Without government handouts, 70 million Americans would be starving in the streets right now

(NaturalNews) Economic conditions in the United States have become so dire for Americans that tens of millions would literally be starving in their homes or on the street were it not for taxpayer-funded support and benefits programs, according to new data.

This comes amid endless talk of America's "economic recovery" following the near-collapse of the U.S. economy in 2007-2008, a calamity that was caused by Washington's ceaseless meddling and social engineering that was the subprime lending debacle.

Today, home sales -- the quintessential indicator of American success -- have fallen to record lows; more people are out of the workforce than at anytime in the last five decades, and consumers are too strapped for cash to spend enough money to revive the economy. By any real measure, then, the boom times of old for America are long gone and, as some pessimistically speculate, perhaps for good.

As noted by the website SHTFPlan:

According to the HHS, nearly half of all Americans are now dependent on some form of government benefit just to put food on the table. And of our population of 310 million, nearly one in four receive welfare benefits.

That's over 70 million people who, if the government safety nets broke down due to lack of funding or a monetary crisis, would be starving on our streets right now.

Nearly half of all Americans receiving some kind of assistance

Those numbers are incredibly shocking, and what's more, they seem to indicate a continuing downward trend that does not look to be improving anytime soon. And historically, in any nation, when people are left with few other options, civil unrest and violence take root.

CNS News lays it out further:

According to the 2014 version of a report that the Department of Health and Human Services is required by law to issue annually, the percentage of Americans on welfare in 2011 was the highest yet calculated. The data for 2011 is the most recent in the report.

...

By this measure, according to the report, 23.1 percent of Americans were recipients of welfare in 2011. Since 1993, the earliest year covered by the report, that is the highest percentage of Americans reported to be receiving welfare.

A startling 38 percent of all children 5 and under in the United States were welfare recipients in 2011, according to the report.

There's more bad news that is completely shocking.

When the department added in recipients of non-means-tested government programs like Social Security, Medicare, unemployment and veterans benefits, the total number of Americans receiving some form of taxpayer-funded assistance in the fourth quarter of 2011 rose to an astounding 151,014,000 people, or 49.2 percent of the total population.

Talk about unsustainable.

'The end of the world as we know it'

Understand that these figures were from more than two-and-a-half years ago, and while the "official" unemployment rate has dropped, it has mostly done so because more and more people have simply dropped out of the workforce. And why are they dropping out? Because they are getting unemployment benefits instead: another taxpayer-funded endeavor.

"Thus, in all likelihood, we are well over the 50% mark," reports SHTFPlan. "This means that without government assistance that may include social security, welfare, unemployment or other social services, at least one in two Americans would not be able to pay their rent, buy food, or keep their utilities turned on.

"The end of the world as [we] know it is happening right now.

"What's worse is that... those in the upper echelons of our government know it."

How do we know that? Because as the nation's productive class shrinks and its non-productive class grows, the federal government is wargaming economic collapse scenarios, buying tens of thousands of new weapons and hundreds of millions of rounds of ammunition.

There is a storm brewing on the horizon -- it could be economic; it could be some government conspiracy; it could be due to widespread anger over what is happening along America's southwest border -- but something "just doesn't feel right," as they say. It's worth your family's safety to at least consider the possibilities.

Sources:

http://www.shtfplan.com

http://www.aim.org

http://www.cnsnews.com

http://www.shtfplan.com