Most Americans don't want anyone in our country to "go hungry," for any reason. There are countless charities and governmental programs to fight hunger. But it surely must have been a surprise to many readers to see in the paper this week that nearly half of American children will be on food stamps at some time during their lives.
For example, food stamps are provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to a family of four with annual take-home pay of less than $22,000.
A survey covering 30 years indicated that 90 percent of black children and 37 percent of white children receive food stamps at some time before they are 20.
In an average month last year, 38.4 million Americans received food stamps.
"This is a real danger sign that we as a society need to do a lot more to protect children," Mark Rank, a University of St. Louis sociologist, commented.
In good times or bad, we don't want any American to be in real need or in deprivation for any reason. We seek to alleviate problems by attacking their causes. And then there always should be a "safety net" of charity or government aid to be sure that nobody ever "falls through."
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This is a national tragedy and outrage that the innocent ones in this country (and worldwide) are going without good food and the basics of life. With all the trillions spent (and wasted) of our tax dollars, charity donations and so-called 'aid' that ends up in the pockets of brutal regimes, one would think by now, we'd 'get it'.
We have so much waste, fraud and pork projects coming from our states and Federal bureaucracies, in addition to the enormous loss of jobs over the last 10-20 years, I just hope food aid won't be another 'victim' of the 'recession' cutbacks. With all the billionaires in the world like Oprah and George Soros, one would think these smart folks, along with the Science community could put their collective heads together and solve the world's problems instead of rolling around in outer space with the NASA crowd at 4.5 million dollars a pop.