We Haven’t Seen This Much Suffering On Thanksgiving Since The Great Depression

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

In my entire lifetime, there has never been a Thanksgiving like this.  39 million Americans don’t have enough to eat right now, more than 70 million claims for unemployment benefits have been filed so far during this calendar year, and people are waiting in line for hours at food banks all over the nation just for some Thanksgiving handouts.  If you and your family have plenty of turkey to eat, you should be very thankful, because many Americans can no longer even take Thanksgiving dinner for granted these days.

On Tuesday, vehicles were lined up for hours in New Jersey as people waited to receive prepackaged Thanksgiving meals at a local food bank…

Video obtained by CNN on Tuesday from the Meadowlands entertainment complex in New Jersey showed residents waiting for several hours to obtain prepackaged boxes of meals for the Thanksgiving holiday.

“If it wasn’t for this place, we wouldn’t know where we would get our food,” one distraught woman told CNN of the food bank in East Rutherford, N.J.

Of course we have been seeing similar wait times all over the nation.  At one food bank in Texas, demand for Thanksgiving meals was more than eight times higher than normal

Food bank officials in Dallas, Texas, have also noticed a staggering increase in demand for food assistance. North Texas Food Bank representatives told the Dallas Morning News that they handed out roughly 8,500 meals to local families during a giveaway on Saturday that in years past has seen fewer than 1,000 show up for donations.

You can see a stunning photograph of vehicles lined up for that food distribution event right here.

There are a lot of really nice vehicles in that picture.  Many of those individuals are probably accustomed to living comfortable middle class lifestyles, but just like I warned in my new book they are “suddenly” in need of food because this economic downturn has turned their worlds completely upside down.

Yes, there have always been hungry people in America, but what we are witnessing now is hard to fathom.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 12 percent of all Americans did not have enough food to eat between October 28th and November 9th…

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to surge, more Americans are reporting going hungry, a Washington Post analysis found.

In data collected by the Census Bureau between Oct. 28 and Nov. 9, around 12 percent of all American adults reported not having enough food to eat, a figure higher than at any other point since the pandemic began earlier this year.

It is estimated that the current population of the United States is 328 million.

If you take 12 percent of 328 million, you get more than 39 million Americans that are going hungry right now.

And this is just the beginning.  Thanks to the new lockdowns that are being instituted all over the country, the number of Americans that are filing for unemployment benefits is starting to rise again

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week to 778,000, evidence that the U.S. economy and job market remain under strain as coronavirus cases surge and colder weather heighten the risks.

The Labor Department’s report Wednesday said jobless claims climbed from 748,000 the week before. Before the virus struck hard in mid-March, weekly claims typically amounted to roughly 225,000.

Overall, more than 70 million new claims for unemployment benefits have been filed in 2020.

As I discussed yesterday, we have never seen anything like this before in all of U.S. history.

At this point, even Hollywood is conducting mass layoffs.  More job loss announcements just keep rolling in with each passing day, and I expect that to continue all throughout the very dark winter ahead.

Other economic numbers also tell us that the U.S. economy is definitely heading in the wrong direction

The data firm Womply says that 21% of small businesses were shuttered at the start of this month, reflecting a steady increase from June’s 16% rate. Consumer spending at local businesses is down 27% this month from a year ago, marking a deterioration from a 20% year-over-year drop in October, Womply found.

If you think that anyone is going to be able to wave a magic wand and fix this mess, you are just being delusional.

There are millions upon millions of Americans that have already been pushed to the breaking point by this pandemic.  One of those individuals is a 38-year-old California resident named Andrew Lee

“I’ve exhausted all of my unemployment benefits. I’ve had to resort to food stamps and [California’s Medicaid program] for the first time in my life. I’m backdated on my rent and my credit has been ruined,” said 38-year-old Andrew Lee, who lives in a suburb of Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

Lee lost his job as a business development director several months before the pandemic. But once it hit, it became that much harder to find work. And he didn’t initially qualify for any pandemic-related unemployment benefits.

His car has been repossessed and his wife’s car has also been repossessed.

So even if they could find jobs, how are they supposed to get to work?

Lee is just like so many other hurting Americans.  First he ran through all of his savings, and then he started relying on his credit cards.

Now that his unemployment benefits have been exhausted, he is out of options, and his family is a step or two from becoming homeless.

In the months ahead, tens of millions of others will find themselves facing similar scenarios.

This is what an economic collapse looks like.  The United States hasn’t had to face anything like this since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and what we have experienced so far is just the start.

In 2019, I received quite a bit of criticism because the economy was relatively stable and to many people it seemed like an “economic collapse” was not even remotely a possibility.

But now an economic collapse has officially arrived, and all of the things that I have been warning about are starting to happen one right after the other.

The “perfect storm” is upon us, and most Americans still do not understand the horrors that lie ahead.

*  *  *

Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.

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21 Comments
Doug
Doug
November 28, 2020 7:36 pm

Funny kind of poverty where you can drive a relatively nice car to pick up free food . These people have a LOONG way to fall before true poverty. The depression was walking to a board shack with no food or grits and maybe an egg. My parents were so thin the military wouldn’t take them and WW2 was an opportunity.

bigfoot
bigfoot
  Doug
November 28, 2020 8:24 pm

Ever heard of “slowly, then all at once?” If a person can’t find work, should he sell the car for food? Not everyone lives next to a subway.

Llpoh
Llpoh
  Doug
November 28, 2020 8:25 pm

People have no idea. My gramps shovelled coal for a dime a load so his family could eat. My dad at age of twelve drove tractors for twelve hours each night so he could eat. They lived in a covered wagon for a long time.

Shit might get real, real fast.

Saxons Wrath
Saxons Wrath
  Doug
November 29, 2020 12:46 am

The kind of poverty and hunger coming soon to the US of A will be epic, in an old testament Biblical way. It will make the depression of the 1930’s look like days of plenty and the “good old days” people reminisce about when they are have bad time. Prepare Accordingly, time grows short….

SeeBee
SeeBee
November 28, 2020 7:49 pm

comment image?itok=baAj48wo&mtime=1459749045
Oh I thought he said “stuffering.”

Anonymous
Anonymous
November 28, 2020 8:19 pm

Needless to say. 2 nice cars repossessed and no health insurance.

Whats wrong with that picture.

James
James
November 28, 2020 8:22 pm

Depression,read my “Thanksgiving “take!

That said,do you have a roof overhead/food in your belly(and hopefully some in pantry(at least))/reasonably healthy/perhaps family/friends that give a shit about you?

You are doing great.

CCRider
CCRider
November 28, 2020 8:58 pm

What we need to understand is that this condition is not happenchance. It’s not serendipity. It’s the plan coming to fruition. It’s been engineered. This is what THEY wanted to happen. It’s a necessary step in their plan.

“See the outcome and you’ll see the journey.” David Icke.

James
James
  CCRider
November 28, 2020 9:01 pm

Well,CC,perhaps then we should have been”prepared”.

Hope you and yours were,see yas on the fields!

Llpoh
Llpoh
  James
November 28, 2020 9:05 pm

James – absolutely correct comment. Admin certainly has tried to prepare as many as he could.

The old adage comes to mind from Carlin – something to the effect “Think of how stupid the average person is, then realize half the people are even stupider than that”.

That is what we are up against, and it is why they have been so successful in manipulating the sheeple.

CCRider
CCRider
  James
November 28, 2020 9:07 pm

Correct, James.

Prepare for the worst and pray for the best.

And pray like you never did before.

Iska Waran
Iska Waran
November 28, 2020 9:51 pm

Today I rode my bike past 42 tents where people are living rough. On November 28th in Minneapolis. On November 28th here it could just as easily be 0F (-18C). Actually it was about 38 tents and 4 other structures that were build out of cardboard boxes and other garbage. I guess if you live in a cardboard box, getting a tent would be like The Jeffersons – “moving on up… to the East Side”. I think these are mostly people who are so mentally ill or addicted that they can’t /won’t follow the rules at shelters. They’d prefer to take their chances at freezing to death. Based on where most of these tents were (adjacent to certain neighborhoods), I think a lot of them are Native American (that’s “First Nations” for you Canucks). For some reason, they’ve been hit especially hard by heroin. So for some people there is real privation of a sort that didn’t exist here 5 years ago. Or it least was better-hidden.

In normal times, there is a crisis line you can call if someone you know is having a mental health crisis, and they can send someone other than the cops to do an assessment. “Due to Covid-19” they’re now not doing assessments. Covid is driving people crazy, but if you’re actually crazy, you’re fucked.

Meanwhile some people have businesses that are booming. I know a guy who sells high end sunglasses over the internet. He made a decent living the last few years, but his profits have quintupled this year because so many people are taking the money they’re not spending on other things and they’re buying $250 sunglasses online.

As has been said above, most people aren’t suffering a real lack of anything like food, shelter, clean water. To be poor in America (except for the lowest of the low) is to be rich by any normal standard.

The suffering now is mostly a kind of mindfuckery. Teenagers spending a year in their rooms with online school and only virtual friendships. No sports, no dances, no campfire for the incoming freshmen. No school concerts or plays. Grandmas waving at their grandkids through the window. Goddamn it!

I missed English mass today, so I might have to go to one of the Spanish ones tomorrow. I only understand about 5% of what’s said, but I can nod at people – families, wave at them from 15 feet away and say “Paz”, which I think means peace.

Two if by sea. Three if from within.
Two if by sea. Three if from within.
  Iska Waran
November 28, 2020 10:31 pm

Native Americans(Lacota) suffering in cardboard boxes due to heroin addiction?
Mystic Lake casino up your way with their million dollar a year per family member stipend not to mention the drug dealers within the reservation, ought to be taking care of them, eh?
“For some reason they’ve been hit especially hard by heroin”
I guess it’s a colonialists fault.

Iska Waran
Iska Waran
  Two if by sea. Three if from within.
November 28, 2020 11:34 pm

Not saying it’s YT’s fault. Mostly people bring about their own problems.

Llpoh
Llpoh
  Iska Waran
November 29, 2020 12:07 am

Iska – he was just being an envious dickhead without the sense God gave an earthworm. Indigenous people everywhere on earth have similar issues. I do not believe there is a single indigenous people anywhere that is doing well overall. Not one. It takes a very long time for them to adapt. They were centuries perhaps even millennia behind culturally and economically, and that is not immediately able to be overcome. And dickfores like Two do not help.

But again, that said, it does not help them to relieve them of responsibility for their actions. But some degree of understanding and compassion is warranted.

Llpoh
Llpoh
  Two if by sea. Three if from within.
November 28, 2020 11:59 pm

1) the Lakota do not own Mystic River Casino. The Shakopee Mdewakanton tribe do. They are Dakota. There are a few hundred of them. They were victims of horrific atrocities committed by the US.

The US Army suppressed and defeated the Dakota warriors. It conducted the largest mass execution in United States history, executing by hanging 38 Dakota men in Mankato, Minnesota, on December 26, 1862. The remaining Dakota were forced to walk more than 100 miles to Fort Snelling, where they were held in a concentration camp through the winter. In 1863 Congress rescinded all treaties with the Dakota and ordered their removal from Minnesota.

Finally, in 1886, Congress established the Shakopee Mdewakanton Reservation, Prairie Island Indian Community Reservation, Upper Sioux Indian Reservation, and Lower Sioux Indian Reservation for the Dakota who never left Minnesota. But for the next century, life for the Dakota people was one of poverty and hardship.

2) the Shakopee Mdewakanton tribe donate very large sums to other tribes.
3) you got any proof of drug dealers, or you just flapping your pie hole?
4) most casino money goes to Whitey. Not the Mystic River Casino money, but most in general
5) the Shakopee Mdewakanton tribe own a very very successful casino. Why should they not get profits from that, like all the white folk do in say Las Vegas?

Indigenous peoples world-wide have the same issues. It takes a very long time to overcome the trauma of lost culture.

I believe that Indians need to pull themselves up. The Shakopee are doing just that, and are helping a great many others. Fuckwits like you then want to be green with envy at their success, and demand they do even more.

Here is an idea, fuckwad, what say you do more for all the white heroin addicts, and what say you get hold of all the white casino owners and demand they do more, as well as all the white billionaires. And hey, why don’t you do more for all the white homeless addicts, who far outnumber the homeless Indians. 49% of homeless folks are white. What are you doing about that, asshole?

Fucking dickhead.

Two if by sea. Three if from within.
Two if by sea. Three if from within.
  Llpoh
November 29, 2020 3:53 pm

You’re wound too tightly.
I’m far far more wealthy than the millionaire I once dated from that area so envy isn’t on my radar.
What I did come away with by experiencing firsthand the area was that not unlike any other “peoples” they collectively didn’t give a rats ass about their brethren anywhere else. Which is basically a most typical human trait. So file 13 the appearance I envy them OR feel sorry for them. It’s feeling more like a slavery reparations argument, no?
I hope your day gets better.
Fuckwit, fuckwad, dickhead,assholes and fucking dickhead. Had you forgotten any?
I feel sorry for you.

very old white guy
very old white guy
  Iska Waran
November 29, 2020 8:10 am

People are driving other people crazy not the virus. The insane hysteria was, is, and continues to be the problem.

very old white guy
very old white guy
November 29, 2020 8:06 am

You can give thanks to your local government and all other levels of government for your misery, and one more thing, it will get worse unless you stand up and stop them.

yahright
yahright
November 29, 2020 11:16 am

Being out of debt is what helps make my life easier. I’m full from several days of eating too much. Just stop any lockdowns and stop the fear pushing. get rid of the masks and go back to work. Like the typical flu season, we have each year at this time. I’m not saying covid doesn’t exist, We just can’t let it destroy the country and let others use fear to destroy our lives.

Edward
Edward
November 30, 2020 3:52 am

I don’t understand how anyone can be hungry in America with all the ‘programs’. Here are but a few:

Food Assistance Programs
Get information on food assistance programs that are available to certain individuals and groups. Programs include SNAP, WIC, the National School Lunch Program, and more.

Child Nutrition Programs
Learn about programs that offer food and nutrition assistance for children, including the School Breakfast Program, Special Milk Program, National School Lunch Program and more.

Food Distribution Programs
Learn about the USDA commodity distribution programs: The Emergency Food Assistance Program, Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations, and Commodity Supplemental Food Program.

Nutrition Programs for Seniors
Find food and nutrition programs that focus on the needs of older Americans, age 60 and over.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
SNAP provides nutrition benefits to supplement the food budget of needy families so they can purchase healthy food and move towards self-sufficiency.

WIC – Women, Infants, and Children
WIC provides federal grants to states for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk.

Hunger and Food Security Resources
USDA, National Agricultural Library, Food and Nutrition Information Center
Find general information and resources on hunger and food security, including links to governmental and non-government organizations.

FNS Nutrition Programs
USDA, Food and Nutrition Service
The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) works to end hunger and obesity through the administration of 15 federal nutrition assistance programs including WIC, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and school meals.

To learn how to get assistance from one of these programs, see the How to Get Food Help brochure.