This opinion piece has a lot of faults. The author makes major errors on almost every factual item. Start with the first sentence. Maximums for food stamp eligibility were substantially increased by the Bush administration. Numbers are not comparable with any years before about 2004. The stock market crash of 2000 is ignored. Real estate values are back to where they should be with normal rates of increase (extrapolating from say 1995 to 2002 with a straight line you get today's sale prices in most areas, the doubling of prices in many areas has been corrected for). Income inequality has not increased, but household composition has changed, with many more singles, thus reducing the "household" average compared to 20 years ago when a larger fraction of households had two earners. No journalistic merit.