Thomas Sowell: The ‘Hunger’ Hoax -- It’s part of the larger poverty hoax

National Review ^ | 10/05/2011 | Thomas Sowell

[DNME]

I’m a member of an American Legion Post that used to assemble and distribute a few dozen Thanksgiving baskets for the needy in town. Everything from a turkey and stuffing to pies and cranberry sauce went into the baskets.

A few years ago I went to help load the baskets and found they had stopped the program and weren’t giving out baskets anymore. So I asked why.

Because it was always the same people receiving the baskets, year after year, I was told.

Hmmm. Interesting.

[Think free or die]

"I understand what you mean. Even at church during Christmas, when we're encouraged to take a tag from the "giving tree" and buy the gift for the person listed.... I think, what happened to poor people who'd be grateful for warm coats, mittens or even some toiletries? Now we're supposed to provide skateboards, video games and jewelry? There's no question that many people are in financial hardships, but it seems the expectations of others for what that means have gone haywire. "

I've largely given up on these sorts of campaigns for exactly that reason. The 'poor' kids would ask for high-end fashion and electronic gifts that we could ill afford to buy for our own kids. When I helped out at our middle school's school store in September I'd have 'poor' kids in expensive clothes carrying cell phones and iPods hand me vouchers from the guidance department so that they didn't have to pay for their gym clothes, school spirit t-shirts or school supplies. I never saw any gratitude - only attitude. My kids confirm that they see the same. These are also the kids most likely to throw their (free) lunch food around in food fights or to toss it in the trash uneaten. The soft-headed liberals have created a monster.

[copetsitter]

Once again, Thomas Sowell has hit many nails on the head with his mighty hammer. The real story though, is that the income of poor people does not include benefits received from the government. The government could give every person $100,000 worth of benefits each year and they would still be under the poverty level. The way they calculate it, no program will EVER decrease the number of poor people.

[chris_bdba]

After being in the grocery store accidentally on the 1st throughout he 5th of the month I find it very hard to believe that there are any kids going hungry n America anywhere.Most of them look like they could safely skip a few meals and still be overweight.

[chris_bdba]

After being in the grocery store accidentally on the 1st through the 5th of the month I find it very hard to believe that there are any kids going hungry n America anywhere.Most of them look like they could safely skip a few meals and still be overweight.