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Page added on October 17, 2013
The Coming Food Stamp Riots
It may not happen this month, or even this year, but food stamp riots are coming to America. In fact, we got a small preview of the coming food stamp riots this past weekend when a “temporary system failure” caused food stamp cards to stop working in 17 U.S. states. Within hours, there were “mini-riots” at Wal-Marts and other retailers that rely heavily on food stamp users. So what would happen if food stamp benefits were cut off or reduced for an extended period of time? As you will see below, if Congress had not pushed through a “deal”, the USDA would have started cutting off food stamp benefits on November 1st.
Image: Groceries.
Considering the fact that 47 million Americans are on food stamps and more than 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government, that could have sparked massive rioting. So the good news is that the coming food stamp riots will probably not happen in November. The bad news is that the “deal” in Congress only delays the political fighting until after Christmas. In just a few months we will be dealing with a potential “government shutdown” and a debt ceiling deadline once again.
Most Americans have no idea what almost just happened. According to Reuters, the state of North Carolina had already cut off some welfare benefits for the month of November…
North Carolina has become the first state to cut off welfare benefits to poor residents in the wake of the partial federal government shutdown, ordering a halt to processing November applications until a deal is reached to end the federal standstill.
More than 20,000 people – most of them children – receive monthly benefits aimed at helping them buy food and other basic supplies through North Carolina’s welfare program, called Work First, which is fully funded by the federal government. Recipients must reapply each month.
And as Mac Slavo recently detailed, the USDA was already planning to cut off food stamp assistance to millions of Americans on November 1st…
We say next month because the USDA, which oversees the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), has just issued an order to SNAP agency directors calling for their respective States to implement an emergency contingency program because of government funding issues. In a letter obtained by the Crossroads Urban Center food pantry, the USDA is directing state agencies to, “delay their November issuance files and delay transmission to State Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) vendors until further notice.”
What this means is that should Congress fail to increase the debt ceiling this week, come November there will literally be millions of people in the United States who will have exactly zero dollars transferred to their EBT cards.
What will happen to the nearly 50 million people who depend on these benefits to survive?
In fact, there have been quite a few news reports that have confirmed this…
In Utah, Fox News 13 in Salt Lake City reported that a local provider recently received a letter from the USDA sticking to the November 1 cut-off date.
“This is going to create a huge hardship for the people we serve here in our food pantry,” Bill Tibbits, Associate Director at Crossroads Urban Center, told Fox News 13.
“What this means [is] if there’s not a deal, if Congress doesn’t reach a deal to get federal government back up and running, in Utah about 100,000 families won’t get food stamp benefit,” added Tibbits.
The USDA letter says in part, “in the interest of preserving maximum flexibility, we are directing states to hold their November issuance files and delay transmission to state electronic benefit transfer vendors until further notice.”
So what would have happened if tens of millions of Americans suddenly had their food stamp benefits cut off without warning?
Well, what happened last weekend can give us a few clues. Just check out what happened at one Wal-Mart in Mississippi…
Customers staged a disturbance then walked out of a Mississippi Walmart store with groceries that hadn’t been paid for Saturday night after a computer glitch left them unable to use their food stamp cards.
People in 17 states found themselves unable to buy groceries with their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program cards after a routine check by vendor Xerox Corp. resulted in a temporary system failure.
Shortly after the mini-riot, managers decided to temporarily close the store, citing customer safety.
Due to this technical glitch, many parents were left wondering how they were going to feed their families. If this is the kind of anger that is unleashed over a single failed trip to the grocery store, what would we see if this kind of thing went on for an extended period of time?
At some Wal-Mart stores down in Louisiana, EBT cards were not showing any limits on Saturday night, and within two hours many store shelves in the grocery section were completely cleared of merchandise…
Shelves in Walmart stores in Springhill and Mansfield, LA were reportedly cleared Saturday night, when the stores allowed purchases on EBT cards even though they were not showing limits.
The chaos that followed ultimately required intervention from local police, and left behind numerous carts filled to overflowing, apparently abandoned when the glitch-spurred shopping frenzy ended.
Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd confirms they were called in to help the employees at Walmart because there were so many people clearing off the shelves. He says Walmart was so packed, “It was worse than any black Friday” that he’s ever seen.
Sadly, this was only a very small preview of the massive food stamp riots that are eventually coming to America. I like how Mike Adams explained what we are likely to see in the future…
Why does any of this matter? Because this is exactly the same way these people will behave when the federal government goes into default and nearly 50 million EBT cards stop working nationwide.
Fifty million. Consider that for a moment. Most of those 50 million people live in high-density cities. Many are proud owners of Obama phones, Obama food stamps, Obama unemployment checks and Obama subsidized housing. They have absolutely no clue that the government upon which they wholly depend to put food on the table is teetering on the verge of permanent collapse. (Seriously, they cannot conceive of the idea of government “running out of money” because they do not understand where money comes from.) Because of this distorted belief, they do not prepare for any future events other than more Obama handouts. Their entire “preparedness” plan is to vote for Democrats, because that’s who they know will give them the most handouts. And they will always win the popular vote, too, because any politician promising to restore responsible fiscal spending to the government by cutting programs will be viciously accused of being “mean” or involved in “hating poor people.” So the government handouts will only ratchet higher and higher, ensnaring more and more people, until the entire system is unsustainable and collapses under its own weight.
When that system of dependence fails, those who depend on it will panic in mere hours. As proof of this, consider the fact that this mass looting of Wal-Mart stores happened in less than three hoursafter the Saturday EBT card glitch struck. Police had to be called in to prevent the situation from getting completely out of control, and it was offline for only part of one day.
Now imagine what will happen when EBT cards go offline for 24, 48 or even 72 hours. And imagine it happening in every U.S. city simultaneously.
Of course not all Americans would go wild when food stamp benefits are cut off.
Other Americans express their desperation in other ways. According to Bloomberg, an increasing number of people are starting to sell hair, breast milk and their own eggs in a desperate attempt to make ends meet…
Hair, breast milk and eggs are doubling as automated teller machines for some cash-strapped Americans such as April Hare.
Out of work for more than two years and facing eviction from her home, Hare recalled Louisa May Alcott’s 19th-century novel and took to her computer.
“I was just trying to find ways to make money, and I remembered Jo from ‘Little Women,’ and she sold her hair,” the 35-year-old from Atlanta said. “I’ve always had lots of hair, but this is the first time I’ve actually had the idea to sell it because I’m in a really tight jam right now.”
The mother of two posted pictures of her 18-inch auburn mane on www.buyandsellhair.com, asking at least $1,000 and receiving responses within hours. Hare, who also considered selling her breast milk, joins others exploring unconventional ways to make ends meet as the four-year-old economic expansion struggles to invigorate the labor market and stimulate incomes.
We have moved into a time when things are becoming increasingly unstable and when people are becoming increasingly desperate.
In an attempt to keep order, the authorities will become increasingly forceful in the years ahead. At this point, many law enforcement officers already believe that there is very little that they cannot do to exert their “authority” over the rest of us. Just check out video of a drunk off-duty police officer “arresting” a woman that refused to go out on a date with him right here. Sadly, this type of behavior is becoming way too common these days.
And it looks like major financial institutions are getting ready for the chaos that is eventually coming as well. In fact, according to an article by Paul Joseph Watson, Chase Bank is now placing a limit on cash withdrawals and is banning business customers from sending wire transfers out of the country…
Chase Bank has moved to limit cash withdrawals while banning business customers from sending international wire transfers from November 17 onwards, prompting speculation that the bank is preparing for a looming financial crisis in the United States by imposing capital controls.
Numerous business customers with Chase BusinessSelect Checking and Chase BusinessClassic accounts have received letters over the past week informing them that cash activity (both deposits and withdrawals) will be limited to a $50,000 total per statement cycle from November 17 onwards.
Fortunately, the chaos that would have been unleashed if Congress had not made a deal has now been delayed for a few months.
But by kicking the can down the road, our politicians continue to make our long-term problems even worse. Either we are going to have tremendous pain now, or we are going to have even worse pain later. Peter Schiff explained the choice that we are facing this way…
If Republicans were to inexplicably prevail, and the federal government were to cut spending so that its expenditures matched its tax revenues (a truly radical idea) the country’s financial mess would be laid bare. The government would have to weigh the relative costs and benefits of making interest payments on Treasury debt (primarily to foreign creditors) or to trim entitlements promised to U.S. citizens. But those are choices we will have to make sooner or later anyway. In fact we should have dealt with these issues years ago. But generations of mechanistic debt ceiling increases have allowed us to perpetually kick the can down the road. What could possibly be gained by doing it again, particularly if it is done with no commitment to change course?
The Democrats’ argument that America needs to pay its bills is just hollow rhetoric. Paying off one’s Visa bill with a new and bigger MasterCard bill can’t be considered a legitimate payment of debt. At best it is a transfer. But in the government’s case, it doesn’t even qualify as that. Treasury debt is primarily bought by the Fed, foreign central banks, and major financial institutions. None of that will change with a debt ceiling increase. We will just go to the same people for greater quantities. So it’s like paying off your Visa card with a bigger Visa card.
We are living on borrowed time that has been purchased by stealing money from future generations.
We are literally destroying the future in order to make the present more palatable.
But whether it is this year, or next year or the year after that, at some point we are going to experience the pain that results from decades of incredibly foolish decisions.
I hope that you are getting ready.
26 Comments on "The Coming Food Stamp Riots"
GregT on Thu, 17th Oct 2013 2:59 pm
“It may not happen this month, or even this year, but food stamp riots are coming to America.”
“Considering the fact that 47 million Americans are on food stamps and more than 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government…”
“Most of those 50 million people live in high-density cities.”
“by kicking the can down the road, our politicians continue to make our long-term problems even worse. Either we are going to have tremendous pain now, or we are going to have even worse pain later.”
One year? Two years? Five years? How much time is left? The time to move away from densely populated areas and to get involved in small local sustainable communities, is running out. What is coming will be extremely ugly for most people.
The time to act is now.
BillT on Thu, 17th Oct 2013 3:56 pm
100 million plus on government support.
250 million guns in the hands of the citizens.
A bankrupt country running on lies. Ditto Japan. Ditto The EU.
steveo on Thu, 17th Oct 2013 5:52 pm
The news stories read like a chapter from “The Long Emergency”. Like like Kustler is right, maybe even an optimist.
Jerry McManus on Thu, 17th Oct 2013 6:00 pm
I moved to a very small town (pop 1200) about a year ago and I can report first hand that the problems here will be every bit as bad in the city.
– Rural areas tend to be economically depressed, especially those once dependent on resource extraction
– Poverty rates can be very high in rural areas, as can drug and alcohol problems, which also contributes to high property crime rates
– Rural cities and counties are being hit hardest by reduced tax revenue. Already scarce services are being further cut, and expensive infrastructure projects are being voted down
– When state and national distribution systems start to break down it will probably be remote rural areas that will be the first to go dark
Don’t get me wrong, I do not regret my decision and have no plans to move back to the city, I would just caution people to be realistic about what to expect. That is all.
DC on Thu, 17th Oct 2013 6:21 pm
The United States of Perpetual War
-Overpopulated
-Despised WorldWide, even by its ‘allies'(especially them)
-Living off the over third of the worlds resources.Many obtained under threat or coercion.
-Corporate policy to create a large underclass of racially incompatible slave-workers to keep wages low and consume amerikas low-quality ‘food’ and alcohol, about to blow up in there faces.
-Population continues to swell by over one million economic migrants each year.
-Waste-based ‘economy’ of endless debt issuance has entered permanent contraction phase.
-Controlled by Banks and auto\oil corporations and weapons manufactures.
-Worst education system in the world.
You do the math…
I can appreciate your comment Jerry. I haven’t been through ‘small’ town amerika for a few years, but last time ‘small’ town amerika was mostly just a shabby copy of ‘big’ amerika. A few sad looking fast-food franchises, a decrepit downtown, the standard economy wrecking ‘big’ boxes. Small town amerika is a corporate wasteland as well for the most part no? How could it be otherwise. Corporate policy in the uS was never to permit small local towns to be food, energy or transport sufficient in any way. Small towns largely serve as resource extraction centers-to ship raw materials to distant cities and suburbs.Every ‘small’ amerikan town I have ever seen seems built around the transfer of raw materials to ‘somewhere’ else.
It will either be gas-riots or food riots-or both. In big towns and small. Small town amerika is as incapable of feeding itself as suburbia is.
baptised on Thu, 17th Oct 2013 6:37 pm
Cut the military complex! NOW! No other country would want this place anyway,
PrestonSturges on Thu, 17th Oct 2013 6:47 pm
Rural economies tend to be much much more dependent on the federal government, especially when you factor in all the subsidies for farms, communication, transportation, federal infrastructure projects, and retirement incomes. And that’s just the people that call themselves “creators” and “self made men.” And yes, lots and lots of the rural population is on food stamps.
The thing to be careful of is that white supremacists have been painting this as something that only applies to black people living in the city. And lets not forget the GOP uses this also to get Americans to cut their own throats.
But if you look race war porn like “The Turner Diaries,” the idea of armed whites sealing off the riot torn cities and shooting refugees has become universal. Basically they see the cities as a modern version of the Warsaw Ghetto. Thta’s one of the reasons they want poverty programs abolished – they think this will trigger the race war they’ve been anticipating for nearly 50 years.
Arthur on Thu, 17th Oct 2013 8:03 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzspsovNvII
Chapter Jackson – It’s Free Swipe Yo EBT (Explicit)
Ghung on Thu, 17th Oct 2013 8:14 pm
“…the stores allowed purchases on EBT cards even though they were not showing limits.”
It’s not the store’s problem. Do these customers not get that there is a record of these purchases and that the overages will be deducted from future payments? Looking forward to seeing how folks react then.
What a lot of folks overlook, especially the Tea Party folks, is that these programs mean billions of dollars being spent directly into their local economies. When these programs are curtailed or cancelled, a lot of jobs will go with them. So we’ll have even more people needing assistance. Did somebody mention feedback loops? This is the nature of our multiple predicaments.
There’s only one viable ‘solution’ that even has a hope of mitigating this mess: Tax the crap out of ‘parked’ unproductive monies; get the velocity of capital going. Of course, the corporations and individuals who are sitting on a couple of $trillion in this country also control the ‘deciders’, so it’ll be the over-leveraged pension funds and retirement accounts of of the middle class that get pilfered first. Then a tax on ordinary bank accounts….
This could get very interesting very fast. As mentioned above, small towns are in a unique situation. Our small county was a backwater not so long ago. We have a fairly diverse population now with a lot of active involvement. Being at the end of the supply chain, and having usually been under represented in State And National government, we’re pretty use to solving our own problems, mostly working together to find alternatives. There’s already a move back to our agrarian past, and a couple of fairly large employers in sectors which should be resistant to economic decline. My wife’s employer (tax related – supporting/exploiting an ever more complex tax code) has grown 5 fold since 2008, and would be difficult to outsource or off-shore. One can always hope. I’m just glad my family (mostly) voluntarily began it’s ‘contraction’ years ago, similar to Greer’s pre-collapse strategy.
GregT on Thu, 17th Oct 2013 8:14 pm
Jerry,
I would far rather be surrounded by 1200 desparate, hungry people, than millions of desparate, hungry people.
It sounds like the small town that you have moved to, does not have a ‘sustainabilty’ plan in effect? If this is indeed the case, now would be a very good time to spread the word.
The more people involved in a local sustainable community plan, the less the impact will be, when times get tough.
You might be surprised to find out how many people are waking up. I was.
Jerry McManus on Thu, 17th Oct 2013 9:56 pm
@GregT
Good point!
There are a number of working farms in the area, if they don’t fold under the pressure of expensive and/or scarce fossil fuel inputs it might just be possible to feed the local population, at least while the climate remains relatively stable.
There are a few “progressive” folks in town, which is somewhat unusual for an area that is staunchly conservative. We have a small community garden and attempts are being made to start a food co-op, so yes, some small steps towards resilience.
That said, I am under no illusion that when the chips are down it is the guys with the guns who will be the ones eating well at the expense of others, and that at least some of the starving millions from the cities will find their way here eventually…
J-Gav on Thu, 17th Oct 2013 9:58 pm
Jerry,
Pretty much the same situation here in France, where I’m looking for a place to ‘get out of Dodge,’ in this case the capital, Paris. A lot of economic wastelands out there, where people have no jobs, no hope and (they believe) no future – so they keep on coming to the cities. If it’s at all possible, getting it together at a local level will be preferable to what’s gonna hit great metropolises. Read some Wendell Berry and watch Bill Moyers’ recent interview with him. Meantime, hang in.
action on Thu, 17th Oct 2013 10:00 pm
Arthur, that’s hilarious, I was going to post that exact video, saying try not to punch a hole through your computer screen when you watch this. Bloody hell, she’s funny, but I know people take that video as inspiration instead of patronizing.
I know what the 50 mill should do when food stamps end – suicide.
Norm on Thu, 17th Oct 2013 10:12 pm
A thought provoking article. Unfortunately written by & for the far right. ‘Obamas Food Stamps’ etc etc. Ya right, the repub admin expands the welfare society as fast as the left. Faster cause the repubs take you job and your money so the poor is yourself. So blaming Obama is just fresh raw meat for the far right dummies. Other than that, ya 50 million hungry rioters sound like trouble. Put in a bomb shelter, with submarine hatch and periscope.
PrestonSturges on Thu, 17th Oct 2013 11:59 pm
Also notice this tired wingnut trope:
“…..more than 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program…”
Got that? Here let me translate for those of you that don’t speak wingnut:
“WELFARE” = SOCIAL SECURITY
“WELFARE” = SOCIAL SECURITY
“WELFARE” = SOCIAL SECURITY
“WELFARE” = SOCIAL SECURITY
GregT on Fri, 18th Oct 2013 12:02 am
Jerry,
The three S’s should all be part of a sustainability plan. Sustenance, shelter, and security. All three can be broken down into smaller subsections.
We take these for granted in modern industrial society. As long as we work, and pay our share, someone else worries about the details. If we did not have police with guns patrolling our streets, violence would become far more rampant than it already is, very rapidly.
Security is every bit as important as food, water, and shelter, and should be treated as such. Firearms should be an essential part of sustainability planning. Everyone in your group should be proficient in their use. Ammunition should be stockpiled, as should firearms.
My 86 year old grandmother had a 308, a 12 gage shotgun, and a 45 colt auto, hanging over the inside of her front door, and she knew how to use them.
There is nothing new here, we are merely going to revert back to where we were, pre oil.
Arthur on Fri, 18th Oct 2013 12:38 am
“There is nothing new here, we are merely going to revert back to where we were, pre oil.”
Or maybe we should move… ‘forward’?
http://deepresource.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/gussing-austria-fossil-fuel-free/
PrestonSturges on Fri, 18th Oct 2013 12:54 am
The whole point of stories like this is to convince seniors that “welfare” only benefits dangerous rampaging inner city blacks, but when the GOP says “100 million people on welfare” that means Social Security and children and the disabled. This is about getting seniors to vote for cuts to Social Security.
Don’t forget the biggest part of the deficit is due to tax cuts for the rich, and this is about getting the poor to pay for those tax cuts.
Stilgar on Fri, 18th Oct 2013 1:16 am
Obama says his #1 priority now is to work out a budget. The upcoming negotiations should be interesting as we already know the R’s want to cut into food stamps, so that may happen to some percentage or another in the next few months.
I can just hear them now, asking; shall we test the percentage it can be cut just short of causing riots? “Ah, see we went too far. In this other reduction done in this other state they didn’t get riots by simply reducing food stamps 12% instead of the amount we did, 15%.”
Might make for a really sick sci-fi thriller as the economy contracts and behind the scenes are these politicians crunching the numbers, seeking to balance the budget but mindful of the critical thresholds that if breached lead to unrest.
“Ok, they’re starting to come unglued in Sutter County. Send in trucks right now to give away free pork rinds and waters. Meanwhile we’ll raise their cards just enough and announce it from loud speakers on the trucks.”
A sort of sick scenario of finding that razor edge of support without exceeding it more than just enough to get by on. The movie will be called, ‘Food Edge’.
bobinget on Fri, 18th Oct 2013 1:50 am
Not to worry. The farmers friend, food stamps, will be restored to the up-coming Farm Bill.
Far right Republicans, Religious loonies, can’t afford to alienate one of their last remaining support base.
rollin on Fri, 18th Oct 2013 1:59 am
The average monthly benefit per person for SNAP (food stamps) is $133 dollars. Try living on less than $5 a day for food. Some people pay more than that for a cup a java in the morning.
So when the big wife repubs cut funding from food stamps they can’t free up more than 1.5% of the federal budget because that is all that food stamps use.
All the repubs are going to do with any money they remove from social programs is feed it to their buddy contractors and start another war to make them a lot of profit., putting the nation further in danger and debt.
Dave Thompson on Fri, 18th Oct 2013 2:28 am
The international corporate bankers, military industrial media complex own the planet. These owners are going to try and wind things down in such a way that things will stay the same, but change. The price of fuel will ratchet up year over year and our lives will be made to make due on less. It is already here. It has been going on now for some time. I for one am trying to live without driving, and walking for everything. Not easy in suburbia, but doable with a minimalist mind set.
BillT on Fri, 18th Oct 2013 3:05 am
Here in the Ps, there are a lot of cycles with side cars that they use to move people and things in the countryside. Both motored and human powered. No motor vehicle has only the driver. Trucks are used only when there is no other way.
Once we move to our farm. We will be about 4 miles from the nearest ‘town’. We will probably walk when the local jeepneys no longer run, but those trips will be for the few things we cannot produce on the farm. We can hire a carabao (Philippine ox) to haul in things that are too heavy like building materials. (Or a truck, if they are still running.) Owning a car will not be necessary.
There are advantages to living in a 3rd world country.
Frank Kling on Fri, 18th Oct 2013 3:36 am
Unfortunately, I live in an ex-urban community with a 99% White population, and county government is controlled 100% by the Republicans. The result? We have the 24th highest property taxes in the country and there are just as many White welfare queens as in any big American city.
Charlie Bucket on Fri, 18th Oct 2013 2:22 pm
With “just in time” delivery of food, even in small towns, the lower you are on the economic scale the sooner you will suffer. Unless you already have a sustainable garden using heirloom seeds you will be screwed just as fast if not sooner than those in the “cities”.
GregT on Fri, 18th Oct 2013 3:42 pm
“Unless you already have a sustainable garden using heirloom seeds you will be screwed just as fast if not sooner than those in the “cities”.
It takes much more than just a heirloom garden to build a sustainable community.
“the lower you are on the economic scale the sooner you will suffer”
There are thousands of people within the city where I currently live, that are surviving outside of the economy already. I doubt that their lives will change all that much. Those that have the most, have the most to lose, and many of them would not have a clue how to survive, without all of the luxuries that they have become accustomed to. The psychological impact of finding oneself at a much lower social status in of itself, would be devastating for many people.
It is a said that the success of a society, can be judged by the size of it’s middle class. It is the middle class that will be the first to disappear in a downturn. This is already happening.