Government spending on food stamps has doubled since five years ago to $80 billion today, with chances that it will grow even larger in the future. The increase in the number of food stamp participants is due to slow economic recovery, high unemployment and stagnant wages.

Economic data shows that workers' wages are growing at the lowest rate relative to corporate profits in the country's history, perhaps explaining why food stamp participation has grown among workers with a college education and parts of the middle class.

"A low-wage job supplemented with food stamps is becoming more common for the working poor," said an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Many of the U.S. jobs now being created are low- or minimum-wage -- part-time or in areas such as retail or fast food -- which means food stamp use will stay high for some time, even after unemployment improves."

In a sad state of affairs, some economists are saying that having a job is no longer enough for self-sufficiency in today's economy. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) now covers one in seven Americans, most of the new members being not the elderly but rather young working people with some education, who struggle to make ends meet with their jobs.

The Washington Post reports: "President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night is expected to focus in part on reducing income inequality, such as by raising the federal minimum wage. Congress, meanwhile, is debating cuts to food stamps, with Republicans including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., wanting a $4 billion-a-year reduction to an anti-poverty program that they say promotes dependency and abuse."

Some states and cities in the United States have already begun raising minimum wages, which are almost ten dollars an hour in some places in the Northwest. In the rest of the country it still remains between seven and eight dollars per hour.  

Food stamps data shows that 37 percent are high school graduates and 28 percent are people with some college training. The amount of four year college graduates on food stamps has increased from 3 to 7 percent since 1980. High-school dropouts on foot stamps have dropped by more than half since then, meaning Americans are becoming more educated on the whole, but not economically self-sufficient. The Congressional Budget Office has projected the food stamp budget could remain elevated for 10 years.