If the following statement is true something very basic is now wrong in the USA

From DRUDGE, this afternoon:

Nearly half of all U.S. children
will be on food stamps
at some point during childhood,
and fallout from current recession
could push those numbers
even higher, researchers say... Developing...

PS...I have have a hard time believing HALF of all American kids will be on food stamps
If that is true, MORE SOCIALISM WILL ACCOMPLISH ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, having already failed in that creation.

UPDATE:
HERE IS THE ARTICLE

Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, and fallout from the current recession could push those numbers even higher, researchers say.

The estimate comes from an analysis of 30 years of national data, and it bolsters other recent evidence on the pervasiveness of youngsters at economic risk. It suggests that almost everyone knows a family who has received food stamps, or will in the future, said lead author Mark Rank, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis.

More from Mark Rank:

A report from the Economic Mobility Project that looked at income data over time found that black children were less likely than their white counterparts to earn more than their parents did. And being born to middle-class parents did not offer the same protections to black children as it did to whites. Among children whose parents were in the middle of the income scale, 45 percent of black children fell to the bottom of the income scale as adults, while only 16 percent of whites did.

"Many more blacks experience poverty, many fewer experience affluence," said Mark Rank, a professor of social work at Washington University who studies poverty and economic inequality.

And in tough economic times like these, people who are more vulnerable have more to lose, said Charles Gallagher, professor of sociology at La Salle University in Philadelphia.

"The black middle class is precarious compared to the white middle class," he said.

"I think it will have some long-lasting effects," Rank said of the current economic woes. "It's taken a long while to reduce some of those racial differences so this is just going to set that back."

Black people of the middle class are more vulnerable? Why because their money is worht less?
Urban and suburban middle class blacks are more vulnerable than rural middle class whites?
NOT A CHANCE.
What a crock for reason, of ECONOMIC JUSTICE, perhaps?

MORE HERE

The analysis was released Monday in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. The authors say it's a medical issue pediatricians need to be aware of because children on food stamps are at risk for malnutrition and other ills linked with poverty.

"This is a real danger sign that we as a society need to do a lot more to protect children," Rank said.

Food stamps are a Department of Agriculture program for low-income individuals and families, covering most foods although not prepared hot foods or alcohol. For a family of four to be eligible, their annual take-home pay can't exceed about $22,000.

According to a USDA report released last month, 28.4 million Americans received food stamps in an average month in 2008, and about half were younger than age 18. The average monthly benefit per household totaled $222.

Rank and Cornell University sociologist Thomas Hirschl studied data from a nationally representative survey of 4,800 American households interviewed annually from 1968 through 1997 by the University of Michigan. About 18,000 adults and children were involved.

Overall, about 49 percent of all children were on food stamps at some point by the age of 20, the analysis found. That includes 90 percent of black children and 37 percent of whites. The analysis didn't include other ethnic groups.

Well let's see, over these 30 years the federal budget has done what?

Therefore the relationship between children on food stamps and the federal budget is what?

I have a VERY VERY HARD TIME WITH THIS. This sounds a lot like the data about rape which was running around a few years ago. If half of all children end up on food stamps WHY DO WE EVEN HAVE AN ECONOMY?

Mark Rank's books

HERE check out pages 170, 171+

and HERE, a vested interest in poverty, and it's immenseness and in worn ideas attributing fault to all too predictable scrooges. Frankly, I do not and never did accept the idea that the poor are poor because they are lazy, or want to be on welfare AS A CLASS. (Which is Rank's observation of what successful people think) Rather they have been deprived IMHO of adequate OPPORTUNITY to compete. School curricula no longer emphasize fundamental skills and this has been since curricula have been formed by a malignantly HUGE Dept of Education in Washington. Anyone know how large this Dept was under Eisenhower?Police and legal systems do not EXECUTE CRIMINAL JUSTICE TO KEEP SCHOOLS SAFE. YADDA. The kids are not taught to field grounders in a world where success is turning the double play regularly.

With no real world solutions mentioned to these fantastic figures, please allow me... reduce govt interference in business, taxes, and down to the local level. Eliminate restrictions on trade. Eliminate govt perturbations designed for 'social justice' which inherently increase risk and skew markets.

If these numbers were to be accepted, then certainly as the size of govt has grown, as the budgets for federal state and local govts have ballooned then so has this DISASTER.

The answer is is a diminutive govt with highly limited powers. Not more of what has not worked.

Finally back to Dr. Rank and his bent ...

Rank now sees his research, teaching and writing interests as entering a new phase. The first phase, which culminated with "Living on the Edge," involved intensive examination of families on welfare. His forthcoming book, "In the Shadows of Plenty," represents a second phase, in which he explores the broader causes and implications of poverty and challenges readers to re-examine how they think of poverty in this country.

In the third phase, he plans to spend time exploring the core principles that have shaped America and to juxtapose these principles with the reality of American life. Specifically, how have the values of liberty, equality and justice been understood, and to what extent have they been fulfilled in contemporary American society?

Rank will be bringing his new interests into the classroom soon, using these questions as the focal point of a new course he is co-teaching next semester with Larry May, Ph.D., a professor of philosophy in Arts and Sciences who specializes in issues of ethics and shared responsibility.

"The real question here is what America should stand for in terms of all of its citizens, not just those who are able to enjoy its benefits," Rank said. "We need to look at the reasons behind inequality and injustice and ask why we have not been able to include more people in our successes. We can do better. That's what America is about."

Indeed.. but I have a feeling we have a fundamental disagreement coming about what lifts all boats in what is not a zero sum game, and in which the govt will, only with great exception ALWAYS DO HARM.