It just isn't funny anymore. People are hurting. Yesterday I saw a young man with his wife and baby shopping at the local Bi-Lo here. They had a list and went down the list and put what was on the list in their cart. I thought to myself that the couple were good shoppers, buying only what they decided they needed before going shopping. When I went to check out the young couple was before my wife and I. I saw them separate items into two groups. The first small group of goods was then paid by food stamps. The second group of goods was paid with cash. It really bothered me. This was a young strapping man of about 19 with a young wife and a year old baby.
Apparently he wasn't working, and if he was, his job wasn't paying him as living wage because the qualified for food stamps. Believe me; I have nothing against people that use food stamps. This economic climate makes food stamps something indispensable for some people. A woman I knew most of my life confided in me when she came down to South Carolina from New York. She said "Timmy, I'm on food stamps. I'm so embarrassed to tell you this. I have to apply for HEAP too (Heating Energy Assistance Program). She is on Social Security and I know she worked all of her life as a practical nurse at a local hospital on Long Island. She has a small pension, but even after moving off Long Island to cheaper digs in the Upstate She still is at the poverty level.
I'm sure that anyone reading this can share stories worse
than this. People in the U.S. are losing everything. We used to be the World's
top producer of steel. We don't make it here anymore. We stopped producing many things in the
United States. In fact we've shipped out just about every type of industry
overseas except for Earth moving vehicles, automobiles (but they are outsourcing
much of that too), and the Industrial Military Complex. We make weapons of mass
destruction on a massive scale. We are the World's largest arms merchant and
our military budget is six times as large as our nearest competitor.
This list is based on the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Military Expenditure Database for 2010 (in constant 2009 US$). It also includes military expenditure data as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009.[1]
The world's top 7 largest military budgets in 2010. Figures sourced from SIPRI[1]
Military spending
Military spending as percentage of GDP
Rank Country Military expenditure, 2010[2] % of GDP, 2009
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