‘Test From God’: AP Profiles Americans Who Are Struggling With Poverty
- Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:02am by
Billy Hallowell
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At a food pantry in a Chicago suburb, a 38-year-old mother of two breaks into tears.
She and her husband have been out of work for nearly two years. Their house and car are gone. So is their foothold in the middle class and, at times, their self-esteem.
“It’s like there is no way out,” says Kris Fallon.
She is trapped like so many others, destitute in the midst of America’s abundance. Last week, the Census Bureau released new figures showing that nearly one in six Americans lives in poverty – a record 46.2 million people. The poverty rate, pegged at 15.1 percent, is the highest of any major industrialized nation, and many experts believe it could get worse before it abates.
The numbers are daunting – but they also can seem abstract and numbing without names and faces.
Associated Press reporters around the country went looking for the people behind the numbers. They were not hard to find.
There’s Tim Cordova, laid off from his job as a manager at a McDonald’s in New Mexico, and now living with his wife at a homeless shelter after a stretch where they slept in their Ford Focus.
There’s Bill Ricker, a 74-year-old former repairman and pastor whose home is a dilapidated trailer in rural Maine. He scrapes by with a monthly $1,003 Social Security check. His ex-wife also is hard up; he lets her live in the other end of his trailer.
There’s Brandi Wells, a single mom in West Virginia, struggling to find a job and care for her 10-month-old son. “I didn’t realize that it could go so bad so fast,” she says.
Some were outraged by the statistics. Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund called the surging child poverty rate “a national disgrace.” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., cited evidence that poverty shortens life spans, calling it “a death sentence for tens and tens of thousands of our people.”
Overall, though, the figures seemed to be greeted with resignation, and political leaders in Washington pressed ahead with efforts to cut federal spending. The Pew Research Center said its recent polling shows that a majority of Americans – for the first time in 15 years of being surveyed on the question – oppose more government spending to help the poor.
“The news of rising poverty makes headlines one day. And the next it is forgotten,” said Los Angeles community activist and political commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson.
Such is life in the Illinois town of Pembroke, one of the poorest in the Midwest, where schools and stores have closed. Keith Bobo, a resident trying to launch revitalization programs, likened conditions to the Third World.
“A lot of the people here just feel like they are on an island, like no one even knows that they exist,” he said.
—
STRUGGLING ON $18,000 A YEAR
It’s hard to find some of the poorest residents in Pembroke. They live in places like the tree-shaded gravel road where the Bargy family’s dust-smudged trailer is wedged in the soil, flanked by overgrown grass.
By the official numbers, Pembroke’s 3,000 residents are among the poorest in the region, but the problem may be worse. The mayor believes as many as 2,000 people were uncounted, living far off the paths that census workers trod.
The staples that make up the town square are gone: No post office, no supermarket, no pharmacy, no barber shop or gas station. School doors are shuttered. The police officers were all laid off, a meat processing plant closed. In many places, light switches don’t work, and water faucets run dry. Residents let their garbage smolder on their lawn because there’s no truck to take it away; many homes are burned out.
Ken Bargy, 58, had to stop working five years ago because of his health and is now on disability. His wife drives a school bus in a neighboring town. He sends his children, 15 and 10, to school 20 miles away. In the back of the trailer, he offers shelter to his elderly mother, who is bedridden and dying of cancer.
The $18,000 the family pieces together from disability payments and paychecks must go to many things: food, lights, water, medical bills. There are choices to make.
“With the cost of everything going up, I have to skip a light bill to get food or skip a phone bill to get food,” he says. “My checking account is about 20 bucks in the hole.”
About 75 miles away, in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates, dozens of families lined up patiently outside the Willow Creek Care Center as truckloads of food for the poor were unloaded.
Kris Fallon with her baby
Among those waiting was Kris Fallon of nearby Palatine, mother of a teen and an infant, who hitched a ride with a friend.
She recounted how she and her husband – once earning nearly $100,000 a year between the two of them- lost their jobs, forcing them to move from their rented home into an apartment and give up their car.
“We fight a lot because of the situation,” she said. “We wonder where we are going to come up with money to pay rent, where we are going to get food, formula for the baby.”
She began to cry.
“I never understood why there were so many food pantries and why people couldn’t just get on their feet and get going, but now that I’m in it, I fully understand,” she said. “I sometimes feel like I am a loser … I have never been unemployed and I never thought I would be going through this, ever.”
Her husband, Jim, 43, said he’s looked for jobs all over the country in the past two years, and just accepted an offer of a three-month stint in Paducah, Ky., on a hotel reconstruction project.
“Leaving for a job out of state for three months is what I have to do,” he said. “It‘s terrible but it’s our reality … I guess this is the new America.”
By Robert Ray
—
SHARING POVERTY WITH A FORMER SPOUSE
In this Sept. 15, 2011 photo, Bill Ricker talks with his ex-wife Judith Odyssey in the trailer home they share, in Hartford, Maine. They divorced around 1995 and she moved out. But he offered to let her move back in nine years ago when she was going through a rough time, and she now lives in the other end of the trailer. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Bill Ricker’s woes date back to the 1980s, when he injured himself falling through rotten floorboards while doing carpentry at an inn. He hasn’t worked since.
He now lives in one end of a cluttered old trailer in Hartford, Maine, 60 miles north of Portland.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Ricker has two college degrees. As a younger man he worked as an electronics repairman, a pastor and a TV cameraman. He and his first wife had seven children.
Now he receives food stamps, gets donations from a local food pantry and drives an 18-year-old car with 198,000 miles.
For a treat, he goes out to lunch at a cafe in a nearby town – about once every two months.
“I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don‘t chew and I don’t go with girls that do,” Ricker said. “In other words, on that income you don’t do very much outside the home.”
After finishing high school in 1956, Ricker earned an associate degree in electronics engineering and went to work selling and repairing marine electronics.
He later earned a theology degree and served as a pastor at churches in New Hampshire and Vermont. But times were hard on a pastor’s salary, so he returned to Maine, eventually becoming a cameraman and studio engineer for a TV station.
After being laid off in the 1980s, he was hired to do some carpentry for an inn. His first day on the job, the floorboards gave way.
With his injuries, he could no longer tend to the three-unit apartment house he and his wife owned. They sold it, bought a used trailer for $7,000 and settled on a lot in Hartford, a town of about 1,000 people.
Ricker and his second wife, Judith Odyssey, divorced around 1995 and she moved out. But he offered to let her move back in nine years ago when she was going through a rough time, and she now lives in the other end of the trailer. She gets $674 a month in Social Security.
Besides his back and shoulder injuries, Ricker has diabetes, eye and breathing problems, and his hands shake. Odyssey has congestive heart problems, asthma and arthritis.
It’s hard to make ends meet. Rent for the lot is $150 a month; Ricker has to buy insurance and gas for his minivan and pay bills for electricity and a phone.
He shops at a discount grocery store, gets canned goods from a food pantry, scours garage sales for clothes.
It cost $3,200 last winter to heat the poorly insulated trailer with kerosene, which was partially offset with about $1,000 in heating assistance funds.
Inside the trailer, ceiling tiles are coming loose and electrical wires dangle in the bathroom where a light fixture once hung. An old dryer, a mattress, a snow blower, discarded chairs and other junk are strewn about outside.
Still, Ricker keeps his sense of humor.
“I’m sorry I make jokes at everything,” Ricker said. “But it’s the only way to keep going.”
By Clarke Canfield
—
BROKE – AND FACING THE UNEXPECTED
This Sept. 14, 2011 photo shows Thomas McDaniel, left, Brandi Wells, and her 10-month-old son Logan Tanner Wells on the porch of their apartment in Kingwood, W.Va. Wells, a single mom, is struggling to find a job and care for her 10-month-old son. "I didn't realize that it could go so bad so fast," she says. (AP Photo/Vicki Smith)
Until a few months ago, Brandi Wells lived paycheck to paycheck. She was poor, but she got by. Now, the 22-year-old lives “penny to penny.”
Wells started working as a waitress at 17 and continued when she got pregnant last year. She worked until the day she delivered 10-month-old son Logan, she says, and came back a week later. But finding child care was a challenge, and about three months ago, after one too many missed shifts, she was fired.
In no time, she was homeless. The subsidized apartment in Kingwood, W.Va., that had cost her only $36 a month came with a catch: She had to have a job. Without one – and with no way to pay her utilities – she was evicted.
Logan went to live with his grandmother in another town while Wells stayed with a friend for three weeks in a filthy house with no running water.
“I didn’t realize that it could go so bad so fast,” she says now. “I was working. I was trying. I felt like I was doing everything I could. But everyone was saying I needed to do more.
“They say, `It’s your fault. You don’t need to live off the government,’” Wells says. “For some people, yes, it is their fault. … I didn’t deserve to lose my job. I worked as hard as I could.”
Wells filed for assistance from the state human resource department and got three free nights at a low-budget motel and $50 for gas to hunt for a new job. It didn’t last long.
“The way it is now, you can’t hardly find a job,” she says. “I’ve applied here, there, everywhere.”
Eventually, Wells and her fiance, Thomas McDaniel, found a two-bedroom apartment. After a few weeks, its walls and floors remain bare. The only furniture is in the living room – an old green sofa, a foam twin mattress, a play pen stuffed with toys.
Rent is $400 a month, and Wells is hoping that since McDaniel has just landed a job at Subway, they’ll be able to afford it.
For now, her income consists of the $300 a month the state pays her to attend a daily self-sufficiency class, the $30 or so she earns at a bar once or twice a week, food stamps, and the $96 a month in child support she gets from Logan’s father – “barely enough for diapers and wipes.”
She gets help from the Raymond Wolfe Center, where she can pick up a week’s worth of food once a month. And she’s grateful for her class, which is teaching her how to manage her money and distinguish wants from needs.
She knew the difference before, she says. As a new mom, she just didn’t care.
“I was in the stage where I wanted to give Logan everything … and I couldn’t afford it,” she says. “And it caused me to be broke.”
Wells says she’s motivated to get back on track: “I want to get out of these low-income apartments. I want an actual house for my son. I want a car that’s not on the verge of breaking down.”
She’s hoping her typing skills will lead to a secretarial job. Long term, she wants to go to college and eventually work as a mortician.
“It‘s a job you can’t lose, she says with a grin. “They don’t run out of business, generally.”
But as if the odds weren’t already stacked against her, Wells has two more challenges.
She needs to answer for speeding tickets she couldn’t afford to pay. That resulted in a suspended license, further limiting her ability to look for work.
And, unexpectedly, she’s pregnant.
“I’ve never been into the idea of abortion …,” she says, her voice trailing off. “Me and my fiance are talking about it. I don‘t know what we’re going to do.”
By Vicki Smith
—
A GROWING BOY HAS TO EAT, BUT HOW?
Wearing a navy blue pea coat, her eyelids dusted with shimmery shadow, Pamela Gray looked as though she was headed into work. Instead, she was standing in line at a Manhattan food pantry, where hundreds of people waited patiently to fill suitcases with groceries or meet with a social worker.
Going on a year without a job, Gray likes to rise early and ride the subway down from the Bronx to visit the West Side Campaign Against Hunger, New York’s largest food pantry, which is tucked inside a church basement.
“When I was working as a home attendant, I had a check every week. So you know, the food thing wasn’t a problem,” said Gray, a single mother of three teens who was injured while caring for an elderly woman last year and had to quit her job. “But when you don’t work like you used to every day – you don’t know that you have the money – you have to go pick up food where you can.”
Gray, 47, was meeting with the center’s social workers about paying off $12,000 in student loans from Bronx Community College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree. Her only source of income for now is occasional money from selling Mary Kay makeup and a couple of paychecks a year when she pulls shifts as an elections worker.
It’s been hard on her 14-year-old son, who is growing fast and likes to eat. A lot.
“He likes Chinese food, chicken with broccoli, and then he likes his pizza,” she said, laughing. “Yesterday I give him his $3.50 for lunch and tell him next week, you know, see what happens.”
Gray made a follow-up appointment with a counselor – promising to bring the necessary paperwork next time – and then headed back onto the street. She walked to another church a few blocks away, where a woman was handing out free coffee and sandwiches.
She put the sandwich in her purse and settled down on the church steps to enjoy her coffee before heading to a public library. That’s where she spends most of her time – using the computer, applying for jobs, devouring books.
“I’m reading this one, they talking about sentencing in prison,” she said, tapping the cover. “I really like to read on child issues and stuff. But if they don’t have it, I get another book.”
And she waits for that long-awaited job offer to come through. She is optimistic about the latest one: a position working with children at a juvenile home. After all, she says, she has a certificate in child care from New York University.
“I think I’m gonna get it,” she said, a smile spreading across her face. “I’ve been trying. I don’t give up. I keep trying.”
By Meghan Barr
—
`THEY DIDN‘T HAVE TO SLEEP ON THE FLOOR’
The walls in Monique Brown’s public-housing apartment have only a few decorations, sheets cover the windows and the cupboards are mostly empty. But it’s a big step up nonetheless.
Until a few weeks ago, the 30-year-old single mom and her four children, ages 2 to 9, were homeless and staying in a Salvation Army shelter in downtown Birmingham, Ala.
Brown was married, living in Florida and working two jobs – one in a hotel laundry, the other at a retail store – when the recession hit. Today, those seem like the good old days.
“I never really had to worry about food and the basic necessities because I knew there was always a paycheck coming in a week,” she said.
Brown lost both jobs in 2008 and split with her husband, forcing a move to Alabama to live with her brother and his family. An arrangement that was supposed to last for a couple months stretched to a year because Brown wasn’t able to find work, and the strain was soon showing on her brother’s household. Fearful for his marriage, Brown and her children took refuge in the shelter.
“It was the best option for us because they could have their own beds, they didn’t have to sleep on the floor,” she said. “I didn’t want them to get the full effect of being homeless.”
While her three boys went to elementary school, Brown cared for her 2-year-old daughter and sought work. She wasn’t picky, but nothing turned up.
Still jobless, Brown found out about a public housing unit last month in the Birmingham suburb or Fairfield. With the Salvation Army paying her deposits and purchasing furniture and some appliances for her, Brown was able to swing a place of her own using $573 a month in disability payments for one of her sons, food stamps and donations.
Brown has been able to save about $100 and she’s still looking for work. But finding a job is difficult because she has to balance potential work schedules against her children’s schedules and the high cost of day care.
“Right now I’m just taking small steps,” she said.
By Jay Reeves
—
THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD …
Tim Cordova, 41 and his wife, Sandra, 51, chat with other homeless individuals during a life recovery program at a local shelter (Credit: AP)
Nearly two years ago, on the day after a vacation, Tim Cordova was laid off from his job as a manager at a McDonald’s. At the time, he and his wife, Sandra, an employee at a Subway restaurant, lived in a two-story house in the Albuquerque suburb of Ventana Ranch.
As the economy worsened in New Mexico, one of the nation’s poorest states, Cordova struggled to find work and his wife’s hours were slashed until she, too, was laid off.
They moved to a smaller house, then to a small apartment. By this June, unemployment benefits had run out and they resorted to living out of their Ford Focus.
“I was searching for jobs while I was collecting unemployment, and I could not get hired at all,” said Cordova, 41, who is now living with his wife at an emergency homeless shelter called Joy Junction.
Sandra Cordova said her job search also has been fruitless.
Jeremy Reynalds, founder and CEO of Joy Junction, said he’s never seen such high levels of homelessness and poverty in his 25 years of running the shelter, now New Mexico’s largest.
“Demand is going higher, and higher, and higher,” he said. “I mean, it really is scary.”
Just a few years ago, the shelter was averaging around 100 residents a night. Now, Reynolds says, it’s regularly filled with 300 every evening, and people are turned away every day.
The Cordovas said they see their situation as a “test from God” and are taking advantage of Joy Junction’s life-skills programs. Sandra Cordova is taking computer classes and Tim is helping with shelter security. Both said they are not ashamed of their situation; they’ve even invited their grandchildren to visit the shelter.
“I just want another house. I just want another job,” said Tim. “I want to prove that I can do it the right way.”
Reynalds said donations to the shelter are down, but more people are helping out in person.
“More people are opting to volunteer,” said Reynalds, “because I think they know that are a paycheck or two away from being homeless themselves.”
By Russell Contreras
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Comments (168)
SueDinNY
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 11:17amThis has been going on for 40 years. Industry has basically left this country. We have many people who can’t read, write or do math because our education system is failing us. Drop out rates are close to 50%. What alternative do traditional blue collar, unskilled people have in this country now? Nothing but McDonald’s et al. We have to get industry back in this country or we are doomed to have high unemployment and poverty.
Report Post »Sleazy Hippo
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 11:46amI love this post from yesterday:
“Support the “Knapp Workers Right to Vote Initiate”! This idea of mine would make it illegal for able-bodied, working age people, who have received government assistance withing 12-months of an election, to vote.”
“If you cannot figure out how to make use of re-training programs that exist, or are unwilling to re-locate to a part of the country that needs your current job skill, then you should not be voting and deciding for the rest of us how things are to be ran.”
BY:
Craig Knapp
Age 50
Thanks Craig!!!
Report Post »Eaglesnest
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 12:07pmEducation system failing us? Why? I went to public schools, managed to graduate. Worked my way through college on loans, grants, and mac n’ cheese. What do you mean failing us? I did what I was supposed to do in school, it is not that hard. I think families are failing us. If the kids show up, ready to lean and get a little support from their parents, it is almost impossible for the schools to fail them.
Report Post »ACLUHater
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 12:25pmGet a 2nd or 3rd job and shut up.
Report Post »rangerp
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 1:15pmwhy are many of them fat?
Report Post »t00nces2
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 1:17pmSuch is life in the Illinois town of Pembroke, one of the poorest in the Midwest, where schools and stores have closed. Keith Bobo, a resident trying to launch revitalization programs, likened conditions to the Third World.
I can’t believe that! Isn’t Illinois the state Barrack Obama helped run? Chicago is in Illinois, right? Isn’t that where Rahm Emanuel was voted in as Mayor? Isn’t Illinois a union state. Isn’t IL a Dem controlled state? Maybe we should elect the same people who run IL to run the country so we can all be in the same boat as IL.
Report Post »rangerp
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 1:23pmanyone priced a tatoo lately? Thomas McDaniel (in the pic has no shortage of them). Hey Tom, turn your hat around (little boys wear it backwards) and try to look like a man, wipe the dorky look of your face, and get out and hustle. Ever thought about the military? It has pretty good insurance for the family, and the travel is great (well not really), but it pays decent. I got a four year degree, a masters from UGA, and about to pin on LTC. I started as a dumb private right out of high school. The job will not come find you, you have to get out and grind. Money was tight during my college years, I painted houses, did odd jobs, cut grass, sheetrock work, and one winter I worked minimum wage gutting and skinning deer at a deer processing place. Life aint always easy, man up and get after it.
Report Post »rangerp
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 1:27pmI went back and read the article again, and noticed that there are a number of single moms. How about we teach young girls to wait until they are married to have sex. These kids buy the lie MTV sells them, and go out and lay up with sorry, no job having, punk momma’s boys, then wonder why life is tough. If you do not want to raise a kid while you are single, then do not have sex. It would be different if these ladies lost their husband in the war on terror (then I would offer to help), but that is not the case.
Report Post »rangerp
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 1:33pmI am on a roll today. This topic miffs me.
Part of the problem in America, is we got a lot of punk boys that never learned how to be men. They grew up in the world where everybody gets a trophy, and never did any work.
Some are to lazy to work in a pie factory as the taster, and not smart enough to figure out how to poor piss from a boot.
Years ago, young men worked on farms in the summer, worked construction, turned wrenches. Many of the young men today have no skill, other than video games, and playing an IPOD.
I see it in the Army with many of the younger soldiers. They did not grow up in a room full of brothers, they never learned how to interact with others, they have no skill outside of running a computer.
Report Post »Sleazy Hippo
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 1:43pmNot just fat – sitting in front of flat screen TVs, with Gummint-provided Cell Phones, Central Air Conditioning, Cadillac SUVs and Food Stamp credit cards for buying lobsters and champagne.
Report Post »abbygirl1994
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 1:52pmSleazyHippo… Retraining??? We have college students who have finished college only to find out they can’t find a job… There are lots of people who have retrained and can’t find a job.. again I say, this all comes back to our government… for decades they have made it so bad on businesses.. that they have left the country.. and now because we have a inept President who is hell bent on destroying America it is worse than ever.. mark my words from here on out it is going to get worse. To recover now will take a battle between good and evil.. God help us all!
Report Post »cheezhedsluvtaxes
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 2:00pmDitto on all the pics of FAT freeloaders! I’ll start feeling sorry for them when they look like a starving child from a 3rd world country.
Report Post »rangerp
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 2:06pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghZlwCFYpYc
listen and learn
Report Post »Mayimbe27
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 3:23pmRangerP is spot on.
Also, I love how Ms. Wells is now “unexpectedly pregnant” with another child! I think they teach you in high school how that happens, and if it didn’t sink in at that point she sure should have learned the first time it happened. There is no such thing as a ‘mistaken pregnancy’ cause everyone knows how it happens. If you can’t afford to feed yourself and the kid you have maybe you should keep your pants on until you can figure that out. It’s like Wilkow says, when you exercise your right to procreate you also assume the responsibility to take care of that child. Rights and responsibilities are not mutually exclusive.
Report Post »princeman26
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:11pmWelcome to the Progressive utopia. Notice the correlation of 40 years and the real advent of the Progressive noose, of the “War on Poverty” I do say Progressive, because while Democrat Liberals are typically the source of Progressive policies, the Republican part has been infiltrated by these traitorous bastards. And though the Progressives gained root originally in the 1880′s, only after FDR and the 60′s generation has it become so insidious. Our only hope as a nation is to identify these Re-Gressives, with the purifying light of day.
Report Post »louise
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 7:20pmTrades schools, community colleges, joint vocational schools are so under utilized. I have always said that there will always be a need for plumbers, electricians, mechanics, arborists, medical assistants, day care center owners, nannies, and more.
Report Post »A college degree does not always equate to a high paying job. I tell young people today that in this job market, go for the trades or 2 year schools and start there and work your way up. IMO this is better than going into enormous college debt with no way of paying for it.
Morris
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 8:36pmIt is a damn shame What Dictator Barack Hussein Obama our Muslim-in-Chief is doing to our
Country!
Dictator Obama is writting up his Executive orders to keep bringing his chosen people, Muslims from all of these 3-rd world countries,(60 to 80,000 Muslims from Somalia) and giving them all “FREE”
LIVING! (PLANE LOADS OF MUSLIMS ARE COMING INTO THE USA EVERY DAY)!!!
Dictator obama and Hillary Clinton, Pelosie and Harry Reid are all working on their “DREAM ACT”,
Dictator Obama has already started making out his Executive Orders to give AMNESTY to
12-20 MILLION “ILLEGAL ALIEN INVADERS”,And Obama will give them all “FREE LIVING”!!!
And so here “WE THE PEOPLE” THE AMERICANS CITIZENS That are living in POVERTY,Cannot get any help from our own
Goverment but,Obama can find the money to keep all of his chosen MUSLIMS,and can also
find Money to keep all “ILLEGAL ALIEN INVADERS,MEXICANS AND MUSLIMS THAT ARE SNEAKING INTO OUR AMERICA EVERY DAY!!
Wake the HELL UP AMERICA,IMPEACH THIS MUSLIM DICTATOR BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA,
LETS TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY,LETS START DEPORTING ALL “ILLEGAL ALIEN INVADERS,
AND LETS STOP IMPORTING MUSLIMS INTO OUR AMERICA!
AMERICA, Lets take back Our Country,IMPEACH THIS MUSLIM DICTATOR,Lets start taking
care of our American Citizens,THE HELL WITH ALL “ILLEGAL ALIEN INVADERS”,and
Dictator Obamas IMPORTED MUSLIMS,Lets send them all back to were ever they came From!
GOD BLESS AMERICA,IMPEACH DICTATOR OBAMA,SAVE OUR AMERICA!
Report Post »Telcontar
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 8:56pmDear Sue:
Facts so seldom seem to make a difference but industry has NOT left this country, right now the US produces more than in 1970 in its manufacturing sector. However, it makes all that ‘stuff’ without the millions of blue-collar workers that it needed back then. The drop out rate is high … children are very poorly educated despite the country spending WAY more than in 1970 on education. Where did the money go? Not on better education but on special interests. Nor can the middle and blue collar classes even vote for better policies when real economics is not taught in the public schools – when the teachers themselves are ignorant.
We DO need better jobs for our many people who are losing their grip on the middle class and we DO need better education (the US in 2009 was 14th in the world for educational results – source OECD – despite spending a fortune on education but we will go nowhere until parents (..and voters…) insist on RESULTS – it does not matter WHO is at fault, unions or politicians, WE have to insist on results. This is why rich areas tend to have good schools the PARENTS insist on results. As for the jobs issue – 2/3rds (approx.) of all new jobs are created by small business entrepreneurs. Those people are not stupid – make their lives HELL with regulations and with taxes and they will just not create more jobs – why bother? The rich? They move their money out. Make it hard – money walks. Result? No jobs…and we s
Report Post »SovereignSoul
Posted on September 20, 2011 at 12:48am@Ranger From which university did you matriculate? I would like to now which institution would issue a Master’s Degree to a student with your lack of grammar skills. Got and have are not interchangeable verbs. There is a huge difference between poor and pour. Sentence fragments. Run-ons. You sir, are embarrassing your university.
Report Post »Libertyluvnmomma
Posted on September 20, 2011 at 10:02amthe faces of poverty are a changing to people who look 45 pounds overweight.
While our economy is in a sad state what is difficult to watch is people “grappling” with secular materialism. Many “in povertyt’ have televisions, washer/dryers and stoves. Try living in Haiti.
Watching woman who took advantage of promiscuity now having to live off child support.
There are some sad stories but from I’m reading people were very greedy and never though about the future and used prudence.
Now I read worse stories here in the comment section at the blaze: Losing a child..uncontrollable things.
They also will be contributing unchecked untreated disease to our communities.
Report Post »It is not that I don’t care. It is many of these people that didn’t care for the rest of us.
The “common good” is a myth.
rangerp
Posted on September 22, 2011 at 10:40am@SovereignSoul
yep, my grammar, spelling, english use on here is el-bad-o (little spanish for you).
It is a blog, not a english term paper. I type very fast, and have arthritis, and do not proof read much of what I post.
I am more concerned with the content, and the easy to read message, then having a perfect post.
Got my undergrad from Columbus State and my Masters from the University of Georgia.
My grammar is not the problem, it is my message,. You have no ability to debate, so you sling poo about my crummy grammar and spelling.
Report Post »NeoFan
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 11:10amWhy doesn’t the AP explain how this has happened under the watch of the most intelligent man that has ever blessed the planet with his presence? Yes we know everything wrong was the fault of the last president or the tea party but even if that is the case why can’t the most brilliant president ever fix it?
Report Post »He is so incredibly smart so why doesn’t he show us by using his genius to create the Utopia that he promised during the campaign? Why is the AP silent about this?
CatB
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 11:50amWell said .. and I don’t think this is a “test from God” … unless you mean that we must defeat EVIL .. because this isn’t God at work.
Report Post »hauschild
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:57amSo, many claim a lot of people in America live in poverty, yet people have never been fatter, they’ve never before received such easy access to health care, and almost all of them have cell phones.
My, just like progressives have revised history, they’ve also revised what poverty really means.
The fact is, not every person in America WANTS to be successful, or is capable of it. Some people are perfectly content living on less. If they weren’t, they’d be living on much more.
Report Post »Milkman
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 12:13pmThere, but for the grace of God go I….now having said that poverty in this country involves tatoo’s, cell phones, satellite TV and ordering in pizza’s- 2 pizza’s cost about $20-25 bucks depending- that might feed a family of 4- ONE MEAL!…..my point is simply that at discount grocery stores I just spend $ 1.99 for 8 lbs of potatoes, boneless skinless chic. breasts at $ 1.69 /lb., fresh green beans at $ .99 /lb. etc. -and no coupons. Lazy and not too smart, is also an epidemic in this country
Report Post »AmericanStrega
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:31amSome of the women in this article continue to have children even though they can’t afford to put a roof over their own heads? I have no sympathy for them! Keep your freaking legs closed! Stop and think about what the heck your getting yourself into and then maybe you’ll be able to pull yourself outta the hole of poverty. STOP HAVING BABIES UNTIL YOU CAN AFFORD THEM.
Report Post »wisehiney
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:41amI gets a tax check whenever i has a baby.
Report Post »Locked
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:49amSounds like you’re advocating abortion then?
Report Post »AmericanStrega
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 11:17amNo LOCKED, I don’t advocate abortion. If a woman cannot act responsible and realize the situation she is in, she should not pop out another child. BTW, I am a woman. I do not have children because I have never been able to afford them and I believe men and women should behave according to the situation they are in. If you cannot afford to feed yourself, why bring a child into the equation? Can’t afford birth-control? Don’t have sex! These people need to shoulder some responsiblity and step up to the plate. It tee‘s me off to have to shell out more of my hard earned money to pay for people who won’t take responsibility for their own lives.
Report Post »scoter
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 11:39amThey have KID‘S to get food stamp’s and house. And every thing eals they can get FREE. then they sale ther food stamps. It *********. And yes they have phone. Take the phone money and buy food.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 11:52amScoter ..I don’t know about all states BUT in Michigan they get a FREE cell phone .. and they advertise the fact on TV!
Report Post »sWampy
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 12:53pmKeeping your legs closed, and ***** out of your hole, isn’t advocating abortion.
Report Post »mkarsc
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 1:58pmEXACTLY; don’t have babies if you can not care for them! I didn’t have babies until late in life; I had the money, but I knew I didn’t have the energy to give them what they needed, by myself. It IS about responsibility. These women should be ashamed for deliberately bringing kids into a life of poverty and government sustenance, but then again SHAME doesn’t exist in this society anymore; it might make somebody feel bad.
Report Post »Locked
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 2:25pm“Some of the women in this article continue to have children even though they can’t afford to put a roof over their own heads? ”
So what would you recommend in the case of the 22-year old woman who unexpected got pregnant again in this article? Little late for “keep your legs shut,” so what’s the answer now?
Report Post »Country
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:29amIt’s sad to say, but most of these people voted for Obama not understanding his socialist/Marxist agenda. For his agenda to work, everyone needs to depend on the government, and not God.
Report Post »db321
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 11:23amYou’re so right – the administration uses the poor as useful idiots. They will run out and vote for their very own destruction. A socialist economy is NEVER made up of of those that can work – but refuse not too. In other words, if they are starving now – get ready it’s going to get worse. A useful Idiot is like a disposable lighter. Use it and then just trow it away.
Show me one Socialistic Progressive that personally give to charity. In China – they have ZERO Social Security – cant work – Starve – get ready the poor and legals are going to vote in the destruction of themselves and the greatest most compassionate country on earth. God Bless America.
Report Post »ChiefGeorge
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:16amNo doubt about it! Real people who have had jobs all their lives are suddenly out of work and unable to feed themselves. This is not a test from God because God is not causing this mess, WE DID and STILL ARE! We have sown the seeds of our own destruction and our own government is helping courtesy of Fannie and Freddie mac who made all the bad loans for housing in the first place. How many people walked on their homes which caused this matter to explode even more thus destroying all everyone else has worked for. Its selfish greed and what about me. I bought a home and inked the deal the day Katrina went down. Who knew? I certainly did not know how bad the government was screwing us all over with the housing loan subsidies. After several of my own neighbors walked away from their homes I vowed not to do the same thing even though like them I was exactly in the same situation. No furture in this home and I cannot sell it. But I have a place to live and run my business from. God blessed me and my wife with work and when we almost did lose our home to her dwindling client list we experienced a drastic turn around in income just after the for sale sign went up. We pulled it from the market asap last december and are doing alright since. But I can see how bad it is getting out there and I am relying mainly on God and being obediant to his ways such as being honest and trying always to do the right and moral thing.
Report Post »wisehiney
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:21amSounds like a winner to me.
Report Post »Keep it real, keep it true, keep it free.
TEA
Locked
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:13amKeep 6 months worth of living expenses available at all times, and save 10% of everything you make; that‘s my plan and it’s working so far. Living within your means is the name of the game; can’t afford a kid? Don’t get pregnant. Can’t afford your utilities? If you have an iPhone or a flat-screen TV, those are likely the reason why. Thought a mortgage was a great idea? Might want to rent instead.
Unfortunately some people never learned how to live within their means, and it catches up to them. And some people just get hit with bad luck (injuries, etc).
Report Post »cktheman
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 12:52pmEveryone, please stop using “Flat Screen TV’s“ in your examples of ”excess”. It’s overused, and given the dirt cheap prices of flat screen TV‘s anymore it’s a lousy example. Good luck finding a CRT!
I’d go with expensive car (and the payment to match), or perhaps even 2 expensive cars, mortgaged an un-affordable house, etc… Those are MUCH better examples than flat-screen TV’s and even iPhones – especially if it’s the only phone and internet you might have.
Report Post »Locked
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 1:24pm“Those are MUCH better examples than flat-screen TV’s and even iPhones – especially if it’s the only phone and internet you might have.”
Bull. an iPhone costs, depending on the model, 200-600$. Just for having a smart phone you pay $30 extra each month on top of ANY plan you have. Your plan will likely be at least $30 a month, and more if you have texting and internet access.
Now look at a TV. A quick search on Best Buy finds the cheapest flat-screen LCD at $80. Now add in cable: in my area, it’s $20 a month for 22 channels (basic cable). Most people would probably go for 75 channels, which makes it jump to $70 (seriously, my area bites). That’s not including internet, by the way.
Just on you phone and TV you’ll be spending thousands of dollars a year. One of the women above was talking about taking classes to manage her finances: this is EXACTLY what those classes teach. It’s not the big purchases; most people won‘t go buy a new car if they’re making ~$20k a year. But all the little expenses that really aren’t needed? They add up quickly and you don’t think of them because “it’s just an iPhone.” No way: you need a phone, sure, but you do NOT need a smart phone or an iPhone.
Report Post »Brooke Lorren
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 4:33pmOur family earns less than the poverty level as well. I’d like to answer to a few of your remarks:
iPhone: I don’t have one of those, but I do have an iPod Touch that I got a couple of years ago for my birthday. I don’t need an iPhone; they’re too expensive. I have a cell phone, which I rarely use because it’s too expensive. It’s prepaid, and I buy about one $50 card a year. I also have an iPad, but I paid $0 for it. I won it in a contest that one of the companies that I work with (I am a small business owner) was running. It gets both personal and work use.
Flat screen TV: yep, got one of those too. And a Wii as well. I bought them both after our house caught on fire and the insurance company gave me $40,000 to replace all of our belongings. We also have a Tivo, which was purchased years ago and has a lifetime service plan on it. We have free cable and free internet through our apartment.
I don’t know about these people, but I consider myself fortunate. “Poverty level” is just a number. I don’t make enough to save 10% of my income, but then again, I can’t be fired. We used this experience to stop buying things on credit and get out of debt (except dh’s student loans). It‘s amazing how much wiggle room you have when you don’t have debt. In some ways, we’re better off than when I used to make six figures.
Report Post »NEOBIO
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:09amTimes are hard for a lot of us; I was talking with parents yesterday and my dad mention how good the Lord had been to us. He just turning 89, mom 85 and living on an SS income of less $1600 month. The Insurance and medical bills take more than half of that. If it was not for family trying to help with grocery I would not know what they do. My mother in-law lives with me and my wife, she have less $1000 month income. She also has insurance and medical bills to pay. I just started to look for job, the company that we owned for 35 years we are having to closes. Me and my wife are sixty and trying to save our home. We knew these times were getting hard but did not know it was going to get this bad. Like I tell my friends we do not want any hand out, I just need prayer.
Report Post »”Pray for me I need a prayer, you made need the practice”
toto
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 12:24pmPrayers for you and everyone struggling. It makes me sad and angry that the Obama administration does everything in it’s power to fuel this economic destruction and still the vast majority of people think he is benign. He does not want this fixed, he needs your dependence on government to transform this country, so watch the results of what he does, not what he says. Just like the first stimulus, all that money, and negative results. Watch the results folks.
Report Post »Brooke Lorren
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 4:41pmWhat kind of work do you do? Is there any sort of way that you could make some sort of money for yourself while you look for a job? One of the best things that I ever did was starting to write for myself, because that allowed me to earn money and homeschool at the same time, and I’m not dependent upon anybody hiring me. Other industries, like yard work, sales, and computer repair, could also have those opportunities. It might not be an option in your field, but then again, you never know.
Report Post »dlmarsh
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:08amGOD save America. Many of these things are our fault, we were asleep for many years and didn’t start to wake up until the last couple years. I have been telling about many things the T.E.A. party talks about for 11 years and always had people look at me like I was crazy, they didn’t want to hear it. Some of the things in this story are the results of the peoples actions, or lack of action. The one lady got pregnant at 17, is now in dire straits and it pregnant again. Could have prevented the second pregnancy. She got speeding tickets she needs to pay and couldn’t pay them and lost her license. That could have been prevented also. But even with those things, I still have sadness and crying in my heart for her and the others. Like it is said, my children suffer for lack of knowledge. We must become totally aware and vigilant, and stay that way, and Right our Country. Only a moral and upright people can ever be Free.
Report Post »hi
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:03amI am inspired to volunteer and help folks like them.
Report Post »trolltrainer
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:07amGod bless you then, it starts and ends with us…the people.
Report Post »trolltrainer
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:08amMeant to say, “God WILL bless you then.”
Report Post »ConservativeCharlie
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:43amGood, That how its suppose to work, instead of endless government checks until the end of time. This story is depressing. lol. watch this silly Anti Obama vid to cheer yourselves up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz2EniavDIA
Report Post »Secessionista
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:02amHope and Change. People voted hoping there would be a change in America. Now, there is. Thanks a lot.
This is how all nations decline into nothingness. You are witnessing it in person.
Report Post »ddg7
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:57amGee let’s see how a person can help their employment chances.
Report Post »1) Get a visible tattoo or piercing
2) Become a single mom so that I have to limit the hours in which I can work
3) Buy the latest cell phone
4) Vote democratic
5) Don’t finish high school
6) Get speeding tickets and then a suspended drivers license
7) Breed with losers
8) Refuse to change your lifestyle
Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 11:11amYou forgot these:
9.) Run for Congress
Report Post »10.) Run for President as a communist, marxist, socialist or progressive.
Brooke Lorren
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 4:51pmThat’s true. We are low income ourselves, but our lives are nothing like those profiled here. We did everything we could to get out of debt, including pay off our cars (although dh has student loans because he’s in law school). We live in an inexpensive house where cable and internet are free. Just between those few things, we probably saved about $700 off an average person’s expenses.
A good friend of mine has made some lousy choices, and I think that she’s currently homeless. She was making more than me at one point, but stupid choices led to where she is right now. We help them on occasion, but it’s gotten to the point where even if I had the money, I don’t want to enable their bad decisions.
Report Post »Sleazy Hippo
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:49amThe poor today are rich compared to poor in the great depression. You have to admit the poor pay NO taxes while the rest of us with jobs take on their burden.
Also, the poor 20 years ago did not have flat screen TVs, Cell Phones, Central Air Conditioning, Cadillac SUVs and Food Stamp credit cards for buying lobsters and champagne.
They also could not get free Emergency Room Health care and free abortions at Planned parenthood.
If they want welfare they should have to read Atlas shrugged every year.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:48am“Cange you can believe in” How’s that working for you morons who voted for Obama?
Report Post »trolltrainer
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:47amWhy do we see common themes of having had a job at Subway and living in a Ford Focus?
Report Post »trolltrainer
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:06amBTW, great job with the headline Billy! Throw God in there and it will be sure to grab everyone’s attention. And yeah…I realize it is a quote from the Cordovas, but is it really representative of the story, or simply an attention grabber?
Report Post »Jezreel
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:46amMy husband and I already went through our terrible battles. Lost a baby, carwreck, fire, other catastrophes. Right now we are being blessed by God and the battle was won. We are doing great thanks to God. I feel for those on this article who are hurting. Bad times do bring out the best or the worst in us. It shows us what kind of people we truly are.
Report Post »It would be great if these huge religious organizations like Benny Hinn who wears diamond rings and has private jets would help out. These hard times are going to expose what type of men these TBN preachers truly are too. It is going to be up to the body of Christ to help out and do what God commanded us to do.
Gita
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 11:46amAmen
Report Post »christos
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:42am…….The Angel of the +Lord+ lead +HIS+ people out of bondage and they ate locusts and honey,,,,,,,Come On Personal Auditing,if need be there are a lot of thing you can go without +JESUS+ said there will always be the poor among us…….Ever heard of Oatmeal,peanut butter and bread ???????
Report Post »christos
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:51amEdit : there are a lot of (things) you can go with out
Report Post »wisehiney
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:39am75 years ago people did not have electricty nor plumbing in their homes. 100 years ago no cars. Toughen up people.
Report Post »whatthecrazy
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:34amOur traitor-N-chief must be tingleing all over……….eeewww
Report Post »Servant Of YHVH
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:20amI love it. Usual AP cr*p, one couple says it’s all about God. These people, just like all the rest of us don’t need to see God in this except as a hope the He gets us out of it, but, we can all thank obama and his liberal cronies (and that includes liberal republicans known as RINO’s) for everyone being out of work, out of food and out of their homes, as well as taking God out of our nation. The problem is that whether a particular person voted for obama and the others, they were still voted in and God is just letting us all live with the consequences of the people that was voted in being in charge and doing this. Basically it’s a: We made our own bed and now we have to lay in it. That is until we can change who is in control in the government and what is done.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:20amThis is part of Mr Obama’s game plan, crush the Constitution, crush the Christian faith as traditionally had in the states, crush the Economy, crush the Will and Hope and Faith of the people into dust; then when all has collapsed, HE will rise as the SAVIOUR of us all unto a nightmare that will never end in a socialist hand and foot of steel.
Report Post »TRONINTHEMORNING
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:18amAlot of horror out there; it would get better if we had a real man in the White House. Of course, a real woman would very nice too. Either way, get the poser out!!
Report Post »trolltrainer
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:16amHow‘s that hope and change working for y’all…
Stimulus and road building are not going to help these folks. Quit Fing up the system and let it repair itself. Just STOP Obama. You don’t need to do anything, just deregulate and let the machine build up speed again…
Report Post »TH30PH1LUS
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:14amGood story. Thanks!
Report Post »yougottabekidding
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:09amVote for hope and change !
Report Post »Their hope, your change how do you like it now?
Two years why does that sound familiar
SlimnRanger
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:27amPeople all across the nation are having to tighten their belts up,I am so glad i live out in the country so i can raise alot of our food,but i realize many can’t do that,last 2 years of hot extreme dry summers here in Oklahoma,we didn’t make a lot of veggies,but did the best we could ,chickens for fresh eggs, working on raising a calf and pig to butcher,but we get by and help others when we can,I* just cannot see how many people think it’s better with Obama than what it was with Bush,so many folks are blind
Report Post »The_Almighty_Creestof
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:32amA lot more to it than just Obama …and I hate him… Reno/Reid/Frank with their lies about the sub-prime mortgages, Bush with his lies and a protracted war with no out and no goals, liberal spending of taxpayer money on absolute idiocy day in and day out.
Nothing will cure this but a lot of death in the country, making it illegal for company’s to move their jobs out of the country, sealing the borders, getting rid of 90% of the laws hamstringing businesses, stop paying even a penny for unneccessary emergency room visits, doctors visits, prescriptions, a straight tax percentage for everyone with no deductions or loopholes, if you have X amount saved already you don’t get social security…and on and on. Time for Americans to man up and stop being wimps. Fixing Washington, responsible spending within a proper budget means nothing if we are growing nothing but parasites feeding off the rest of us.
The people mentioned in the article are all good people, but I fear only a slash & burn revolution will change the tide…and will be much too late to help them.
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:33amWe were doing pretty good. We bought a house right at the housing crash, so are now paying 2 mortgages because the first one won’t sell. (Never move in with your in-laws – they still live there because they won their half of the house, and we have a mortgage on our half. We WERE doing well until my husband broke his leg and will be out of work for about 5 weeks, when he only has 2 weeks and 2 days of vacation time, and his employer doesn’t give sick days. Now, we’re screwed.
Report Post »Sleazy Hippo
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:44amLorianne we are praying about you. Keep being a good sport.
It is too bad the US Government no longer pays your Military retirement benefits and makes you stay on the economy when you are sick or injured.
Thanks for your service. Thanks for your husband’s service, and for your children living on bases.
Good luck being civilans, is it possible a local charity can help you?
Report Post »