The Eight Most Dumped-On Americans

[Scuba]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/02-0

"We live in a society that allows one man to make $15 million a day while a low-income mother gets $4.50 a day for food, and much of Congress wants to cut the $4.50."


The Eight Most Dumped-On Americans
by Paul Buchheit

The following are some of the victims of an economic system that has forgotten the majority of its people.

Children One out of every five American children now lives in poverty, and for black children it's nearly one out of TWO. Almost half of food stamp recipients are children. UNICEF places us near the bottom of the developed world in the inequality of children's well-being, and the OECD found that we have more child poverty than all but 3 of 30 developed countries. It's rather embarrassing to view the charts.

...

The Elderly Three-quarters of Americans approaching retirement in 2010 had an average of less than $30,000 in their retirement accounts. The percentage of elderly (75 to 84) Americans experiencing poverty for the first time doubled from 2005 to 2009. The folly of cutting Social Security is reflected in two facts. First, even though Social Security provides only an average benefit of $15,000, it accounts for 55 percent of annual income for the elderly. And second, seniors have spent their working lives paying for their retirement. According to the Urban Institute the average two-earner couple making average wages throughout their lifetimes will receive less in Social Security benefits than they paid in. Same for single males. Almost the same for single females.

...

Wage Earners Workers have 30% LESS buying power today than in 1968. If the minimum wage had kept up with employee productivity, it would be $16.54 per hour instead of $7.25. Almost unimaginably, conditions for workers have gotten even worse since the recession. While 21 percent of job losses since 2008 were considered low-wage positions, 58 percent of jobs added during the recovery were considered low-wage.

...

The Sick and Disabled Over 200 recent studies have confirmed a link between financial stress and sickness. In just 20 years America's ranking among developed countries dropped on nearly every major health measure. Victims suffer both physically and mentally. A recent study found that unemployment, whether voluntary or involuntary, can significantly impact a person's mental health. Even grimmer, from 1999 to 2010 the suicide rate among Americans ages 35 to 64 increased by almost 30 percent. In the long run, the only Americans to increase their life expectancy have been seniors covered by Medicare.

Also: Students, women, minorities and the homeless. Not included: rich white guys.

The bit about Medicare recipients being the only group to increase life expectency should be hollered from the rooftops.

[liberal N proud]

1. Twisted american ideals.

[Liberal Veteran]

2. They forgot oppressed minority Tim Tebow. -nt

[onethatcares]

3. But for Mr. & Mrs Tom Simpson

of Mission Lago and owners of Tampas newest and largest ultra mansion things couldn't be going more swimmingly in their 23,000 square foot home with a 1500 sq ft movie theater, a 5000 sq ft courtyard with koi pond and artificial potty grass for their two pugs.

From the air the 7.5 million dollar home looks like a palm ringed fortress according to the story in the Tampa Bay Times dated Sept 1,2013.

At least, according to the article, one day when June Simpson was piloting her Land Rover down the winding driveway she noticed a man and woman at a mobile home across the street look over and wave. "We were just neighbors.........................I thought, okay. We're no different".

I almost puked when I read the article and feel very much like doing so at this point.


damn sticking keyboard is the reason for edit.

[NightWatcher]

4. We love "the kids". Isn't that why we're about to go to war?

Sorry to thread jack.

We won't give them breakfast before school for free but we'll bomb Assad for killing a few hundred?

[hughee99]

10. And when the kids wonder why they have to pay interest on so much government debt,

we can say we did it all FOR THEM.

[Le Taz Hot]

5. That includes DU

when an elderly politician is freely referred to as "gramps." Love McCain or hate him it's a disrespectful term applied to the elderly. (And no, I wasn't the one who alerted on "that" thread.)

[Berlum]

6. "Perfect. Smirk. Sneer. Smirk." - Republicons (R - "Family Values")

[silverweb]

7. But we're a "Christian nation," right?

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]How about "predatory nation," with the top predators feeding on everyone else.

The 1% are actually proud of that image, you know. They're the "big fish" that "own the pond."

[WCGreen]

20. Can I get an AMEN!!!!!

[Hydra]

24. How about 2? n/t

[Quantess]

8. College students from middle class and working class

Also, recent college graduates saddled with massive debt and unable to land a job that pays decent.

[grilled onions]

9. Sadly Congress Thinks They Are Working Hard

They think they deserve every single perk they get and a few they haven't gotten yet however everyone else is lolling about waiting for money,benefits and other perks and taking from the wealthy at every turn.
They couldn't see suffering if it met them in the eye. They refuse to see the chaos that is going around them. People walking miles to have a chance to get their teeth worked on at a free outdoor clinic while "they" are exercising at the club. People standing in line for a bag of food,often being turned away when the food runs out while "they" stuff themselves at a so called business lunch. Kids trying to stretch a backpack of food for an entire weekend while "they" have a huge cookout for their own kids while complaining about those urchins complaining about being hungry on a weekend or when school is out. Seniors who have little recourse but to seek out a senior center for a meal--maybe the only meal they they will have all day while "they" who are similar in age have no problem complaining about how they will have to cut back a meal or two because their designer pants are getting a bit snug.
"They" seem to complain every time someone be it a child,a woman,an elderly person,someone homeless,an out of work vet yet they are the ones who are causing this nightmare and sadly the only ones that can help change it.

[L0oniX]

25. DC bubble where everyone is rich so that's their norm. n/t

[lpbk2713]

11. Add to the list --- the uneducated.

They get the smelly end of the stick every time.

They may not have finished high school through no fault of their own; chronic illness, disabilities, transportation problems, bullying, or any of many other possibilities. They are forced to get the most demeaning work available if they can find it and they are looked down on by most other people because of it. They are usually stuck with this kind of routine for as long as they live.

[Scuba]

12. +1,000

[DeSwiss]

13. Actually, it's a lot more fucked-up than that.

[center]CAPITALISM WARPS EVERYTHING

According to a study published by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Americans waste about 40% of all food produced in the United States.

It is also estimated that 70% of all fresh water consumption in the US is attributed to the agricultural production; which means that food waste alone accounts for one quarter of ALL the water consumed within the US.

Furthermore, given that the average farm requires 3 kcal of fossil fuel energy to produce 1 kcal of food (before accounting for energy requirements of food processing and transportation) wasted food accounts for roughly 300 million barrels of oil per year. link[/center]

- And this is just the part we waste. This shit's got to go.......

K&R

[Scuba]

18. Another great post, thank you DeSwiss ....

... and thanks for this too: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023579935

[DeSwiss]

22. De nada.

- Just trying to keep it real.

[airplaneman]

21. wanted to share something with you.

I met a biologist that once told me:
Because we do what is needed for a profit instead of what is needed for our survival we have in essence assured our extinction.
I fantasize one day we will be in tune with our own survival and the planet we live on and have compassion for our fellow human beings.
Intellectually I think we have past the point of no return.
Overshoot probably is the best description of the mess we are in.
I still believe in having compassion and caring.
-Airplane

[DeSwiss]

23. That was a wise man.

- Here's another:

The Venus Project

[Hydra]

26. That's my conclusion too

I'm not a biologist, but I dabble in economics, anthropology and a few other subjects, and we're screwing ourselves as a species for "profit"...which doesn't even exist.

I guess it's fitting that we'll kill ourselves over an illusion- after all, if we won't stop the people doing it, we deserve our planetary Easter Island.

[cascadiance]

14. Need to add REAL journalists (not infotainment artists of course...)

[n2doc]

15. Vets, too

Especially non-coms.

[indepat]

16. Interesting how close a minimum wage of $16.54 would be to Australia's current

minimum wage. The damage inflicted upon our society for several decades through our corporatist government's policies that promote corporate welfare and welfare for the uber-wealthy is vast in human misery, high infant and maternal mortality rates, overall mortality rates, public health, and all other measurements of quality of life. What we've gotten are pre-emptive wars of aggression, burgeoning income inequality, and concentration of most of the nation's wealth among a relative few, all the while the nation's debt has also mushroomed. Welcome to a right-wing soused society, but please never say America is the best place in the world to live, for that's no longer valid or true by any meaningful measurement. Sadly, the government of the people, by the people, and for the people perished on the first day of the Reagan revolution.

[durablend]

19. Sorry, your priorities are screwed up

There are MANY, MANY countries we haven't bombed yet.

[Octafish]

27. War Inc CEOs need wuv, too.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/03-1

[Scuba]

28. Enough to turn my stomach.