Walmart, Welfare and WTF!

Full Disclosure- I have never been a fan of Walmart for a variety of reasons.  I try not to shop there.  However, I am fully aware that I have the financial means to make that choice.

Once again, I heard a legislator on a talk show talking about food stamps.  He even ducked a question about why conservatives seem to keep bringing up food stamps and welfare for poor people, yet they are not addressing corporate welfare.  That got me thinking, how many of Walmart's employees are on public assistance versus how much in corporate subsidies do they receive.  I picked Walmart because they are huge and there is a lot of data out there on them.

Ohio seemed to be the easiest state to get the numbers so lets take a look at my neighbor.
In 2012, the Ohio State Department of Job and Family services found that 16,098 Walmart employees and family were on Medicaid and 14,799 were on food stamps. Walmart earned the dubious distinction of being number one (McDonalds came in second) for employers whose employees are on public assistance.  One caveat, these numbers do not differentiate between full time and part time employees.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/1niscE8_qdt3upqA0Aqg8vOS1APuzOvDGh9AV4UOiXwuve9mJW9SQPucu0Gtz/edit

Now lets take a look at corporate subsidies for Walmart in Ohio.
According to data compiled by Good Jobs First:

Good Jobs First has compiled data on Wal-Mart subsidies in the following cities

Cleveland/Steelyard Commons, OH : $4.16 million
Columbus, OH : $2.6 million
Grove City, OH : $19 million
Island Creek Township (Winterville), OH : more than $9.2 million
Lancaster, OH : $1.26 million
Moraine (Dayton), OH : more than $157,000
Ravenna, OH : $1.3 million
Streetsboro, OH : $491,000
Washington Court House, OH : more than $8.3 million
West Chester, OH : $3.4 million


So to be clear, its easier to demonize a worker who is on public assistance than it is to demonize a corporation who is getting millions in corporate subsidies.

                                                                           VS

Just the facts....Jack!

I have been thinking a lot about welfare and US citizen's perceptions of who is on welfare.  I would love to see someone do a study on how much money we think we spend on welfare, who we think is on welfare, who we think is on food stamps, how long we think they are on them versus the reality.  I have a feeling, judging off of posts I'm seeing on social media, that people think there are huge numbers of welfare queens.
Lets take a look at the facts.
4.1% of the US population is on Welfare.  Not including food stamps or unemployment insurance the US government spends 131.9 billion on welfare. Only 19.6% of   of welfare recipients are on welfare for longer than 5 years.  In 2011 14% of the US population was on food stamps. The US government spent 71.8 billion on the food stamp program.  In order to qualify for food stamps you can not make more than $1000/month.  The average monthly benefit was $133.85.  47% of people who were on food stamps in 2010 were under 18 and 8% were the elderly.  Less than 10% of people on food stamps are also on welfare.
Sources
http://www.statisticbrain.com/welfare-statistics/
http://www.statisticbrain.com/food-stamp-statistics/
http://www.fns.usda.gov/ora/MENU/Published/snap/FILES/Participation/2010CharacteristicsSummary.pdf

 Are there welfare queens out there? Of course there are!  Does it piss me off that people have learned to game the system and are sitting around on their asses while I'm working mine off?  Hell yes it does!  But the reality is that the number of people who are on welfare for a long time is low and a lot of those are people who do have a legitimate need.  Are there more reforms we can make to welfare and food stamps?  Of course there are.  But before we get our collective panties in a bunch over a few pieces of shit, lets get realistic about who really is on welfare and food stamps.  Welfare, food stamps and unemployment are meant to be safety nets and not safety trampolines.  The fact is that the majority of people really do use them as nets.

Lets start with the facts - Wealth Inequality

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPKKQnijnsM

I have been seeing a lot of people posting things about Welfare and Food Stamps and it got me thinking about what the facts and numbers are really saying about who really controls the purse strings and who is really receiving government assistance.   I thought I'd start with wealth inequality and go from there.