Why do leftists always invoke 'starving children' when talking about welfare?

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by SpaceCricket79, Jan 24, 2013.

  1. SpaceCricket79

    SpaceCricket79 New Member Past Donor

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    Leftists seem to like to promote the idea that if it weren't for food stamps we'd have children starving (conveniently ignoring the multitude of charities which offer free food to low-income families) - yet there hasn't been a single child or person within the last 100 years or so who's ever starved to death in America simply from lack of food. Poor people in America are more likely to be obsese even than middle or upper class people. So this 'starving children' image is such an absurd scare tactic that it's not even really worth commenting on.

    Poor people in America live like kings compared to poor people in most 3rd world countries. The average 'poor family' in this country owns cell phones, video game systems, cable TV, buys fast food regularly, has an overpriced car with high monthly payment, etc - if they can afford luxuries like this then they aren't poor in any real sense of the world, and 99% of people on food stamps only have to rely on them because of either a lack of willingness to work, having kids they can't support, or poor financial habits - all of which can be avoided by those willing to do so, rather than be dependent on the state for subsistence.
     
    Sickofleft and (deleted member) like this.
  2. kenrichaed

    kenrichaed Banned

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    Because leftists don't let logic get in the way of their emotions.

    Its easier for them to push their agenda if they can conjure up refugee camps of starving kids all over America.

    But we all know it isn't true. Well they do I guess.
     
  3. kilgram

    kilgram New Member

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    WIthout welfare there would be such inequalities that there would be many people starving. History has proven this. It is a fact.
     
  4. SpaceCricket79

    SpaceCricket79 New Member Past Donor

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    That is nonsense, welfare doesn't help people advance, it just helps the poor stay poor.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Yeah, plus they can demonize anyone who opposes unregulated welfare as 'evil' and someone who doesn't care if children starve as long as they don't have to pay taxes, so it's an effective propaganda tactic.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Yeah, plus they can demonize anyone who opposes unregulated welfare as 'evil' and someone who doesn't care if children starve as long as they don't have to pay taxes, so it's an effective propaganda tactic.
     
  5. kenrichaed

    kenrichaed Banned

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    I don't remember mass starvation in America before we created welfare.

    Care to enlighten me on this part of American history I seem to have missed?
     
  6. SFJEFF

    SFJEFF New Member

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    Prove it.

    Big claims deserve big proof.
     
  7. Dr. Righteous

    Dr. Righteous Well-Known Member

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    Because people who are on welfare typically can't afford to feed their children.
     
  8. SFJEFF

    SFJEFF New Member

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    Mass starvation? No. Mass hunger- fairly common.

    Deaths from Starvation- perhaps not common. But certainly happened.

    http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/children_depression/depression_children_menu.cfm
    President Herbert Hoover declared, "Nobody is actually starving. The hoboes are better fed than they have ever been." But in New York City in 1931, there were 20 known cases of starvation; in 1934, there were 110 deaths caused by hunger. There were so many accounts of people starving in New York that the West African nation of Cameroon sent $3.77 in relief.
     
  9. Ctrl

    Ctrl Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Because they understand the self-involvement of the leftist teat-succlers... and recognize that this entitled culture will survive at the detriment of their children.
     
  10. SFJEFF

    SFJEFF New Member

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    Conservatives like to make big claims that they can't substantiate.
     
  11. Ctrl

    Ctrl Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    They're small. They don't eat much.
     
  12. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    I remember seeing a commercial on tv years ago about a little boy who was sick being sent to school to eat the lunch. The end of the commercial was about his older sister saying he needed to go to school to eat lunch Friday because that would be the last time he ate until that next Monday or something.

    I always wondered if this was a huge emotional exaggeration or if this was actually true. Does this happen in the US? Do we really have people who literally have nothing to eat and no help?
     
  13. gamewell45

    gamewell45 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    So then why did you take the time to post a thread and comment on this???
     
  14. kenrichaed

    kenrichaed Banned

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    That's called being stupid and not ready to be a parent. There is no shortage of food in this country and any person with half a brain could figure out how to feed their children. Of course if they had half a brain they wouldn't be popping them out when they can't afford them so maybe your right.

    Hell during the height of the Great Depression in 1931 in the most populated city, NYC there were only 20 cases of starvation and even that could have been avoided.

    Nobody is going to starve if we end welfare. God forbid they may have to get their lazy ass off the couch to go get food but its there.
     
  15. SpaceCricket79

    SpaceCricket79 New Member Past Donor

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    No they don't - it's bull(*)(*)(*)(*). There are dozens of churches and food shelters in my town that hand out free food to people who need it - it's actually much easier to get assistance thru charity, you don't have to go through all of the extensive paperwork involved with welfare.

    Plus even in the scenario of the kid above, even if it was true, then why aren't his parents feeding him? Are they crackheads who leave their kids alone for days on end while they're out getting high or something? So even if so, it's the fault of negligent parents, not the 'welfare system'.
     
  16. kenrichaed

    kenrichaed Banned

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    Even a worse case scenario of a parent absolutely having no way to provide for a child, which is ridiculous, they could turn them over to the State who would take charge and make sure all their basic nutritional needs are met.

    There is no way a child would be forced into starvation except through a bad parent who hides it somehow. If a cop sees a starving child they are going to correct that situation quickly.
     
  17. SFJEFF

    SFJEFF New Member

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    Prove it.

    http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-09-09/food-back-shortage/57698834/1

    Food banks run short as federal government hands out less

    Shelves are going bare in food banks and pantries as more market demand for food means the federal government is buying less fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy products to give to needy families.

    As a result, food banks and pantries nationwide say they are giving out less food, even as record numbers of families turn to them for help.

    "It's not playing out too good for us; I'm running out of food," says Peggy Taylor, who runs the pantry at the One Accord Baptist Church in Martinsville, Va. She says the pantry serves about 500 people a month, double the number served a year ago. But, she says, the amount of government food the pantry receives has dwindled from about 200 cases of canned goods a year ago to 32.

    Under a program called the Emergency Food Assistance Program, the federal government buys surplus fruit, vegetables and meats and gives the products to food banks as a bonus.

    The program is based on the market, says Janey Thornton, U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services. When the market is flooded with certain types of foods, the department will buy them as a way to help stabilize the market and give them to food banks and other groups as a bonus, she says.

    But when demand is high, as it has been over the last year, there is less need for the government to step in, she says. Growing populations worldwide have increased demand for food, while drought and severe weather have reduced the supply, leading to higher prices.

    Last fiscal year, the USDA, which administers the program, bought 421 million pounds of bonus food — $235 million worth — that it gave to food banks, soup kitchens and food pantries for free last fiscal year. That's down from the year before, when they gave charities almost 500 million pounds of food, worth $347 million.

    - - - Updated - - -

    And this is superior to food stamps exactly how?

    I love that the Conservative solution is instead of giving the parents food to feed their children is instead that the state take custody of their children and put them into the joys of foster care, entirely paid for by the state.
     
  18. kenrichaed

    kenrichaed Banned

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    Tell the federal government to end welfare and use that money to stock up food banks then. Let them distribute it to the people who really need it.
     
  19. danielpalos

    danielpalos Banned

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    Because rational discourse doesn't always work with the Right.
     
  20. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    See that's what I thought as well but I didn't want to just openly say it without any basis to back up my assertion. I have been all around the country and the world and everywhere I've been I've seen multiple charities, Churches, food banks, etc. I just couldn't possibly imagine how anyone is legitimately starving in the US.

    I have a soft heart, I'm the guy who almost always gives a few dollars to anyone I see on the corner holding a sign (especially the guys asking for beer money because I respect them enough for at least being honest). But in the back of my head I always wonder how you can be "hungry with no food" in a country with food banks and charities everywhere? A couple bucks means nothing to me so I feel guilty if I just drive by someone like that. I always think that maybe at least ONE of them is serious. But in all reality I just don't understand how they could be...
     
  21. SpaceCricket79

    SpaceCricket79 New Member Past Donor

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    Simple solution: - The parents should get a job.
     
  22. SFJEFF

    SFJEFF New Member

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    From A Christmas Carol:

    First Collector: At this festive time of year, Mr. Scrooge, it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute.
    Ebenezer: Are there no prisons?
    First Collector: Plenty of prisons.
    Ebenezer: And the union workhouses - are they still in operation?
    First Collector: They are. I wish I could say they were not.
    Ebenezer: Oh, from what you said at first I was afraid that something had happened to stop them in their useful course. I'm very glad to hear it.
    First Collector: I don't think you quite understand us, sir. A few of us are endeavoring to buy the poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth.
    Ebenezer: Why?
    First Collector: Because it is at Christmastime that want is most keenly felt, and abundance rejoices. Now what can I put you down for?
    Ebenezer: Huh! Nothing!

    I think Conservatives must just hate Christmas and the villification of Scrooge....and his conversion to a compasionate liberal.
     
  23. kenrichaed

    kenrichaed Banned

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    It is a better solution because it forces the parent to provide for their child instead of letting the government do it. How many people are just going to say, "blah whatever, let them take them" as opposed to getting out there and doing what needs to be done?

    They don't have to worry about that while collecting welfare. And you'll notice I said that was a worse case scenario.
     
  24. danielpalos

    danielpalos Banned

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    I think solving simple poverty is a better solution, simply because persons will no longer have any excuse to not provide for themselves if they can't claim to be in official poverty.
     
  25. SFJEFF

    SFJEFF New Member

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    Ah- this advice from the Conservative who proudly proclaimed that not a single child had starved to death in the U.S. in the last 100 years....


    From A Christmas Carol:

    First Collector: At this festive time of year, Mr. Scrooge, it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute.
    Ebenezer: Are there no prisons?
    First Collector: Plenty of prisons.
    Ebenezer: And the union workhouses - are they still in operation?
    First Collector: They are. I wish I could say they were not.
    Ebenezer: Oh, from what you said at first I was afraid that something had happened to stop them in their useful course. I'm very glad to hear it.
    First Collector: I don't think you quite understand us, sir. A few of us are endeavoring to buy the poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth.
    Ebenezer: Why?
    First Collector: Because it is at Christmastime that want is most keenly felt, and abundance rejoices. Now what can I put you down for?
    Ebenezer: Huh! Nothing!

    I think Conservatives must just hate Christmas and the villification of Scrooge....and his conversion to a compasionate liberal.
     

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