Due to catapulting gas prices, a crashing housing market, and medical-related bankruptcy, many Americans have seen their spending power plummet over the last 2 years. Add to this rising unemployment and home foreclosures, and you have many household budgets inevitably reaching their breaking point. A very serious consequence of this is that hunger in America is on the rise. In 2008 food pantry shelves were emptying more quickly than before and soup kitchens were filling up with more and more people, many from higher economic strata.
Now it seems to be getting worse. A statistic cited on a recent program claimed that 1 in 8 Americans are now using food stamps. Even worse, 1 in 4 children come from families that use food stamps. 1 in 4! This is simply disgraceful. We're supposedly the richest nation in the world so how on earth did we get to this point? Whether intentional or not, the undeniable fact is that people are hurting in a major way.
My only advice to anyone is to keep your jobs no matter how mundane the work is and save up your money. Move in with a relative if you need to and pool your resources together. I don't know where the economy is headed in the long run. While I don't need to be rich, I do want to make sure I'll be okay no matter what happens. I hope you do the same.
In the meantime, if you'd like to help out in the effort to alleviate hunger, please visit this site to find a food pantry or soup kitchen near you.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment