To those of you who irrationally fear the US is turning into a Socialist state, I say unto thee: YOU ARE TOO LATE! We’ve already turned into a red nation of commies!

At least, that seems to be how some folks see it. It is a quite a bit more accurate to describe the current circumstances: “The deep recession left the US with a highly elevated long-term unemployment rate; There are lots of families who currently receive government aid so they can buy buy food for themselves and their children.”

Most Americans seem not to want to admit it, but we have fairly Socialist, rather Christian tendencies as a country. You know, things like charity, feeding the poor, broad government assistance to reduce senior and childhood poverty, etc.

Consider this WSJ headline today that blares out “1 in 7 Americans Receive Food Stamps.” ONE IN SEVEN! That is a huge amount of folks on the public dole. As the very red map shows, this varies greatly by state. Oregon and Michigan have 20% of the population on Food stamps, NY and Texas have over 15%, California less than 10%, Wyoming only 6.6%.

When you ask Americans if they support these social programs in the abstract, a high percentage will oppose them. But as you get more specific — “Do you support feeding families/children who are on the edge of starvation”– suddenly, we become downright European.

Don’t believe me — look at the WSJ map below!

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Click for interactive Map



Full data here

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Source:

About 1 in 7 Americans Receive Food Stamps

Real Time Economics May 3, 2011, 2:10 PM http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/05/03/about-1-in-7-americans-receive-food-stamps/tab/interactive/