(Untitled)

[hellaine]

Americans depended more on government assistance in 2010 than at any other time in the nation's history, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data finds. The trend shows few signs of easing, even though the economic recovery is nearly 2 years old.

Comments

[romp]

With the high level of unemployment and underemployment, this is a given, right? Unless people are starving or families are taking in members (which is less likely after generations of moving for employment and can only go so far), there must be aid of some kind. Private, I suppose but contributions drop when the economy is bad.

What does it mean that the recession ended almost 2 years ago? Has something else replaced it or is there some other term meaning Sucky Economy?

I know unemployment is far higher than the official number because it doesn't count people whose unemployment insurance has run out and those in prison...

[farting_nora]

It also doesn't count people who have given up on looking for a job and started doing something else, like going to school or staying home with their children.

Or people that retired earlier than planned because they had no other choice.

[iluvhistory]

Or people who have jobs with less than 15hrs/week.

Unemployment statistics are so ridiculous.

[thecityofdis]

A recession, technically, refers to two or more consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. So since June 2009, the economy has been growing, even if very slowly. It can be a bad or uncertain economy without being a recession - but we are in danger of entering another one.

[nyychick23513]

Obviously this means the social safety net has grown too big and we're giving away too many handouts! Bootstraps, people!

...Okay, that was almost too hard to type without vomiting.

[hinoema]

I don't like this article. Them lumping social security in with unemployment muddies the water, it doesn't clarify it. Plus, they don't address any of the obvious causative factors like wage stagnation making it impossible for many to accrue any savings, the increasing wealth gap, the amount of 'welfare' that the government gives out as corporate subsidies, and so on.

But it's USA Today- sloppy, shallow dime-store rag reporting.