Forum Post: If you mix Taco Bell hot sauce into your ramen noodles, it tastes exactly like poverty."
Posted 11 years ago on Sept. 26, 2012, 1:35 p.m. EST by TrevorMnemonic
(5827)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Soaring Poverty Casts Spotlight on ‘Lost Decade’
Millions of Americans will be forced into poverty in the coming years even as the US hauls itself out of the longest and deepest recession since the second world war.
A study from Indiana University, released on Wednesday, says the number of Americans living below the poverty line surged by 27% since the beginning of what it calls the "Great Recession" in 2006, driving 10 million more people into poverty.
The report warns that the numbers will continue to rise, because although the recession is technically over, its continued impact on cuts to welfare budgets and the quality of new, often poorly paid, jobs can be expected to force many more people in to poverty. It is also difficult for those already under water to get back up again.
"Poverty in America is remarkably widespread," concludes the study, At Risk: America's Poor During and After the Great Recession. "The number of people living in poverty is increasing and is expected to increase further, despite the recovery."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jan/11/poverty-america-likely-worse-report
I have a question - why are we having people living in poverty when we have a president who claims that the economy is doing just fine?
Either poor people are a myth or it's an election year.
The jobs being created are low wage paying jobs. Somewhere a new Wal-Mart is being built to contribute to their billions in profits off their 8 dollar an hour employees and goods shipped in from Chinese "slave" labor.
Very concise and to the point.
Capitalism only works if people have capital to spend. We are at or maybe have already passed a point where not enough people have enough capital to support the economy. One of two things must happen, the economy must shrink to the level that consumers can support, or consumers need enough money to support the current economy. Since we know the latter is not going to happen and in fact is trending the other way, the economy must shrink. The Fed is currently preventing the shrinkage as the gap grows but they can't do it forever and the longer this goes on, the more violently the rubber band will snap.
Haha... My old staples were spaghetti (sauce and noodles for $2), Tunafish (four cans, mayo and bread for $8) and yes, Ramon noodles. Also Wendy's Jr Bacon Cheeseburger and a Side Salad ($2).
I remember being so broke that I would heat my apartment with my stove. So broke that I would sleep in the MCC parking lot because I didnt have the gas $$$ to get home and back again in the winter in NY, loads of fun). So broke that I had to only get make sure I didnt buy too many groceries (the above mentioned shmorgasboard) so I had bus money still.
So freakin broke that I practically lived off of Red Lobster biscuits and their salads one winter while washing dishes for em.
Had Ramen Noodles over Roma Tomatoes with a little gouda cheese, tonight.
Not Bad. Cereal rounds out for desert.
Actually, pretty good.
[Deleted]
It horrible that the trap that fast food creates for people, because eating it really is like pissing in your gas tank, and then punching the accelerator. Its horrible fuel for the mind, body and soul.
Yeah that's why they have to experiment with aborted fetuses and other things to figure out flavor enhancing.
"So far, researchers using aborted fetal cell lines haven’t been able to cure paralysis or reverse the effects of Parkinson’s disease, but they may be able to make diet sodas taste better. PepsiCo has come under intense pressure from pro-life groups for contracting with Senomyx Inc., a San Diego biotech company accused of developing flavor enhancers using cell lines taken from the kidney of an aborted fetus."
Read more: PepsiCo denies accusations on link to aborted fetal cells - Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/28/pepsico-denies-accusations-on-link-to-aborted-feta/#ixzz27cs8knr5 Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
http://consciouslifenews.com/action-alert-fda-crushed-beaver-anal-glands-natural-flavoring/1137698/
Soylent Green----"Their Eating People" (or at least human related products)
Come on Trevor, The Washinton Times is a rag.
Google Senomyx Inc
This story is not a rag. Also the article is not implying that fetal cells are in your pepsi. Obviously that would be impossible because the USA consumes way too much pepsi. There's not enough fetuses in the world. The cells are how they figured out ways to enhance flavor.
"Senomyx (NASDAQ: SNMX) is an American biotechnology company working toward developing additives to amplify certain flavors and smells in foods. The company claims to have essentially "reverse engineered" the receptors in humans that react for taste and aroma, and that they are capitalizing on these discoveries to produce chemicals that will make food taste better. Senomyx develops patented flavor enhancers by using “proprietary taste receptor-based assay systems.” These receptors have been previously expressed in HEK293 cells
HEK stands for human embryonic kidney cells. These cells, originally came from a healthy, electively aborted human fetus in the early 1970's"
Why is the Washington times a rag? I'm not the most familiar with the Washington Times. Is there something I should know?
That's freaky
I was just pointing out the extent they go to so they can make things that don't taste so great taste better
That's pretty extreme.
Thats fuckin disgusting!!
I spent four years eating ramen noodles every night because the grocery store that I walked to (couldn't afford to drive around back then) sold packets for $0.06. When I had money burning a hole in my pocket I would splurge and throw a slice of generic American cheese on it. For about five years after that, my fantasy vision of "success" was being able to afford to have dinner at Wendy's whenever I felt like it.
Now I make six figures and live in a luxury condo. America. What a country...
where at ?
I've saw 12 packets for $1 in the nineties in San Diego
not these days 6 for $1 maybe
Publix, Gainesville, FL, corner of 34th and University Ave, 1992 through 1996. Absolutely the cheapest way to make dinner in the entire store. I put a lot of time into determining that fact, combing every aisle looking for options. At least I had a grocery store. Really truly poor people only have fast food joints near them.
I tried really hard to find some way to make rice noodles into a palatable dinner because they were even cheaper. But I never found a way to make it work.
Now I'll spend $10 on a pound of bleu-cheese-stuffed olives and $12 for one (double) Arrogant Bastard beer without blinking an eye. And I think about the ramen noodles almost every time I do that. They gave me heart burn every goddamned time I ate them, which was every night. Especially when I topped them with cheese. And Tums were too expensive. I remember cutting myself once and using "witch hazel" because I couldn't afford alcohol and then agonizing over how much Band Aids cost. I never realized how much Band Aids cost when I was younger until I had to buy them myself.
This is bringing back a lot of memories. Poverty memories.
Fake story
I cant really figure out why you would think that I would lie about that but I suppose you're entitled to your opinion.
My rent at the time was $150/mo and that was my entire budget. College TA's don't get paid very well and my family is not rich.
I can't figure out why you'd make up something like that either.
This is fascinating. Why do you assume that I made that up? Aren't you the one who is focused on upward mobility through your software development skills? You find it inconceivable that it might actually be possible?
Your second and third questions do not deserve an answer, I'm sure you're aware. The first question... if you had ever been that poor, you would have the answer to that question.
If I had ever been that poor then I would know why you assume that I made that up?
The peculiar combination of dysfunction and paranoia in this online community is mind-blowing.
I'm calling you a liar. You calling me a nut job because I think you're a liar is the real mind-fuck.
I never called you a nut job? I said that I think that your concerns about federal cyber security regulations are overblown. Huge difference.
So you're just squabbling with me because you got all butthurt when I didn't agree with you?
Liar
You seem to be trying really hard to trap me into a flame war. I don't understand why.
Sometimes it seems kind of baffling that it doesn't occur to you how easily I could help you out. But anyway, I don't think that you're a nut job. I do think that this online community in general has an amazingly high level of paranoia combined with a unique form of dysfunction.
I was so broke, it was either eat or put oil in the car - no oil, no engine, no work... no work, no job... and no more food. You know what, I kicked ass (one day at a time).
rest of the article
"The paper, drafted by the university's school of public and environmental affairs, which is among the best ranked schools of its kind in the US, says that six years ago, 36.5 million Americans fell below the poverty line. By 2010, the number of people living in poverty rose to 46.2 million and continued to grow over the past year.
"The Great Recession has left behind the largest number of long-term unemployed people since records were first kept in 1948. More than 4 million Americans report that they have been unemployed for more than 12 months," said the report.
John Graham, dean of the school and one of the authors of the report, said that the numbers of "new poor" will continue to rise.
"One of the big surprises is that poverty in the United States is likely to continue to increase even as the economic recovery unfolds," said Graham. "The unique feature of the great recession is not just the high rate of unemployment, but the long duration of unemployment that millions of Americans have experienced. [For] a lot of these long-term unemployed, the job that they had won't exist when they go back in to the labour market."
Graham said that many of those who once held well-paid jobs will be forced to settle for lower paying work, trapping some in a permanent cycle of poverty.
"As a consequence they will be poor or near poor for a substantial period of time," he said.
The latest census data shows that nearly one in two of the US's 300 million citizens are now officially classified as having a low income or living in poverty. One in five families earns less than $15,000 (£9,600) a year.
The Indiana University study says that the numbers of people falling into poverty is also likely to grow because of severe cuts to state and federal welfare budgets.
"The states by their constitutions all have to have a balanced budget each year. A lot of states are already in the process of cutting back their safety net programmes at the same time that poverty is increasing," said Graham. "Their needs are going up but the programmes are receiving less support. It's going to continue because the revenues of state governments are not increasing as rapidly as is needed and the federal government will be under a lot of pressure because of its large deficit to decrease funding given to the states."
The report warns that the situation is likely to become even worse if the long-term unemployed lose their jobless benefits. Congress extended them for two months at the end of the year, but it is unlikely they will be continued indefinitely.
Among the most severely affected states are Florida, Nevada and Arizona, which have been particularly badly hit by the housing foreclosure crisis, and Michigan and Ohio, which have seen the collapse of traditional manufacturing.
Minorities are among the hardest hit. More than one in four African Americans and Hispanics is officially recorded as living in poverty. About one in 10 white Americans fall below the poverty line.
"We can expect to find that the most vulnerable parts of our society are the ones who will recover most slowly from a deep recession like this. More have gone in to poverty and they'll be slower coming out of it," said Graham. "If you look at the educational levels and skill levels of African Americans and Hispanics, they are more vulnerable as the job market tightens. They don't have either the extra edge in education or skills that white Americans do."
The report says that the situation would have been much worse had it not been for the Obama administration's 2009 federal stimulus package, which increased child health insurance for poorer families, and cut taxes for low income workers.
Still, the study says that although unemployment is officially falling, that may not be the whole story. Some workers give up looking for jobs and are no longer counted in the unemployment rate.
"Although the official rate of unemployment is declining, much of this apparent progress is attributable to the fact that many adults are giving up on the search for a job," it said.
The report argues that a better measure of how well an economy is creating employment is the "jobs-to-people ratio". It says that in a healthy economy the range is between 0.60 and 0.70. The US fell within that range until it fell to 0.582 at the end of 2009. It had risen only to 0.585 in November 2011.
"These data suggest that the reported progress in reducing the rate of unemployment may not be as encouraging as we think since increasing numbers of the unemployed may simply be giving up on the search for a job," the report said."
It's going to get much worse if Obama wins the election.
it's going to get much worse if Romney or Obama win the election. Neither of them are going to do what needs to be done.
2013 could be very rough. Like 2008 financial collapse version 2.0 rough
my shopping list (all of these items cannot be found in one place)
Why can't you find them in the same place?
stores wont sell them that cheap
Do you guys have Aldi where you live. You would get all that and still have a few bucks leftover.
haven't heard of Aldi
They are pretty common in the Northeast at least. No frills, I don't even think they take credit cards and you have to pay 10 cents if you want a bag, but dirt cheap food.