20 Things the Poor Really Do Everyday That the Rich Never Have to Worry About

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/20-things-poor-really-do-everyday-rich-never-have-worry-about



***SNIP


1. Search for affordable housing.
Especially in urban areas, the waiting list for affordable housing can be a year or more. During that time, poor families either have to make do with substandard or dangerous housing, depend on the hospitality of relatives, or go homeless.
(Source: New York Times)

2. Try to make $133 worth of food last a whole month.
That’s how much the average food stamp recipient gets each month. Imagine trying to eat well on $4.38 per day. It’s not easy, which is why many impoverished families resort to #3…
(Source: Kaiser Family Foundation)

3. Subsist on poor quality food.
Not because they want to, but because they can’t afford high-quality, nutritious food. They’re trapped in a food system that subsidizes processed foods, making them artificially cheaper than natural food sources. So the poor are forced to eat bad food — if they’re lucky, that is…
(Sources: Washington Post; Journal of Nutrition, March 2008)

4. Skip a meal.
One in six Americans are food insecure. Which means (among other things) that they’re sometimes forced to go without eating.
(Sources: World Vision, US Department of Agriculture)

[Scuba]

1. I wonder how many times a week Jamie Dimon spends $133 or more on just his dinner.

[Delphinus]

3. $100 a month

was what I allowed myself for groceries - single woman - five years ago. I would be so proud of myself for getting six sandwiches out of a pound of hamburger.

[Art_from_Ark]

4. I often wait until just before a supermarket closes for the night

to buy half-priced deli items.

[In_The_Wind]

14. I shop early for markdowns in the meat department.

[Art_from_Ark]

15. That's one way to stretch the food budget

I'll also stock up on non-perishable items I need when they're on sale.

[In_The_Wind]

16. We live on meals cooked at home, usually in my crock pot.

Something hot over pasta, rice or mashed potatoes.
Chili can be made in a variety of ways ... more beans, served over rice or taco chips (the store brand is usually a dollar or two).

Paper products take a bite out of the budget. We use terrycloth towels instead of paper towels whenever possible.

Coffee to go comes from my kitchen. In warmer months, it's a iced drink from home.

[CFLDem]

17. Heck he probably

routinely spends $2000+ just on the wine.

I don't judge because I'd do the same if i were in the same position, though.

Until then, $10/gallon swill is good enough for me

[LisaLynne]

2. No one in this country should go hungry.

My family went through some really hard financial (and otherwise) times and that was bad enough. Chronically not being able to feed your family ... I can't even imagine how hard and stressful that must be. There's just no reason for it.

[TekGryphon]

5. What is WITH these horribly designed progressive sites?

This is the second time in a row I'm finding myself posting about this; last time was about politicus. Why is it as soon as I click that link I'm taken to a massive page-consuming popup with no way to exit out of it unless you hit escape.

Is this 1998?

I'm not even going to bother reading this article because:

1. There's no way I can share that to others on Facebook without looking like some kind of libertarian twat-waffle who uses poorly made conspiracy sites.
2. How the hell am I supposed to trust the journalistic integrity of an organization that makes absolutely terrible decisions on everything else.

[TBF]

6. The topic is hunger in America and your response

is to bitch about the quality of the website? Really?

[TekGryphon]

20. There's articles all over the web about hunger in the world

I choose not to share to my friends the ones that look like they were written by a 16 year old who built a website using GeoCities circa 1998.

[el_bryanto]

7. What progressive sites do you like?

That you would hold up as a good example?

Bryant

[TekGryphon]

21. Here's a few:

http://economistsview.typepad.com/
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/
http://robertreich.org/
http://ineteconomics.org/

[TBF]

23. Those are all good sites -

I especially like the last one. It makes economics understandable for those of us who didn't major in the subject.

[hobbit709]

9. And what browser are you using?

I had no problem getting to it and reading the article. Evidently you have.

[TekGryphon]

19. Firefox 25.01 with ad-block

[Half-Century Man]

11. Twat-Waffle?

Eggo porn?

[MannyGoldstein]

8. "Food insecure" is a misleading term

It's actually The War on Diabetes. Poor Americans eat to damned much for their own good, we're just helping out.

The worst offenders are old people; why don't Liberals understand what a blessing the chained CPI will be for them?

[xchrom]

10. !

[TexasTowelie]

26. Oh Manny!

would be what George Takei would say if he was a DUer.

[grilled onions]

12. And The Kids

Get teased/tormented at school for not having the in fashions. Kids having to skip sports or other activities because there is no money to join. Kids find it harder to study. Some are in shelters. Many have to watch their siblings because parents work crazy hours and who can afford sitters? Kids feel guilt more. They often think if they were working or live elsewhere there would be more food,more space for those left behind.

[jmowreader]

27. Terrible army flashback follows

Reagan's Secretary of the Army was John O. Marsh. This crazy bastard was in the infantry at the tail end of World War II, and later got elected to Congress from Virginia. He outed himself as a crazy bastard when he decided to inspect the troops in Vietnam: instead of doing what most of the congressmen who inspected the troops did, he bought a set of initial issue, got issued a rifle and a set of field gear, jumped on a C-141 headed for Tan Son Nhut, and patrolled for a month. As a private. And until after he left The Nam, no one knew he was a congressman.

When he was Secretary of the Army, one of his big things was this Madison Avenue "Army Theme" program. One year we had the Year of the Army Family...this was the same year the commanding general at Fort Ord decided none of HIS troops needed to receive food stamps, and two children in different families committed suicide after leaving notes saying that with them gone, there would be more food for those left behind. (Shortly thereafter there was a new commanding general at Fort Ord...normally division commanders don't get relieved for cause, but this one sure the fuck did.)

[Dustlawyer]

13. Amerika is the greatest... Oh blow it out ur ass! How is this for American Exceptionalism?

[bvar22]

18. ...but the RICH worked HARD for their money!

They are ENTITLED.
Steve Jobs built a computer in his garage,
pulled himself up by his bootstraps,
and became a Billionaire!
So EVERYBODY should do that!

If somebody is poor,
its their own damned fault!!!
They bought McDonalds instead of building computer prototypes in their garage!

[progressoid]

25. And here in the land of opportunity, we can ALL do that.

Why, any day now, my 55 hour work weeks are going to make me a billionaire!

[KG]

22. 13. When they do vote… vote pretty much the same as the rest of us

.
Following their defeat in 2012, conservatives took solace by reasoning that they’d lost to a bunch of “takers,” including the poor, who voted for Democrats because they want free handouts from big government. The reality is a bit more complex. Only a third of low-income voters identify as Democrats, about the same for all Americans, including wealthy voters.
(Sources: NPR, Pew Research Center.

you'd think the dem party would be jumping all over this demograhic, essentially marginalizing the gop.

but no, it's waaaay easier to blame 'nader!!!' rather than face the real problem why the dems are basically out of power: incompetence and cowardice.

[indepat]

24. The shameful fruit of a government shamelessly subsidizing large corporations to the hilt while

keeping the minimum wage at less than one-half of Australia's, cutting food stamps, and hankering to reduce social security and Medicare benefits so MIC funding is not subject to the same sequestration as the rest of the programs in the budget. Misfeasance imo.

[Egalitarian Thug]

28. 15. Live shorter lives.

There is a 10-14 year gap in life expectancy between the rich and the poor. In recent years, poor people’s life expectancy has actually declined — in America, the wealthiest nation on the planet.
(Source: Health Affairs, 2012)

& R

[B Calm]

29. Heard on the news last night that milk might go over 7 dollars a gallon

if congressional republicans don't get off their fat asses!