Hot Topic (11/19): Does the U.S. spends too much on the elderly?

[Cafe GroupAdmin]

Half of U.S. children will use food stamps, study finds (click to read complete article)

By Alfred Lubrano
Inquirer Staff Writer

In a stark and surprising finding, about half the children in the United States will be on food stamps at some point during their childhood, a new study of 29 years of data shows.

One in three white children and 90 percent of all black children - ages 1 through 20 - will use the program, according to the research, published this month in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

"This means Americans' economic distress is much higher than we had ever realized," said Thomas A. Hirschl, a sociology professor at Cornell University and a coauthor of the study with Mark R. Rank, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis.

The survey finds that continued food-stamp usage signifies a kind of poverty that is "a threat to the overall health and well-being of American children, and, as such, represents a significant challenge to pediatricians in their daily practice."

The persistent poverty described in the survey dovetails with the findings of a U.S. Department of Agriculture study released Monday. It determined that 49 million Americans - 17 million of them children - were unable to consistently get enough food to eat in 2008. Nearly 15 percent of households were having trouble finding food, the highest number recorded since the agency began measuring hunger in 1995.

In Philadelphia, the latest available numbers show that of 327,228 individuals now receiving food stamps, 43 percent are children, according to Rachel Meeks, food-stamp campaign manager for the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger.

The Archives study, based on data collected between 1968 and 1997, does not measure the ongoing economic crisis.

"Our current recession will only add to this disturbing trend," Meeks said.

The problem runs deeper than the recession, said Mariana Chilton, public-health professor at Drexel University. "Childhood poverty shows a complete disinvestment in children," she said. "This is an extremely important survey - breaking news that's being read on Capitol Hill. It illustrates the ongoing tsunami of childhood poverty, an urgent public-health problem that's been widely ignored."

Donald Schwarz, a pediatrician who is Philadelphia's health commissioner, said the study confirmed what he saw locally.

"An awful lot of people think the poor spend unwisely. They have no clue how little the poor have, no sense of how hard it is."

This attitude has its consequences. In calculating whom to help with its treasure, for example, America has traditionally leaned toward the elderly over poor children, said Hirschl, one of the study's authors.

Per capita, the United States spends 2.4 times as much on the elderly as on children - around $22,000 in federal money per elderly person and nearly $9,000 per child - according to research released this month by analyst Julia Isaacs of the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank.

At the same time, child poverty is nearly twice as prevalent as elderly poverty - 19 percent compared with 9.7 percent, Isaacs said.

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Did you realize that so many children will use Food Stamps over the course of their childhoods? 

Do you think that the government should reduce programs for the elderly and redistribute that money to programs for children?

What is the solution for ending hunger in this country?

 

[WImom2]

I had no idea so many children would be needing food stamps. I am not sure that robbing the elderly will help the children. I personally think all "systems" need to be overhauled and those abusing them removed. I think we would find enough then to meet all needs.

[cowgirlsr2]

Did you realize that so many children will use Food Stamps over the course of their childhoods? yes

Do you think that the government should reduce programs for the elderly and redistribute that money to programs for children?No I think other thing could be done to benefit both

What is the solution for ending hunger in this country?end wasteful government spending like gala balls and limos for governors and senators and $7000.00 toilet lids tuxedos and high end restaurants and they get same medical coverage we doThere is tons of things that could be cut and put towards good.

 

[Imsupermom2]

What a ludicrous statement...The elderly have paid their way for many years, they have paid with social security that they are barely getting now and with their taxes. Why would someone want to rob them of what should be rightfully there's. 

[artC1s]

Did you realize that so many children will use Food Stamps over the course of their childhoods? Yes

Do you think that the government should reduce programs for the elderly and redistribute that money to programs for children?No, it's not as simple as that; taking from one group to aid another just creates another problem.

What is the solution for ending hunger in this country?First of all people need to wake up and see that there is a hunger problem in this country. Attitudes need to change regarding the poor in America before real change can occur.  

[Raintree]

I think the US goes overboard occasionally on the wealthy. Yes, they paid into it for years, however- the program wasn't set up to make sure John McCain gets his SS check every month. It was set up so that women like little Dee that lives in the trailer park here in town can survive and have a healthy and productive life in her later years- even without much in the way of savings.

I also think that the food stamp program should be restructured and more regulated than it is now. I don't want to see people going through the checkout line with a cart full of steak and twizzlers (yeah, I had a regular food stamps customer when I was a checker in college who would do this- the vast majority of people on food stamps- however- were quite responsible in their choices and didn't stay on food stamps for long). Anyway- both could be done with a little more thought and less greed on everyones part.

There are elderly that live in poverty- and there are children that live in poverty. I wouldn't cut funding for any of them to support an unthoughtful program on the other end of the spectrum.

[Mergath]

We should stop spending so damn much on the military and use some of that to expand aid for the poor.  No child should have to go hungry because his parents can't find work.

I'm just waiting for people to start going on about how people on foodstamps are welfare queens who are just too lazy to work and keep popping out kids on everyone else's dime, blah blah.  Always seems to happen in threads like this.

[luvsherkids3]

Quoting cowgirlsr2:

Did you realize that so many children will use Food Stamps over the course of their childhoods? yes

Do you think that the government should reduce programs for the elderly and redistribute that money to programs for children?No I think other thing could be done to benefit both

What is the solution for ending hunger in this country?end wasteful government spending like gala balls and limos for governors and senators and $7000.00 toilet lids tuxedos and high end restaurants and they get same medical coverage we doThere is tons of things that could be cut and put towards good.

 

[ajjs1972]

Did you realize that so many children will use Food Stamps over the course of their childhoods? 

actually, I figured it would up there with the way things are today.

Do you think that the government should reduce programs for the elderly and redistribute that money to programs for children?

no- if anything, more to the elderly and more available funding for schools for kids

What is the solution for ending hunger in this country?

in our country? lower food prices, lower income guidlines for help.

[stormcris]

How about we feed our people before we bolster other countries military.

I think with the money pulled every person in the country could be well fed. Then take all the money from the gun trafficing and pay for the healthcare. Then you have the solution to everything. Well partly.

[Aldea]

I agree, and the local Churches continue to give aid.  We have a few churches in town here that have what they call "The Manna Ministry".  We need more of these.

Quoting cowgirlsr2:

Did you realize that so many children will use Food Stamps over the course of their childhoods? yes

Do you think that the government should reduce programs for the elderly and redistribute that money to programs for children?No I think other thing could be done to benefit both

What is the solution for ending hunger in this country?end wasteful government spending like gala balls and limos for governors and senators and $7000.00 toilet lids tuxedos and high end restaurants and they get same medical coverage we doThere is tons of things that could be cut and put towards good.