I was out eating the other day and someone at the table asked it Obama’s new health care thang would pay for food. I mean, obviously you can’t be healthy if you don’t eat.
It got me to thinking as many things get me to doing. I went out and did a little research on the Internet. I try to find multiple sources that seem to know what they are talking about before I quote anything. The starvation epidemic in North America has always been a little bit hard for me to stomach.
I was watching a snippet of American Idol the other day when they were talking about people starving in America and they were talking to this 200+ pound crying woman who could not feed her kids. Now, she could have lost 200 pounds in the last month because she was foregoing food so I’m not going to judge, but it still was a little odd.
But, besides that, I went to this website to get to food statistics. The interesting number for me there was that in 2002 34.9 million people were “food insecure”. Almost 35 million Americans didn’t know where their next meal was coming from in 2002!
Then, I went and look for uninsured people. These numbers were a bit easier to find since it’s been all over the news for the last year or so. It seems to fluctuate between 40 and 46 million uninsured Americans.
If the numbers are to be believed we have 35+ million people who may be starving. We have 45 million who are uninsured. Soon we’ll all be insured, but I assume the 35+ million will still be without food. Isn’t it all a bit backwards?
So I was reading your post, then I read the "there's sand in my latte" blog. I think Bill Clinton's quote that was included there applies to the hunger vs. healthcare question... "Devote time to good things, not just to preventing bad things from happening."
ReplyDeleteThere does not have to be a choice between feeding people and having healthcare. Food banks and assistance programs help meet immediate needs, but the underlying source of the problem is economic.
Reform measures that protect consumers, help the unemployed until more jobs make a comeback, and strengthening the economy overall will address the long-term aspects of the hunger/poverty problem. Nope, no reason to choose between the two.