17m US families too poor to eat

Found this article in the Australian news.

17m US families too poor to eat

So much for the economic recovery!

Yeah, most of us have the problem of putting food on the table. We have to choose between our cell phone bill, credit card payment, mortgage, christmas gifts, gas, or food. Most American's choose to go without the food passing by the steak in isle 1 and buy some Ramen noodles instead. This is our idea of what we call not having enough money to put a quality meal on the table.

Anyone without enough money can get all types of assistance, from churches to food stamps. I'm not saying there aren't cases with people making just above the food stamp level having a hard time scrapping food together, but a majority spend their money wastefully.

Originally posted by dingleberry77
Found this article in the Australian news.

17m US families too poor to eat

So much for the economic recovery!

You are so right about that. Unemployment and "Under-employment" is like 27%.

If you don't know what "under-employment" is well it is YOU who got laid off from your $50,000 a year job and now work at Walmart. There is allot of that going around right now. Employers are outsourcing even more jobs and there is no end in sight.

How could there be? How can the U.S. compete with slave labor? The average Chinese worker (not counting the free slave labor here) is $6,000 a year. There is no way to compete with that unless we become a 3rd world country ourselves!

Import Tariffs always have been and are the solution.

reply to post by ExPostFacto


I strongly agree with that. I know people that actually put video games, their pets, and their own enjoyment before their children. They make no effort in looking for a job, and then they complain about not having enough food to last them till the end of the month. They get food stamps, and money from welfare. And what do they do with it? Buy video games, and junk. Makes me so mad.

It is truly a sad state of affairs when a society as advanced as ours has starving children; and make no mistake about it, children starve each day in this country.

I work routinely with the homeless and as sad a state as they are in, many of our starving children are in fact not homeless.

I contribute much of this to the inherent 60+% fraud rate in welfare and food stamps, but it is more than that; it is a basic failure in our ability as a nation to handle our social affairs. We send billions to what we consider to be, less fortunate countries, while our citizens starve. I just can not wrap my mind around that.

Yes there are examples to be made of families that have very confused priorities and while those can not be ignored, I am specifically speaking of families that are quite simply starving.

One of the things I most attribute this too is our dependence on our current HUGE central government. It is just too large to consider the "little people"...

We need to get back on track and give the states more power and in the same action, take some away from the monster that the federal government has become. If the states had a larger piece of the pie, and more freedom/power to use those resources, as the Founding Fathers intended, I think we would see much less of this.

Semper

reply to post by dingleberry77


Yeah isn't that ironic!
21 million population of Australia helped bail-out rubbish like Fanny May and Freddy Mac ( and all the other corporate oxygen wasting scum fraternities I forget).

reply to post by dingleberry77


I agree with a number of the posts here. You have to know that these "statistics" have been maintained for only 13 years and the majority of those year the economy was in pretty good shape and unemployment quite low. With the jobless rates very high, there is no doubt that more folks are having more trouble.

That being said, America is a country where the average family has 2 cars and 4 TVs. They also have cable TV and cell phones. There are some basic choices that folks are making and those choices don't include cutting out those discretionary items that they want. We also live in a country where in some citys kids are getting two of their meals every day in school -- even in the summer time. This too has been going on during boom times as well as during the current economic crisis.

From my perspective, these kinds of "studys" should always be considered BS. There is no scientific methodology that can reasonably be defined that would provide accurate data and quality results absolutely impossible to determine. I had left-over chicken and rice for dinner tonight and it was dry. If some gent called me right after I ate and asked me if I had adequate food to eat, I would have said no, despite the fact that I have plenty of food to eat. If there was ever a study or measure that was more subject to political bias, I have not heard of it before.

All that said, we should all support our local food banks and shelters either with money, time or donations. Despite the fact that folks are in fact making choices, kids are not and to the extent that those organizations provide a measure of help, we should support them

The US has outsourced much of her industrial capacity and won't get it back. Cheap labour abroad produces second rate products for a consumer-society. Only one US industry still strongly dominates all competitors - and this industry needs the poor.

Poor kids will become poor teens with no chance to find a decent job. Without decent job and education their only alternative will be to join the army. The sociopathic elite will sent them abroad to fight wars for profit against poor people in other countries of the world. When their service is completed, many veterans will become homeless and continue to struggle.

Regardless how angry the people are. When they have to struggle everyday to pay their rent and bring food on the table, people will have no time to think and form organized protest.

reply to post by capgirl

Well said!
I wonder how many kids have a ton of games, nice clothes
and cell phones, yet no food!
And now prolly no house either.

Just shows ya who really runs these households!
A friend said he gives his kids sugar cereal for dinner,
if thats what they want!
No wonder we're in such sad shape physically and economically!

If you don't have any money at all in your pocket, you have a problem. But most people don't know how to eat cheap when they absolutely have to. Two eggs, 10 cents each, with two slices of toast, nickel a slice, 30 cents for breakfast. Package of raman noodles 15 cents with 1/4 of a pound package of mixed vegetables 25 cents, 40 cents for lunch. Two potatoes at 10 cents each, two frankfurters, 11 cents each, another 1/4 pound of mixed vegetables, 67 cents for supper. 67+40+30, $1.37 and sales tax for a days worth of food. If you shop at Aldi and Dollar General as I do. Boring, oh god yes, but filling and nutritious. If you actually want to shop around and cook, you can do it cheaper and maybe better. Especially if you are cooking for more than one.

Change!

Patooey!

Threw that slogan out the window long ago.

What a sad topic...


[edit on 17-11-2009 by Tek-Neek55]

The only solution to this, or most problems, is for people to stop having kids. Everytime someone is born, you have to waste money and resources to feed him, educate him, etc. When the population overwhelms the resources, then it's time to reduce the population(in the most ethical manner of course.)

I means, it really amazes me why people want to have kids, when they can't even take care of themselves. The reality is that most people don't make enough money in their lifetime to buy their own house, car and have all the basics like health care, social securities, insurance, and then pay the bills. So they have to borrow, and of course, that's how they get into debt. Now imagine what happens when they have to take care of a couple of kids in the process, and then those kids growing up doing the same things. It becomes a vicious cycle. They start to blame the bank, when the reality is it was all because of their irresponsibilities in the first place.

IMO, the biggest mistake people often make is to try to buy their own house. I mean, what's the point of owning something, if you have to work 30 years for it? All the money they spend on the mortgage payments, could easily be used to take care of themselves, and their parents, for the rest of their lives, without needing to borrow anything.

[edit on 17-11-2009 by np6888]

reply to post by semperfortis


No Government program can be effective without responsible citizens! And we cannot have responsible citizens without some moral authority.. or education for that matter. What's the first thing that gets axed during a recession? Education.

This country needs a hell of a lot more than a new and improved way of feeding it's people.. we need a social epiphany of some kind..

Originally posted by dingleberry77
Found this article in the Australian news.

17m US families too poor to eat

So much for the economic recovery!

It's more like 43 million. You over there in Australia just don't know. Everything they show on Tv and the Internet is a lie. We have to get up a 4 am to start digging in the mines. We can't go outside because the air is polluted. My 5 year old daughter has never seen the Sun. In the middle of the work shift we get 4 ounces of some chemical laden goo to keep us going. Sometimes it's green, sometimes it's blue. Even little sally has to work. When they put us in our cubicles at night for our 3 hours sleep period little sally's fingers are raw and torn. She keeps asking me, daddy, when and I going to see the Sun? When am I going to go to school.? I just tell her I don't know baby and cry myself to sleep as I hold her only to awaken 3 hours later for the start of another shift.
~~~~~~~~~~~~RIP~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sure it's tough but to say that 17 million can't eat I believe is a serious exaggeration. I don't know anyone.. including the homeless people who cant find a meal when they need it. Yeah the economy is in the gutter but as long as you can work, you Can eat.. and if you can't work, there's plenty of help for you out there. No one should have to starve. if someone does starve it's only because they refused to get off their butt and go get help or a job. Then shame on them. but no one is "Too poor to eat" they shouldn't publish stories like that just to get ratings.

As for the children. they cant work or apply for aid. Adults who have children need to be responsible. When I was growing up, we were taught not to have children unless we were sure we had a means to support them. This doesn't not mean having a job. This means building up a nest egg first for the kids before you have them. No one does this anymore. If you lose your job, perhaps one parent dies, then you need to get help before things get bad enough where you can't feed your children. Never is there a good reason for letting a child starve .





[edit on 17-11-2009 by JohnPhoenix]

Originally posted by semperfortis


I contribute much of this to the inherent 60+% fraud rate in welfare and food stamps,

that is very illogical...

I know you are saying it because you believe in pulling your own weight, no socialism
and or plus hand outs make people weak etc... I smell the drift, however I think you are attacking something you do not believe in, in a round about way. Possibly to negate the benefits for the non fraud recipient of such programs, I believe to crystalize your disgust of the general social practice? I assume this because I have seen such many times here, cloaked just as yours is. If I am wrong to read into it, pardon.

Plates of food make the recipients hungry and mal nourished.

I have NEVER met a hungry person who was made hungry by the availability of food...

reply to post by semperfortis


Why is America giving aid to anyone else when it needs to give aid to its own people?

The same can be said of here in NZ and probably other countries.

Look after your own first - surely that is obvious?

reply to post by dingleberry77


At least there be less fatasses in the world.

I hope those starving are the politically-correct, feminazi, animal-loving, lawsuit-happy vegetarians.

Originally posted by eldard
reply to post by dingleberry77

 

At least there be less fatasses in the world.

I hope those starving are the politically-correct, feminazi, animal-loving, lawsuit-happy vegetarians.

No, the poor will probably gain weight. The bag of mixed vegetables will be loaded with broccli and cawliflower which are known goitrogens. The stress from poverty will put a strain on the adrenals and further weaken the thyroid. Most of the packaged food marketed toward the poor contain soy which will also take out the thyroid. The thyroid controls metabolism when it does not work even with hard labor weight loss is not possible. Since hypothyroidic people function like mental patients on lithium, I doubt it is an accident that food is loaded with goitrogens. What is done to the poor in this country is insidious.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


The community, that I'm originally from, was devastated by a flood.Three
levees broke and put a lot of businessess out of business.Now, how can
you find work when there isn't any? The main employer of this community
is the auto industry.We know how well that is doing!

My sisters were laid off most of the summer.My husband was laid off all
summer as well.Everyone is back at work and trying to catch up on bills.
Christmas this year...We are only buying presents for the little ones.The
adults are getting food boxes.

Actually that number is already a year old...and the 17 million only reflects the number of hungry children... there are no stats yet for for 2009 but you can bet there a lot higher...
49 million people, including about 17 million children, worried last year about getting enough to eat.
With some 15.5 million Americans out of work..and growing plus around 3.5 million home foreclosures just this year that 17 million should be up significantly for 2009...