Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site gargoyle.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes From: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes) Newsgroups: net.politics.theory Subject: Re: Extent of hunger in America Message-ID: <203@gargoyle.UUCP> Date: Fri, 27-Sep-85 20:58:59 EDT Article-I.D.: gargoyle.203 Posted: Fri Sep 27 20:58:59 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 29-Sep-85 07:08:54 EDT Reply-To: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes) Organization: U. of Chicago, Computer Science Dept. Lines: 44 How can there be hunger in America? Isn't there an abundance of food, as well as private charities and an extensive welfare state? Welfare benefits for the poor are minimal. In most states, welfare (including food stamps) does not bring families up to the poverty line, and in some cases leaves them considerably below it. (See T. Joe, C. Rogers, and R. Weissbourd, *The Poor: Profiles of Families in Poverty*, Center for the Study of Welfare Policy, University of Chicago.) Around 30 million Americans are below the poverty line; there are numerous families of four or more who are trying to make it on $400-$500 a month or less. There is plenty of evidence of malnutrition among the poor. A Center for Disease Control study about ten years ago showed that around 15% of the poor children examined showed symptoms of anemia and 12% were stunted in height. The infant mortality rate is often used as an index of the nutritional well-being of a people, since the rate reflects the nutrition of the mother. In the US the rate is around 14 per thousand, almost twice that of Sweden. For nonwhites in the US, the rate is 22 per thousand. In certain areas such as the Fruitvale area of Oakland, the rate reaches 36 per thousand. There is "Third World" malnutrition such as kwashiorkor (a protein deficiency disease) in places such as as Mississippi where the welfare benefits are miserably inadequate. If you need any more convincing please read *Starving in the Shadow of Plenty* (1981) by Loretta Schwartz-Nobel. Sample quote [an elderly woman is speaking]: "On Friday, I held over two peas from lunch. I ate one pea on Saturday morning. Then I got into bed with the taste of food in my mouth and I waited as long as I could. Later on in the day I ate the other pea. Today I saved the container that the mashed potatoes were in and tonight, before bed, I'll lick the sides of the container.... these days I boil the bones till they're soft and then I eat them." Yet Ed Meese and other Reagan henchmen inform us there is no serious hunger in America, while brandishing their budgetary meat-axe. In my opinion Reagan and his rich cronies are not evil, just grossly stupid. The fact that our noble leaders can deny America's serious hunger problem helps to explain why hunger and malnutrition continue to exist in a nation that produces the largest food surpluses in history. -- Richard Carnes, ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes