Is there some government ran program which may give these women free bras? I can't help myself but go "EWWW".
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.
What an effing joke. Get a job, ladies, and stop eating refried beans by the shovelful.
You assume that she has insurance...I rather doubt it. That’s money that could be spent on ice cream!
I’d pay to see a picture of these two crammed into a smartcar.
Have they looked into Sumo wrestling?
Too funny, keep it up. Ridicule the Humorless Left 24&7!
It is almost as if Al Gore spontaneously divided and became two unemployed women...
They are too big for just one thread!!!!!!!!
Went to the store, bought a chicken, carrots, onions, macaroni. Made a kettle of chicken soup.
8 chicken salad sandwiches and soup until I was bloated.
I do the same thing in good times (now) except the $5 come from a good job.
Told my kids to skip the funeral. Have a party...a celebration of the life I lived and loved...dump the ashes in the old fishing hole and get on with it.
No wonder the damn car broke down. Shocks can only take so much.
Tell me, Ms. Nunez. if you no longer have a car, why is paying for high gas prices a problem for you?
I can’t believe that there is only one place within walking distance she can work. She doesn’t want to have to walk..
***$100 used to buy about 12 bags of groceries,***
***When? 1965? ***
I remember my parents buying one large bag of groceries in 1962. Cost...$5.00 with tax.
Now it’s about $50.00.
*** 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.***
Beans and cornbread ain’t out of style!
It says their electric bill is $100-127 a month. Huh? I live in Ohio, too. My bill last month for an 1800 sq. foot home, with the air on every day, was $165.
Not sure what they are buying but I bet there are a lot of take outs.
I'll stew the chickens, pick them and then using the broth add noodles and a can of cream of mushroom soup, some veggies, and spices.
Right before its done, whip up some dumplings from bisquit and drop them in.
A meal that cost no more than $3.50, and I have enough for left overs tomorrow.
What in the hell does 12 bags of groceries mean?
Looking at those two, the bags were full of chips and KFC.
It's tough to get all teary-eyed over two, unemployed, 300 pound lard asses, living off of my tax dollars, whining about no meat.
Those two could live off of bread and water until May 15, 2013...and would look a whole lot better.
I was reviewing the questions and was floored by the one on gender.
Gender
male______
female____
both____
“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.”
________________________________
These few sentences alone, are so rich on so many levels.
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