever increasing deamand for socialism.Free trade.Free markets.People don’t start wars.Governments do.Free markets don’t create depressions.Governments do.Government is a parasite on society.They can’t give you anything they haven’t stolen from someone else first.You need to be weaned off food cards in the same sense that we all need to be weaned off senseless wars of aggression and overbloated government.I care more about you than obama or bush does.
OK……….One can not be weaned off food cards when there is no where to go……..
except after you………
Tell me exactly how to do that?
In the first place……..
No food card recipient ever created that card for himself>>>>
You got to tell me something here………
Bring it on……..
Well rbeason, this is what I can only wish for again – like how I grew up in the late 50`s mid 60`s. – like the road side vegetable stand. Or I remember going to any store and they had their own private butcher ready to do you your own special cut of meat. There is probobly a reason why all that meat and other food stuff is pre packadged – and I thtink we all know why that “stuff ” is pre-packaged. 🙁
Why is this “stuff” prepackaged? I just don’t like the plastic touching my
food. Maybe, so they can change the expiration date when it doesn’t
sale. I don’t know.
I don’t like it touching my food either.
Possibly, though, packaging has to be. And I can not suggest something better……..????
Back to the past????
I am with you there……..
The statement though says nothing of
how to get off food stamps………
I am for no food stamps………
does that mean tomorrow there aren’t any?
NO
This is a conversation of employment
and you have said nothing about employment
For starters, we the people can and must demand
the 55,000 manf jobs be returned to where they
belong and were started or none of their offerings
will be shipped into this country. This was treason,
plain and simple with no regards to the suffering
this would cause. Again, greed.
absolutely………….
fact……I would suggest…..way more than 55th jobs…..
at the end of WW2 Japan was defeated……yet before i graduated from college, in 1967, that country had big time imports into our land………and not one auto manf plant in Japan…and you can tell me Japan, China, Korea, various other lands should take our jobs and sales of goods….
and destroy our work base and family life without a whimper within our land……….
Christ all Fu…..k….ing mighty………Something has to give………And be Damned if it will be myelf or any of us We The People……….I don’t have the answer………..I Do Have The Recognition of It Having To Be
I didn’t mean 55,000 manf jobs; I meant
55,000 manf plants. Sorry. This
entailed the loss of 4-5 million jobs.
This destroyed a whole working class,
hence Detroit. No hope.
there you go Leita
55th plants……..
I believe that…….
hell we have nothing left here when we mostly invented the item and the manufacturing of it…………
and we wonder why are people suffering in the US of A……..
God Sakes……….
I am on board…………
Fact is it may come to taking it all back via force…….I am Robert Beason Nam 1969 vet ……….
A peaceful person but not an idiot…….
Nor will I stand for anything else but whom I am……….
Excellent piece, Daisy. 🙂
“EXCELLENT PIECE…….opps….got to shut down the caps…
daisy”
Is this a follow up warrior kind of thing?…………
diggerdan what does prepackaged food have to do with ….food entitlements?……
If I am in left field, well then throw me the ball………
This whole article and speak easy is about employment is it not?
Brother before it gets lost in the conversation let me again say I agree with first statement.
In that what I mean is yes,..treat your hired help with dignity,..give them a decent work place….proper tools and teachings to do the job well and then take care of them and pay them good . You will have one helluva good company with dedicated workers.
When I came out of the Service I went into the Electrical industry,..”Construction”…we were taught and believed the only thing we had to sell was our labor and the quality we could provide over the “fly-by-nighter” companies.
The theme was if the man was paying you for 10 hours,.. then you give him 10 hours of the best product you could provide….. The gold bricker’s were weeded out along with the shoddy workers.
The man gave us good equipment to work with…respected us and cared about us…and payed day-um well…….sheit-fire we’d a worked on an electric-sh it house for that man if he’s a asked us to…..you know!
Times changed and companies did as well,….folks don’t do like that anymore.
But I tell you something,…and I still believe this to be true…….respect a man and pay him enough to live on so he can provide a life for his family, let him be part of it and not just another Mule to pull the day-um wagon……….and that same “Can-Do” spirit of the American worker will shine thru again….the same spirit that built the greatest nation to ever exist. That same spirit that built the railroads,..production plants…skyscrapers….the first cars….aeroplanes and went to the moon ..same folk who built and provided the metric millions of tons of tanks cannons planes and ships for a world desperately in need of munitions to fight aggression during the 1940’s.
Yeah that great generation that fought on two oceans and continents and worked its way out of a “created” depression (yeah I know that war was set up by higher powers but we still did it with hard work)
Things changed. Now its like as Merrel Haggard wrote in a song,…”back when coke was still cola and a joint a bad to place to be….when a man who wanted to work ,..still could. Are the best of the good times behind us now…are the good times really over for good” ? I believe not.
……………………
I see ebt cards as a thing that has to be now….Not so much the workers fault…nor the employers either,…we didn’t create this mess….it came from the top down……way up top in corp/govt., Its been served to us piece-meal to where its now a way of life for many.
I aint for freebies or hand outs..I wasn’t raised that way and refuse to be that way here in my later years. Some folk need it some folk don’t….I’m not gonna judge people for it….But I do see the rampant abuse there and if people use it that don’t need it,..then its wrong…I will say this….if a man is rewarded for not producing……he never will….its socialism in it basic form…………….Thats all I will say on that.
……………………………………………………………..
I believe this,…when the smoke clears from the field,…either govt-co and its minions will walk away in victory ….or WE will PREVAIL,…and when we do we again will rebuild this Nation…not like before…you cant go back,..but better! The Pride and Spirit of the true American Pioneer and worker will shine again and stand tall…..John Henry will drive the Steel and a Paul Bunyan will clear the land. Houses will be built along with barns and the soil will produce or food..families will work,live and love and That SPIRIT will be born again. That was and Is the AMERICAN DREAM…I believe.
Call me an old fool,…a dreamer if you must. But Orville Wright ,..Tesla,..and Henry Ford were old fools and dreamers too. How did it work out for them?
That same spirit is in each of us. Many don’t see it and gave up on it…but its there……its like FREEDOM. and LIBERTY….it just needs to be cultivated and watered.
People need to be reminded of who and what they are……
Peace to you rbeason!
Thanks guys. I’ve enjoyed these comments (catching up this morning). There is no (good) reason we cannot restore our manufacturing jobs. This monster/octopus has extended itself into every facet of our society and any mainstream proposed solutions seem designed to distract us and put the focus anywhere but on what would actually be an intelligent and workable plan to restore our country. We have creeping overregulation on individuals and small businesses, and lessening regulation on corporations. Why on earth have we allowed the offshoring of our jobs and manufacturing base? Years ago I could see the insanity of switching to a service-based economy. If we are not actually producing anything of value but just trading it all around, eventually (and yes, here we are) the wealth will all trickle UP to the 1%. And so many of us got fooled by it. We need our jobs back here. We are a country of immense size and resources — both natural and human. Our educational system has also systematically dumbed down the population. I’m not throwing daggers at individuals — there are always exceptions. However, it is like night and day, for me to run into an individual who is, let’s say, about 50 and up, vs. someone about 35 and under. You can see the zombiefication of the younger one, it is both subtle and in your face. The worst part is, this younger generation has no idea what they have lost, what has been taken from them. We, the older ones who are left and remember (before we die off by one means or another) need to put our boots on and pass down what we know, before it is lost.
The final (?) insult is the debt slavery which has crept up on so many of us: between the increased credentialization of so many jobs that pay anything (requirements creep up — no longer is HS diploma sufficient, nor even Bachelor’s degree in many instances…. this leads to more higher education, more loans, more debt) and the difficulty in finding jobs upon graduation that pay enough to permit paying off the usurious loans, and now Obamacare pulling even more money out of our meager paychecks…. how do many of us have enough to feed our families, to pay for the roof over our head, the gasoline to get to our jobs? We are stressed, strapped for time, depleted and this effect impacts our creativity and energy.
I wonder, for how much longer can people remain asleep? I did peek at the comments section in the NYT article yesterday about how wonderful Obamacare is, how happy everyone is with it, how successfully millions are signing up for it, and the comments (NYT comments tend to be polite and “well reasoned”) were virtually all blasting the author as being totally deluded. These were conservative and liberal commentors. The ones in praise of Obama himself still said that they did not know how they could “afford” health insurance, and they were angry.
But Daisy’s article is about EBT and the economy and not judging one another. I quite agree. I’d like to see a combination of not allowing ourselves to be divided over this — to come together, stop being distracted by the man behind the curtain, and solve this thing. Why are we waiting for the government to “create jobs?” Could it be that all of us have become so impoverished and indebted that we no longer have the resources to create jobs ourselves? I can’t believe that — difficult as it is these days, and although I value self sufficiency above many things, there is also a need for us (in my view) to come together and create solutions ourselves.
lest there be any doubt, I am NOT talking about communism! I’m talking about intelligent individuals being self sufficient and creating our own wealth and economy and not allowing a bloated government to steal it from us.
I do see some glimmerings here and there, but these can (and often are) subverted: for instance (just once example) there is an increased interest in making things ourselves, useful things, machinery, inventing. Small shops with the equipment needed for manufacturing are springing up, so that individuals do not need to all have all of the tools themselves. This is a voluntary thing (it must remain voluntary) — like neighbors sharing a lawnmower, you do not all, everyone, need to own your own lawnmower. So I believe in individual freedom and creativity, but using our brains to figure out how we can make good use of our resources through sharing and bartering. We are smart — we can figure this out.
In many places in the Bible, Old and New Testaments, compassion for the poor, widows, orphans, is called for and demanded by God. But no! Us “fortunates” just have to call all the “unfortunates” “lazy” “shiftless” etc. etc. (I use the terms “fortunates” and “unfortunates” as is done in the Johnny Depp movie “From Hell” about Jack the Ripper)…is it any wonder that it appears God has foresaken us? We are no better than the Pharisaic Jews spoken of in Malachi and elsewhere who rob the poor to feed the rich! And I used to be one of those who dissed the welfare mothers, medicaid families and the like calling them shiftless and lazy…in fact, the only TRULY shiftless and lazy people now are the criminal psychopaths who rule us AND their media synchophants and politicians they own.
But when the “fortunates” become the “unfortunates” which is happening with alarming velocity these days, I wonder if these folks will realize what a “bee-otch” Karma is, or, in Biblical terms, the true meaning of “Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them Do Unto You.”
I have no problem feeding the poor… Flour, Dried Cheese, Rice ect… I believe they used to call it commodities… Now we just subsidize the grocery store… Who can afford a $6.99 pie… i can’t
Dried Cheese…. now that’s funny…. I meant to say Dried Milk… ect… ect… ect…