50,000,000 people are on food stamps. 1 in 5 families can't afford food.

Casualties of Economic Terrorism, Surveying the Damage

The devastating numbers across-the-board on the economic front are staggering. I'll go through some of them here, many we have already become all too familiar with. We hear some of these numbers all the time, so much so that it appears as if we have already begun "to normalize the unthinkable." You may be sick of hearing them, but behind each number is an enormous amount of individual suffering, American lives and families who are struggling worse than they ever have.

America is the richest nation in history, yet we now have the highest poverty rate in the industrialized world with an unprecedented amount of Americans living in dire straights and over 50 million citizens already living in poverty.

The government has come up with clever ways to downplay all of these numbers, but we have over 50 million people who need to use food stamps to eat, and a stunning 50 percent of U.S. children will use food stamps to eat at some point in their childhoods. Approximately 20,000 people are added to this total every day. In 2009, one out of five U.S. households didn't have enough money to buy food. In households with children, this number rose to 24 percent, as the hunger rate among U.S. citizens has now reached an all-time high.http://www.alternet.org/economy/145667/

How in the world does corporate america get away with starving the children of this country by telling them food is an entitlement that they are not entitled to.

Sooner or later, they'll get tired of hoarding all the money, and then, then by Gadfrey! we'll all have prosperity. Except for the leeches and the dirty fucking hippies. Oh, and anyone else who's not a real American.

are owned by middle class business people just hanging on. I have been around a long time and small business people deny it but they are helped just as much by food stamps, medical assistance and housing programs as the poor. The poor can afford to work for them for less is they have help in these other areas. Small business people are fools when they side with the repugs to end the safety net. I is their net also.

That is simply another example of Corporate welfare that keeps wages artificially depressed.

:)

Since they pay so little many of their employees need assistance to survive.

That would offend his Republican masters.

And there won't be enough gated communities, armored limousines or police to protect the hoarders or their government toadies.

I'm not advocating, just predicting.

FIFTY million of your fellow Americans on food stamps! Millions cannot find work. Hundreds show up for a job offer. It's horrible out, and yet, the wealthy are enjoying their fanciful lifestyles, and the gov't aids them with legalized profiteering through lax rules, lobbying in Congress, etc...


GREAT... just GREAT!!!

When I walk my dog, I go down the main drag (Old Glenn Hwy) where the fast food places are, down Business Blvd where the park, theater and bowling alley are located, and then down to the Eagle River, where the kids party sometimes. On this route, I get to meet and talk to a lot of the working poor--people I refer to as disposable citizens.

I talk to these people, trying to educate them about the myth of the American Dream, the loss of representative government, and how the wealthy and their government servants enrich themselves and fight wars for empire on the backs of disposable citizens. I recently bought a sack of the little 256MB USB drives, and I always carry a few with me when I do my talk walks. They're loaded with wmv files of labor songs, civil rights songs by the Dropkick Murphys, Pete Seger, and others, interviews with Naomi Klein, Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, a couple of skits by George Carlin, assorted essays, and a pdf file with a list of websites appropriate for those questioning the status quo.

I like to think, in a tiny way, I'm contributing to change I hope is coming. That change can't come through a ballot box rigged to maintain the status quo. It's going to be won with massive boycotts and general strikes; with people simply refusing to play the game anymore.

Much better than dancing puppets.

I think that is something that we all can do.

Engage the people that need to see things from a different perspective.

We can change the world, One jump at a time...

Engaging the working poor is my preference. Those who have jobs that allow them to pay the bills are too comfortable to question the status quo.

When I was just a kid, I joined a strike that caused tens of thousands of acres of tomatoes to rot in the fields. I gained a sense of the power of workers when they organize.

Some of the other responses to my post, asking why the employed should suffer along with the unemployed, are very telling. The point being missed is that we have a system built on institutionalized poverty and the assumption that the unemployed are less skilled and less deserving than those who have jobs, or they would be employed too. Those sorts of responses reflect an offensive I-have-mine attitude that has grown more common among Democrats as the party slides to the Right, but they ignore the reality that the system is exploitative.

I know experienced and skilled engineers working in retail right now because of the lack of jobs. I know someone whose company laid off hundreds of workers, then brought them back as temporary employees to load the lathes, milling machines, presses and other equipment onto trucks to be shipped to China. They suffered the indignity of helping to ship their jobs overseas.

During my walks, I talk to people who were given barely a chance in life, and who work multiple jobs and still remain below the poverty line. They are as skilled as people making two or three times what they make, they just can't find opportunities. They just need to have someone tell them the system is rigged against them. Once they realize the truth, and the understand that they are disposable in the eyes of both the Democratic and Republican parties (although the Democratic party does a better job of lying to them), the have what they need to start changing their lives. Once they stop chasing the American Dream, they can focus on reality.

I have no patience for status quo supporting platitudes that ignore the reality around us.

I think I am going to start doing the same...

I have the advantage of having a beautiful German shepherd that attracts attention wherever I walk him. He's a great conversation starter.

Disposable citizens are internal exiles. They know this, but they are often in denial. They focus their fear and anger on the typical scapegoats, like minorities and undocumented immigrants. They just need to be taught that all workers everywhere have one common enemy--the few who manipulate the system for their own benefit at the expense of the many.

I do this as well, and while it seems small and insignificant I am convinced that it is very powerful. Those following and interested and knowledgeable about politics are disproportionately from the upper middle class, educated professionals and intellectuals, and there is a bias that causes people to not see, to look right through most of the people they encounter.

I was talking with a Green party advocate from the Bay area once, telling him that there was a bias in the party from the fact that the group was largely upper middle class. He said "you don't know this area, it is mostly software engineers and other professionals here, so that is why the Green party in this location is made up of those people."

I told him that I know the area well, and I also knew that even there someone was washing the windows, cleaning the offices, emptying the trash, mowing the lawns, driving cab, repairing the cars, waiting on tables, cooking the food, laying the brick, fixing the plumbing, tarring the roofs, stocking the shelves, mopping the floors, scrubbing the toilets, doing the laundry, driving truck, working the warehouse, ringing the cash register, and hundreds of other essential jobs. He literally could not wee those people, did not take them into account.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Bush continues Reagan's republican policy of "F**k You! I'm from the government and I'm here to protect only the wealthy". Robbing us blind for 30+ yrs it's high time to roll back the Reagan tax cuts. Sorry but after the first billion I have no sympathy for your second billion. 91% tax rate to give back to the nation and people that made your first billion possible.

You've polluted our topsoil, our atmosphere, our climate, our ozone, our drinking water, our oceans, our environment and killed off our animal and fish population.

Time to pay back with taxes and regulation because you cannot regulate your own greed.

It's amazing how many poor repubs or stupid middle classers will balk at the suggestion
that we raise taxes on the rich, despite their amazing ride to profit and obscene wealth these past 10 years.

:thumbsup:

I would like to hear more of the specifics of what you include.

I am trying to disseminate REAL info an stats about poverty, too.

With the unemployment offices virtually shutdown where I live because you can apply for benefits online this is a tremendous organizing tool for the 21st century. Goldstein you are a genius!

During my walks, I talk to people who were given barely a chance in life, and who work multiple jobs and still remain below the poverty line. They are as skilled as people making two or three times what they make, they just can't find opportunities. They just need to have someone tell them the system is rigged against them. Once they realize the truth, and the understand that they are disposable in the eyes of both the Democratic and Republican parties (although the Democratic party does a better job of lying to them), the have what they need to start changing their lives. Once they stop chasing the American Dream, they can focus on reality.

Americans have really not even been political --

I guess the closest I've ever understood that to happen was when Democrats had organizers

and campaigners regularly in neighborhoods, getting the message out and listening to people.

It's often even very hard for families to discuss politics because any right wing opinion

seems to shut down all discussion.

But, I'd still encourage everyone to try to begin to talk politics with others they meet.

It's happening more and more!


:)

that won't be happening. And that's hardly a solution.

what they are doing when they aren't in front of the TV.

The solution is whatever change demands the solution must be.

"Parked in front of their TV sets" is a way to blame the working class people for their own misery, for conditions over which they have little control.

Are the people working two jobs to struggle along under $35,000 a year "parked in front of their TV sets?" Are the people trying to raise a family with both parents working "parked in front of their TV sets?" Are the people forced to drive longer distances to get to work "parked in front of their TV sets?"

If poor people want to watch TV as an escape I say more power to them. I am in a poor rural farming community (redundant four times over, I guess) and I don't see people "parked in front of their TV sets."

Who is it that pushes this line - about what is wrong with the fat, lazy, stupid, ignorant (all code words for "immoral" and "losers") American people? Those who are comfortable, the better off people, the clever "winners," that is who. The rest of the people, the majority of the people, see the problems in the country a little differently: they are talking about the arrogant, greedy, domineering and self-centered upscale people - those with the power, those with the choices and options, those who are dominating everything.

That suggests that you are quite wrong when you say "that won't be happening."

The other member said he was predicting not advocating, so your "that's hardly a solution" response is off base.

That's why I sometimes find myself cheering at the thought of the whole country going down... it seems to be the only way that most people will GET IT, and stop the "Us an Them" nonsense.

"The other member said he was predicting not advocating, so your "that's hardly a solution" response is off base."

"solution".... What can even be said. The explosion is building, and as a poor friend of mine said, "Once it explodes, you can't un-explode it." I guess so many people just can't see what is coming, unless We, The People change our attitudes about other people.

"If poor people want to watch TV as an escape I say more power to them. I am in a poor rural farming community (redundant four times over, I guess) and I don't see people "parked in front of their TV sets.""

You and your neighbors are fortunate in one respect... you have the ability to grow some of your own food.

Not following you.

It's a good thing that your neighbor has a job, even when you don't.

I don't subscribe to the theory that if I'm miserable, everyone else should be, too.

What about a short comment about providing jobs for the unemployed? Rather than a short comment about stealing from those who are employed?

my short comment about stealing from those who are employed.

"there won't be enough gated communities, armored limousines or police to protect the hoarders or their government toadies."

It's implied. gated communities won't offer protection. Armored vehicles won't be enough to protect those who live in gated communities. Police won't be enough.

I'm sure you'll say a generic, "Oh, that's not what that meant." But of course it is. Like many statements that are a call to hatred, it is masked vaguely, but not enough so that those who are angry won't get angrier and get an idea to do what the statement implies.

Wow.

You see that as a threat.

"A call to hatred."

Very strange.

Where do you see those comments?

this country.

It has happened many times before, and it would be reasonable to think we have learned something from those sad experiences.

Apparently not.

for the rich, and now that it is disappearing, and the gap is getting larger again the people who can't provide for their families are going to get very angry. it's just a matter of when doing something becomes more important than --- ooh, another reality show is on.

quitting money grabs on the middle and lower classes.

a penny over and you can`t get a food card.

just like foods stamps the food card has become the underground cash card. i know people who are "buying cash" for 40-60% of the value of the card.

that is me. Lost my low income telephone as I overqualified by $1,000.00 a year. Their rate for being "poor" is > poverty level. :grr: :argh:

The poverty level for one person in 2009 (same in 2010) $10,830.
For two people it is $14,570.

http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/09poverty.shtml

Note that the average Social Security benefits are as follows:

retired workers $1,069.20
spouse $576.50
children $574.40
for disability benefit recipients
$1,065.10

Lots more numbers at

http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/quickfacts/stat_snapshot/

That's not much money when in big cities in the U.S. Maybe it stretches further in rural America.

or sports stats, for crying in a bucket.

"for disability benefit recipients $1,065.10"

I will take issue with this one. More than half of people on disability are on SSI, and that is a max of $674. AND, that has been frozen for at least two years, thanks to the current Congress and Administration.

That amount is unliveable ANYWHERE in the U.S.

in thousands:
For disability beneficiaries under age 65: total 12,949. Of which 7,185 get Social Security only, 892 get SSI only, and 1,144 get both.
From last month, at the link.

so we can't get him health benefits or food stamps. we're "too rich" for most of the free clinics around here.

...who is on food stamps. I'm sure that there are people
who are on food stamps who may not discuss their situations, but I find
it bizarre, given the statistics, that one in five Americans
is using food stamps--but I don't know anyone who is.

Is this a hidden epidemic?

Do others not know anyone on food stamps?

This bothers me. It bothers me because I spend most of the time
wondering what is the REAL state of our economy. If the truth is
that 1 in 5 is using food stamps--then we're in a near-Depression state.

I sometimes feel that people are hiding their difficult times--out of shame.
If so, it really screws with people's perceptions and it hides the seriousness
of the situation and how terrible our economy really is.

It's very confusing.

and many who are existing just above the the cut off. One friend and his wife(he got laid off and his wife is on disability) got a whopping $80/mo in food stamps. The next year-because he worked odd jobs that earned him enough to go $200 over their limit-they told him his food stamps were being cut to $16/mo. He said "Never mind, keep your $16 and don't bother insulting me"

and my wife's job was outsourced to India.

We are now reduced to receiving $16.00 monthly for food on our "bridge" (to nowhere) card, despite receiving about $75.00 monthly last year, during which time my wife worked a temporary PT, minimum wage job for 6 months, this reduction makes no sense, but apparently many here have been subjected to drastic cuts in food assistance funds, even if there has not been any additional income reported.



Oh, I almost forgot, we also are credited with $1.00 monthly for "cash" on the card..lol!!

counting them out to hand to the cashier while people glare. We did that. I remember it well. It was shortly before they started using the debit cards. It's harder to tell who has an EBT card or is just using their debit/credit card. IT is humiliating to have to go to the county and ask for assistance. They look at you like dirt. And then when you use your medicaid card or food stamps, people look at you like dirt. i think i remember reading something here from a guy who had regular insurance but whose kids had medicaid and he did a great piece on the difference in how you are treated. I myself even though I have felt ashamed by it, make sure anyone who I hear disparaging those on assistance are disparaging me. I am the face of assistance as much as that single parent black family who lives in the projects in NYC that my family members keep bitching about taking all our tax dollars. I want to make sure that everytime they disparage those on assistance, they are disparaging me too.

:yourock:

Although, as you can see here on DU, when you do here, you risk being told you are being selfish, egotistical, "making it all about you", etc.

:(

I thank you for your courage in speaking up to people.

and might have to shop at local stores on the corner vs the bigger grocery chains that those with cars and buses routes enjoy. Two summers ago, Milwaukee, had flooding, and was handing out food. The lines extended in such great numbers that it was alarming how so many people needed food that they were standing in the sweltering heat. For years I have always stopped at exit ramps were people hold signs asking to work for food. I make an effort if I can to hand out some money. In some city's in this country it has become a crime to feed the poor. Maybe that is why you have no visibility to this epidemic.

people spending them in the stores. Today the card is just another debit card and you do not see people using it. For those of us who have used both it is much better to not stand out in the crowd and have everyone looking to see what you are buying with their money. As to talking about it we talk to others who are in need and usually only when we know they are not going to look down on us for knowing. I am lucky because I was a social worker so I can claim to be talking about work I am familiar with. Truth I am way below the poverty line and have been most of my life.

denomination and pull one out at a time.

I think you are asking the right questions. How can 1 in 5 be on food stamps (and that is the tip of the iceberg) and yet people are unaware of this?

It is not a near-Depression. It is worse than that.

People are not hiding difficult times. Rather, others who are relatively comfortable are not seeing what is right under their noses, they are in denial. What people who are in trouble are not doing is talking to people who do not have a clue, because who needs the lectures and insensitive comments? Who needs the arrogant and condescending attitudes?

We are constantly being bombarded with "you can make it" propaganda that suggests that a person's relative state of material well-being is a reflection of their moral character - motivation, discipline, etc. - and the very strong implication that if you lose your job or can't afford to pay the bills you have failed, that there is something wrong with you. Right here, every time poverty or unemployment or homelessness are discussed someone swaggers in to deliver this message - "hey I made it and there is no excuse for those people, they have only themselves to blame" and "it is nowhere near as bad as you people are making it out to be" or "get off your ass and get involved in charity" and the ever-popular "you are blaming the rich!" All those, clearly, are the same old cruel "let them eat cake!" arguments of the gentry and the aristocracy from the beginning of time.

...that the MSM seems to hide how bad the economy is. Remember, when we hit bottom? The media
was constantly spinning "green shoots" and rainbows. It was revolting and it was lies. They
twist statistics and hide the bad reality with their own spin on the numbers. We aren't being
told the truth.

I often wonder if they are shaming people who aren't doing well--into silence. If people are losing
jobs, losing income, taking paycuts and losing benefits--but the media gives this pictures of, "Hey!
Everything is improving and things are great!" People feel like there is something wrong with them.
When they are constantly bombarded with, "things are improving" and "the economy is roaring back" then
people feel like THEY have failed. They wonder what is wrong with them--that they aren't recovering
as the economy is.

I think the MSM is hiding reality, but I also think they shame those who are suffering into silence--by
making them feel like defectives who just aren't good enough to experience this recovery.

The main difference between now and the great depression is that back then, people who were out of work and hungry were out walking the streets making sure everyone in their town knew how bad things were.

Nowadays if you are poor or hungry, there is really no way to let people in your community know about your problems short of begging for money and then you are just seen as some mentally ill, drug addict who cant help themselves.

Its all about that frame of mind you were talking about. This "everyone for themselves" attitude is so ingrained in our culture that no one allows themselves to feel anything other than pity or disdain for those below them.

The more I think about it, the worse this problem seems. If everyone in trouble is afraid to make their problems known, we will end up in a situation where the poor and unemployed just sort of disappear from society and before anyone realizes it huge amounts of our population are just unaccounted for. I just dont know what it will take for people to realize that having huge amounts of poor and unemployed people just sort of roaming around looking for anyway to make money is a real domestic security issue. I for one am much more scared of my poor neighbor robbing me than Islamic extremists from another country blowing me up.

:cry:

It's terrible that people are unemployed. But it's a good thing that the different states provide at least some fall back for getting food for children.

for food get food stamps. Absolutely. We are a very wealthy country that spends several trillions of our tax dollars on bankers salaries so they can continue to buy a new jet every year.

with milk, eggs, cheese juice and baby food. You get food while you are breastfeeding. It is a pain, but it has been a big help. I guess there have been a few incidents at the stores of people who don't have WIC complaining about people who do get WIC. I personally have not experienced this beyond people getting upset that i am holding up the line. It's not like I take my stuff to the express lane or something. But from what my husband told me, and he goes around to various walmarts and fixes their registers and POS machines and stuff, people are objecting to people with WIC getting brand name stuff. i will admit i get brand name stuff. but cheese i tend to buy the store brand.... i usually get store brands for most things besides cereal. and juice. i tend to grab the same thing every time which makes it easier. WIC is very picky and i don't like having to stand there for a half an hour trying to figure out what to get. At least Tops has little WIC markers so you know what is ok for WIC and what isn't. but i guess the little markers on the shelves upset people too. uggh.

who have it a little easier feel their opinions matter, and share them. I suppose they have been schooled by those who believe that entitlements are just for the rich.

We give billions to corporations and there are never any strings attached, but everyone expects a say in how poor people spend the few crumbs they get.

... I love how Reagan used to talk about "welfare queens driving around Cadillacs" I always thought he was projecting about his true constituency (the ultra rich corporations who depend for the most part on lucrative public contracts) more than he was describing the actual reality of poor single black mothers in the Bronx.

takes so much from all of us to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

We need to be more open about what it is like.

:yourock:

http://www.newsweek.com/2007/12/10/junk-food-county.html

Poverty poses a big barrier to good nutrition in rural areas. "Eating healthier is more expensive," says Jodi Bates, who operates the Compassion in Action food bank in Orangeburg County, where the median household income is just $30,000 and 22 percent of the residents fall below the poverty line. Last year food stamps went to 10.3 percent of rural Americans, versus 7.3 percent of urban ones, and 31 percent of rural grade-schoolers got a free or reduced lunch, compared to 25 percent of urban grade-schoolers.

Rural Americans are at increased risk of what the government calls "low food security," better understood as fear of going hungry. According to new data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 35.5 million Americans (not including the nation's 750,000 or so homeless people) fell into this category last year. The highest food insecurity rates were in states with large rural populations: Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas and South Carolina. Ironically, people with low food security are often hungry—and fat. The reason: they binge on cheap, high-calorie foods that fill them up. "People don't think of people who are obese as struggling with hunger, when of course many of them are," says Weill of FRAC. "Poverty and food insecurity and obesity are often linked not because poor people are getting too much food from programs but because they're not getting enough resources to obtain a healthy diet." And according to a study published this month in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association by the University of Washington, the cost of fresh fruits and vegetables is increasing faster than the cost of other foods.

-more-

I've made a serious effort to eat better food, including a lot more fresh fruits and veggies. My grocery bills have skyrocketed.

The Marine Corps has some shiny new toys to play with.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8644191

:grr:

Thankfully they are no longer coupons, but an EBT (electronic benefit transfer) card which gets scanned just like a credit or debit card. Unfortunately at my supermarket, the cheapest in the area, when you scan your EBT card selecting "EBT" and enter your password just like a debit card (they don't take credit cards)you still have to tell the clerk "EBT" at the end.

For my first 6 months I received a whole $17 a month which is better than a kick in the ass with a cold, hard boot but didn't go far. For some reason that increased to $200 for the next 6 months which was plenty for me. I just had to renew my benefits and I have no idea what they might be next time. Fortunately, it is just me so I can get by ok.

Those people who have just enough to:

pay rent
pay electricity
pay for telephone (land line, not cellphone)
pay for Gas
Pay for Water

but don't have enough left over for food, and does not qualify for food stamps because they
are getting enough money for the above.


I knew a Disabled Veteran who, despite his disability check, was in this situation and lucky for him, there was an organization called "Chicken Soupers" who would deliver to him, twice a month a box of food that was donated. Without this he would have probably starved to death.

this group "Chicken Soupers" has stepped in. I remember when the first wave of disabled vets were coming back, they were reporting that the govt. told them to ask their families for assistance. Who ever took over the V.A. has not done a very good job for these vets.

of these people out of his personal resources.

What is needed is publicly funded campaign elections for all elected positions, take corporate money out of government and return it to the hands of the people. Of course, given our Constitutional set up, there is little or no chance that we'll get publicly funded elections, and thus our country will continue to slide into oblivion, no matter which party is in power.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2007/08/14/18898/study-half-of-nations-poor-dont.html

Study: Half of nation's poor don't get food stamps

Posted on Tuesday, August 14, 2007

By Rob Hotakainen | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Half of the nation's eligible poor aren't getting the food stamps to which they're entitled, a study released Tuesday found.

The District of Columbia had the highest participation rate in 2004, at 71.8 percent, while Missouri ranked first among the 50 states in getting food stamps to its low-income residents. Nevada ranked last among states, with 32 percent of its eligible residents getting food stamps.

Overall, 50.2 percent of the nation’s qualified poor received food stamps in 2004, according to the study by the National Priorities Project, a nonprofit and nonpartisan research group that examines the local impact of federal budget policies.

"We've got over 35 million people in this country struggling to get enough food to eat, and 50 percent of all low-income people are not receiving the benefit that is intended to alleviate this food insecurity," said Greg Speeter, the project’s executive director. "While the food-stamp program provides a vital service, clearly too many people are still going without."

---------------------------

Now they are getting them as they should with Democrats in charge. The Republicans are the economic terrorists. Not the Dems as this hit piece tries to imply and too many gullible people believe.

Makes one question the character of our leadership.

This really stinks bad.

I'm amazed at how the TeaBag mentality screams at public-financed, single payer health care but is silent when Bush put his wars on the nation's credit card...

I can make adjustments everywhere else but there.

would not get much of anything to eat if they didn't get the free or reduced price lunches.

I think Fat Bastard Limbaugh should go on a dumpster-diving diet! He is disgusting both to eye and ear!

except for some small technicality. I am a senior living with my daughter and her family. That makes me ineligible for food stamps and a couple other programs. I am not hurting for food but my family is one of our middle class families just hanging on. Plus I could be living in Section 8 housing and collecting a lot more plus a good 3/4 of the rent. Our laws do not make sense.

"How in the world does corporate america get away with starving the children of this country by telling them food is an entitlement that they are not entitled to. "

They're getting food stamps, right? Obviously we are telling our kids they are entitled to food.

Compare to Germany if you want to use kids.

I'm sure a lot of Germans would be receiving the equivalent food stamps if they weren't already getting Kindergeld, which is hundreds of dollars directly from the government every month just for your kids.

Kill the program.

"progressives" once again lead in eradicating poverty.

We have slid constantly downhill since Johnson, and people don't seem to have the interest in taking it seriously.

Most comments are snark, rather than any real concern and effort. :(

I highly recommend the post, knowing it won't be taken seriously.

unless it is in their own armored trucks. They see every dollar spent on infrastructure and safety nets as one less dollar they can steal from the treasury and therefore, considered wasted; That treasury stocked by you and me. We live in a mafia environment where money is power and extreme wealth is extreme power, immunizing the thugs from their theft; Periodically draining the treasury bone dry and putting it and all of us, in a debtors prison; So nothing is left to the folks who spent their lives paying into it. It is not a chance happening that the top 10% control 90% or more of the resources of this country; It is by government fiat; Back room deals to transform their theft into law. In this age, it is legal to steel anything you can carry from the treasury and our common resources, if you have the power to do it secretly and cover your tracks with a few dubious legal platitudes in place for the loss and beforehand, placed into law, a scape clause, if you get caught red handed with your hand in the cookie jar.

I am sure someone on this site could dig up a study on how many of today's uber rich gained that rich uber alles status, from "our" government and treasury through government welfare for the rich or for those whom the government would like to be rich. A mafia government rewarding its faithful; A self perpetuating money machine with a slave population, to grovel and to squeeze in perpetuity; Making "made men" of those who would protect and perpetuate them. It was not a huge step for the mafia and mafia likes and wannabees, to incorporate themselves into "our" government. All hail, THE GOpBP ET AL INC. and the subservient dino wannabees who service them.

essential commodities were rationed. This was done once before in the US but few seem to know.

That would reduce the Hummers and SUVs much more than raising the federal tax, which is what environmentalists continually harp on.

Rationing isn't likely to happen, but large number of us should speak up for it.

Thank you! :hi:

"I can hire one-half of the working class to kill the other half." He meant it, and his spiritual progeny still mean it.

Regarding professional classes, Jeff Schmidt said in his book "Disciplined Minds" as regards the system of higher education that produces them: "The resulting professional is an obedient thinker, an intellectual property whom employers can trust to experiment, theorize, innovate and create safely within the confines of an assigned ideology."

Let's not be too hard on each other.

... keeping people in line from day one.

No one ever won a rigged match following the arbitrary scoring rules dictated by those doing the rigging. Too bad so many people are so fundamentally stupid to grasp that concept, and they keep playing harder thinking they can overcome the tilted field, the arbitrary scoring, the ever changing rules, and the fact that the rich started the game with 100 goals already assigned to themselves....

In a sense, I honestly do not fault those who came up with the system. They may be evil and selfish, but at least they understood they were dealing with a mass of significantly stupid people and decided to take advantage of that.

I was at the grocery store this morning and noticed the prices on a fair number of items had risen since my last trip. One of the main reasons I try to buy what's on sale and freeze as much as possible.

http://article.wn.com/view/2010/06/10/Corn_rises_after_report_shows_pickup_in_demand/

.............

Talks about floods, China, Ethonol, price of fuel all being a reason for current and future hikes!

Hard times all over for middle class and below, and many formerly middle class people are now lower class. It's a struggle on Main Street but hey, as long as the rich get to keep all their riches and not be inconvenienced by being taxed at a higher rate that their typists and housekeepers.

The narrative, as heard by the vast majority of people, is beyond messed up. So many people who seem nice as far as you know them hang on every word of people like Beck and druggie Rush, and the mentally challenged Sarah Palin.

We're in a country here in 2010 where a completely insane, psychotic bigot like Michael Weiner (Savage) can be all over the airwaves. I find that amazing.

We have to get money out of politics, pure and simple. Until we do we're screwed - the big money people always control enough puppets to get most of what they want.

to the poor. That is how we solve every major issue in the US, and it is working wonders. So yeah, reduce taxes damn it!

*sarcasm*

just introduced a bill in our state legislature to reduce the minimum wage by more than a dollar an hour. Bill Brady is his name and he is the Republican candidate for governor in this election. Pat Quinn is our Democratic candidate; I had the opprotunity to meet him last summer and I must say Quinn seems like a good guy.

SOME repubs think by lowering the minimum wage it will help American workers compete with Chinese labor.

Globalization is just a ruse to drive down wages worldwide.

We should be advocating for a global minimum wage. A wage that ensures every worker can afford food, clothing, transportation, housing, and some form of entertainment whether it be a movie, play, etc.

A global minimum wage would really shut them up when it comes to talk of globalization.

to move these, tyrannical Bastards. Fuck the Government. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever see nonsense like this.

That makes no sense...the 'richest' nation has the highest poverty rate? Isn't that like the ultimate oxymoron?

... it really is not a hard concept to grasp.

midnight

Tjis is horrible if you ssk me.. 50.000.000 peopole can't get food even in a country who for more than 60 year now, maybe longer have feed the world with everything you can thing about... 50 million peopole, men, woman and child who have not money enough to have food on the table, so they have to have food stamp to get by... What an embaressemnt in a country like the US


On the other hand, neither the Great French revolution, or the later Russian Revolution was made in a wakum.. Both the French and the Russian revolution was in fact mostly a revolution where the poor get enough of the status que, and wanted to get rid of it all.. Even the Russian revolution, was first and foremost a revolution, where the russian pessants, who after 500 year with repression, and a loosing war, where thousands and thousands of russians pessants was trown againt the german army, in most cases with a rifle for tree men or so... After starving for many years, as the infrastructure more or less defulted en mass, the end was near when the world war was lost for the russians.. First the revolution, then the empire fall.. And as it says, the rest is history...

If enough americans got enough, im pretty sure that the wealty one percent would not stand a chance in hell to win a revolution, not even the american AM radio host who at large sees to be on the right wing side of political spectrum, would manage to stop it.. Not everyone would manage to stop it, if revolution was broking out in the united states... If peopole got enough, and wake up from their dreams who they have been told for so many years. It would be the end of the ruling class in the US.. And maybe then, americans could at least get a resembleanse of a better future, where the common man could have a chance to feed their familiy, and even have some money after everything was paid for

The US system are a system who would in the end fail, mostly becose it is unfair, and as I have read here on Du for some year now, it is more and more peopole who is been hit by the economical disaster who have been in the US the last couple of years.. Some of the stories I have read here got my heart broken, and I just want to cry for the missery I read... Sometimes I just have to close down the PC, and get myself out, and walk for a while to settle down again.. It so sad to se honest hardworking people hit by this horrible economical disaster.. And I feel so helpeless, becouse I can't do a thing to help... Just read, and pray that it wil end good.. And that the peopole would get a job, an paying job where they at least can get some of a better future..

Maybe its time for americans, to read about their own founding fathers, who revolted aginst unjust, and unfair practise by the old colonial power that was UK.. Maybe its time for americans to go back tot heir roots, to try to understand how unfair he current system really is... ANd hat it is enough... That americans need either to elect real heroes, who want to do the right thing, or to clean house, and build up a better system from the ground up.. Either way, it would be more painfull not to do anything, as more and more peopole wil loose everything they might have


Diclotican

Gilded Age?
The only difference is Social Security, Food Stamps and Unemployment Insurance-- unknown in the first one.
I'm not surprised that people who need food stamps do not have them.
It suggests the magnitude of poverty, and screams out loud of national self-deception.
When do the lies end?
When do the people really count?

just cut the benefits/social net yet again. It is likely to happen, btw.

Truer Words rarely have been said.

Ya'know whats a P.I.T.A.? Not being able to afford the gas to go Job-Seeking,and when I do the guilt over the G.O.M.brings me to tears.

If it wasn't for Food stamps I would be a hurtin unit.

show it decade after decade. We OTOH just get to vote which millionaire into office they picked out for us between Joe Rich and Jack Rich. God I love democracy$!