I personally do not believe this study.

lol are you joking? What about this is racist?

How do you get racism out of this?  We all pay taxes and IMHO, that's our fair share. The question we should be asking, why do people breed children that they cannot feed?  Instead of handing out food stamps, the government should be handing out birth control pills.  When the trough becomes empty, maybe people will get a clue.  It really is not my problem, even nature has its way of taking care of "stupid."

Ok, I've let a lot of borderline offensive comments go, but this one crosses the line.

Jaye, your insinuation that people who receive food stamps are stupid is offensive and obviously uninformed.  As are your views on birth control, apparently.

The racial divide in food stamp recipients highlights one of the major fundamental inequalities that still exist in this country.  It absolutely does not say anything about the character of the people who receive them.

Greg, I respect the work you do and admire your drive toward equality. The title of your article is striking, but in a way it feeds the stereo type many productive citizens have of those recieving benefits. It also does little to contradict the idea that most african americans families depend on welfare. To be fair to Marvin, an increase in education and access to birth control may help reduce the number of children that are born to parents who cannot support them, but we must be careful not to punish the children. In my opinion all children deserve three meals everyday.

I would prefer to see the numbers crunched without race to find causes of poverty which we can address (since we cannot change people's race). What percentage of foodstamp recipients are unmarried? what percentage are uneducated? finished highschool? went to college? are unemployed? live in rural areas? live in urban areas? Have been incarcerated? Have access to church sponsered outreach?

Unlike race these are underlying issues we can address. We must find solutions or a generational problem becomes a permanant way of life. How many of those 90% will have the oppertunity to go to college or learn a trade and become middle class? How many of them will go onto have children and require aid themselves? How many of them consider foodstamps part of a normal family life? I would argue that there are populations in this country where the statistcs for whites are strikingly simular.

I would also take the time to argue for those who live just outside the limits of assistance. If you get foodstamps at least you get food. How many people don't qualify because they earn wages, but still do not have enough money after the bills are paid to buy food. Looking back on my life, I felt more secure that I would have food during the time we qualified for food stamps because of my mother's unemployment than I did some of the time she was working and we got no assistance. I would hear her say I have no money for groceries because the car ins. is due this week or we have to get a new refridgerator, or the electric bill went up, or the car broke down or daycare got more expensive. Working at low wages and surving is harder in this country than not working and surviving on assistance.

My, my, what utter tripe. The study doesn't explain that in many places (like here in Oregon)just everybody is on food stamps. Whether at the supermarket of the convenience store I see the 17, 18, 19, 20 year olds whip out their Oregon Trail card to buy their chips and soda. Oh, and that 40 year old with the four kids getting the cart full of Sugar Pops, soda and cookies are all counting on that stat also. I don't know where they "ended the entitlement to aid" but it certainly wasn't anywhere near the west coast. In the present economic condition drawing breath seems to be the only requirement for aid so put your hankies up and get back to work to pay for it as the House of Reps has decided you should pay for everyones medical also...

The study neglects one factor as well ...the number of people who choose a lifestyle that quailifies them for assistance. I grewup in urban poverty and yes my mother (who became a single mother as a result of a divorce) briefly recieved food stamps so I understand the value of the program, but now living in a poor rural area I am appalled at the effects of these programs. Every one is on foodstamps. Many of them intentionally make life changing descisions solely based on how it will effect their ability to receive government assistance.

I recently became unemployed and found out we cannot cancel the insurance until next years open enrollment even if it means we cannot afford groceries. My husband still works so we do not qualify for assistance because they count the insurance premiums as income even though we never see them. I now breastfeed and use cloth diapers because I cannot afford the pampers and formula. If we have more children we might qualify but if we cancel the insurance I cannot afford to give birth again.

We pay those with the least potential and education to have the most children and many of the hardworking people cannot even afford one child.

I never thought that looking back at my life the one thing I would regret most was the descision to get married. I love my husband but we really messed up. This system favors those who are irresponsible and make mistakes and severely punishes those who try to "do the right thing". Maybe my friend who got knocked up an 18 (while I was busy working three jobs and paying for classes at the community college) had the right idea. She got a free ride to the university because she was a single mom.

This system also undermines the men in our society. In areas with a high percentage of the population depending on goverment assistance, men become uneeded and disposable. Women do not want any connection to men because it may jeopardize their entitlements. Men who are not needed or wanted have little reason to be upstanding and productive. Without dependents men also have no way of qualifying for the benefits which may help them survive the low wages they are offered. It is sad all around.

If my generation is any indication, marriage will soon become an antiquated idea as people adapt in an effort to survive. If the goverment cannot make family life affordable to the working class, the working class will socialize the system by qualifying themselves for the existing programs.

I agree Rebecca, I know (some) people take advantage of the system. Because the system is set up badly. But we can not group 'everyone' in that same basket. I also agree that the middle class is being totally ignored in their needs. There should be some middle ground.

James,

It is kind of disturbing that in Oregon (which is also my home state as well) some of the things that can be purchased with food stamps. I think there was another blog awhile back ago by someone about changing what could be purchased with food stamps. It definitely goes to keeping people health, but then again, you have people crying that big brother can't always monitor what we buy (even if that's where the money is coming from).

As to the article, I didn't look at the study, but single parent families seem to be the ones who struggle the most. My mom was also a single parent who survived on a mere $400 a month child support for two children. I remember being on food stamps a few times as a child. Sometimes we worried whether the check was in the mail. My mom had a decent job, but one income for three people made it very hard.

David, I believe the big argument against controlling what could be purchased with food stamps was political correctness. Stupid, yes it was.

There are many needy and deserving families that should get assistance. The problem with this, and many other, studies is the speed with which it is turned into a racial thing. With Jessee Jackson and Rangleand so many others out there beating the blacks with their "poor you, you need help. You can't do it on your own," rhetoric it is no wonder so many claim their "rights" to food help. These people will do just fine if their "leaders" will just stop leading them down the Yellow Brick Road of entitlement. Most the blacks I know are capable, competent, fully employed people, but I don't live in the inner city. I know from statistics that many low income, inner city areas are war zones where people can go through their entire lives in a state of shell shock and where law enforcement is in appearance only. Clean up the inner cities and the food problem will take care of itself 

Rebecca, just a few quick thoughts:

1) I would hardly call safety net assistance programs a "reward".  They are meager allotments at best.  SNAP (food stamps) are designed not to provide complete food security, but only a partial asistance for your food bill.  Thus, you're still spending a lot of your time looking to put food on the table, instead of looking for work or taking class or training programs.  Bad idea.  If we're going to give assistance, let's at least give full assistance and a continuum of support.

2) At the same time, I agree with you in some ways, that they don't necessarily incentivize advancement or create the conditions for people to get ahold of their life and work to improve themselves and their family.  However, instead of bemoaning this, I believe we can make smart changes to make the programs more sophisticated and empowering. 

For instance, a believe you are right in saying that people organize some life decisions around keeping the benefits.  Now ask: Why is that?  I believe the answer is that the programs aren't sophisticated in their design.  There is the problem, for instance, of getting dropped from the program if you pass a certain income threshold, you get dropped.  This is not smart and does not incentivize work.  We should work to implement an "off-ramp" strategy, where beneifts are scaled down, or you are put automatically on other benefits you become eligible for, once you are no longer eligible for others.

Thu, there are programs, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), that support working families through tax rebates who might not be elligible for more basic cash assistance.  Knowledge of these programs is low.  They need to be harmonized into a continuum of services which communicate with each other, in order to provide an off-ramp into employment and self-sufficiency.

There are other practices that are designed to be "tought", but just end up being punitive and wasting money, like finger printing people to get benefits.  Another bad idea.  There are some challenges in life that build you up, but there are others that just waste your time.  Finger imaging and like practices are a big WOT (and money), as they say.

So, I share your frustration, and I think we can turn it into intelligence and resolve for a better way of ensuring basic human rights.

You ready?

@Bobby Steele- yes I am talking about growing up in the 50-70's.

I don't want to rub people the wrong way, but the truth is.... the reason so many black children depend on foodstamps is because so many black children are born out of wedlock and therefore qualify for food stamps. I don't know the actual number, but I believe its close to 80% of all black children are born out of wedlock. (I laughed when they said on the news last year that the african american community in California turned out in large numbers to vote against Gay marriage. The gay community took it so personally but what they failed to see is that the african american community in California is opposed to marriage in general but only gay marriage was on the ballot) The same dynamics also exist in mostly white poor rural areas where wages are low and work is scarce. (It just so happens that there are huge urban epicenters full of wealthy white people that are averaged in to make the percentage of white people on foodstamps much lower)

This has not always been the case. As Laurie mentioned there was a time in this country when relying on goverment aid was a more temporary thing that helped hardworking people survive a difficult event in their lives. Two generations ago there actually was a black middle/working class. Although it was extremely difficult for them many african americans coming out of the civil rights movement wanted nothing else but the chance to attain middle class and they strived hard toward that end. They got married, started businesses and families, worked very hard and wanted what every other american at the time wanted, a house and a white pickett fence.

The thing that has changed is the system. Welfare has become more generous and easier to collect on a full time basis. The benefits used to be temporary and so minimal that is was miserable to try and live on them. People who had benefits then did not drive nice cars or have TV's and computers (I know we didn't when we were recieving benefits) But now most of the recipients do. The bottom line is that it has gotten harder to attain working/middle class status as a family unit. Any community where wages are low and an education is more difficult to get soon finds that being unmarried on assistance puts them in the same place financially as being married and employed (only it requires alot less work). To an african american woman (who was most likely raised without a father) the government is a far more dependable and consistant provider than an uneducated black man earning low wages. Sad how the system discards black men in favor of a matriarchalcommunity. Boys who never see fathers never learn to become fathers. And men who do not have the opportunity to be a father to their children have little incentive to be productive. Two generations ago men worked two, three, even four jobs because their families DEPENDED on them. Not because it was a fun way to pass the time. 

I'm not saying we can or should eleminate these benefits but what I am saying is that we should bring jobs and higher education to these communities, rebuild the working middle class, stop penalizing families for being married, make things like healthcare and childcare affordable to productive citizens and incentivise healthy family units.

Instead of pushing employment so hard on single mothers (because lets face it if you are a single parent to 3 kids making low women's wages it does NOT pay to work) why don't they push marriage. Then the women can work at home (raising and educating the children) and the men can share the financial burden of raising the family with the government. Women's Libbers will shoot me for implying that women should become dependent on men, but if they cannot provide for themselves maybe they do need the men.

Lets just say (for sake of argument) they made marriage at the time of conception OR marriage at the time of application a requirement for recieving full benefits. All children who did not fit into this category would, I admit, suffer but perhaps churches and private citizens could step up during the transition.

Use your imagination for a minute... sure it will result in sham marriages, but if every child in the system had a man attatched to their file, men would become part of the system and at least partly responsible for the children. Better to be part of this sytem than the prison system. Men would become needed (if only for "sham" marriages its a start). The men in these communities will have to learn how to deal with and relate to the women (not just in the bedroom) and I think that, with time the role of husband and father will grow on them. Now we will need jobs for these men, and an oppertunity to be educated, but for once they may have the desire to take advantage of these oppertunities (if they are provided). Things would not change immediately but it took 30 years to get this way.

I welcome comments! As a community we must discuss any posssible solutions.

It just seems that the Welfare system was gradually set up to break down Black families.

I've brought this up elsewhere, but I never find a real solid answer... WHAT HAPPENED ? I've seen pictures of Harlem in the early 1900s. The people were Black, but always dressed to the nines. They were prosperous and clearly financially well-off and independent. What tore that apart ?