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Millions of Americans Are Heading to Foodbanks for the First Time in Their Lives

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posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 10:17 AM
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Originally posted by daryllyn
And to the commenter that stated people should be able to make it at 22,000 per year and that if those people didn't buy alcohol, cigarettes and drugs that they would be fine. HOW RUDE of you to assume that you know anything about them. Shame on you.


That was me and I stand by the comment. I don't make sweeping statements. I did not mean everyone who gets free food is buying booze and drugs, but I do know for a fact some of them are. And if it's rude for me to assume I know anything about them, then it's rude for you to assume that you do either. So shame on us both.

Good financial stewards are a rarity in this country. Coupling that with the statistic of 25% of people smoke, and 75% of people drink, and my own personal experience whereas EVERYONE I've ever seen needing assistance has been abusing it by these methods, allows me to make my statement without shame. Here is a research paper on Substance Use among Welfare Recipients.

For those that are good financial stewards, and sober, and still needing the assistance - the comment is not directed towards them... they deserve the help. I'm pretty sure we all agree there.



posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 10:18 AM
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Credit is such a big issue in america as noted by Soficrows numbers game. I would say $500 a month might even be trivializing that number. According to USdebtclock there are approx 45million people on food stamps with a current population of 311 million people. Thats about 15% of the population. Looking at 2015 (with current rates from the same site) puts that figure at close to 80million people on food stamps with a population of 323million. This works out to approx 25% of america relying on food stamps. Hello extended depression.

I think food stamps obfuscate the reality of the situation. By comparison during the Great Depression there were massive soup lines while in 2011 you obscure that with food stamps. So long as the food stamps can hold out things will be relatively calm but all hell will break loose once government handouts stop. They won't have the money because of increased social security commitments, the military and massive debt (should be at QE18 by then).

brill
edit on 2-1-2011 by brill because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 10:27 AM
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reply to post by againuntodust
 


I am with you on that. If you can't afford to buy food the first thing you do is not pay your credit cards. Many people though were spending in good times, when jobs were good, and opportunities for advancement were available. Many of these people were all of a sudden cut off from their incomes with lay offs and hour cuts at their job. They try to sell their house but find that it is underwater and they will get nothing from it but more debt. I think a lot of home owners in these situations could use a reevaluation of their home loan, but they can't get it as their income dropped and the banks won't give them lower interests rates to lower their payments.

It is a sad situation. Where the bankers end up milking from the people every penny they can to recoup their losses. And the people ultimately lose out of the system they played into in hopes that they may have a better life. I personally blame the system design for this mess. It breeds corruption on the highest level and puts profits over people. Of course very few become rich by putting people over profits. So I think the answer is with us and I think collectively we are learning from our errors.



posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 10:37 AM
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reply to post by soficrow
 





I'm sure you have, as have many other members here. But this story is about the middle class - think debt-load, and people trying to hang on to their homes, pay bills and avoid bankruptcy....


We aren't even into the real problems yet I am afraid. It is going to get much much worse!

The Fed has been printing money as fast as they can. The money supply in 2008 was $831 billion by the end of the first quarter in 2009 it was $1663 billion and went as high as $2200 billion. Sooner or later that doubling of the money supply is going to mean prices are also going to double.

There is even worst news.

There has been no real progress made in the economy. In fact, the actions taken by Washington, the U.S. Treasury and the criminal Federal Reserve Bank have assured the effects of this depression will persist for decades.

...Even worse, the recent surge in Treasury yields is putting upward pressure on mortgage rates, despite the intended actions from the Fed’s quantitative easing program. In fact, government bond yields of virtually every major economy have soared ever since the Fed announced the commencement of its latest round of quantitative easing....


The climax is coming, with a higher cost structure across the USEconomy, and shortages where prices are kept down artificially. US businesses see little prospect in capital investment, at least not within the United States. They sit on cash, and see little usage for it. So they speculate with it, a contradiction that capitalism exists in the US at all. In the next chapter, future price inflation will be called economic growth, the next travesty!!

Look for an increase in empty sections of supermarket shelves for food, and gasoline stations shut down. It will be an end symptom....
www.marketoracle.co.uk...


And if that is not bad enough!



“Gold Finger - A New Take On Operation Grand Slam With A Tungsten Twist”
I’ve already reported on irregular physical gold settlements which occurred in London, England back in the first week of October, 2009. Specifically, these settlements involved the intermediation of at least one Central Bank [The Bank of England] to resolve allocated settlements on behalf of J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank – who DID NOT have the gold bullion that they had sold short and were contracted to deliver. At the same time I reported on two other unusual occurrences:


1] - irregularities in the publication of the gold ETF - GLD’s bar list from Sept. 25 – Oct.14 where the length of the bar list went from 1,381 pages to under 200 pages and then back up to 800 or so pages.

2] - reports of 400 oz. “good delivery” bricks of gold found gutted and filled with tungsten within the confines of LBMA approved vaults in Hong Kong....

here’s what the Chinese allegedly uncovered:

Roughly 15 years ago – during the Clinton Administration [think Robert Rubin, Sir Alan Greenspan and Lawrence Summers] – between 1.3 and 1.5 million 400 oz tungsten blanks were allegedly manufactured by a very high-end, sophisticated refiner in the USA [more than 16 Thousand metric tonnes]. Subsequently, 640,000 of these tungsten blanks received their gold plating and WERE shipped to Ft. Knox and remain there to this day. I know folks who have copies of the original shipping docs with dates and exact weights of “tungsten” bars shipped to Ft. Knox....


The USA is in deep trouble thanks to the criminals in Washington DC. And these idiots just passed a law making it even harder to grow food!

Please, can we string all of them up as traitors to humanity???



posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 10:49 AM
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The fact that we live in societies where supermarkets will through away perfectly good food that could feed thousands of people just shows how far off the tracks we have gone.
edit on 2-1-2011 by woodwardjnr because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 10:50 AM
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reply to post by theendisnear69
 



And yet the top 1% of Americans control the majority of the wealth.

How can you have billions of dollars, a hundred extra rooms in your mansion, and yet not feel the urge in your heart to help some of these people?

Does moolah blind your conscience or what? I'm asking cuz i'm working class, I wouldn't know.


They do not consider us to be "Human" They call us the "Great Unwashed" My interaction with some of them showed me that they really really do not consider us "one of them" so they really don't care what happens to us. "Human Cattle" comes to mind.


I put on my "Tin Foil Hat" and came up with The Ultimate Conspiracy Theory to try to explain what is currently happening. It is substantiated by Brazil's Booming Economy



posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 10:55 AM
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if you get/make 22k a year and still dont get by just STFU and get a cheese helmet and sit in the corner for while and think about what you just said,

you might want to re arrange your lifestyle and smell the coffey every once in a while,..

i make around 18k a year
i have 3 cars and a moped and around 1000 square feet of living quarters
i have a child and a spouse to support
i smoke and have the occational drink
basic 8mb internet and satelite tv
a dog and 2 lizards,

and some how we manage just fine



posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 10:55 AM
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Originally posted by againuntodust

Originally posted by daryllyn
And to the commenter that stated people should be able to make it at 22,000 per year and that if those people didn't buy alcohol, cigarettes and drugs that they would be fine. HOW RUDE of you to assume that you know anything about them. Shame on you.


That was me and I stand by the comment. I don't make sweeping statements. I did not mean everyone who gets free food is buying booze and drugs, but I do know for a fact some of them are. And if it's rude for me to assume I know anything about them, then it's rude for you to assume that you do either. So shame on us both.

Good financial stewards are a rarity in this country. Coupling that with the statistic of 25% of people smoke, and 75% of people drink, and my own personal experience whereas EVERYONE I've ever seen needing assistance has been abusing it by these methods, allows me to make my statement without shame. Here is a research paper on Substance Use among Welfare Recipients.

For those that are good financial stewards, and sober, and still needing the assistance - the comment is not directed towards them... they deserve the help. I'm pretty sure we all agree there.


I wasn't trying to be rude. I was just trying to say that people are facing extremely hard times right now and that not everyone is abusing the system. I do, however, still stand by my comment that it is rude to assume that they are cigarette smoking, drug abusing, alcoholics based on their need for assistance and what YOU consider to be "enough" money to make it without help. I am not denying that there are people who do abuse the system and are taking help away from more deserving individuals.

There is a difference between the things we were both assuming. You were assuming the worst while I was merely giving people the benefit of the doubt, hoping that some people are getting help that they truly need. I see no shame in that..

To each their own, I suppose. Different opinions make debates such as this a lot more interesting : )



posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 11:02 AM
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Originally posted by illuminnaughty
Personally I think its only right, that the americans suffer a bit. After all, they have been stuffing them selves for years at the expense of the rest of the world. Now they can experience what life in the poorer countrys is like. Struggling to make ends meet. Maybe it will make them wake up. Half the world is starving, Whilst they sit on their rather large asses. Making silly comments about other poorer countrys and how lazy the people are there.


As an overseas American I can see your point. However what will happen is civil unreast and the guilty and the innocent will all suffer. In their suffering they will unit in a new political system (for America) called American Fascism as the right takes over entirely.

I would hate this to happen as it would lead to even more suffering!



posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 11:03 AM
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So basically, what you've all pretty much eluded to is that if fuel prices spike once more...

...we'll all be criminally intent on finally planting food where we eat it (justice for some).

Sorry, I just found it difficult to believe fuel prices weren't an issue in any of these calculations...especially as it seems it would be such a pivotal swath of some retched billionaires pen. :/
edit on 2-1-2011 by lagnar because: spelling & addition



posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 11:10 AM
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Originally posted by againuntodust

I have a feeling if these people weren't buying booze, cigarettes and drugs that they wouldn't need food assistance. But I am just drawing from personal experience - what I've seen through my life on who uses and abuses these programs.





The three things you mention have prices that are artificially high, by design. Those three products are addictive and people profit from them, by design. So these prices are artificially high design when they could actually be very cheap. Couldn't have that though.



edit on 2-1-2011 by Erongaricuaro because: (no reason given)

edit on 2-1-2011 by Erongaricuaro because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 11:27 AM
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reply to post by illuminnaughty
 





Personally I think its only right, that the americans suffer a bit.... Yes thats a real good american idea and a dream, they can all believe in. Kill poorer people to make them selves wealthy again.


SIGHHhhh,

Please identify the true enemy other wise you will do nothing but hamper efforts to clean up the mess by playing into the hands of these very clever Son's of Syphilitic She Camels.

The American people (not leaders) and everyone else in the world have been victims of the same small clique of people. They have manipulated fiat money to steal the wealth from everyone in the world. Worse they have cleverly used "Socialism" to fight "Capitalism" which is their true enemy.

They do this by labeling their misbegotten Neo-Corporatism with all its attendant horrors as Capitalism.

Let's make it clear what wealth (not money) really is.

Wealth is the product of man's mind.


Man uses his ingenuity to produce useful products from raw materials and labor. Money is the tool of exchange, used to trade the goods produced. Money is the logical end of the barter system. Unfortunately this system of exchange has been perverted.

Our current world society has establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law. These are the men who have established Central Banks, Fiat Currency and have systematically stripped the wealth from entire countries by exchanging it for their worthless paper.

So please aim you justified anger towards the REAL looters, the Central Bankers and not towards your fellow victims.

If the looters were not stripping the wealth from the poor and middle class, we would not need the massive welfare systems set up by the looters to strip even more money from the poor and middle class under the guise of "humanitarian efforts"

This shows the extent of the wealth redistribution towards the wealthly since all the "social" legislations started going in place in the 1970's (EPA, OSHA... )


In 1976 A typical American CEO earned 36 times as much as the average worker. By 2008 the average CEO pay increased to 369 times that of the average worker. timelines.ws...


The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false face for the urge to rule it

H L Mencken



posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 11:36 AM
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I have just looked into this a posted a similar reply on another post

I can see this situation occurring in the UK in 2011, and believe the conditions are there for a further economic crisis.

First of VAT is increasing by 2.5% to 20% in two days time.

This increase is in response to the decrease in VAT to 15% during 2008-09, a disastrous gamble however, when you consider that in December 2008, petrol was 89p a litre (unleaded) and is now around £1.24, a factor that as already pushed food prices up as hauliers are struggling with these costs.

We are also seeing an increase in fuel duty:

www.telegraph.co.uk...

And in addition to these factors, according to the following report, competition with the booming middle classes of Brazil, China, Russia and India, and crop failures as a result of extreme weather are pushing up not only food prices but cotton, the raw cost of these commodities are yet to it the retaillers, leading to sharp price increases over the coming quarter.

www.independent.co.uk...

There have recently been energy price rises of around 7 - 9% depending on suppliers:

www.telegraph.co.uk...

The Bank of England has forecast a further 5% rise in gas prices in the first half of 2011:

www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk...

This is a bad time of year at the best of times, with many retailers laying off staff or cutting hours, something that will be exacerbated this year by these factors, leading to higher unemployment and increased lower spending, as those still in full time work are getting less for their pound.

I don't know in detail how the economic crisis will develop in the US, but I am aware that some of New Labour's bail out policies were adopted over there during 2008-09 if anyone could post insight please?



posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 12:00 PM
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reply to post by brill
 





This works out to approx 25% of America relying on food stamps. Hello extended depression....


Tye US government has been lying through its teeth for years by constantly changing how they present "Statistics" For example the estimate of the REAL unemployment rate is 22%
So I am not surprised that 25% of the USA is on food stamps.

Add in 17% of the labor force that works for the Federal government and you can see we as a country are in a real world of hurt. On top of that we just added three more bureaucratic headaches, Obamacare, the Food safety Farce and the 1099 nightmare

I have to agree with Paul Roberts

I am amazed that the US government, in the midst of the worst financial crises ever, is content for short-selling to drive down the asset prices that the government is trying to support....

The bald fact is that the combination of ignorance, negligence, and ideology that permitted the crisis to happen still prevails and is blocking any remedy. Either the people in power in Washington and the financial community are total dimwits or they are manipulating an opportunity to redistribute wealth from taxpayers, equity owners and pension funds to the financial sector. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury www.countercurrents.org...


These people are not dumb, so why are they wrecking western civilization? My guess is The Ultimate Conspiracy Theory I just hope I am wrong.



posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 12:14 PM
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reply to post by woodwardjnr
 



The fact that we live in societies where supermarkets will through away perfectly good food that could feed thousands of people just shows how far off the tracks we have gone.


Believe me the supermarkets do not WANT to toss that food but they have to because of the food safety laws. (I wanted some of it to feed my animals but no luck)

My spouse and I are old enough to remember when "Garbage" was different than "Trash" A pig farmer would come by daily to pick up the household garbage (Food Waste) cook it and then feed it to his pigs. The trash man would come by and pick up trash to see what he could recycle. As late as 1975 the US Army was selling food waste to pig farmers in South Carolina.

There is a reason we have the different words garbage, trash and rubbish.

Unfortunately we now have laws to prevent this type of recycling.



posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 12:21 PM
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Yes crimvelvet I agree with you completely. The banksters and fiat moneys are the problem. Slaves thats all we are, to them plastic elitest types. Useless eaters? imo Thats them, not us normal people. Its about time we dragged them out of their lofy perches and invite them to a neck tie party. The whole system is one big crock of chit. What is their answer? another war usually. Seems we do not learn from our past, as this has all happened before. we need to tear down the system and start over again with a new plan. Finding a new plan is the big question. What do we replace it with?



posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 12:32 PM
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Originally posted by crimvelvet
reply to post by brill
 



This works out to approx 25% of America relying on food stamps. Hello extended depression....


Tye US government has been lying through its teeth for years by constantly changing how they present "Statistics" For example the estimate of the REAL unemployment rate is 22%
So I am not surprised that 25% of the USA is on food stamps.

Add in 17% of the labor force that works for the Federal government and you can see we as a country are in a real world of hurt. On top of that we just added three more bureaucratic headaches, Obamacare, the Food safety Farce and the 1099 nightmare


That 25% stat was projected for 2015, it it about 10% lower currently. However, as you stated, true unemployment U6 is hovering around 17%, shadowstats shows that number could be in the 28+% range, and that's now not 2015. No question about it there is a windshield of misery and despair going 200mph aimed at the little bug that represents the common people.

brill



posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 12:47 PM
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reply to post by lagnar
 





Sorry, I just found it difficult to believe fuel prices weren't an issue in any of these calculations...especially as it seems it would be such a pivotal swath of some retched billionaires pen.


The skuttlebutt is the prices are headed for about $5 a gallon. This directly translates into at least doubling of the food prices. But it is going to get MUCH MUCH WORSE!

80% of the World's food supply is controlled by ten corporations. With the passage of the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Ag, this food cartel has been aggressively wiping out independent farmers worldwide. They are also seeing to it that international laws are "Harmonized" to give them complete control of the food supply.

You can thank President Clinton for this and the financial mess.

Former President Clinton told a U.N. gathering Thursday that the global food crisis shows "we all blew it, including me," by treating food crops "like color TVs" instead of as a vital commodity for the world's poor...

Clinton criticized decades of policymaking by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and others, encouraged by the U.S., that pressured Africans in particular into dropping government subsidies for fertilizer, improved seed and other farm inputs as a requirement to get aid. Africa's food self-sufficiency declined and food imports rose... seattletimes.nwsource.com...


When Haiti lowered its tariffs on rice in the 1990s due to international pressure, the local agricultural sector was destroyed. In a remarkable admission, former President Bill Clinton confessed that such “free trade” policies were a mistake....
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton made a remarkable admission a couple of weeks ago. His neoliberal “free trade” policies of the 1990’s have led to the destruction of Haiti’s agricultural sector and the inability of the country to feed itself.

"It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake," said Clinton to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 10. "I had to live everyday with the consequences of the loss of capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did; nobody else.
www.stwr.org...


Yeah Bill cry Crocodile tears all the way to the bank while your wife pushes the WTO agenda on American farmers TOO. Hillary Clinton's connections to Monsanto go way back to Rose Law Firm where she worked. During her Presidential campaign she was pushing for the Food Safety Law that was just passed. The Clintons amassed nearly $169 million in the past 10 years of "public service".

Oh and Clinton had Robert Shapiro, CEO of Monsanto, as his Senor Trade Advisor and Dan Amstutz, VP of Cargill, as his senior trade negotiator. Dan wrote the Agreement on Ag.

Monsanto and Cargill had record earning in 2008 while the rest of the world had food riots. Cargill is a privately owned grain trader.



posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 01:02 PM
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Originally posted by illuminnaughty
Personally I think its only right, that the americans suffer a bit. After all, they have been stuffing them selves for years at the expense of the rest of the world. Now they can experience what life in the poorer countrys is like. Struggling to make ends meet. Maybe it will make them wake up. Half the world is starving, Whilst they sit on their rather large asses. Making silly comments about other poorer countrys and how lazy the people are there. Whats needed is for the peace prize winner, to start another war. Then the americans can get back on top. Yes thats a real good american idea and a dream, they can all believe in. Kill poorer people to make them selves wealthy again.


This post is filled with more ignorant generalized useless statements and I have neither the time nor patience (or desire really) to make a retort, so with that said...OMG dude stop the hating already okay. Without Americas intelligence and strong commitment to innovation and new ideas, do you REALLY think that you would even have the ability to even make a statement such as that using the interface/forum/medium you currently have?

Seriously...lets keep this forum/site constructive as the time for "finger pointing" is far passed and we (whether we really can or want to admit it) are pretty much all in this together now as the last time I checked, we are all pretty much getting screwed royally with EACH AND EVERY country damn near having "representatives" that are doing their part in adding to OUR plight.

Take the hate elsewhere.

NT

edit on 2-1-2011 by Newbomb Turk because: After re-reading my post I guess I kind of did make a retort lol oh well



posted on Jan, 2 2011 @ 01:05 PM
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reply to post by rufusthestuntbum
 





I don't know in detail how the economic crisis will develop in the US, but I am aware that some of New Labour's bail out policies were adopted over there during 2008-09 if anyone could post insight please?


As you know Iceland "bankrupted" and had the good sense to tell the bankers where they could shove it.

Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain are all staring bankruptcy in the face as is the USA (DC just won't acknowledge it) Stewart Dougherty, a specialist in inferential analysis, says. It is now "statistically impossible for the United States to pay its obligations." www.silverbearcafe.com...

Everyone should read this Article so they know exactly what the World Bankers have planned for their countries. We can not and must not allow the bankers to continue with the looting.


Structural Adjustment Policies are economic policies which countries must follow in order to qualify for new World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans and help them make debt repayments on the older debts owed to commercial banks, governments and the World Bank....

SAPs generally require countries to devalue their currencies against the dollar;[in the future the Yen!
] lift import and export restrictions; balance their budgets and not overspend; and remove price controls and state subsidies...

Balancing national budgets can be done by raising taxes, which the IMF frowns upon, or by cutting government spending, which it definitely recommends. As a result, SAPs often result in deep cuts in programmes like education, health and social care, and the removal of subsidies designed to control the price of basics such as food and milk. So SAPs hurt the poor most, because they depend heavily on these services and subsidies....

By devaluing the currency and simultaneously removing price controls, the immediate effect of a SAP is generally to hike prices up three or four times, increasing poverty to such an extent that riots are a frequent result. www.whirledbank.org...



After reading this you can understand why I consider Obamacare down right EVIL because it drives the USA that much deeper in debt.



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