I think the Foxies are confused. I believe the goal, in this case, is to feed hungry children. No one in America should be hungry.
It seems like too much talk and too much legislation is aimed at decreasing the number of people on food stamps not because America is more prosperous but because some people see think the poor are getting something for nothing. There is a general tendency, especially among the Faux News types, to stereotype those who receive food stamps as being lazy. Sure, some people are lazy. That adjective really doesn’t fit the majority of people who receive assistance.
Maybe it makes the accusers feel better to belittle those on assistance. I feel badly for those who don’t have enough to eat. There are all sorts of reasons why people don’t have enough food. Probably the most ubiquitous reason is that there is unemployment in the home. Others might have physical or emotional issues that make it impossible for them to work. Still others are in school, have huge child care bills, or are just down on their luck.
Perhaps its time to take some pride in America and rewrite the food stamp script. How about deciding, as a nation, that we have no hungry people? Hungry people don’t work well and they don’t learn well. Cutting off food stamps is simply mean and vindictive in most cases.
Good for President Obama for calling out Faux News. Faux News just has to have someone to hate.
Well, according to Darrell Issa, the poor in the US are some of the wealthiest people in the world – and are the ‘envy of the world’.
And he would be correct, if you are comparing standards of living/cost of living.
I would agree that there shouldn’t be “hunger” or malnutrition in a country such as ours, with our ability to produce food on an industrial scale, using that economy-of-scale to keep food-prices low. It really doesn’t cost much for one to feed themselves, provided they are making wise choices.
I once conducted an experiment, to see if I could sustain myself foodwise on $3.00 a day, for 30 days. I found that I could. Yes, beans and rice were a staple, but I also ate vegetables and fruits, as well as chicken and tuna. It was dooable, but I had to be intentional.
Something that is rarely spoken of, especially by the “paternalistic progressives” who see the government as the answer to all societal ills, is “food insecurity” is often a symptom of an entire “syndrom” of issues. Peel that onion and you will find things like single-parent/multi-children homes, dead-beat dads, substance abuse, gambling, sub-standard education, criminal activities and multi-generational dependence on “the system”.
I can’t count the times I’ve been at my local 7-11, and stood behind someone buying junk-food with an ebit card, then proceeding to purchase cigarettes, beer and scratch-off tickets with cash or a credit card. One woman I see regularly is also wearing a bunch of gold, and spots several grand in tattoos. Oh…and she drives a new SUV.
I do know others who are genuinely struggling, and not for a lack of trying, need these social services to survive. I council and mentor them at my church. I do remember these people when I see someone who appears to be “gaming the system”.
Throughout history, there are those who game the system. It isn’t a modern thing. Reconstruction seems to pop out in my mind when I think about those in the past who have gamed the system.
Today, many more actually use what is given to them rather than abuse. However, the abusers seem to fly to the top of our mental list. It really isn’t fair. I also saw kids being dropped off for break breakfast from an Escalade. Yes, it really pissed me off. Then it took going down to the breakfast site and mingling with the masses to see those who wouldn’t have breakfast if it weren’t for the program. Some of the kids you knew only had 2 hot meals a day and they were at school. I have a friend who had a kid busted at Beville for stealing food. He was getting food for his little brother and sister. They might have lived in one of the homeless shelters.
It’s also critical to remember that while mom and dad might be drinking and drugging and gambling, their kids aren’t.
I also never had a real appreciation for poverty and hunger until we found out my stepson was dead 1.5 years ago. I spoke with the medical examiner and said I had never heard of anyone dying of starvation in America. She said I would be surprised. She sees it all the time. This was in the Bronx.
I like the idea that a certain basic level of food is a birth right. If anyone who was hungry or just plan cheap could go into any fast food store and order a standard “WIC” meal of beans, rice, vegetable puree and water for free. No questions asked. I wouldn’t care if the extremely rich were getting this benefit since the meal would be healthy and the simplicity of the meal means that the cost to the environment/society would be lower than eating an expensive unhealthy meal.
Since there is no means testing or government paperwork this could be potentially cheaper than administering a food program. Fast food stores might like the additional walk-in traffic it generates to sell add-ons and thus bid on the contract to provide the labor at reduced cost. FF would bill the number of meals back to the government at a fixed cost.
I hear McDonalds is looking for a way to re-invent itself.
@Moon-howler
But to your original point, those we consider “poor” in this country would be considered “well off” in developing nations, and many there would rather be “poor” here, than poor there. Perhaps we need to do as Rand Paul suggests: invest in our own, before we send money to other countries, many of which hate us.
To most of the world, we are rich. I just don’t use ” most of the world” as my measuring stick. Comparing Americans to Americans, we have a real probably with polarized haves and have nots.
I have mixed emotions about sending money overseas.
@ Steve Thomas: “I once conducted an experiment, to see if I could sustain myself foodwise on $3.00 a day, for 30 days. I found that I could. Yes, beans and rice were a staple, but I also ate vegetables and fruits, as well as chicken and tuna. It was dooable, but I had to be intentional.”
When did you do this? Oh, and BTW, you had a place to live, water, heat, lights, refrigeration, transportation, clothing, etc. Am not impressed by your experiment.
Yes, our poor may be better off than the poor in many places in the world but there is no excuse for anyone to be homeless or hungry here in the U.S.. I surprised Steve didn’t bring up drug testing to make sure the poor are spending their pittance on drugs. His stereotyping of the poor is typical of those like Issa and others who think the poor are just gaming the system.
George,
What an asinine rant. The topic was hunger, but since you brought it up.. the war on poverty gave us projects that were supposed to solve the problem of low income housing. They became places of misery, crime, etc. The war on poverty created a welfare system that traps people: If you want help, you have to quit working, and you had better not be living with the father(s) of your children, or else your benefits get cut, and on and on.
I don’t blame the poor for being poor. Using your lib rationale, I grew up poor. The poor have always been with us, and they always will.
Do I think many continue to be poor because it’s just their generational culture and they’ve made a series of bad decisions? Yes, I do. No one made them gaff off school. No one made them take drugs, commit crimes or have lots of kids with deadbeat men. They are free to choose to do these things, and set an example for their kids to emulate. They are also free to work and strive to give their kids a chance to break out, and we have lots of examples of this.
As far as drug-testing to qualify, maybe not. But, I’m all for pulling the benefits of habitual offenders. Why should the law-abiding productive members of society be forced to subsidize a drug abusers lifestyle?
Has the war on poverty resulted in elimination of poverty? Nope. It’s given us Detroit and Sandtown, Compton and Trenton. But progressives care so much for the poor, that their policies continue to make millions more of them, and if that weren’t enough, they want to import millions more.
So, as far as your not being impressed that I was able to feed myself on $3.00 a day..I could care less what you think. Póg mo thóin.
Hmm. So are the poor actually not poor at all in spite of their moral failings because of anti-poverty programs when compared to other countries, or are they poorer then they would be if not for failed U.S. government programs from uber-liberals like Obama?
That Venn diagram of truth doesn’t overlap much.
The war on poverty has seemingly eliminated poverty among the elderly. There are no contemporary stories of seniors eating cat and dog food.
The cost of cat and dog food has gotten too high, beef is at record prices, and all the chickens and turkeys are or may be victims of avian flu. We seniors have been reduced to eating veggies and sunflower seeds.
Steve-mark the spot, you’re all thóin to me.