What Happens When 41 Million Americans Lose Food Stamps?

More than 41 million Americans will go without food stamps starting this Friday if Congress does not reopen the government before that. The Department of Agriculture said it will not use emergency funds to pay for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (snap).

• An average of 41.7 million people—12.3 percent of the U.S. population—drew snap benefits each month during FY2024.
• It cost $99.8 billion that year, an average of $187.20 per participant per month.

Online videos are proliferating of people complaining about losing benefits. Many of them look like parodies of entitled freeloaders, utterly lacking self-awareness as they fume about the government depriving them of luxuries, or as they incriminate themselves for fraud. However, as much welfare goes to fraudsters, freeloaders or illegal immigrants, a substantial amount goes to people who depend on it to keep their heads above water.

• With 41.7 million on the rolls, this is a great many people who, rather than go hungry, could begin resorting to desperate measures.
• Some are warning that if their benefits are cut off, they are going to steal.
• Many more could simply use it as an excuse to break the law.

Democrats have shown themselves uninterested in resolving the government shutdown. Among the more politically extreme, some are calling for social unrest. Read this compilation by Jonathan Turley of the latest calls for revolution and resistance from the left.

Throughout history, the loss of government benefits has repeatedly sparked social unrest—protests, strikes, riots or broader uprisings.

Even if this is resolved before Friday, the underlying sickness in America remains—tens of millions of people dependent on a government that is prophesied to become insolvent. This is but a foretaste of how economic breakdown will lead to social collapse.