In any discussion about poverty, food stamps are always front & center, BUT
The real issues are:
housing and wages
Take this example:
$10hr for a 30 hr week (before taxes& wh) comes out to $300 a week (most low wage workers cannot even GET 30 hrs a week)
In MOST places in the US, a "decent" apartment probably costs $500 (minimum) per month..
That comes out to 42% of GROSS income
If a senator makes $175k a year that 42% comes to $6125.00 per month.. I wonder how many of them pay that much rent/mortgage out of their own pockets..
Some of the teapartiers sleep in their offices & shower at the congressional gym because they say rents are too high for them..
If you have to spend 42% of your GROSS income, and you still have to pay for transportation, child care, medical care, utilities and all the other necessities of life, you WILL come up short in the food department.
Your other expenses, while not necessarily "fixed", are pretty inflexible..and the ONLY place in a budget that has some wiggle room, is food ..
Poor people will always be with us as long as we (as a society) limit their access to upward mobility, so we have 4 choices:
pay them enough to live on
subsidize their housing so they can afford to pay rent
give them food or money to buy food
kill them
= new reply since forum marked as read
not interested in playing 
