Just keep pulling that big "D" letter in the voting booth.
Posted on 07/18/2008 10:18:24 PM PDT by paulat
Feeling The Economic Pinch For Some Ohioans, Even Meat Is Out Of Reach by Yuki Noguchi
Katia Dunn/NPR Angelica Hernandez (left) and her mother, Gloria Nunez, struggle to make ends meet on a very limited budget.
All Things Considered, July 17, 2008 · A generation ago, the livelihood of Gloria Nunez's family was built on cars.
Her father worked at General Motors for 45 years before retiring. Her mother taught driver's education. Nunez and her six siblings grew up middle class.
Things have changed considerably for this Ohio family.
Nunez's van broke down last fall. Now, her 19-year-old daughter has no reliable transportation out of their subsidized housing complex in Fostoria, 40 miles south of Toledo, to look for a job.
Nunez and most of her siblings and their spouses are unemployed and rely on government assistance and food stamps. Some have part-time jobs, but working is made more difficult with no car or public transportation.
Low-income families in Ohio say they are particularly hard-hit by the changes in the economy, according to a new poll conducted by NPR, The Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard School of Public Health. Two-thirds of lower-income respondents, or 66 percent, say paying for gas is a serious problem because of recent changes in the economy. Nearly half of low-income Ohioans, or 47 percent, say that getting a well-paying job or a raise in pay is also major problem.
'I Just Can't Get A Job'
Nunez, 40, has never worked and has no high school degree. She says a car accident 17 years ago left her depressed and disabled, incapable of getting a job. Instead, she and her daughter, Angelica Hernandez, survive on a $637 Social Security check and $102 in food stamps.
Hernandez received her high school diploma and has had several jobs in recent years. But now, because fewer restaurants and stores are hiring, she says she finds it hard to find a job. Even if she could, she says it's particularly hard to imagine how she'll keep it. She says she needs someone to give her a lift just to get to an interview. And with gas prices so high, she's not sure she could afford to pay someone to drive her to work every day.
People tell Nunez her daughter could get more money in public assistance if she had a child.
"A lot of people have told me, 'Why don't your daughter have a kid?'"
They both reject that as a plan.
"I'm trying to get a job," Hernandez says. "I just can't get a job."
Hernandez says she's trying to get training to be a nurse's assistant, but without her own set of wheels or enough money to pay others for gas, it hasn't been easy.
'What's Going To Happen To Us?'
Most of their extended family lives in the same townhouse complex. The only employer within walking distance is a ThyssenKrupp factory that makes diesel engine parts. That facility, which employs 400 people, is shutting down and moving to Illinois next year.
The only one with a car is Irma Hernandez, Nunez's mother. Hernandez says that with a teenage son still at home, the cost of feeding him and sending him to school is rising, and she can no longer pay for the car.
She's now two car payments behind.
"I'm about to lose my car," she says on her way to pick up one of her daughters to take her to Toledo. "So then what's going to happen to us?"
So Nunez and her daughter are mostly stuck at home.
The rising cost of food means their money gets them about a third fewer bags of groceries — $100 used to buy about 12 bags of groceries, but now it's more like seven or eight. So they cut back on expensive items like meat, and they don't buy extras like ice cream anymore. Instead, they eat a lot of starches like potatoes and noodles.
Hunger in America!
They can’t be happy like that!
Phil Gramm needs to host his own reality talent show, something like "America's got whiners."
They need cheap protein? I suggest eggs. And buy a chicken when it goes on sale.
Meals from a chicken:
Just keep pulling that big "D" letter in the voting booth.
Amurica is he only country in the world in with it's poor and downtrodden own 2 TV's and are fatter than hell.
When? 1965?
It is funny, but I am reasonably well off, and try my best to cut calories from meal to meal. I rarely but regularly have meat, and am happy with fresh fruits, veggies, sunflower seeds, low fat cottage cheese and egg white omelets. For a kick, I sometimes cook up a small pot of lentils. I am always a bit hungry, and wouldn’t have it any other way. Proper nutrition sometimes calls for spending less but buying smartly. If some NPR diversanesta knew of my plight,and could detach it from context, well, what a followup story they’d have.
Super Protein. Tastes good, too.
I have not been able to afford to live for the last 7 years (since Clinton left office) Things are so bad I also cant afford to die..Funerals are too high ...I am therefore stuck in the middle...Help me Please
Please send this to PBS I am sure they will want to run my story
Im sorry things are so bad I didnt realize that was NPR
Yes, this is the ultimat point.
Sorry, “ultimate”
This story ran on National Proletariat Radio? That’s no surprise. I work with a couple of hippies who love to listen to NPR. I have no doubt that I’ll hear from my co-workers about how some Americans -due to the “poor economy”- are on protein-deficient diets.
Some years ago in a story on immigration, legal or otherwise, I believe it was Jonah Goldberg, found an actual (approved) application for naturalization from an Indian applicant. On the line, “Why do you want to live in America?”, this fellow forthrightly answered, “I have always dreamed of living in a country where the poor people could be fat”.
For 99% of human history, it could be assumed that anyone with the disposable income to BE fat was, if not rich, better off than his/her neighbors. Ask any resident of Darfur. Only in America could people with NO income require a (publically-funded, no doubt) forklift for the sheer mechanics of a publically funded burial.
Jebus, I missed this when the article was posted earlier. I've known people who were blind, crippled, retarded, amputees, and wheelchair-bound who were all able to find some kind of gainful employment. While not all disabilities are visible, based on the picture, I really, really wonder what is this woman's disability.
Depression?
When you look at their ‘lifestyle’ changes they cite that they no longer get ice cream.
From the looks of them that is a good decision.
Just say NO to seconds ladies—I also wonder how many different last names that woman has under one roof.
They claim that the daughter doesn’t ‘want to go that way’ when it comes to kids. I just really can’t see her getting ‘bred’. Of course she would probably look pretty good at closing time to many of her peers...
The Govt would give her fertility pills and other forms of artificial insemination so she can realize her mothers ‘dream’ of (grand)motherhood (and increased bennies)
Beat me to it. Great minds think alike. ;-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.