By Jack Perry



Whatsupic -- Yesterday, I saw an article in the newspaper that 22% of American children live in poverty. Now, don't just take my word that I read this in the paper. And you can do a web search and uncover this truth for yourself. But if you know anything about the truth regarding the United States, then you won't be suspicious of this statistic in the first place.

Now, this number was as of the year 2013. Back in 2008, before the so-called "Great Recession", that number was 18%. So, despite the U.S. government saying the economy is "recovering", what's actually happening is that it's getting worse. Those numbers should be going down, not up. Because if you've got 22% of American children living in poverty, that means so are the parents and many people that don't have children as well. I'd say based on what I've read over the past few weeks, the numbers of Americans in poverty and at-risk of falling into it because of income inequality is somewhere around 45% to perhaps as high as 50%. Wait until that number reaches 60% and then 70% which is probably about a decade or less off. That's when you start to see bread riots and revolutions.

Now, as I pointed out in a previous Whatsupic article, the government poverty threshold is a yearly income below $11,000 for one person. In the U.S., you'd starve to death before the end of that year because you cannot live on that. Which is why things such as welfare and food stamp programs exist. Yes, those programs the Republicans want to cut. How can you cut social programs when the numbers of children living in poverty is going up, not down? What that would do is cause a tremendous swell in the number of homeless people and many of them would be children. Those are Republican "family values" for you. When that family is poor, it has no value to them.

You see, it isn't that the government doesn't have the money. In fact, all the Republicans want to increase defense spending. This at a time when peace can be easily had if the U.S. would stop behaving so aggressively and belligerently. But the Republicans want to cut funding for social programs at a time when more American children are falling into poverty than being lifted out of it. Consider this: Nearly ONE-QUARTER of American children live in poverty. That doesn't mean low-income, but in poverty. Meaning they don't have any money, little food, and clothes are hard to come by. They rely on not just the government, but help from churches and charities just for the necessities to survive. How says this country unto other countries that it is wise enough to tell them how to run their affairs? This country cannot even take care of its own children! And why? Because this poverty is caused by an economic system that preys upon the poor to begin with. That's why the number of poor goes up, not down. It is a predatory economic system that exploits the people, sucks out their resources, and leaves them as dried husks in ghettoes and barrios across America.

How does the American economic system do this? By cutting jobs, pushing down wages, and raising prices, as it has done ever since President Reagan. I've pointed out how this is done in several Whatsupic articles. Oh, the government knows this is going on because they're the ones that crunched the numbers and found out the number of poor children are increasing. It was the U.S. Census Bureau that brought it to light. Truly, the federal government has known this for quite some time because they're the ones that handle the social programs. Therefore, for Republicans to want to cut social programs KNOWING the number of poor children are increasing ought to tell you where their hearts are. If, indeed, they have any whatsoever.

Recently, the school lunch program has come under danger of being cut by the government. See, this is a program to provide healthy lunches to poor children in school for free. Now, you would think, "What's wrong with feeding poor children?!" And you would be right. But to the Republicans, this is wasted money. Especially when there's innocent people that need killing over in the Middle East. That costs money and if we have to starve our own kids to do it, then so be it. School lunches are often the only balanced meal poor children get here in this alleged "land of plenty". But teachers and concerned citizens have to start letter-writing campaigns to Senators and Congresspeople to vote in favor of funding this program. Isn't funding it obvious?! Yes, it is to any decent human being with a conscience. But we're talking about U.S. politicians here.

It simply must be said: The United States has no moral credibility to lecture the rest of the world about anything whatsoever. We have a class of hyper-wealthy that basically run the country and create the skyrocketing impoverishment of the entire nation. And we have a government too cowardly and morally bankrupt themselves to stop them. That this government is a legion of cowards goes without saying. Look who it attacks militarily: Only those unable to defend themselves. Again, this government has no credibility whatsoever to tell other countries what to do. Not when ONE-QUARTER of its own children are living in poverty! And that number continues to go UP, not down! Soon, it'll be 30% and then 40% and then half. The government will twiddle its thumbs, lick the boots of the ultra-wealthy and the corporations, and then accuse every other country of being unjust. There's a word for that. That word is: Hypocrisy.

So when you hear the U.S. government saying this or that thing about Iran or Russia, or anyone else for that matter, just consider the source. It's coming from a country that doesn't care that almost a quarter of its children are in poverty and even wants to cut social programs to feed those children. In order to buy weapons to kill innocent people. Yes, just consider the source.