Friday, April 17, 2015
Child poverty and hunger in the US
America’s wealth grew by 60 percent in the past six years, by over $30 trillion. In approximately the same time, the number of homeless children has also grown by 60 percent.
Financier and CEO Peter Schiff said, “People don’t go hungry in a capitalist economy.” The 16 million kids on food stamps know what it’s like to go hungry. Perhaps, some in Congress would say, those children should be working. “There is no such thing as a free lunch,” insisted Georgia Representative Jack Kingston, even for schoolkids, who should be required to “sweep the floor of the cafeteria” (as they actually do at a charter school in Texas). (see link here)
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The U.S. has one of the highest relative child poverty rates in the developed world. As UNICEF reports, “[Children's] material well-being is highest in the Netherlands and in the four Nordic countries and lowest in Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and the United States.”
Over half of public school students are poor enough to qualify for lunch subsidies, and almost half of black children under the age of six are living in poverty. $5 a Day for Food, But Congress Thought it was Too Much.
Nearly half of all food stamp recipients are children, and they averaged about $5 a day for their meals before the 2014 farm bill cut $8.6 billion (over the next ten years) from the food stamp program. In 2007 about 12 of every 100 kids were on food stamps. Today it’s 20 of every 100.
Couple these statistics with cutbacks in early and public education and the picture of our future is ugly.
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To imagine that the Congress finds $5 a day to be sufficient for impoverished children to support themselves is shocking. More so since the United States has a poverty rate similar to underdeveloped countries. I do think that more jobs should be made available for these children so they can support themselves, however I don't think that $5 is enough for the children to support themselves until they find such a job.
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with the line of thinking requiring children to have jobs in order to support themselves. In my opinion, it would become very likely that the type of labor made available to children under the age of 10 would begin to resemble child labor in other countries. I would be very interested to see how the debate over women's rights contributes, if at all, to the rate of child poverty. My initial thinking is that making contraceptives, along with other options, more difficult for women to access could lead to an increasing number of children being born into poverty or homelessness.
ReplyDeleteAnd we wonder why there is so little economic mobility our the "land of opportunity." Hunger not only prevents children from being able to concentrate in school, but also prevents proper growth and brain development. By forcing some children to work for their lunch, while others do not have to clearly privileges the group of students whose parents have money over others.
ReplyDeleteBronte I think that you make a good point about how this is tied to economic and reproductive rights for women. Ironically enough it seems to be the same members of Congress that are trying to limit women's access to birth control and choice, that are also trying to make spending cuts that feed children.