Cutting Food Stamps, Rediscovering America's Roots

THERE ARE FORTY SEVEN MILLION FOOD STAMP recipients in the United States, more than one of every seven Americans. In the land of the very wealthy and the very poor, those in the middle are headed one way or the other. During the great recession which began about five years ago and never really seems to have ended, food stamp recipients were given an increase in allocation, but this expired just recently. As of now, the average recipient can get about four dollars a day worth of food using food stamps, or about the value of one meal from the McDonalds dollar menu. One wonders how such a wealthy country can possibly have such a huge lower class. Upon further reflection and a little historical research, one realizes that the United States has always been a nation with a huge lower class, a huge hard working class of people in poverty, despite their labors. In paying our attention to the great and famous, as we study history, and study the world around us, these poor millions are not often highlighted. Four million African slaves are freed after the Civil War, then they seem to just sort of vanish. Native Americans move westward ahead of the teeming European throngs, and then just disapper into the distance. Before the civil War anywhere from twenty five to fifty percent of adults in America were "indentured servants", in essence, white slaves, but only for seven years. Where have they gone? OH! Wait! They're the folks whose food stamp allotments just got cut back.