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Give me a break. There are other threads on this forum as well as resources and articles all over the media/internet/newspapers that show that you can eat healthy for very little money.
You know what a pound (A POUND) of lentils cost? At my fancy-schmancy grocery store? $1.26. My wife and I ate those lentils (stewed with tomatoes, onions, lemon juice, and bell pepper) for FOUR MEALS. Cost per meal? Less than a buck. Time to prepare? Less than an hour. If I had actually bought those ingredients in bulk, it would have been even cheaper.
And are you serious? You're using Red Lobster as your 'healthy restaurant' example?
Many of the urban poor don't have access to even lentils, and I have never seen bell peppers in a grocery store in a poor neighborhood. Most don't even have tomatoes or onions.
Like I stated earlier, go to the worst section of town in any city in America and there are no grocery stores, they don't exist. Only corner stores, gas stations, and fast food. The people who live in these communities have ready access to alcohol, chips, spam, rahmen noodles fast food, and that's about it. The nicer "hoods" tend to have grocery stores that are not national brands, but local businesses that specialize in extremely fatty over processed foods and meats that most wealthy people would have problems with feeding to there pets.
On top of that gym memberships cost money, I'm convinced the only people who actually wonder why most inner city people are unhealthy are people who have never lived in the inner city. It's blatantly obvious why diabetes, heart disease, and obesity are problems in these communities.
It's much harder to be overweight and live in a nice neighborhood than it is to be overweight and live in a bad neighborhood.
Most people in ghettos regardless of shape, size, or weight are malnourished and do not have ready access to foods that are essential for maintaining a healthy body and mind.
Last edited by Observation; 03-06-2011 at 01:08 PM..
Many of the urban poor don't have access to even lentils.
Like I stated earlier, go to the worst section of town in any city in America and there are no grocery stores, they don't exist. Only corner stores, gas stations, and fast food.
Lol...I worked for a long time with and around these peeps and even lived amongst them. You can get whatever it is you WANT to get. No problems driving or taking the bus to the stores that had stuff that was really important to them.
Many of the urban poor don't have access to even lentils.
Like I stated earlier, go to the worst section of town in any city in America and there are no grocery stores, they don't exist. Only corner stores, gas stations, and fast food. The people who live in these communities have ready access to alcohol, chips, spam, rahmen noodles fast food, and that's about it.
Would you consider that to be a good place to open a larger store, if it where YOUR investment??
For some time now, America has done all it can, to destroy the poor; denying them decent housing, healthcare, access to nutritious foods, a quality education, and making it more and more difficult, for them to improve their lives. In the 60s, the poor were seen as valuable enough to society, to be helped to rise up out of poverty. Do you think that the poor will ever again be considered valuable enough in society, to be truly helped to escape poverty, once and for all?
I take issue with the original post: In what way is America doing all it can to destroy the poor by denying them decent housing when they can get housing paid for? By denying them healthcare, when they can get Medicaid? By denying access to nutritious foods by providing food stamps? By denying a quality education when public schooling is free? In what ways is America making it more and more difficult for them to improve their lives? And how long has this organized effort to destroy the poor been going on? "For some time now" is rather vague when you are discussing a relatively short period of time--the 1960s to the 2010s. Also, please define "the poor". Is is low-income, no assets, or what?
I see the lower working class having more difficulty because their income is too high to qualify for assistance, but not high enough to pay for the basics. So you have families who have lost their homes living in their cars, forgoing trips to the doctor because their insurance co-pays are too high, using food banks to make it from paycheck to paycheck, and trying to ensure that their children make the grades to ensure admission to college in order to have a brighter future. These people cannot depend on the government to take care of them and their families, so they do the best they can until they can change their circumstances.
The poor should be looking to the churches and not to the government to help them escape poverty. That money is given freely to fulfill Christ's commission to care for the poor. Churches can provide transportation to grocery stores that do stock nutritious foods. Habitat for Humanity does a great job of providing the poor with new housing built just for them. Churches also provide child care and tutoring for children who need more help with their studies.
The government is there to run the country, not be the parent of the people.
By the way, what are the poor supposed to do in order to escape poverty? Please be specific.
I take issue with the original post: In what way is America doing all it can to destroy the poor by denying them decent housing when they can get housing paid for? By denying them healthcare, when they can get Medicaid? By denying access to nutritious foods by providing food stamps? By denying a quality education when public schooling is free? In what ways is America making it more and more difficult for them to improve their lives? And how long has this organized effort to destroy the poor been going on? "For some time now" is rather vague when you are discussing a relatively short period of time--the 1960s to the 2010s. Also, please define "the poor". Is is low-income, no assets, or what?
I see the lower working class having more difficulty because their income is too high to qualify for assistance, but not high enough to pay for the basics. So you have families who have lost their homes living in their cars, forgoing trips to the doctor because their insurance co-pays are too high, using food banks to make it from paycheck to paycheck, and trying to ensure that their children make the grades to ensure admission to college in order to have a brighter future. These people cannot depend on the government to take care of them and their families, so they do the best they can until they can change their circumstances.
The poor should be looking to the churches and not to the government to help them escape poverty. That money is given freely to fulfill Christ's commission to care for the poor. Churches can provide transportation to grocery stores that do stock nutritious foods. Habitat for Humanity does a great job of providing the poor with new housing built just for them. Churches also provide child care and tutoring for children who need more help with their studies.
The government is there to run the country, not be the parent of the people.
By the way, what are the poor supposed to do in order to escape poverty? Please be specific.
Every month at the first weekend of the month, I follow people with Vision cards (food stamps, KS) with carts filled with frozen pizza, chips, cookies, soda, etc. We are talking the super store were we buy beans, rice, lentils, etc. When they run their welfare account out, they visit the Beacon, an organization to feed the hungry. The older people here struggle and always have nearly nothing in their carts but fresh vegetables and some grain. Anyone that makes the argument that healthy foods are more expensive than junk/fast food has never been poor and/or does not understand budgeting and financial information. We have about 18% of the population here that live in poverty. They live in nice, low income housing, don't have to worry about losing their job or looking for one, every extra baby brings in the bucks and you don't see many with a baby here that don't wipe out their WIC vouchers. Those that work for a living are decreasing everyday. Poverty where you don't have to worry about the economy, losing your jobs, medical expenses, where your next meal is coming from, what your kids will take for lunch and/or breakfast, is that what you think these people want to escape from?
Would you consider that to be a good place to open a larger store, if it where YOUR investment??
Yes I would, it would be an easy market to corner because many poor people desperately want more options when it comes to food and they hate the grocery stores and corner stores they are forced to shop at.
You are distracted from the point I was making as to why obesity is a problem in America. Ive read posts from ignorant people in this topic claiming the poor in America got it good because there fat. I'm showing them that the increased rates of obesity in poor areas is due to poverty.
I disagree, because most poor people in the US come from multiple generations of poverty, as are most people who are rich. Being poor like being rich is often inherited.
How do you figure that 'most' of the poor, are from generations of poor people??
Every month at the first weekend of the month, I follow people with Vision cards (food stamps, KS) with carts filled with frozen pizza, chips, cookies, soda, etc. We are talking the super store were we buy beans, rice, lentils, etc. When they run their welfare account out, they visit the Beacon, an organization to feed the hungry. The older people here struggle and always have nearly nothing in their carts but fresh vegetables and some grain. Anyone that makes the argument that healthy foods are more expensive than junk/fast food has never been poor and/or does not understand budgeting and financial information. We have about 18% of the population here that live in poverty. They live in nice, low income housing, don't have to worry about losing their job or looking for one, every extra baby brings in the bucks and you don't see many with a baby here that don't wipe out their WIC vouchers. Those that work for a living are decreasing everyday. Poverty where you don't have to worry about the economy, losing your jobs, medical expenses, where your next meal is coming from, what your kids will take for lunch and/or breakfast, is that what you think these people want to escape from?
Those people just because they are poor or on food stamps are not in the same demographic I am discussing here. I am speaking about the urban inner city poor that live in ghettos where superstores don't exist because regular stores don't even exist, because those are the people I know.
Money is no object when it's someone else's money.
You or I might consider the copay when we decide to go for the convenience of the ER now or wait to see our family doc for a minor ailment...the medicaid people don't.
When they come to my ED with their colds and flus and school notes and I ask why they didn't just go to their primary doc or their clinic, they say, "Oh, you always have to wait like 2 hours there!"
Every. Single. Day.
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