{"id":87898,"date":"2013-10-15T00:41:48","date_gmt":"2013-10-14T23:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theorganicprepper.ca\/?p=2389"},"modified":"2013-10-15T00:41:48","modified_gmt":"2013-10-14T23:41:48","slug":"the-average-ebt-user-may-not-be-who-youd-expect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/the-average-ebt-user-may-not-be-who-youd-expect\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cAverage\u201d EBT User May Not Be Who You\u2019d Expect"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nWhen people think of the average EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) card user, they envision a career welfare recipient who has 12 kids by 11 different prison-residing fathers. \u00a0Because of this notion, when the story broke this weekend about the <\/span>EBT system failure<\/a>, many of the responses were quite cold, callous, and even downright spiteful.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, the rioting through Wal-Marts across the nation certainly didn’t help. \u00a0Within hours the shelves were razed<\/a>. The abandoned shopping carts of melting food and the carefully selected hungry spokespeople on the mainstream news just served to reinforce the conception that those who were left to go without groceries deserved to miss a few meals.<\/p>\n

But….who IS the average EBT user?<\/h2>\n

Nearly 48 million Americans receive assistance to buy food, which is up from 32 million when Barack Obama took office. While we know there has been a concentrated effort to get more people <\/a>to accept assistance<\/a>, the sheer volume of those who cannot afford food anymore is a symptom of the greater economic problems plaguing the country.\u00a0It’s also important to note that in some states, if a person’s ex-spouse is in arrears for child support and has his or her wages garnished, the custodial parent receives that payment through the EBT system.<\/p>\n

For example…<\/p>\n