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| What is the racial breakdown? |
The Day the EBT Card Runs Out is a real eventuality, one that will play out when the United States federal government can no longer borrow money to dole out entitlements to a growing population segment that produces nothing. Well, "nothing" is not the best choice of word. It is more accurate to say that the disproportionate amount of crime that requires quasi-martial law to be declared in a growing number of cities that forces increases in funding of the police sector is a noticeable outgrowth of this demographic.
It is for this reason that Predator Drones will take to the sky over cities like Philadelphia, Kansas City, Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Newark, and Birmingham, all in the name of 'keeping an eye on high-crime" areas.
So what happens when those EBT Cards stop working? What happens when the money runs out and they no longer provide the magical ability to provide victuals and provender?
Back in 2009, The New York Times produced an interactive map that breaks down EBT card usage by race for every county in America. It's available here. Please note that Hispanics are lumped in with the "white" category. In 2010, the NYT published another map that showed the percentage of growth from 2007 to 2009. The safety net of EBT cards is a growing cost that an absolutely broke federal government will one day be unable to pay.
To understand the disproportionate reliance that Black people have upon the EBT card, take a look at the racial breakdown of Michigan:
Total African-Americans in Michigan: 1,405,515
Total African-Americans in Michigan on EBT Cards: 546,135
Total African-Americans in Michigan on EBT Cards: 39 percent.
A burgeoning Black (no pun intended) market exists in Detroit (84 percent Black), where the EBT card is the de facto currency of the population. Michican serves as a microcosm for the fraud endemic in the EBT card community:
Two undercover informants entered Jefferson's Liquor Palace and spotted the owner at the register. "Big baby," said one, "we gon' do this?"Remember, these numbers represent 2009 data. A recent survey provided by the Office of Research and Analysis provides a glimpse of the disproportionate reliance that Black people have on the EBT card (remember, Black people comprise only 13 percent of our US population).
The man behind the counter provided $50 in cash, two bottles of liquor, two porn DVDs and two Viagra pills — all in exchange for taking $280.85 off a food-stamp card, say federal investigators who recorded the deal.
Fraud in the government program that helps the poor has added up to nearly $100 million since 2007, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. It's a fraction of the more than $40 billion spent to feed people each year, but the crime has become a brazen way for some small stores to literally swipe cash from the U.S. Treasury, especially in the Detroit area.
There have been at least 122 fraud-related convictions of owners or employees in the five-state Midwest region since 2007, nearly double the number from 2004-06, says USDA, which oversees the welfare program. About half of those have occurred in southeastern Michigan.
Investors Business Daily has provided a cover story on entitlement usage - sans racial/demographic breakdown - that offers a glimpse of the nightmarish scenario toward which we inch closer to each day:
If the Republican primaries are any indication, one big debate in the upcoming election will be whether President Obama is pushing the country toward a European-style welfare culture.
Mitt Romney, for example, argues that "over the past three years, Barack Obama has been replacing our merit-based society with an entitlement society."
Newt Gingrich has taken to calling Obama "the best food-stamp president in American history."
Obama, in contrast, says the government must play an increasing role — what he likes to call "shared responsibility" — to ensure a society that is fairer.
Food stamps. This year, more than 46 million (15% of all Americans) will get food stamps. That's 45% higher than when Obama took office, and twice as high as the average for the previous 40 years. This surge was driven in part by the recession, but also because Obama boosted the benefit amount as part of his stimulus plan.
Do you understand now why record gun sales are at record levels across the country? Do you understand now why people are losing faith in the government, with an increasing amount of individuals believing that society is spiraling toward collapse?
The moment the EBT Card Runs Out is the impetus behind such entertainment as The Walking Dead. In the past two years Atlanta and Detroit both provided glimpses of the people who rely on entitlements (Dallas as well): it was a monochromatic scene of sadness.
Tick... Tick... Tick...
That sound you hear is the timer clocking inexorably to the moment when the bomb goes off - the EBT card stops working at McDonald's; when the EBT card no longer purchase an Enchirito at Taco Bell; when the EBT card no longer supplies steak and lobster; when the song "It's free, swipe your EBT" becomes a reminder of better days; when the EBT card can no longer be used to barter for drugs in Detroit.
This nightmarish scenario will unfold. Barker, King, Romero... any of the various incarnations of Paranormal Activity or Saw will be child's play when compared to the horror that happens on Night of the Dead EBT.
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