In todays Financial Times Aug 21st 2014, Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz implied that this is the Lost Decade due to a failure of economic policies.  Others refer to the last 7 years as the lost Generation.

In the USA, 101.77 million working age Americans who don’t work as they are jobless according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

In the United States, according to the Census Bureau, there were 115,013,000 households. With 23,052,388 households – or 20 percent of the total number of households –now dependent on food stamps.

English: Orlando, FL, October 1, 2004 — People apply for Disaster food stamps at the Orange County Convention Center. FEMA Photo: Michael Rieger (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

References

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/64217ffa-2946-11e4-baec-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3B4g6migp