More and more Americans are turning to soup kitchens

[Orrin_73]

As the economy has steadily grown over the past four years, so too has the number of Americans going hungry.

That increase in the number of people who are hungry or "food insecure" - Washington bureaucratese for "not sure where their next meal will come from" - is reflected in data collected by the US Department of Agriculture as well. In 2005, it found more than 38 million Americans lived in "hungry or food insecure" households, an increase of 5 million since 2000.

"Even though individuals may have a job, they still are having a hard time making ends meet," says Maura Daly, a spokeswoman for Second Harvest, which is based in Chicago. "We find many people have to make choices between food and other basic necessities like paying for utilities and heat."

This is one hell of a recovery, where people are getting poorer by the day.

To combat hunger, more in US turn to soup kitchens

Here is one interesting linke too.

America's younger workers losing ground on income

[babylonsister]

1. So much for rah-rahing at the SOTU and the amazing economy;

and, w/companies laying off, bankruptcies forbidden, it will only get worse. :(

[BlueManDude]

2. We're killing ourselves. n/t

[gator_in_Ontario]

3. This past summer, I went to a food bank for the first time

quite a humbling experience. I was sure grateful they were there!

[Maat]

4. Thanks for the link.

I bookmarked it; I also looked up America's Second Harvest. I'm going to have to support them. We have a group called Interfaith Community Services that is helping the hungry near us, and it is supported my Unitarian-Universalist congregation.

[lovuian]

5. Americans are going to know what a depression is all about

this is just the beginning and its going to get worse...

The economists have been very quiet lately and we know why...

The legacy of Bush is the legacy of Hoover and coolidge...

[Piscis Austrinus]

6. You think it's bad now?? Just look at this report:

The Laboratoire européen d’Anticipation Politique Europe 2020, LEAP/E2020, now estimates to over 80% the probability that the week of March 20-26, 2006 will be the beginning of the most significant political crisis the world has known since the Fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, together with an economic and financial crisis of a scope comparable with that of 1929. This last week of March 2006 will be the turning-point of a number of critical developments, resulting in an acceleration of all the factors leading to a major crisis, disregard any American or Israeli military intervention against Iran. In case such an intervention is conducted, the probability of a major crisis to start rises up to 100%, according to LEAP/E2020.

An Alarm based on 2 verifiable events
The announcement of this crisis results from the analysis of decisions taken by the two key-actors of the main on-going international crisis, i.e. the United States and Iran:

- on the one hand there is the Iranian decision of opening the first oil bourse priced in Euros on March 20th, 2006 in Teheran, available to all oil producers of the region ;

- on the other hand, there is the decision of the American Federal Reserve to stop publishing M3 figures (the most reliable indicator on the amount of dollars circulating in the world) from March 23, 2006 onward.<snip>


http://www.zephnet.com/
(story is on the front page)

We're about to see Iran start trading oil in Euros, and the federal government is about to stop issuing M3 reports. The former is suspected as one of the underlying catalysts to the US invasion of Iraq, since Saddam Hussein had been threatening to do this prior to the invasion. The latter is of serious concern to any nation (or individual or corporate entity, for that matter) holding US debt, as it may be less clear to those entities exactly how many dollars are actually in circulation (or, more to the point, how many are actually being printed).

I heard this on Air America this week and checked it out briefly online... the effect was described by the on-air guest, economically speaking, as "two comets hitting the earth at the same time."

The projection of the Euro deal is thought to involve a possible decline in the US dollar against the Euro by as much as 35%. That's not accounting for a possible war in Iran.

Food banks might be a growth industry at that rate...

Peace
PsA

[Wilms]

7. K&R n/t

[bobbieinok]

8. for 2nd link see Tamara D's new book Strapped

http://www.demos.org/pub663.cfm

she was very good when she was on DRehm's show......she kept Rehm in the world of her book and most of the callers and did not allow her to believe that there 'must' be a local organization that 'can help you'