America…Greedy or Needy?

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Recommended: Causes and effects of poverty in the US

As a nation, our economy is declining so less money is circulating through the system. Therefor many people have lost their job and can’t provide for their family. When our countries economy started to collapse in 2008, many businesses went under and many houses were foreclosed. During that time we had a nine trillion dollar debt deficet. Now we have a seventeen trillion dollar debt deficit and we are wasting more food and material items now than we ever have. The debt crisis in late 2007 had people searching for jobs and finding out they might just not be able to provide. When tough times like these occur the government assistance and the states help is necessary. If half of the country is on some type of government assistance then how is half of our country covered by things we waste?
During the end of 2007 the unemployment rate spiked from just under five percent to over seven in the course of one year and was expected to spike in the coming months. “Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs rose over the month by 315,000 to 6.5 million in December 2008. Over the past 12 months, the size of this group has increased by 2.7 million. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) rose to 2.6 million in December and was up by 1.3 million in 2008.”(Bureau of Labor Statistics). These statistics show times like these were really tough for many American households. Men who wanted nothing more than to be able to support their families couldn’t because there were no jobs available.
Another thing that was happening during the recession that would make the need for government assistance important was, people all over the United States were losing their houses. “A ...

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...ble to make it without the government? 128 million Americans and counting are on some type of government assistance. 128 million is 41 percent of our population in America. So if the government decided to not give out welfair our country would basically be screwed because a little under half of our society cant live without some type of help. We do the government to survive, but we shouldn’t have half of our country so dependent on it.

Works Cited

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Editor's Desk, Unemployment in December 2008 on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2009/jan/wk2/art02.htm (visited May 07, 2014). http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/15/real_estate/millions_in_foreclosure/ http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2009/09/obama-to-spend-103-trillion-on-welfare-uncovering-the-full-cost-of-means-tested-welfare-or-aid-to-the-poor

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