|
I live in Southern California, where we actually have a massive food insecurity problem. I've volunteered and helped out at food banks and food pantries quite a bit and my mom had a job at a nonprofit dealing with assistance for underpriviledged families for quite some time. I can't speak much to the administrative end of the process. but I have seen some really illuminating things from my time there. I have actually seen people picking up assistance packages in nice cars, but that simply doesn't tell the whole story. The price of living in SoCal has always been high, but since the collapse of 2008, it has skyrocketed. Well, more accurately, it has continued its upward trend unabated while the average person's ability to pay for it has drastically diminished. That's the thing: you see well-to-do people in nice cars rolling up to pick up some food from the pantry, but they probably bought the car in 2007 when they had a stable, high paying job that was yanked away from them the next year. Government aid has not really expanded to meet the demand that government economic failures have created. I still remember an older woman applying for aid in tears because of all the social stigma surrounding it, and the fact that this had never been necessary before in her life. Having a Mercedes doesn't make you rich if you get fired from your job in a global depression. That was a few years ago now, but the reality is that a lot of people still haven't gotten back on their feet, and the number of people who were never on their feet to begin with continues to grow. It requires 144 hours of work per week on minimum wage to simply afford rent for a standard apartment in Orange County, and the demand for foodstamps and housing assistance are about as high as they have ever been. It's a real mess down here for a lot of people, but nobody in charge seems particularly inclined to talk about it. This isn't anybody's fault: if you don't have money to start with down here, then you are in a pretty terrible spot. There's a pretty sizable population of underpiviledged people here who aren't exactly at liberty to pack their bags and leave for cheaper areas.
|
#
¿
May 11, 2015 05:09
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 14, 2024 12:48 |
|