A bit sensationalist but, hey, I’ll run with it…….
‘That’s my predicament,’ she said, adding that the food handout ‘is helping people, and I’m grateful.’
‘The government should have been doing this years ago,’ she said.
Prolonged recession, lengthy unemployment as the bills pile up. And thats…Greece? Sounds like the same conditions as here. An excellent case for eliminating as much personal debt as possible, trimming some fat, making the most of every dollar you have, and stockpile food to the rafters.
Speaking of austerity measures……..
Something to keep in mind…when we read about ‘austerity measures’ you should keep in mind that among those measures are things like reducing or eliminating government subsidies. Some countries keep the prices of certain goods….fuel, bread, grain, cooking oil, etc…artificially low. When those subsides stop and the natural market prices come into play, that loaf of bread that cost pennies is now out of the reach of many poor people. The natural consequence of this is dissatisfaction at its best and revolution at its worst. This is why those subsidies were there to begin with – to keep the poor fed and relatively content so they wouldn’t get their Castro on. This is why countries with…unstable…populations resist these conditions that are imposed by the folks willing to bail them out.
Don’t think this country doesn’t do the same thing…we just dress it up as SNAP, Section 8, SSDI, and a handful of other programs that give resources to people who can’t make it on their own. I’m not saying whether those programs are good or bad, I’m just saying that when government, local or federal. has to stop sending money to those people they’re gonna get pretty angry and they’re going to take it out on someone.
I think one of the things that surprises me the most about this Greece thing is the lack of ANYONE in charge, or TRYING to be in charge HERE, pointing to Greece, and saying ‘Look…either we get serious about fixing things budget-wise NOW, or that will be us in 10-12 years.’ I mean…that’s the future! No one wants to do anything, because it’s painful for the Government to cut spending…but it will NEVER be less painful.
Sigh…hi choir, I know I’m just preaching….
The Wall Street Journal hardcopy yesterday had a great picture of a Greek emergency handout of fruit/vegtable cases yesterday. The Greeks likely have less food surplus to handout, but have a much less dispersed population so their cost of distribution is much lower.
I’d recommend adding this book to your library: http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine
Bit pro-commie, but still an insightful read.
My parents were married in 1933 in the depths of the depression. My grandfather and mother had a little land where they and their three sons (one my father) and four daughters and their spouses grew food and some lived there as well. My mother and each of my aunts would go to the city hall about a mile away everyday for a food handout. Every family representative got a paper grocery bag of food a day. It could be a bag of bread, a bag of cabbages, a bag of rutabagas, or more rarely a bag of oranges. Whatever they had they handed out. Between that, my grandfathers big garden and whatever they could buy with the money that four of them earned from their jobs they got through the great depression. The youngest would take turns walking the railroad tracks picking up pieces of coal to be used for cooking and heating. They had wood but coal was the prized fuel. Growing up we had a big furnace in the basement. My father worked in construction and would bring home scrap wood or have one of the dump truck drivers drop it off. My brother and I would cut it up with a buck saw and throw it in the coal bin. Sometimes if my dad’s job lasted longer then usual (construction usually ended in the winter back then) he would buy a ton of coal. I can tell you a ton of coal in an empty coal bin isn’t a lot. But it sure is a lot when you burn it. If my dad started a wood fire in the winter (usually 6 am) by 10 am the house was cooling off. If he started a coal fire there would still be some heat coming out of the ducts at 3pm. That’s a big difference when it’s 20 degrees outside and your house has zero insulation. I have a 1000 great old family stories from the great depression but it looks like we all will have some stories to tell pretty soon.