re: $9.38 per day is current welfare food stamps right now.

I don't know how this varies by state, but 10 or so years ago my BIL and his baby momma had a baby and an older kid from a previous baby daddy, renting a singlewide behind the Church's Chicken on Oconee street in Athens GA. They were on welfare. They had so many groceries they'd invite us over to take some (my wife and I were also poor at the time). He worked a low wage food service job in walking distance downtown as their sole source of income. They weren't taking vacations or driving nice cars or living in a nice house or saving for retirement, but they sure as hell weren't starving.