12.9 million American Children Live in Poverty!

Also, people need to understand that hunger is still a problem in this country - just read an article in the local paper here that discussed this - apparently, thousands of families that qualify for food stamps and other free food programs do not receive them - for several reasons. People either don't realize they qualify, don't want to be stigmatized, or are unable to get to assistance offices due to long distances and a lack of transportation. I know this last issue to be a big one - when I worked as a caseworker in mental health, many of my clients who lived in rural areas were completely unable to even get to the welfare offices because they did not have cars and buses did not run where they lived. I ended up driving most of them myself.


Also, it is DEFINITELY cheaper for a family to eat nutritionless garbage than healthy food. Ramen noodles cost 11 cents a package - Kraft Mac&Cheese is about 40 cents a box - Kool Aid is 12 cents a package. Compare this to the prices for fresh produce, tofu, juices, etc. When you get into organics and REALLY healthy foods, the prices skyrocket. My husband and I are half-broke now because we are spending such a large percentage of our income on healthy organic food - and we don't even eat meat. But we've made the choice to suffer in other areas rather than allow our family's diet to deteriorate. Many families, however, don't have this option.

 

Food banks are such a joke. Food Stamps are a joke. My stepmother, who over the past 3 years has had cancer, 3 strokes and has been diagnosed with MS gets a $800 diability check every month. It pays the bills, but it doesn't buy her groceries. But they turned her down for food stamps because she "has too much income." She also can't get any medical assisstance because of her income.
Growing up we were very poor...we lived in a trailor with no running water, no electricity, no washer or dryer, no working toilet, and all 5 of us kids used to sleep on the living room floor huddled around our only heater. We lived off of chef boyardee and whatever vegatables grew during the summer. During the winter we were pretty fucked, and ended up sick and hungry all the time. It fucking sucks, and to refer to children living under thes kind of conditions as "statistics" is sick. Its even sicker when people who haven't had to experience that kind of poverty try to blame the folks who do have to deal with it as being lazy crackhead welfare bums.

Yet another reason for me to hate amerika and the people who run it.

 

Ha ha!
I just got an ad today in the mail telling me to vote for some Senator based on his stance on abortion. Pro-life of course. That was the only issue addressed on the card. Some idiots vote only on that one issue, it's so dumb.

 

Not really, people talk about it all the time. Growing up I knew some people who had rough times and nobody refrained from talking about them.

 

Yeah, I know all about what other people say about "them".
Most of it's not very nice.
It's easy to talk, it's another thing altogether to care.

Thanks skip. If people here would only realize what some children have to go through, maybe this country would be in better shape. We weren't on food stamps though. My father is dyslexic and because of that he was never able to finish school. The type of work he had was usually under the table, so since we had no "proof of income" we didn't qualify.

Speaking of such things, my dad is currently trying to get his GED, but since he can't READ the test to take it, he might not be able to get it. The school he's going to is trying to work with current laws to either a) get someone to read it aloud to him, or b) have the test put on tapes that he can listen to. So far they're run into nothing but dead ends. It's a shame, because on his pretest he scored almost perfect, the highest in his class. Just goes to show how hard amerika makes it for people to get back on their feet, no matter how hard they try. I know that's off topic, but I think it sort of goes hand in hand with childhood poverty. Poor parents create poor children.

 

That's really great about your dad, moonshyne. I still believe that a person can be anything they want in this country, although I agree it can be very hard to achieve your dreams sometimes. I hope your dad is successful and realizes his dream one day.

I agree that it's insensitive to look at these impoverished kids as just statistics. And I hate to see any political party turn these stats into a wedge issue or t.v. commercial, but I don't see the Bush administration doing much to remedy the poverty situation. It sickens me the billions of dollars we have pumped into his Iraq war machine, when that money could have gone towards health care, after school programs, preK education, school lunches, college grants/scholarships, alternative/renewable energies, and so many other programs that would have benefited OUR country and OUR people/children.


..

 

Even if that moeny did go into helping people,it would just raise the cost of living and cancel out any good it does. As long as there is greed there will be poverty. So until we stop being greedy (never) we'll have poor people and it should be the duty of the haves to help to the have-nots.

 

Hmm, well 87 billion dollars went to that useless war in Iraq...that money could have went to helping those 12.9 million children livin in poverty, but instead, it just went to weapons and war, typical american government mindset to spend money on war and defense instead of helping the poor.

Peace and Love,
Dan

 

Did you miss where i mentioned that the cost of living would almsot rise, and possibly thrust more people into poverty?

 

My solution is we take all the poor, unemployed people and launch public works programs like Guiliani did when he way mayor of NYC. I mean, just look around your neighborhood. If it's anything like mine there's potholes, garbage, graffiti, etc. everywhere. Take the people who can't find work and pay them to clean up, or as Lewis Black puts it, "build a big fucking thing". The economy would get a jump start, the poor people would have at least temporary employment, and our towns and cities wouldn't look like shit anymore. Everybody wins.

 

that is a great idea, kind of the FDR way of helping the poor...

Peace and Love,
Dan

 

Giving more money to shelters, and more money to habitat for humanity to build cheaper houses and give them away from even cheaper to the poor wouldn't raise the amount of money it takes to live, and doing this wouldn't make more poverty.

Peace and Love,
Dan

 

Who gives a fuck about the ratio, one kid living in poverty is one to many. The hell with ratios.

 

So hypothetically speaking, if the % of children living in poverty in the US had decreaced over the past 10 years, it would still be no better than if it had not in the first place, or had increaced?

There will always be poverty, to think otherwise is stupid. The best we can do is try to limit the number of people living in poverty and help them to better themselves. Unfortunately our current system of doing things either a) deprives the poor of things they really need like child support, healthcare, welfare, etc. and makes self improvement impossible or b) does just the opposite, and creates an enviroment where the government provides just enough to get by day-to-day, and thus removes all motivation for self improvement. There are families now who have survived off welfare for multiple ganerations, it's almost like a way of life (paid for by me and you).

Something has to change if we want anything to improve. And neither Bush nor Kerry is going to bring that change.

 

not to mention the millions and millions that Goverments such as these keep in poverty around the world.




I am coming over to live in your neck of the woods Skip.

 

I was fairly supportive of the war, but this rebuilding shit is rediculous. When do we rebuild our own backyard?