America the Hungry

[Adios]

"It was a little bit embarrassing," said McCarty of accessing the food pantry at the Lawrenceville Cooperative Ministry for the first time last month. "But you know, I have to do what I have to do to survive."

It is perhaps around the holidays, a period of celebration often centered on food, when there is no clearer reminder for many once middle-class families of what life used to taste like. McCarty, who is college educated and served in the Air Force for four years, describes herself as "an independent person," who earned $38,000 a year before the economy took a turn.

But McCarty, along with millions of others, represents a growing group of middle- and working-class individuals who are "food insecure," which means they have difficulty feeding one or more of their household members at some point last year because of a lack of money.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/12/13/food.insecurity.holidays.middle.class/index.html?hpt=C2

Hello Third World.

[Adios]

Every gun that is made, 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. This 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. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. [...] Is there no other way the world may live?

–Dwight David Eisenhower, "The Chance for Peace," speech given to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Apr. 16, 1953.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Sorry guys, looks like we accidentally permanent war economied your refrigerator.   

[Persona Facade]

It's weird, most people do not picture America as a nation with problems feeding its people.

I was surprised as to how filled soup kitchens filled 3 years ago, and back then only served around 100-200 people during my 3 hour shifts every month (It was school volunteer work so roughly 3-6 hours every 2 months, not much). I can only imagine how much more filled these same kitchens I worked in are now if college educated people are being forced down into this situation as well.

[Adios]

Let 'em eat lead.

Defense contractors continue to reap in significant profits despite industry-wide concern that government defense spending will decrease in future congressional bill cycles.  The Washington Post reported yesterday that Northrop Grumman, who dropped out of the KC-X tanker bidding process last spring but remains a defense contracting powerhouse, took in nearly $500M in third quarter profit this year.  Chief Executive Wes Bush said that although the company expects "U.S. defense spending to be flat-to-low-single-digit growth" in the near future, Northrop has remained able to generate such profits by reducing its overhead and increasing productivity.
http://nationalsecuritylawbrief.com/2010/10/28/defense-contractor-profits-rise-as-sector-prepares-for-midterm-house-flip/

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

Every gun that is made, 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. This 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. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. [...] Is there no other way the world may live?

–Dwight David Eisenhower, "The Chance for Peace," speech given to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Apr. 16, 1953.

That's socialist talk.
                /

[BabylonHoruv]

I work at the salvation army (well, I put in hours there for my own welfare benefits)  And there are people in there getting food constantly,  Enough that the lady in charge of giving food out is constantly grouchy from having to turn needy people away

[East Coast Hustle]

Waittaminute...

you're on welfare? WTF dude. You appear to be an able-bodied dude in his 30s. 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Waittaminute...

you're on welfare? WTF dude. You appear to be an able-bodied dude in his 30s.  

Most able-bodied 30-somethings I know are on welfare, right now.  There seems to be a recession on.

TGRR,
Staples his ass to his office chair every morning.

PS:  Is BH one of the free market tards?  If so, 

[East Coast Hustle]

Nah, unemployment != welfare.

But I do recall BH being an anarchist. An anarchist who apparently doesn't mind suckling from the state-sponsored teat.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Nah, unemployment != welfare.

Actually, a lot of people here have fallen off of unemployment and gone to actual welfare...and it's not that they don't want to work, it's just that there aren't any jobs at all.  Hell, go into a McDonalds, and the whole crew is my age.

[Whatever]

Nah, unemployment != welfare.

Actually, a lot of people here have fallen off of unemployment and gone to actual welfare...and it's not that they don't want to work, it's just that there aren't any jobs at all.  Hell, go into a McDonalds, and the whole crew is my age.

That may be true but you sure as hell get a lot better service!!!

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Nah, unemployment != welfare.

Actually, a lot of people here have fallen off of unemployment and gone to actual welfare...and it's not that they don't want to work, it's just that there aren't any jobs at all.  Hell, go into a McDonalds, and the whole crew is my age.

That may be true but you sure as hell get a lot better service!!!

How nice.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Also, I though BH's wife was about to make it big or something?   

[Whatever]

Also, I though BH's wife was about to make it big or something?   

Right, wasn't there a screen play and it was signed for a movie or something?