America's Greatest Shame: Child Poverty Rises and Food Stamps Cut While Billionaires Boom

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/hard-times-usa/americas-greatest-shame-child-poverty-rises-and-food-stamps-cut-while-billionaires



There are 16.4 million American children living in poverty. That's nearly one quarter (22.6%) of all of our children. More alarming is that the percentage of poor children has climbed by 4.5 percent since the start of the Great Recession in 2007. And poor means poor. For a family of three with one child under 18, the poverty line is $18,400.

Meanwhile, the stock market is booming. Banks, hedge funds and private equity firms are making tens of billions of dollars again, while the luxury housing and goods markets are skyrocketing.

Most amazing of all is the fact that 95 percent of the so-called "recovery" has gone to the top 1 percent who have seen their incomes rise by 34%. For the 99 percent there's been an undeclared wage freeze: the average wage has climbed by only 0.4 percent.

To add to the misery, Washington has decided that the best way to tackle childhood poverty is to have poor kids eat less. Both parties already have agreed to cut billions from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Food Stamps). Starting this November 1, payments are scheduled to drop from $668 a month to $632 for more than 47 million lower-income people -- 1 in 7 Americans, most of them children. (Three incredible graphs that visualize the issues in this story are at the bottom of this article.)

[Laelth]

1. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t

-Laelth

[RainDog]

2. k&r n/t

[Scuba]

3. In March, 2011 in Madison I saw a sign that said "Tax the rich now, or eat them later."

[grahamhgreen]

4. Exactly how it will go down

[adirondacker]

5. Can we just feed them to the hogs?, 'cause I'd prefer bacon.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Income inequality circa 1900 led to huge social upheaval and Great Depression. Let's avoid that. nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Anyone think billionaires work less hard if their prospects are only 2 billion, not 4 billion?

Above a certain level of richness it becomes a game, score-keeping.

Raise taxes on the rich and level the playing field a bit more. Throw that phrase into the Republicans' faces.

Political persuasion is all about framing and language. The Republicans are always talking about the American Dream and the opportunities that a "level playing field" provides; usually when they want to erase affirmative action and the like.

Level the playing field: tax the rich and feed the poor.

[RandiFan1290]

8. Thank god we made the Bush tax cuts permanent!

Can't have any of those useless eaters taking our precious cash to buy steak and lobster! Can't we just exterminate them like our good friends on the right want to do? I'm sure we can find a grand bargain that gets rid of this problem!

[Alkene]

9. Once enough of us get hungry enough...

...it'll get real ugly.

I don't want that.

No one should.

I guess our lords and ladies have done the analysis to determine just how far they can go without provoking revolution. Or have they?

[bemildred]

10. How about we starve the rich and feed the poor? nt

[indepat]

11. A kinder, gentler state-administered pogrom in the making? Americans need to come to grips with the

number who die needlessly in the United States each year because of insane gun laws and the fact that our government almost exclusively promotes the welfare of large corporations and the uber-wealthy rather than the general welfare. The proof is in their body of works, a matter of public record.

[liberal_at_heart]

12. K&R