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Homeless children: the hard times generation - 60 Minutes - CBS News
According to a story on 60 minutes, 25% of American children are now being raised in poverty. That is the largest percentage since the great depression. How do you think that will effect the mindset of those children’s generation as they mature and become adults.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Five years ago our family income was 100K. We ran 3 small family businesses. As luck would have it each one was severly impacted by the flood of illegals our government allowed. Last year we earned 14K and now live in subsudised housing. I just took a survey of my 3 kids asking how life is different now that we are 'poor'. Less junk food and pocket spending money. And the gas was once turned off for a a few days. That is about it. Oh and more time with mom and dad.
It sounds like poverty has improved things in some ways.
Also, my oldest son will start college next year.
After I walk them to school this morning I'm going fishing.
This is poverty in America.
The horror.
The horror.
The socialist comment was because the note said I needed to spread positive comments on others before I can do that with this guy. That does have a socialist connotationo in my opinion, spread the wealt?
I suspect it is so two buddies don't rep each other back and forth to game the system and build up artificially high reps.
Last year we earned 14K and now live in subsudised housing. I just took a survey of my 3 kids asking how life is different now that we are 'poor'. Less junk food and pocket spending money. And the gas was once turned off for a a few days. That is about it. Oh and more time with mom and dad.
I suspect it is so two buddies don't rep each other back and forth to game the system and build up artificially high reps.
I do not have a problem with that at all. I understand. If the message had said I could not rep that same person again for the same message, good to go. I just may have rep the same guy by mistake even though I rarely see who writes messages. I just read and reply.
However, it said I had to rep others to give more reps to others. Well, NO! I rep whomever I feel deserves it, not just so I need to give reps to all around. That is why I referred it as a socialist guide, spread the wealth, take care.
There's no poverty in Appalachia. I was just there. I have relatives that live in Rose Hill, Virginia, Mary Helen, Kentucky, Coal Good, Kentucky and elsewhere.
Those people can move their asses anywhere they want in the US. They just have to want to, but they don't, so excuse me if I don't get all bleary eyed about self-inflicted, um, "poverty."
Quote:
Originally Posted by newenglandgirl
It is also important to bear in mind the difference between "poverty" (defined level of economic hardship, owned stuff notwithstanding) and "destitution."
Yes, the difference is several hundred thousand federal employees in the US Department of Health & Human Services whose very jobs depends on playing word games, semantics, and numbers games to ensure they continue to have a job (with outrageously ridiculous pay and benefits).
My function on this Planet is not to subsidize other people's life-styles. The so-called "poverty" thing is a life-style issue, not one of meeting basic needs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by newenglandgirl
What is now a smaller percentage could become a much larger one, depending on economic policies (ha) that are geared toward job creation and retraining in tech fields. To pull people out of varying degrees of poverty in the U.S. is going to require (1) recognition, (2) will, (3) thought, and (4) policies in action (in that order). As I've said before, we can't seem to get past #1 and 2.
Recognition? You can't get past that because there is no poverty, and fortunately millions of people like me recognize that there is no poverty.
Basic needs, food, clothing and shelter are being met. So long as that is the case, there is no poverty. In the few exceptions where those conditions are not being met, it is self-inflicted poverty.
As far as "will" I don't care. It's about reality, and the reality is that if you give an idiotic moron $1 Million in a few months you'll have a bankrupt idiotic moron in, um, "poverty" again.
You want me to hold people's hands through every second of their life? Then you need to start paying me. A lot of money. A lot.
Quote:
Originally Posted by newenglandgirl
Let's check back in on this in a year. Those who have lost their jobs and homes will be added to the statistics, accurately reported or un(der)reported, and those who still have their jobs and their homes will be crying foul at any real reports.
Well fortunately for your there's another 1.6 Million in projected foreclosures this year.
As I have said repeatedly, the world is changing (for the better) and your way of life is over and your standard of living is going to continue to decline, so you had best accept the new reality and start learning how to deal with it. If you're going to waste your time whining and crying and fretting and fussing over stupid people who are not in poverty, then you're going to end up getting lost in the shuffle.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jimhcom
Did you bother to watch the video?
Why would I want to? It's CBS. CBS has no credibility and you can't trust anything they report. That wouldn't be so bad, except that CBS also refuses to report things that people really need to know. A bogus claim that 25% of children are living in "poverty" is not something that people need to know.
That Raymond Davies is Blackwater/XE employee under contract with the CIA and assassinated two Pakistani ISI operatives, and that your government is violating the Vienna Protocols by claiming he has diplomatic immunity is something you need to know.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jtur88
So, Yes, for an American below the "poverty line", it is very hard to make it when minimum legal housing is $500 a month, a bus trip costs 3 or 4 bucks round trip to the nearest store, and half the nation's food production is thrown out as being "inedible", while it is still perfectly safe and nutritious, and potentially cheap, and gets discarded rather than distributed.
There are 50 States in the United States plus another 190+ States in the world. They can do what Neanderthals had the common sense to do and that is hump it to another location where they can thrive and prosper.
Quote:
Originally Posted by slackjaw
If you had to guess, what percentage of families classified as "poverty" own a car?
Probably better than 80%.
Quote:
Originally Posted by markg91359
4. Many of the children had lived in very middle class homes until a misfortune hit their family. The primary misfortune was job loss in a bad economy;
No, the primary misfortune is general stupidity.
You need to plan for "job loss" and that means if you don't have 6 months of savings in the bank to cover every single one of your expenses, then you don't do it.
That means 6 months worth of rent/mortgage, utiliies, food, car payments for every car they have, auto insurance, home insurance, property taxes, 6 months of payments for every credit card they have, and for all services like cable/satellite, cell, phone etc.
If that means you need $32,000 to cover 6 months of expenses, then guess, what? You put $32,000 in the bank.
And that means if you have to quit eating out 38 times per week and quit paying $300/month to rent or buy DVDs or go to the cinema show, then that is what you do.
It's part and parcel of a concept called "making a short-term sacrifice to obtain a long term benefit."
Those people refused to make any sacrifices whatsoever, and that's why they are screwed every which way but loose. Hopefully, they will learn something, but I seriously doubt it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by markg91359
5. Many of the parents hunted literally day and night for a job to replace the one they had lost;
But they weren't hunting out-of-state or out-of-country. Got to look at the big picture and think outside the box.
Quote:
Originally Posted by markg91359
6. These people were not "lay-abouts", drug addicts, or ne'er-do-wells. They were people suffering because of a severe recession.
No, they are suffering because they REFUSED to make short-term sacrifices.
Quote:
Originally Posted by markg91359
7. We aren't talking about "doing without an IPOD", over half the children said they had gone to bed hungry on more than one occasion. Its a real eye-opener to hear a 12 year old child in America describe being so hungry they can't sleep at night.
Well then child protective services should remove those children from the families. There is no excuse whatsoever to not have food. They're eligible for food stamps. There are food pantries and other private groups that provide food assistance.
Quote:
Originally Posted by newenglandgirl
Completely irrelevant to the "new poverty" and its causes today.
There is no "new poverty."
Quote:
Originally Posted by nightbird47
As far as motels. Motels are where you go when you can't rent a house.
They can rent an apartment. If they can't then that raises the issue that one or both parents have felony convictions for violence or drug abuse including possession and sale with intent to distribute, which might preclude them from renting some apartments, and that would mostly be in large apartment complexes, or apartments that are owned by property management companies.
Did CBS check their criminal histories? It don't cost nothing to do that. If CBS didn't, then that is typical of the sloppy reporting CBS does.
What about family? The parents have mothers and fathers right? So that is at least two alternative places to stay, and being America, it's likely that one (or both) parents have a mother/step-father and father/step-mother. They can move in with them. Or with their siblings, aunts/uncles, cousins. If they're in another State, then they can sell some of their belongings for Greyhound Bus tickets to get there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nightbird47
I don't know how these immigrnats rent a house for two/three families but I suspect its because they are connected in a network of other immigrnats
Yes, it's called a "community;" something you destroyed (but probably don't regret it -- at least not yet).
Quote:
Originally Posted by nightbird47
Someone who is homeless with a family, who *can't* afford the security deposit or maybe pay for a whole month cannot rent a house.
Why must they rent a house? Why can't they rent a cheap apartment?
They could probably find a trailer in a trailer park somewhere.
What about CraigsList?
"Family of four seeks to share apartment with family of four"
You're not seeing the big picture here, and you certainly are oblivious of the future.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nightbird47
Credit by then is ruined, and credit check are made at your expense.
Only if you go through a property management company. Rent through a private landlord and things are different. Even if the private landlord runs a credit check, and many do, they can be up front and, um, honest and explain everything without sounding like they're making excuses for their stupidity.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nightbird47
Do I want you to care about these children? Yes. Because they of NO fault of their own are trapped in this and if we as a society don't care about them then we are no better than these societies where the poverty is so common and so ignored it will never go away.
The best thing you could do is nothing.
Those children need to know real hardship and deprivation. I mean let's face it, before the event of a few years ago, a hardship to the majority of Americans was someone not responding to their e-mail or text message within 3.287 seconds.
My parents grew up during the depression, and because they knew deprivation and hardship, they instilled in me the value of money and material things, and more importantly, how to make good financial choices and the discipline to not buy every single thing I see on a credit card like a 2 year old does.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jimhcom
You are free to believe what ever you choose, but the facts remain. Poverty is considered less than $22,000 a year.
That's for a family of four, and when you factor in the non-cash benefits like food stamps, Medicaid, HUD assistance etc, their income is $43,000+ which is just shy of the median income in Ohio (and that's median -- not mean or average income).
So tell us again how impoverished they are. The simple fact is that to refuse to include the non-cash benefits (and cash assistance in the case of single mothers who have men living with them) is nothing but a lie.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jimhcom
There are millions of families who for the first time in there lives cannot find work. With government cutbacks and layoffs coming, we are going to see a lot more of this going forward. Be careful not to judge the unemployed too harshly, as one day you may find yourself one of them.
Then you need to make choices. Choose wisely. You cannot save everyone and trying to do so will only make things worse. People fail. That's what they do and they do it second best only to dying.
You ought to consider that constitutionally speaking, there is nothing that guarantees US Citizenship permanently. In fact, there is historical precedent for revoking the citizenship of natural born Americans.
You might want to seriously consider "pulling a Castro," revoke the citizenship of 3 time felony offenders and kick their ass out of the country to free up some money to help those who are trying to help themselves.
And the perennial welfare pukes, give them a passport and a one-way plane ticket to the country of their choice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dutchman01
Not necessarily. A hallmark of the poor is they tend to spend a large amount of thier resources on entertainment. It's not unusual around the poor school district where I live to see children with all manner of electronic gadgets, four wheelers, and phones, and horses while living in shacks.
No kidding. I live in Over-the-Rhine about 200 feet from what was until 6 months ago the deadliest street in the USA. I see those kids nearly every day walking to the market or riding the bus to the VA hospital. They're all decked out in the latest hip-hop fashions, $200 Nike shoes, iPods, cell-phones and tons of gold "gangsta" chains.
The price of those hip-hop pants alone is my clothing budget for 3 years, so again, excuse me if I don't get all misty-eyed about the plight of the so-called "impoverished."
There's no poverty in Appalachia. I was just there. I have relatives that live in Rose Hill, Virginia, Mary Helen, Kentucky, Coal Good, Kentucky and elsewhere.
Those people can move their asses anywhere they want in the US. They just have to want to, but they don't, so excuse me if I don't get all bleary eyed about self-inflicted, um, "poverty."
Yes, the difference is several hundred thousand federal employees in the US Department of Health & Human Services whose very jobs depends on playing word games, semantics, and numbers games to ensure they continue to have a job (with outrageously ridiculous pay and benefits).
My function on this Planet is not to subsidize other people's life-styles. The so-called "poverty" thing is a life-style issue, not one of meeting basic needs.
Recognition? You can't get past that because there is no poverty, and fortunately millions of people like me recognize that there is no poverty.
Basic needs, food, clothing and shelter are being met. So long as that is the case, there is no poverty. In the few exceptions where those conditions are not being met, it is self-inflicted poverty.
As far as "will" I don't care. It's about reality, and the reality is that if you give an idiotic moron $1 Million in a few months you'll have a bankrupt idiotic moron in, um, "poverty" again.
You want me to hold people's hands through every second of their life? Then you need to start paying me. A lot of money. A lot.
Well fortunately for your there's another 1.6 Million in projected foreclosures this year.
As I have said repeatedly, the world is changing (for the better) and your way of life is over and your standard of living is going to continue to decline, so you had best accept the new reality and start learning how to deal with it. If you're going to waste your time whining and crying and fretting and fussing over stupid people who are not in poverty, then you're going to end up getting lost in the shuffle.
Why would I want to? It's CBS. CBS has no credibility and you can't trust anything they report. That wouldn't be so bad, except that CBS also refuses to report things that people really need to know. A bogus claim that 25% of children are living in "poverty" is not something that people need to know.
That Raymond Davies is Blackwater/XE employee under contract with the CIA and assassinated two Pakistani ISI operatives, and that your government is violating the Vienna Protocols by claiming he has diplomatic immunity is something you need to know.
There are 50 States in the United States plus another 190+ States in the world. They can do what Neanderthals had the common sense to do and that is hump it to another location where they can thrive and prosper.
Probably better than 80%.
No, the primary misfortune is general stupidity.
You need to plan for "job loss" and that means if you don't have 6 months of savings in the bank to cover every single one of your expenses, then you don't do it.
That means 6 months worth of rent/mortgage, utiliies, food, car payments for every car they have, auto insurance, home insurance, property taxes, 6 months of payments for every credit card they have, and for all services like cable/satellite, cell, phone etc.
If that means you need $32,000 to cover 6 months of expenses, then guess, what? You put $32,000 in the bank.
And that means if you have to quit eating out 38 times per week and quit paying $300/month to rent or buy DVDs or go to the cinema show, then that is what you do.
It's part and parcel of a concept called "making a short-term sacrifice to obtain a long term benefit."
Those people refused to make any sacrifices whatsoever, and that's why they are screwed every which way but loose. Hopefully, they will learn something, but I seriously doubt it.
But they weren't hunting out-of-state or out-of-country. Got to look at the big picture and think outside the box.
No, they are suffering because they REFUSED to make short-term sacrifices.
Well then child protective services should remove those children from the families. There is no excuse whatsoever to not have food. They're eligible for food stamps. There are food pantries and other private groups that provide food assistance.
There is no "new poverty."
They can rent an apartment. If they can't then that raises the issue that one or both parents have felony convictions for violence or drug abuse including possession and sale with intent to distribute, which might preclude them from renting some apartments, and that would mostly be in large apartment complexes, or apartments that are owned by property management companies.
Did CBS check their criminal histories? It don't cost nothing to do that. If CBS didn't, then that is typical of the sloppy reporting CBS does.
What about family? The parents have mothers and fathers right? So that is at least two alternative places to stay, and being America, it's likely that one (or both) parents have a mother/step-father and father/step-mother. They can move in with them. Or with their siblings, aunts/uncles, cousins. If they're in another State, then they can sell some of their belongings for Greyhound Bus tickets to get there.
Yes, it's called a "community;" something you destroyed (but probably don't regret it -- at least not yet).
Why must they rent a house? Why can't they rent a cheap apartment?
They could probably find a trailer in a trailer park somewhere.
What about CraigsList?
"Family of four seeks to share apartment with family of four"
You're not seeing the big picture here, and you certainly are oblivious of the future.
Only if you go through a property management company. Rent through a private landlord and things are different. Even if the private landlord runs a credit check, and many do, they can be up front and, um, honest and explain everything without sounding like they're making excuses for their stupidity.
The best thing you could do is nothing.
Those children need to know real hardship and deprivation. I mean let's face it, before the event of a few years ago, a hardship to the majority of Americans was someone not responding to their e-mail or text message within 3.287 seconds.
My parents grew up during the depression, and because they knew deprivation and hardship, they instilled in me the value of money and material things, and more importantly, how to make good financial choices and the discipline to not buy every single thing I see on a credit card like a 2 year old does.
That's for a family of four, and when you factor in the non-cash benefits like food stamps, Medicaid, HUD assistance etc, their income is $43,000+ which is just shy of the median income in Ohio (and that's median -- not mean or average income).
So tell us again how impoverished they are. The simple fact is that to refuse to include the non-cash benefits (and cash assistance in the case of single mothers who have men living with them) is nothing but a lie.
Then you need to make choices. Choose wisely. You cannot save everyone and trying to do so will only make things worse. People fail. That's what they do and they do it second best only to dying.
You ought to consider that constitutionally speaking, there is nothing that guarantees US Citizenship permanently. In fact, there is historical precedent for revoking the citizenship of natural born Americans.
You might want to seriously consider "pulling a Castro," revoke the citizenship of 3 time felony offenders and kick their ass out of the country to free up some money to help those who are trying to help themselves.
And the perennial welfare pukes, give them a passport and a one-way plane ticket to the country of their choice.
No kidding. I live in Over-the-Rhine about 200 feet from what was until 6 months ago the deadliest street in the USA. I see those kids nearly every day walking to the market or riding the bus to the VA hospital. They're all decked out in the latest hip-hop fashions, $200 Nike shoes, iPods, cell-phones and tons of gold "gangsta" chains.
The price of those hip-hop pants alone is my clothing budget for 3 years, so again, excuse me if I don't get all misty-eyed about the plight of the so-called "impoverished."
Great replies! I was raised by immigrant parents that started from washing cars, working in clothing factories, driving a taxi, whatever it took to raise us.
Sadly, that spirit of resiliency has diminshed in our country. I just saw a great documentary by History Channel. I bought it. It is entitled "America, the History of Us. It was great! It shows how as a nation we were built by people that in hard times simply picked up and moved somewhere else if necessary. They did whatever it took to make it during the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, end other times in our history.
Today? The government is not giving me enough!, take care.
When my dad was a baby, his father was serving in WWII, his mother had to work to make ends meet. What a trooper. On days when she didn't have someone to watch the baby, she put him in a basket at her feet.
Name ONE employer here in the US where that is not only ACCEPTABLE, but LEGAL. Moronic, indeed.
In the 70s, my mother had my older sister watching us younger siblings while she worked. Oldest sis was 8 when mom went back to work. The rest of us were 6, 4 and 2 - again, WHERE IN AMERICA is this legal NOW?
We had "plenty" in the bank for savings. But you cannot plan for every eventuality. I think now that maybe we're going through this to save us from the ignorance which is obvious in some of these posts.
THANK GOD that we're going to be okay and so quickly. I'm so glad that we didn't end up homeless, as was our fear just 3 short days ago. And I think I'm grateful too that I know how quickly and easily it can happen to just about anyone. In December we were tithing money that would feed us all for a couple of months now.
Will we live hand-to-mouth forever after after having experienced this? Never spending, never enjoying, putting every spare penny away? No. We'll make some different choices, as we rebuild what we lost so quickly. It'll probably take us 2-3 years to be back where we were just a few short months ago.
But some people in this thread - in 2-3 years, they'll be just as ignorant, just as bitter and just as joyless and unloved as they are right now.
Between breakfast/lunch/snack at school and food stamps and food pantries I honestly don't know how any parent lets their kids go to bed hungry at night.
Is it pride that are keeping them from filling out that free breakfast/lunch form for school or applying for food stamps or visiting a food pantry ?
I hear that in some states parents can buy nonfood items, for themselves. Some are actually into selling their foodstamps. If you check into local school lunches, most of them are crap. One of the school lunches here today was a "soft pretzel and an apple"! Other usuals are "tuna and potato chips." That kid has to last the rest of the day and perhaps evening on that, depending on what and if their parent makes anything for supper.
Food pantries can be a matter of pride, transportation, supply, etc.
There has always been a powerful force in our society that confuses religious dogma with morality. They obstruct every effort by normal, well-meaning people to reduce the number of children born in our country.
They believe that babies are a gift from Jesus, or something, and go apoplectic when anybody suggests that pregnancy might usefully be prevented or terminated.
Then they form political movements and screech their church-lady dogma among themselves loudly enough for the foolish and gullible to hear them, and what follows is an impenetrable wall of mean-spirited piety. Aww, and little babies, too.
Laura C and jtur:
Re: unwed mothers.....whoah....watch your terminology here....
"Unwed mothers" is a derogatory term to used to refer to unwed welfare/entitlement mothers. I don't know the statistic, but there's a LOT of babies born to "unwed" mothers and couples these days, and they're not all low income.
Most of these children are living in poverty because they come from single parent homes. How will it affect them? They will simply grow up and raise their own in single parent homes too.
Again, a statement showing prejudice and stereotyping. There is nothing wrong with single parent homes, many of them are MUCH better providers that two-parent homes. And many single parents have more income than two parents together.
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