Gerald Maclennon's Blog - Posts Tagged "hunger"
Misleading Headline
HEADLINE: Almost Half of U.S. Families Can't Afford Basics like Rent and Food.
That's a misleading headline... and so is the article that goes with it.
Maybe the headline should read: "The American Dream of 1980 has become twice as difficult to retain." Economically, as a culture at our peak, about 40 years ago, US citizens enjoyed the best of everything (materially-speaking) but as time has gone by the US economy has leveled with all global economies. Today this means poor countries are living better and rich countries (as the USA) maybe not quite as well.
But consider that even our 'not quite as well' is still pretty darn good. Attached to the article is a photo of woman pushing a cart down the aisle of a market with a vast inventory. No shortages. In supermarket produce departments, we have a cornucopia of the world's best fruits and vegetables. The meat department offers a wide variety of dead animals. About 70% of Americans eat meat with all 3 meals every day and as a result, over 25 billion animals have been killed for food in the USA this year alone. 25,000,000,000+. Does that qualify as a holocaust?
We Americanos drive to the store in individually-owned cars, trucks, SVU's with filled petrol tanks. When Mom or Dad doesn't feel like cooking, US cities have an ever-growing selection of restaurants. At the drive-thru fast food joints we don't even have to leave our comfy, climate-controlled vehicles. If we were a struggling economy the number of eating establishments would be dwindling, not increasing.
In the USA, nearly 40% of our food is thrown away. If we were really an altruistic society, everyone would be fed with plenty leftover to store in our refrigerators and freezers... not in the city dumps.
This is what this particular Baby Boomer observes with his aging eyes.
That's a misleading headline... and so is the article that goes with it.
Maybe the headline should read: "The American Dream of 1980 has become twice as difficult to retain." Economically, as a culture at our peak, about 40 years ago, US citizens enjoyed the best of everything (materially-speaking) but as time has gone by the US economy has leveled with all global economies. Today this means poor countries are living better and rich countries (as the USA) maybe not quite as well.
But consider that even our 'not quite as well' is still pretty darn good. Attached to the article is a photo of woman pushing a cart down the aisle of a market with a vast inventory. No shortages. In supermarket produce departments, we have a cornucopia of the world's best fruits and vegetables. The meat department offers a wide variety of dead animals. About 70% of Americans eat meat with all 3 meals every day and as a result, over 25 billion animals have been killed for food in the USA this year alone. 25,000,000,000+. Does that qualify as a holocaust?
We Americanos drive to the store in individually-owned cars, trucks, SVU's with filled petrol tanks. When Mom or Dad doesn't feel like cooking, US cities have an ever-growing selection of restaurants. At the drive-thru fast food joints we don't even have to leave our comfy, climate-controlled vehicles. If we were a struggling economy the number of eating establishments would be dwindling, not increasing.
In the USA, nearly 40% of our food is thrown away. If we were really an altruistic society, everyone would be fed with plenty leftover to store in our refrigerators and freezers... not in the city dumps.
This is what this particular Baby Boomer observes with his aging eyes.
