One Out of Seven Americans on Food Stamps

[FayeforCure]

In most civilized nations there is such a thing as a livng wage that is indexed for inflation.

In the US there is not.

Many of our soldiers rely on food stamps to feed their families and so do almost al workers at Wal-mart andmost other retail businesses.

Of all the costs imposed on our society by the top 1 percent, perhaps the greatest is this: the erosion of our sense of identity, in which fair play, equality of opportunity, and a sense of community are so important. America has long prided itself on being a fair society, where everyone has an equal chance of getting ahead, but the statistics suggest otherwise: the chances of a poor citizen, or even a middle-class citizen, making it to the top in America are smaller than in many countries of Europe. The cards are stacked against them.

It is this sense of an unjust system without opportunity that has given rise to the conflagrations in the Middle East: rising food prices and growing and persistent youth unemployment simply served as kindling. With youth unemployment in America at around 20 percent (and in some locations, and among some socio-demographic groups, at twice that);

with one out of six Americans desiring a full-time job not able to get one; with one out of seven Americans on food stamps (and about the same number suffering from “food insecurity”)â€"given all this, there is ample evidence that something has blocked the vaunted “trickling down” from the top 1 percent to everyone else. All of this is having the predictable effect of creating alienationâ€"voter turnout among those in their 20s in the last election stood at 21 percent, comparable to the unemployment rate.

http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105

[FayeforCure]

In most civilized nations there is such a thing as a livng wage that is indexed for inflation.

In the US there is not.

Many of our soldiers rely on food stamps to feed their families and so do almost al workers at Wal-mart andmost other retail businesses.

Of all the costs imposed on our society by the top 1 percent, perhaps the greatest is this: the erosion of our sense of identity, in which fair play, equality of opportunity, and a sense of community are so important.[/b] America has long prided itself on being a fair society, where everyone has an equal chance of getting ahead, but the statistics suggest otherwise: the chances of a poor citizen, or even a middle-class citizen, making it to the top in America are smaller than in many countries of Europe. The cards are stacked against them.

http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105

You will be surprised at the partners that are looking into this issue as they realize economic mobility in the US is sooooooo much lower than in Europe and lower than in 49 other countries.

AMERICA. Land of liberty and boundless opportunity. A place where people can arrive with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and build solid and secure lives for their families.  A country where entrepreneurship is the norm not the exception, and where risk-taking is rewarded.  A nation where a child can expect a more prosperous life than the generation before and where that child's own economic fate is not tied solely to the financial status of his or her parents.

Background  For more than two centuries, economic opportunity and upward mobility have formed the foundation of the American Dream and remain at the core of our nation's identity. But today, while there is widespread agreement that income inequality is higher than at any time since before World War II, too little attention has been given to the more fundamental and increasingly intriguing issue of economic mobility - the prospects for climbing up (or falling down) the economic ladder within and across generations.  Recent studies suggest that there is less economic mobility in the U.S. than researchers originally believed. And, in sharp contrast to the view of America as the land of opportunity, we may be a less mobile society than many other nations. This suggests that the time is right for a rigorous and nonpartisan initiative designed to spark an informed national discussion of the state of economic mobility and the American Dream

Why Mobility? Americans have historically shown tolerance to accept high levels of income inequality. This stems from an embedded national belief in mobility: a conviction that hard work and honest labor deserve just reward, and a confidence that our society is and should be constructed to provide equality of opportunity, not to guarantee equality of outcomes. But if the American Dream truly is - or is perceived to be - inaccessible to a great number of Americans, this value system is at risk of crumbling. A discussion that identifies and quantifies the drivers of and obstacles to economic mobility should be a top priority for those interested in preserving and protecting the spirit and reality of the American Dream.

What Do We Know About the State of Economic Mobility in America? For the first time, data related to economic mobility and the American Dream in the United States will be consolidated and presented in terms the American public and policymakers can understand, debate and discuss. How do my children's opportunities to achieve the American Dream compare to mine, to those of my parents? Is mobility thriving in other countries while waning here in the U.S.? How much economic mobility is there for people in poverty? To what extent is mobility affected by inherited wealth? How is mobility impacted by gender, race and level of education?

What Factors Help or Hinder Economic Mobility? What helps people to realize the American Dream? How much does education matter? What about gender and race? Family background? Do government policies play a role? Does an individual have a better chance of moving up the economic ladder because of his education, the influences of her parents, or where he was born or lives?

http://www.economicmobility.org/about?id=0001

I guess even the heritage foundation and the AEI are coming to believe that economic INSECURITY is awful in a prosperous nation!!!!!

One in Five Americans Experience Economic Insecurity

Ever wonder just how many Americans are feeling economic insecurity? The newly-published Economic Security Index (or ESI), developed by a team at the Rockefeller Foundation, has come up with some startling facts: merican economic insecurity has steadily increased since 1985, with approximately one in five Americans experiencing it in 2009. How is economic insecurity defined, you ask? It is when someone experiences the three risks: a major loss in income, large out-of-pocket medical expenses, and all without enough financial wealth to buffer the blows from the first two. Including 2009, the ESI has increased by almost half since 1985 â€" which means that 46 million Americans felt it in 2007, up from 28 million in 1985.

Maybe Congress can take the one fifth of Americans into consideration the next time they squabble over stimulus spending or extending unemployment benefits.

To read the whole report, go here.

http://www.rooseveltinstitute.org/new-roosevelt/one-five-americans-experience-economic-insecurity

FDR had it right, many decades ago!

“The test of our progress is not whether we add to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide enough to those who have little.”

“True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.”

President Franklin Roosevelt in 1944 envisioned a second, Economic Bill of Rights that included: "the right to a useful and remunerative job," "the right to adequate medical care," and "the right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age and sickness and accident and unemployment."

This Economic Bill Of Rights is implicit and fundamental to European Capitalistic Democracies..........and they have prospered while providing economic security to all their middle class and poor!!

Roosevelt elaborated on his concept of freedom in his 1944 State of the Union address. He declared that the original Bill of Rights had “proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.” He called for a “Second Bill of Rights,” and asserted, “True individual freedom can’t exist without economic security.” And security, according to Roosevelt, included “the right to a useful and remunerative job,” “decent home,” “good health,” and “good education.”