Food Stamps, Ritalin and the Middle Class

15% of the US Population is on food stamps. That's 46 million people, at a total cost of $68 billion last year. These statistics are pretty shocking to me:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/22/us-usa-poverty-foodstamps-idUSTRE77L45Z20110822

In global terms even a family of four in the US living at the poverty line ($21k/yr) is middle class. But as the middle class emerges worldwide they are competing with the middle class in Europe and the US. I suspect this dynamic will come to define the first half of the 21st century. There's no doubt that the middle class in the West is getting squeezed - how do we adjust to the new global world? Of course we could turn to psychotropic meds - Acceptol always sounded pleasant. But only the wealthy will actually be able to afford these meds; while 15% of American families worry about putting food on the table, 15% of children in the US are taking some kind of psychotropic meds. Something feels wrong about this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/opinion/corporate-interests-threaten-childrens-welfare.html