Disturbing Fast Food Truth Not Exactly A Game-Changer For Impoverished Single Mom Of 3
YOUNGSTOWN, OH—Despite the release of a new documentary exposing the disturbing practices and adverse health effects associated with the fast food industry, impoverished single mother of three Karen Ford told reporters Thursday that the revelations in the shocking new film haven’t exactly “flipped [her] world upside down.” “Look, I’m working two minimum-wage jobs just to keep my kids fed and clothed, so I can’t say I’m quite ready to throw the playbook out the window just because the cheapest and only locally convenient source of food happens to contain some GMOs and trans fats,” Ford told reporters, noting that the film’s advocacy of cooking most meals at home from fresh produce and sustainably raised meats hasn’t really changed the fact that her take-home pay is just under $400 a week.
“Hey, I’d love for my children to be eating perfect five-dollar florets of broccoli and fresh-caught fish from a fancy organic grocer, but the closest one of those stores is four towns away and, after paying for a roof over my kids’ heads and keeping the water flowing in our home, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that our food budget might not be quite big enough to feed me seven nights a week, let alone three growing kids. So I can’t say these hard new truths about fast food have really been a deal-breaker for my family’s dietary habits.” Ford added that she would definitely sit right down and intently watch the full documentary the minute she had a few hours free from her 75-hour workweek and around-the-clock parenting duties.
Via The Onion
Again, the Onion comes closer to the truth than most people realize.
Two-thirds of those who live paycheck to paycheck aren’t poor
It’s not just the poor who live paycheck to paycheck.
A study from Greg Kaplan and Justin Weidner of Princeton University and Giovanni Violante of New York University finds that two-thirds of the 38 million American households who consume all their disposable income every pay period aren’t poor.
The study, released at a Brookings Institution event, found that these so-called wealthy-hand-to-mouth are older than their poor paycheck-to-paycheck counterparts, have higher incomes (about $50,000) and hold substantial illiquid assets (also around $50,000 on average), like real estate.
However, these people only tend to stay in this situation for about 2.5 years, unlike the poor who tend to stay for long periods of time.
It’s not just a U.S. phenomenon: Canada, Australia, the U.K., Germany, France, Italy and Spain also have more non-poor paycheck-to-paycheck households than poor ones, though the percentage varies across countries.
The authors say the findings are important for policymakers when they craft stimulus programs.
The other finding that may be startling is that a third of all households do live paycheck to paycheck.
– Steve Goldstein
I read that study just yesterday! It can be found here:
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/projects/bpea/spring%202014/2014a_kaplan.pdf
It goes back to that finding that 76% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck… they spend everything they have and don’t set anything aside for a rainy day. Or downsize their lives to something more sustainable. Part of the problem, esp. for people who are working steady jobs, is that they just don’t think things are “bad” in the economy. And why should they? The government and media keeps telling them how great things are.
I think a big part of the problem is they have nothing to set aside. Remember that the prices of housing, gas, food, etc are going UP?