Imagine yourself walking in the shoes of a single mother with three kids working two jobs trying to provide for your family. You work all day long and still cannot provide for your three kids. You do all you can between two jobs and help from a federal aid program, but you and your children are finding yourself having to skip a meal each day because what your doing is just not enough. You find yourself wondering where you go from here and what you are supposed to do, after all, you are doing all you can. What if you find out that the government is giving billions of dollars to other countries for food aid when you are here doing all you can and still need help, but it’s being given away to other countries. The U.S. gives billions of dollars to other countries for food aid and most of the money isn’t even going to food costs but, towards storage and shipping costs. We give so much money to other countries when we should be spending our money on our own people that are going hungry.
The U.S. gives money to other countries for food assistance each year, roughly 1.4 billion dollars each year. Part of this 1.4 billion dollars doesn’t even go towards food for these countries. Less than forty percent of the foreign assistance actually goes to food for these people. The forty percent that isn’t going to food aid is going to shipping and storage costs.
(Tan).
The U.S. “Tied Aid” program is the cause for these shipping and storage costs. The tied aid program was put into place when the U.S. economy was struggling. This program was designed to help other countries that were in need of food. This program is meant to help them, but the environment that lead to this program in the 1950’s is no longer an issue. The U.S. economy is getting bett...
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The United States continues to give around $550 billion in aid to other countries each year, making America the world's top donor by far (Richardson). While the United States government only supplies $252 billion to needy Americans each year. Former Assistant to the President for Communications, Patrick Buchanan said, "The idea that we should send endless streams of tax dollars all over the world, while our own country sinks slowly in an ocean of debt is, well, ludicrous" (Foreign Aid). The United States need to give money to support the domestic impoverished rather than supporting developing foreign countries because the poverty and homelessness in America is increasing faster than the aid necessary to reduce this trend. Part of the reason that the United States should aid the domestic impoverished is that some foreign countries cannot be trusted with the money given to them and in certain cases, the money intended to aid countries are harmful for that country’s well-being.
Gerson, Michael . "The real-world effects of budget cuts." The Washington Post 7 Apr.2011: n. pag. Print.
Food shopping when you are poor in America doesn't mean taking the minivan out to Costco; it can mean walking to the only "supermarket" in the neighborhood, often a small corner retail operation with high markups on food and household supplies.With so many people in poverty it is questioned if giving the poverty aid is even a solution as stated by David Cheal in his book New Poverty: Families in Postmodern Society, “Throwing money at social problems is no longer
21st Century Economics (Vol. 1, pp. 58-59. 163-172. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Reference.
Before extending aid to other countries, we should focus on our more prevalent domestic problems. Patrick Buchanan said, "The idea that we should send endless streams of tax dollars all over the world, while our own country sinks slowly in an ocean of debt is, well, ludicrous. Almost every American knows it, feels it, believes it." The topic of United States foreign policy is greatly debated, and a decision on how to handle is very hard to come by. It seems as if we are finally leaning towards less aid to foreign countries, as we try to cut wasteful spending. The American government is finally opening its eyes to the realization that all of the aid we are giving out may not be worth it. Our priority should be to help our homeless, instead of other countries' poor.
With our national debt rising every year, there are many things that are contributing to it. Programs like food stamps benefits are meant for poor people; however, there are many that will take advantage of this program throughout history. Alex Roarty, claims that since the great depression over forty millions of people use food stamps benefits because of the loose eligibilities required and suggest that forty-one percent of people believe that it is due to edibility requirements and our own economy (“Most Americans Want Tougher Food Stamp Requirements”). With the nation’s debt soaring into the negative trillions, setting up piles of debt for our younger generation and developing poor eating habits this program is in jeopardy of deteriorating.
The first food aid program in the world was started during the Great War by soon to be President Herbert Hoover. Food production kicked in and the United States started to feed areas under Bolshevik control in Russia literally right outside the Tsar’s palace in the hopes that hunger – and therefore the main void and driver of need that communism fills could possibly be tackled. In a time absolutely different from our own where the United States gives foreign aid as a matter of routine, Hoover’s program was given over $700 million from France and Britain in order to feed Belgium and wartime
President Obama once said, “As the wealthiest nation on Earth, I believe the United States has a moral obligation to lead the fight against hunger and malnutrition, and to partner with others.” Food insecurity has always been an issue of the public as well as around the world. For so long, many generations of Americans have been living in poverty or in a low income state. It would be surprise as to how many Americans are living in poverty. As a result of this living situation, there are problems that arise with it. One of the problems is food insecurity. Food insecurity can be simply explained as not having access to affordable and quality food. This problem can lead to serious
Poverty is regarded as the major cause of food insecurity. A household food security depends on access to food. America has access to good healthy food. However, a family too poor to buy them do not enjoy food security. Rosenbaum and Neuberger (2005) report that each year the number of people using government food assistance programs grows. “Food stamps are targeted to those with the greatest need for help in purchasing food… [and] helps to lessen the extent and severity of poverty (Rosenbaum and Neuberger 2005)”.
25 Nov. 2013. “Economy.” CQ Researcher. 15 June 2013. Web.
Today SNAP is the new name of the federal Food Stamp Program. “SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The name was changed to SNAP to meet the needs of clients, which includes a focus on nutrition and an increase in the amount of benefit received” ("supplemental nutrition,"2011). Another detail about SNAP is its ability to respond to changing needs caused by economic cycles or natural emergencies on the local, state and national levels. It is second to unemployment insurance in its responsiveness to economic changes. SNAP is very helpful to low-income families’ monthly resources, increasing the chance families is able to meet basic needs.
The United States is one of the leading suppliers of Foreign Aid in the world, and even though the US gives billions, European countries give aid money to the same countries, this causes many areas of the Middle East, Africa, and Asia to be almost fully dependent on foreign aid. This means that without aid from other countries, they would not be able to support themselves at all. Foreign aid is meant to help countries that are struggling with civil unrest, disease, or natural disasters, it is not meant to help keep the country out of debt, but that is where more and more of the US and The EU’s foreign aid budget is going. The question is, does all this money actually go where it is intended? It should be going towards the government and to help the people, but in many cases, the countries government does not have the resources to properly track the flow of money. The countries in most cases have poor infrastructure and corrupt or oppressive leaders, not always at a national level, but in the towns and cities. So this means there is almost no way to oversee the flow of foreign aid through the country, all we can see is that their situations aren't getting any better and the countries are still impoverished. If this is the case, where are the millions of dollars going? Countries like Afghanistan and Iraq receive the most money from American foreign aid and European aid, yet they are still under oppressive governmental rule and there is still an extreme difference between the rich and poor. Garrett Harding’s theory of “Lifeboat Ethics” exemplifies how not giving aid to others will allow the strongest of society to thrive, while teaching the impoverished to help themselves. He believes that giving aid to poor countries will only make ...
If someone else was starving or had no place to go, it was not your problem because you were not starving and had a place to go. The car dealer says: “Take it or leave it. I ain’t in business for my health. I’m here a-sellin’ tires. I ain’t givin’ ‘em away. I can’t help what happens to you. I got to think of what happens to me” (Steinbeck 120). We have worn out people’s financial resources to the point where they can barely support themselves, let alone consider supporting another person. Becoming so poor that you must start becoming selfish is most likely what the government wanted. They wanted natural selection to pick those out who are too weak to support themselves out. We could fix this by becoming minimalists and only having what we absolutely need so that we could help others out who were struggling. Or, start at the root of the issue and confront the government for making us become selfish for lack of
In the United States of America, the richest nation of the world, one in six Americans do not have enough food to eat. Have you ever wonder why there are so many food banks and food pantries throughout the country? They are not simply, as you thought, existent to offer emergency food assistance. Indeed, they are the main sources of food to millions of food-insecure Americans. Food insecurity, the state of not having sufficient quantity of affordable and nutritious food, has been very widespread and common in America. It affected millions of Americans and has been increasing dramatically in recent years; in 2012, more than 48 millions of food-insecure Americans rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (McMillan). The depth
Without access to outside food the population in poorer countries drops and is “checked” by crop failures and famines. But access to outside food could be a problem because “if they can always draw on a world food bank in time of need, their populations can continue to grow unchecked, and so will their “need” for aid”(333). Poorer countries’ populations could surpass richer countries, then poorer countries will receive even more resources and give basically nothing, while the rich receive even less but give