Have you ever been so poor

[parchissi]

As a child growing up with my father being killed in the IIWW life was pretty hard for my mother and 6 other brothers-----there were times when all we had to eat was what we either grew in the garden or what we caught from the sea - so I can certainly identify with people who go hungry - its not a fun time for sure. There is so much food wasted every day from supermarkets, restaurants etc - it just doesnt seem right that there are people starving in our civilized world.

 

[aninnymouse]

While a person might not be able to afford steak,
The price of food today still seems to be reasonable.
There are food stamps and soup kitchens. There is
No need for a person to starve in the US. Now to
Buy gas and cigarettes...that has gone through the roof!

In some places, the price of food has gone through the roof. Then, you add the other costs of living. In some places, a small apartment is astronomically high. Like $800 per month for a studio/1 bedroom.

Food stamps are elusive, at best. There can be delays and you can be denied for any reason. Plus, the actual benefits are not all of that. You might get $200 for one person, per month. That's not enough to cover your food needs, even if you stick to basic essentials, like beans for protein, rice for carbs, and canned vegetables for fiber, and the other stuff when you can get it.

While I may see your point about no NEED for a person to starve here in the states, unfortunately, in practicality it doesn't work that way.

 

[monstro]

I may be broke and hungry but I'm not poor. :smile:

 

[RideRocket]

Having had the opportunity to travel around the world courtesy of the military, most Americans don't know what poor is. To live in a mud hut and have to walk miles for "fresh" water is something that doesn't exist here in this country. However, that's not meant to diminish the economic condition people find themselves in. Much of it is relative.

 

[D_Fizzy Cola Bottles]

Having had the opportunity to travel around the world courtesy of the military, most Americans don't know what poor is. To live in a mud hut and have to walk miles for "fresh" water is something that doesn't exist here in this country. However, that's not meant to diminish the economic condition people find themselves in. Much of it is relative.

I know what you mean. I've traveled to certain very rural, village-type of locales in Africa and other places, where water is so scarce, it is a privilege if you don't have to venture too far to obtain a bucket... Some people in the US may not know what a luxury it is to just twist the knob or lift the handle near your faucet and get a rush of clean running water.

Or not have to worry about holding in your shit because you don't want to waste the bucket of water needed to flush it.

The difference I see between the US and other much poorer nations, however, is very significant. I was told by a young woman in Ghana, that in the Africa she knows, people rarely go hungry because there is always someone down the road who will give you a meal. There seems to be a sense of community and goodwill there that perhaps gets lost in societies that pride themselves on development and industrialization.

Likewise, in the countryside of Ghana, I didn't see any homelessness. It appears that there will always be someone who will give you a square of their bare floor to sleep on. They may ask you to do their laundry in exchange or comb their hair every night and rub their back. Some kind of agreement or small favor.

It's just so ironic, that in the US, this great superpower, with all its government programs and social welfare institutions, people may not be able to obtain a meal. It makes me wonder if the price of industrialization and urban sophistication is anonymity. People in the cities get cut off from one another, we lose the sense of community welfare. We're able to walk past someone sitting in the street, shaking an empty can because it's not our problem. We don't know him or her.

I guess what I mean to say is that in the US, if you are hungry, you may not feel comfortable ringing your neighbor's door and asking for a favor. It would be embarrassing and not the social norm. Whereas in other poorer nations, asking someone in the community for a plate of nice is fine, part of the customs. In other countries, people are more familiar and open to depending on each other, not on the government.

 

[rob_just_rob]

No. At least, not since my parents stopped supporting me in my late teens, but I'm assuming that most young children don't have the means by which to buy their own food.

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

The worst are the people asking for money on the intersections, especially the ones with new looking clean clothing, at least put your old clothes on if you are gonna beg for money.

In some ways it's a paradox, but well-dressed panhandlers do better than those who are more obviously in poverty.

 

[lunette]

I was recently homeless/ sleeping in my car for a month. Been on food stamps for about a year. They gave me 280.00 per month for myself and my daughter. When I lost my apartment, though, guess what? They CUT the food stamps to 165.00!! I was incredulous. Their reason: I had more money now I wasn't paying rent. Seriously.

On the other hand, i've gained two things from this, points already made. First, a belief in my ability to solve problems. One day I found myself on empty without a gas can and no money. I was at my doctor's office. Went to the cafeteria in the hospital next door, into the vending machine room and managed to scrape 1.35 in coins from underneath the machines. Then I found an empty water bottle, walked to the gas station, filled it, put it in my car and got home. Yes, i know about putting gas in water bottles. It was a turning point in a way. I went from being depressed about how horrible by situation was to realizing I was pretty darned resourceful. That's something you own, no one can take it away.

The second thing is the kindness of people, often strangers. Sometimes people are worse than you'd imagine, sometimes they're nothing short of amazing. It's a wild ride...

 

[Mem]

One day I found myself on empty without a gas can and no money. I was at my doctor's office. Went to the cafeteria in the hospital next door, into the vending machine room and managed to scrape 1.35 in coins from underneath the machines. Then I found an empty water bottle, walked to the gas station, filled it, put it in my car and got home. Yes, i know about putting gas in water bottles. It was a turning point in a way..

Thank God for self serve, in NJ they won't fill any container that is not specifically made for gasoline.

 

[Mem]

Having had the opportunity to travel around the world courtesy of the military, most Americans don't know what poor is. To live in a mud hut and have to walk miles for "fresh" water is something that doesn't exist here in this country. However, that's not meant to diminish the economic condition people find themselves in. Much of it is relative.

I know what you mean. I've traveled to certain very rural, village-type of locales in Africa and other places, where water is so scarce, it is a privilege if you don't have to venture too far to obtain a bucket... Some people in the US may not know what a luxury it is to just twist the knob or lift the handle near your faucet and get a rush of clean running water.

Or not have to worry about holding in your shit because you don't want to waste the bucket of water needed to flush it.

The difference I see between the US and other much poorer nations, however, is very significant. I was told by a young woman in Ghana, that in the Africa she knows, people rarely go hungry because there is always someone down the road who will give you a meal. There seems to be a sense of community and goodwill there that perhaps gets lost in societies that pride themselves on development and industrialization.

Likewise, in the countryside of Ghana, I didn't see any homelessness. It appears that there will always be someone who will give you a square of their bare floor to sleep on. They may ask you to do their laundry in exchange or comb their hair every night and rub their back. Some kind of agreement or small favor.

It's just so ironic, that in the US, this great superpower, with all its government programs and social welfare institutions, people may not be able to obtain a meal. It makes me wonder if the price of industrialization and urban sophistication is anonymity. People in the cities get cut off from one another, we lose the sense of community welfare. We're able to walk past someone sitting in the street, shaking an empty can because it's not our problem. We don't know him or her.

I guess what I mean to say is that in the US, if you are hungry, you may not feel comfortable ringing your neighbor's door and asking for a favor. It would be embarrassing and not the social norm. Whereas in other poorer nations, asking someone in the community for a plate of nice is fine, part of the customs. In other countries, people are more familiar and open to depending on each other, not on the government.

There really is no need to go hungry in this country. There are places where you can reach out and get help, sadly a lot of hungry children are due to their parents drug habit, or alcohol addiction and lack of care.

In Haiti people are so poor that they eat cookies made from mud, and that was before the devastating earthquake.

In America you can stretch your food dollar. Pasta and rice can be very cheap. as well as Ramen soups. Eggs sometimes go on sale for 99 cents a dozen. You can make an egg salad sandwich for around 25 cents. Peanut butter and jelly is also cheap.

 

[mephistopheles]

Where I live there are at least three churches in walking distance that have soup kitchen programs and food pantries. You simply show up if you are hungry.

Yeah, in my town there are three completely free soup kitchens on Main street alone, the rest are scattered across town.

And when I was so poor I didn't have anything to eat:

Every Saturday at Food 4 Less the Angel Food Ministries are in their parking lot handing out 1 huge box to eat family, they fill the entire box to the point where it's falling over. That box would last me a month and it only cost me 10 dollars.

 

[nolbaby]

no. i have never been that poor. what i have been is employed since the age of 14. and these united states that i live in have programs that made it so that some of the taxes taken out of every paycheck i've ever received have been used to pay for food that is given away for free to people who don't work via food stamps. if you are not only so poor that you can't buy food, but also so ignorant that you let yourself get to the point of starvation before you thought to apply for food stamps, then there are always shelters that have some sort of food that they give out a couple times a day to the needy. the money to operate those also comes out of my paychecks. but i know that this question was asked simply for the sake of conversation, because i can't fathom somebody choosing to pay their internet bill instead of buying enough food to keep from going hungry.