Mark Skousen has the top story at Human Events today.

At investment conferences, I often ask the audience, which consists mainly of mature investors: “How many of them are on Social Security and Medicare?” Most raise their hands.

Then I ask, “How many of you are on food stamps?” All the hands go down.

Why? Because there’s a means test to qualify for food stamps. To qualify, a family of four must make less than $28,668 a year. Investors who attend investment conferences tend to be wealthy and make a lot more than $28,668 a year.

Yet, despite this severe income limitation, the number of Americans on food stamps is rising dramatically, and is now approaching 40 million, almost double what it was six years ago.