Very interesting viewpoint on America's lost middle class from the Russian (English) news organization, RT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PsUyEYO16E

Food Stamps

I recently applied for food stamps for the first time. I decided to take the plunge after giving up on my pride. I need food and I don't have the money for it -- it's that simole. My children nned to eat. There's been some debate about foodstamps lately, and here's a few facts that show that they work just fine: The number of people on the food-stamp program has increased by about 27 million since the recession, bbut it is smaller than the increase in poverty. Also, a higher percentage of people who qualified are getting food stamps than before, but it is true that about a quarter of households that could get food stamps don’t get them, for whatever reason. For me, it was prie. Unfortunately, those households without food stamps report that they aren’t always able to get enough food to feed their families. The Food Research Action Center reports that about a quarter of households with children say they can’t get enough food. By and large, adults with children are the most likely to seek out food assistance. About three quarters of food-stamp recipients are households with children living in their households, and 47 percent of individual recipients are children. The average benefit for a family of three is just under $400, which is about $33 per person per week. Not everyone gets the same amount, however. Many recipients are working adults, and the more they earn, the fewer benefits they get. Bottom line is that food stamps feed children whose parents work low-wage jobs -- like myself. My husband pulls in a measley $28,000/year before taxes. While I haven't recieved y foodstamp benefits yet, according to thier chart that qualifies us for somewhere around $260/ month in food stap benefit.

A Little About Myself....

I am 45 years old and jobless. Well, not entirely jobless - I recently started selling Avon. I have worked in retail, food service, education, landscaping, music....the list goes on. My most recent job -- a job I loved -- as a paraprofessional in an elementary school was taken out from under me a few weeks ago due to a shifting in special needs population in my school. I was devistated, crying for 4 days. I loved that job and the peoople I worked with -- kids and adults. Most of the friends I had there I will likely not see again, that's often the way it goes with workplace relationships. Anyway, I applied for unemployment, WIC and foodstamps. I got the idea to sell Avon while looking around on the web. Instead of a prescribed schedule my days are full of many different activites. I case the neighborhood looking for new Avon customers. I take surveys online to pick up extra change. I take care of my 3 year old daughter. In some ways I like it better and so far, we are getting by. But when unemployment runs out things will get interesting. I hope that I'll find some kind of job before then. So that is who I am, and this blog reflects my interest in all things related to unemployment, the dissapearring middle class, and how to get by on less. I hope you enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it.

THE POOR AND UNEMPLOYED Number not seen since the Great Depression

The gap in employment rates between America's highest- and lowest-income families has reached its widest level since officials began tracking the data a decade ago, according to an analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press.Rates of unemployment for the lowest-income families - those earning less than $20,000 - have topped 21 percent, nearly matching the rate for all workers during the 1930s Great Depression. U.S. households with income of more than $150,000 a year have an unemployment rate of 3.2 percent, whhich is considered full employment. However, middle-income workers are increasingly pushed into low-wage jobs. Many of them in turn are displacing lower-skilled, low-income workers, who become unemployed or are forced to work fewer hours. Based on employment-to-population ratios, which are seen as a reliable gauge of the labor market, the employment disparity between rich and poor households remains at the highest levels in more than a decade, the period for which comparable data are available. Last year the average length of unemployment for U.S. workers reached 39.5 weeks, the highest level since World War II. The duration of unemployment has since edged lower to 36.5 weeks based on data from January to July, still relatively high historically. Economists call this a "crowding out" in the labor market, a domino effect that pushes out lower-income workers, pushes median income downward and contributes to income inequality. Because many mid-skill jobs are being lost to globalization and automation, recent U.S. growth in low-wage jobs has not come fast enough to absorb displaced workers at the bottom.

Here's an interesting take on the unemployment epidemic in America,and the resulting vanished middle class -- provided by RTA, a Russian news channel:

Jobless.....how does it happen and what does it mean? Six years ago I lost my job, collected unemployment and eveentually found new work making less than half what I originally made with double the hours. But att least I had a job.

Until last week.

I walked into the school building that I happily called ome for the past four years and asked about my year's assignment. No one seemed to know anything. So I went right to the top -- the principal (who by the way is no "pal" if mine) and he told me here had been some shifting and that I should call HR. In other words, he paseed the buck.

HR informed me that I was not rehired this year and that they were under no obligation to inform me of thi. So I walk into the uilding looking like an idiot becuase in all truth I didn't even belong there anymore. A courtesy call or email would have been nice. But, no, they seem to have better things to do. Incidentally, I only made $75/day no benefits at this job, which is crap money to begin with.

And that is my story - unemployed again in the great country on earth (or so I'm told).