http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/28/us/20091128-foodstamps.html Is it just me, or does food stamp usage seem higher in the Republican States.
Other than the heavy patches of dark blue in the Deep South and that the top 15 counties are all in solid red states, sure.
Read the fine print. Nearly 1 in 4 children in the U.S. receive food stamps. Damn. And that 25% of American children live in such poverty matters to whom? The Republicans who fight tooth and nail for the top 1%? The Dems who fight tooth and nail for the middle class? That's right, for neither. Obama nominally cares, a bit. But not enough to enact any real programs. Republicans, not a whit. They're happy to take votes from white food stampers in Kentucky but otherwise, these takers can die in a fire.
Fox's "takers", both in social program $, money received back from DC compared to what is given and military cheese is always slanted toward red states. It's why they stay red. They're leeches.
For what it's worth, I found a map of food stamps by state. 12 states were in the highest bracket, more than 21%. 4 blue, 8 red. For what it's worth. Maine Michigan West Virginia Kentucky Tennessee South Carolina North Carolina Alabama Mississippi Arkansas New Mexico Oregon
Might as well use the original data... http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-produc...program-(snap)-data-system/go-to-the-map.aspx
I guess this is as good of a thread for this as I am going to find. I and Minerva were having a discussion about the poor, and I ran into some interesting numbers. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-08-30-1Asafetynet30_ST_N.htm “More than 50 million Americans are on Medicaid, the federal-state program aimed principally at the poor, a survey of state data by USA TODAY shows. That's up at least 17% since the recession began in December 2007” Yes we spend close to 525 Billion per year (2010) to fight poverty, yet poverty keeps kicking our ass, what up with that? Would 1 trillion per year help? Here is a list of programs http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-02-02/safety-net-programs/52939824/1 NPR’s take “One half of all jobs in the U.S. today now pay less than $35,000 a year. Adjusted for inflation, that's one of the lowest rates for American workers in five decades.” http://www.npr.org/2012/08/04/158141728/how-americas-losing-the-war-on-poverty If you are a single parent with 2+ children, this is a big issue for sure, 35K is not poor but with children it would be struggling, especially for people living in urban areas. Obiously many of us here agree that employers have no raised wages to keep up with inflation and some others here would argue they are not keeping up their side of the “social contract” I personally do not think they ever did, but that is another argument. Not all programs are just to help the poor, some like unemployment insurance help people stay out of poverty. http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/14/news/economy/poverty_government_assistance/index.htm
Obviously not all 525 Billion spent fighting poverty goes to the actual poor, we could argue that perhaps lass than 50% go to the actual poor, a lot goes to profits of companies providing services for the poor (health clinics, companies that run food programs) and a lot of it goes to the people that work helping the poor, private and public employees. So would it not be better economically (but perhaps impossibly politically) to just hand the poor cash? http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/09/13/if-the-us-spends-550-billion-on-poverty-how-can-there-still-be-poverty-in-the-us/ 525 billion / by 50 poor people is a little more than 10,000 per year. (More than 11K if the poor are less than 45 million). Obviously another way to help fight poverty would be to increase the minimum wage to about 12.00 per hour, but only about 2-5 million Americans earn the minimum wage (about 2 mil in 2007) and that that may cause more unemployment (I still think it should be done, but I do not think it will be enough). http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060731141616AAHMyZd
you guys should see this documentary on poverty and youth http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/poor-kids/
Impossible logistically. You give people a check for $12,000 on January 1st ... they'll be broke and homeless by April 1st. As it is people can barely ration food stamps on a monthly cycle.
When I was in my 30s, my dad had his Social Security checks sent to me. I would then dole out partial payments via Western Union wires. Otherwise, he'd blow it all on booze and a whore by Day 3, and be in a Salvation Army flophouse on Day 4.
To me, payments to the poor are the price we, as a society, pay for our jihad against inflation. It's just immoral to have a society that has decided 2% is the ceiling for inflation, and anytime inflation gets above that, it's time to stomp on the brakes and throw people out of work.
Well inflation does hit the poorest the most, I mean we complain that wages are lower today in real terms than they were in the 60's, imagine if we had 5% inflation.
Stop building aircraft carriers and stuffing them with gold plated aircraft. Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. Dwight D. Eisenhower
Ok run away inflation. Controlled moderate inflation can actually be good. Inflation is actually worst for people that save money, the poor do not have money to save so perhaps you are right and is not the poor that suffer (as much) as is people that have savings, I guess the rich have lots of savings, but I assume they have better access to better saving options than say me with my shitty interest return on my Brazil 2014 savings account. I guess the trick is how much inflation is too much, other wise Iran will end poverty any day now. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/02/w...n-prepares-for-worse.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Here is one poor person being helped by Inflation.
Frontline is the best ... For me the must see informative TV every week is : Meet the Press Up with Chris Hayes Frontline Charlie Rose (depending on guest) Anything Ken Burns Stewart/Colbert other than that it's hit and miss ... small doses of MSNBC(Alex Wagner!), BBC and PBS would add Bill Maher too if I had that channel
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/12/cory_booker_to_spend_this_week.html Helps that he's a vegetarian. http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2012/12/day_2_of_cory_bookers_food_sta.html
Tap water is practically free, what a waste of money for something that give you no nutritional value.
War on unions is a war on good paying jobs. Corporate profits are super-duper. Wages flat or declining. You do the math.