Increased Socialism or The Tough Economy?

According to new data released from the USDA, we have again set records in both the number of children receiving free school lunches and the cost of these free lunches to the taxpayers. A record 18.7 million students received free lunches during 2012, up from 18.4 million in 2011, at a cost to taxpayers of $10.4 billion. The complete story can be read here: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/record-187-million-students-fy-2012-got-free-lunch

Every time a report like this comes out I shake my head. Under this administration, we are constantly setting new records in the area of freebies. The size of the workforce continues to shrink and the number of people receiving some sort of government assistance continues to expand. Welfare programs have exploded over the last decade and particularly over the last four years, but this is a trend that has been steadily increasing for the last 50 years.

As the article states, in 1969 only 2.9 million children received free lunches through the National School Lunch Program. In 1990 that number had risen to 9.8 million and now another 22 years later it has nearly doubled to a record 18.7 million. Obviously, the population of the United States has increased since 1969 and thus there would be more children in need in theory, but that increase has far exceeded the rate of population growth. In the 43 years from 1969 to 2012, the U.S. population increased by 54%. Over that same time period, the number of children receiving free lunches increased by 644%. 

In the course of those 43 years the U.S. saw two deep recessions which would undoubtedly increase these numbers to some extent. With high unemployment during tough times parents can need a little help providing for their children, but even with those recessions it doesn't justify an increase of nearly 12 to 1 like this. If you look at the food stamps numbers over this same time frame the numbers are strikingly similar with food stamps increasing even more dramatically. In 1969, 2.8 million people received food stamps. By 2012, that number increased to 46 million people; an increase of over 1,600%. 

When you couple these two things together it gives a lot of merit to the argument that America is transforming into a socialist society where people rely on government assistance through taxpayer funded programs instead of self-reliance through employment.