What happens when the unemployment checks stop?

Given that the unemployment rate keeps going up each and every month, and many people in many states are exhausting all of their unemployment insurance compensation (or may not be eligible for such insurance), I decided to look at how this is impacting the demand for other social services.

Specifically for food stamps in California.

According to the California Department of Social Services the amount of California's receiving food stamps has surged in 2008. It has gone from ~870,000 households last year to over 1 million households as of October 2008.

Now there's roughly 300 million people in America and ~100 million households---as a rule of thumb, California has about 10% of America's population---so that means roughly 10% of California's households are now on food stamps---and the number is rising.


Click for a bigger picture.

Could all this lead to a Great Depression Ahead: & How can you Prosper in the Crash Following the Greatest Boom in History