Going Hungry in New York City
Raw numbers illustrate the growing gulf between rich and poor. In 2006:
Wall Street Bankers collected $24 billion in bonuses. The city's streets were home to 3,800 homeless. More than 1.6 million adults earned less than $10,000, the national poverty line. Over 475,000 children live below the poverty line. Over 380,000 children rely on free food to survive.
More than 1,200 soup kitchens and food pantries across the city are currently providing food for these people who can't afford it.
Faces of the Hungry
Contrary to popular belief, most of the hungry are not welfare deadbeats; most are working parents, children, and senior citizens who just can't make ends meet anymore.
As noted on the Food Bank for New York City's online site, New York's 1.2 million hungry are made up of people like Raymond, who lives with his school-aged son and disabled wife in a one-bedroom apartment...
Or Gina, who is working two jobs, but still doesn't earn enough to feed her three children between the ages of 6 and 14...
Or Mark, who lost his professional job and went to work juggling three part-time jobs. His family had to rely on free food after the kids' college funds were exhausted.
The Gap between Rich and Poor Grows
The sad fact is that Americans work more hours than any other industrialized nation. France, for example, has laws that limit the workweek to 35 hours.
And still, at the CIA World Factbook, the economic profile for the United States explains, "Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20 percent of households."
The USA now has 37 million out of 300 million people living below the poverty line. That's the combined populations of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and Arkansas. The US infant mortality rate compares with Malaysia's.
And while median household income falls, congress passes more tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, cuts funding for Medicaid and other safety nets, and each year asks for billions of supplemental dollars to fund an illegal war.
Related Tags: economy, hunger, new york, nyc, poverty
Joe Crubaugh is a freelance writer who indulges politics, art, and culture at his website, Hard-boiled Dreams of the World.
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