More Data Shows How The People Are Doing In This ObamaRecovery!

[Mainecoons]

Food-stamp use rose 2.4% in the U.S. in May from a year earlier, with more than 15% of the U.S. population receiving benefits. (See an interactive map with data on use since 1990. (http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/08/09/food-stamp-use-rises-some-15-of-u-s-gets-benefits/tab/interactive/))One of the federal government’s biggest social welfare programs, which expanded when the economy convulsed, isn’t shrinking back alongside the recovery.
Food stamp rolls were up 0.2% from the prior month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in data that aren’t adjusted for seasonal variations. Though annual growth continues, the pace has slowed since the depths of the recession.

Maybe, WSJ, that's because there really is no recovery except for the one percenters! Maybe, WSJ, a "recovery" in which most of the new jobs are McJobs is just a never-ending recession.

What is really ironic is that the half-black FDR likes to compare himself to the last FDR, you know, the guy who with the help of his own Bush (Hoover) turned the usual two year crash and recovery into a 10 year depression!

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/08/09/food-stamp-use-rises-some-15-of-u-s-gets-benefits/?mod=WSJ_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

[Venus]

Talk about timely

I just finished filling out the food stamps form for my mother (76 retiree) and son (21 college student).

They both qualify. I'm considering taking them both in for an interview.

[The Sage of Main Street]

The word data is plural. Ignore any professional writer who doesn't know that.

[Chris]

The word data is plural. Ignore any professional writer who doesn't know that.

Great way to avoid looking at the data!

Sorry, mainecoons, but a few words to address this misconception: Data are or data is? (http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/jul/16/data-plural-singular):


...The Wall Street Journal has just published this blog post, in which it finally decides to move away from data "are", saying:


Most style guides and dictionaries have come to accept the use of the noun data with either singular or plural verbs, and we hereby join the majority.

As usage has evolved from the word's origin as the Latin plural of datum, singular verbs now are often used to refer to collections of information: Little data is available to support the conclusions.

Otherwise, generally continue to use the plural: Data are still being collected.

...The Oxford English dictionary defines it like this:


In Latin, data is the plural of datum and, historically and in specialized scientific fields , it is also treated as a plural in English, taking a plural verb, as in the data were collected and classified . In modern non-scientific use, however , despite the complaints of traditionalists, it is often not treated as a plural. Instead, it is treated as a mass noun, similar to a word like information, which cannot normally have a plural and which takes a singular verb. Sentences such as data was (as well as data were ) collected over a number of years are now widely accepted in standard English.

...So, over to Guardian style guru David Marsh, who makes the rules in these parts about language use. He says:


It's like agenda, a Latin plural that is now almost universally used as a singular. Technically the singular is datum/agendum, but we feel it sounds increasingly hyper-correct, old-fashioned and pompous to say "the data are"
...

[Mainecoons]

:rofl: