Hunger in America

[Pfaffenhoffen]

Click to see Yahoo article:
More Americans than Chinese can’t put food on the table.
Anyone can expalin me this? In a nation with huge food surplus? With a mechanized and ultra-sophisticated agriculture and top-class agriculture investigation in Universities!?
What is happening that I do not see or that I do not undertand or that I am not aware of?
Thanks for the explanation.

 

[Ruthie_again]

I strongly doubt this article.

First, I strongly doubt the Chinese would allow Gallup unrestricted access to their people. So I doubt that the figures from China are accurate.

Second, the definition of poverty in this country changes frequently. We actually have the richest “poor” people in the world. It is usually politics that controls the definition of poverty. So I doubt that we have that many people living in real poverty.

Third, the “struggle” to put food on the table is largely a matter of budget choices. With food stamps widely available, there is no reason for anyone to “struggle.” It is feeling entitled to expensive foods that makes one run out of food stamps by the end of the month. Leave the chips and the microwave dinners out of the basket, and learn to cook from scratch.

Last, but not least, don’t sell your food stamps to buy cigs or other non-food items.

I speak from experience; I was on food stamps for years. I did fine. Especially after the introduction of ramen!

And I am not denying the existence of poverty in either country. I’m just saying, take that article with a grain of salt… more like a pound of salt!

 

[promethius]

Click to see Yahoo article:
More Americans than Chinese can’t put food on the table.
Anyone can expalin me this? In a nation with huge food surplus? With a mechanized and ultra-sophisticated agriculture and top-class agriculture investigation in Universities!?
What is happening that I do not see or that I do not undertand or that I am not aware of?
Thanks for the explanation.

As Ruthie pointed out, there are reasons to doubt China’s (name removed by moderator)uts. Furthermore, the problem is compounded by what the definition of poverty is. Our poor are certainly better off than the almost all of the richest in Afghanistan.

However, I will point out the final problem which confounds this study: the collection method is asking people what they think of their own situation. I guaruntee that a person thinking they struggle to put food on the table in America is rich by Chinese standards, but that they PERCEIVE themselves as having difficulty financially.

For example: I once debated universal healthcare with a mid-20s girl who was on welfare and foodstamps. She claimed she couldn’t afford to get healthcare, not even a high deductable, emergency policy (she didn’t have any health conditions). This would have cost her about $20 a month. Then she got horribly mad when I pointed out to her that she has the same cell phone plan that I do, a smart phone, cable television, high speed internet, etc. She actually thought she STRUGGLED financially… when her struggle was actually with prioritizing her needs vs. her wants.

We don’t have more people who have difficulty putting food on the table… but we have more people who have difficulty making the right decisions about what foods to purchase and what constitutes needs and wants.

 

[Hecares]

There are so many things that interact to cause people to go hungry in America that I couldn’t begin to list them. Sometimes it requires many things working together to cause the problem.

The biggest thing I see in the area I live in is drug abuse. Adults spend every cent they have, and more, to support their drug habits. That leaves no money to feed their children.

People talk about those “lazy” folks who won’t take low wage jobs. Do you know what happens when they do take those jobs? Their employers will ensure that they work few enough hours that they remain “part-time” help. Then they have no “benefits”: No health care, paid vacation, no time off with pay for anything . If they get sick and don’t come to work they can be fired. They lose all goverment assistence because they are working. We call these people the working poor." They are in some ways worse off than the non-working poor. Those who don’t have jobs get government paid health care, foodstamps, etc…

Our education system has not met the needs of our society. There are few jobs in this day for people with little education. Many students drop out of school before they finish high school, and many don’t learn much when they are in school. They don’t see the relevance of their school work to living in the “real world.”

There are many more reasons for poverty in the USA, but this is already too long…

 

[Pfaffenhoffen]

Click to see Yahoo article:
More Americans than Chinese can’t put food on the table.
Anyone can expalin me this? In a nation with huge food surplus? With a mechanized and ultra-sophisticated agriculture and top-class agriculture investigation in Universities!?
What is happening that I do not see or that I do not undertand or that I am not aware of?
Thanks for the explanation.

Thanks, everybody, for the insight. I was in China, and I saw how they lived, so I was surprised.
Moreover, you are right, poor’s definition has a huge latitude from the USA poor to those who are dying in Somalia.
Yes, and I now remember that some of the so called poor in America as th level of population who has the fattest people, for dirt food is cheap.
and you can read statystics the way you want.
Yes, I guess it was a journalist bomb-title.
Thanks again for helping me think as yesterdar I was so exhausted that I could not see anything.

 

[white_sheep]

The poor in America are wealthier than most of the world’s population. We consider people poor when their car is more than 5 years old and the size of their house is only 3-4 times the world average. In an effort to manufacture a problem with hunger the media has started reporting on food insecurity instead of people who actually go without food in America because it is so hard to find those who are truly going hungry, but you can still find people who might say they have enough food for a week but don’t know how they’ll get more.

 

[Pfaffenhoffen]

There are so many things that interact to cause people to go hungry in America that I couldn’t begin to list them. Sometimes it requires many things working together to cause the problem.

The biggest thing I see in the area I live in is drug abuse. Adults spend every cent they have, and more, to support their drug habits. That leaves no money to feed their children.

People talk about those “lazy” folks who won’t take low wage jobs. Do you know what happens when they do take those jobs? Their employers will ensure that they work few enough hours that they remain “part-time” help. Then they have no “benefits”: No health care, paid vacation, no time off with pay for anything . If they get sick and don’t come to work they can be fired. They lose all goverment assistence because they are working. We call these people the working poor." They are in some ways worse off than the non-working poor. Those who don’t have jobs get government paid health care, foodstamps, etc…

Our education system has not met the needs of our society. There are few jobs in this day for people with little education. Many students drop out of school before they finish high school, and many don’t learn much when they are in school. They don’t see the relevance of their school work to living in the “real world.”

There are many more reasons for poverty in the USA, but this is already too long…

Pity it was so short ! I was reading with the most interest, as you write well.

 

[Ridgerunner]

A bit off topic, but I couldn’t help looking at this sentence in the article twice:

“The share with health insurance fell from 85.9 percent to 82.3 percent.”

Obama himself says that even with Obamacare probably 20% of the population won’t have coverage. So why in the world…???

Like some others, I doubt the conclusion about food in China. Most of the population lives in severe poverty, and China’s per capita income is below the world average. But a lot of the population does live in rural areas, at subsistence level. “Subsistence farming” means you only produce enough to eat, and perhaps that’s at least partially explanatory.

 

[Swiss_Guy]

Thanks, everybody, for the insight. I was in China, and I saw how they lived, so I was surprised.
Moreover, you are right, poor’s definition has a huge latitude from the USA poor to those who are dying in Somalia.
Yes, and I now remember that some of the so called poor in America as th level of population who has the fattest people, for dirt food is cheap.
and you can read statystics the way you want.
Yes, I guess it was a journalist bomb-title.
Thanks again for helping me think as yesterdar I was so exhausted that I could not see anything.

Maybe they can’t put food on the table, but they get a LOT of free food and the like so they are fatter than everyone else. Saw a video about it in class the other week.

Many poor states (e.g Alabama) have the fattest people (Sorry this is a little out dated):

eaves.ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/obesitystates.jpg

 

[puzzleannie]

Click to see Yahoo article:
More Americans than Chinese can’t put food on the table.
Anyone can expalin me this? In a nation with huge food surplus? With a mechanized and ultra-sophisticated agriculture and top-class agriculture investigation in Universities!?
.

getting food on the table in America is not about production, it is about access and affordability, just as it is elsewhere in the world where there a people who don’t get enough to eat. We produce plenty, much of it shipped overseas, but 90% of what ends up in grocery stores and on tables is not food, as it comes from the farm or ranch, but manufactured products made in factories that are now only a semblance of real food, multiplying the cost of a meal hugely.

price supports for agriculture actually translate to paying farmers not to grow certain crops at certain times. If you can explain that you deserve a nobel prize in economics.

 

[babylonsfalling]

Click to see Yahoo article:
More Americans than Chinese can’t put food on the table.
Anyone can expalin me this? In a nation with huge food surplus? With a mechanized and ultra-sophisticated agriculture and top-class agriculture investigation in Universities!?
What is happening that I do not see or that I do not undertand or that I am not aware of?
Thanks for the explanation.

Question the article and keep a realistic perspective.
Poor people in America live like kings compared to poor people in other nations. They drive used cars, have fridge’s full of food and beer, live in decent apartments, have extra clothing, and can almost always get govt med coverage if they can’t afford their own coverage, and food stamps or other forms of financial assistance (both govt and non govt) are all over the place. I know from dealings with other people that there are actually more programs out there than most people even know about.
We do seem to be caught up in a negative perspective about our own country though and have too much of an ungrateful attitude as a result. We end up in a self imposed negative funk, instead of a more proper attitude of gratitude toward God. I’m guilty of it too, complaining about too much overtime when I should be grateful that I have a job.
Basically, we like the rich teenage kid that I used to know…complaining that on his birthday his parents only bought him a brand new Volkswagon Rabbit instead of a brand new Porsche.