Study- 90% of black kids on food stamps

[Dermezel]

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/study-90-percent-black-children-fed-food-stamps/

Quote:

Nearly half of all US children, including an overwhelming majority of black children, will eat meals at some point during their childhood paid for by food stamps, an indicator of poverty, a study showed Monday.

"If you get food stamps, you are by definition in poverty and your household doesn't have many assets," said Mark Rank, a co-author of the study with Thomas Hirschl of Cornell University.

"The fact that half of American children at some time during their childhood find themselves in this position really ought to be a wake-up call to America," he told AFP.

The study found that 49.2 percent of all American children will at some point live in a home that receives food stamps.

Among black children and children living in single-parent households, the percentage is much higher: around 90 percent live in homes that receive food stamps at one stage or another.

And nearly all black children in single parent homes where the head of household has less than a high school education live in financial and food insecurity during part of their childhood, the study says.

The study, which was published Monday in the American Medical Association's Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, is based on an analysis of a 32-year study of some 4,800 US households.

It concluded that American children face the highest levels of poverty and social deprivation of any children growing up in Western developed nations, and they have the flimsiest social safety net to fall back on.

"It's always been weak, particularly compared with European countries or Canada or other industrialized countries," said Rank, a professor at the school of social work at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

"One of the reasons why our rates of poverty are so high is because we do so little in terms of trying to protect families from getting into poverty. We have to cast our safety net wider," he said.

Poverty and food insecurity are "two of the most detrimental economic conditions affecting a child's health" and tag 22 billion dollars a year onto US health care costs, the study said.

"Children in poverty are significantly more likely to experience a range of health problems, including low birth weight, lead poisoning, asthma, mental health disorders, delayed immunization, dental problems and accidental death," it said.

"There's a strong connection between poverty, health and mental health," said Rank and the detrimental effects of growing up poor, even if just for a short period, often carry over into adulthood, he said.

An earlier study conducted by Rank and Hirschl showed that half of American adults resort to food stamps to put a meal in their stomachs.

So there we have it. There are several implications to this:

1- The conservatives have to admit that the free market, or some aspect of the American economy is not meritocratic, because if it were then African-Americans would not be experiencing higher poverty rates. Something about their environment must be impairing their ability to meet their potential, either that, or the conservatives will have to argue the reason is genetic.

And arguing that the "government creates the poverty" is already disproven by the fact that European welfare states, with more social programs, are seeing less of this kind of poverty. A;; they have left, at this point, is the idea that African-Americans are stuck in a culture of victimization, but why is this exactly? Why are they stuck in this culture and not white people? Are they just, as a group, genetically more predisposed to adopt a "victim culture"?

In all probability I bet more conservatives think it is genetic then are willing to admit to in polite society.

2- Consider what effect cutting social programs would have on these people, and America with respect to the rights of minorities. Simply put 90% of African-American children will experience even worse poverty then they already do. This malnutrition could effect their brain development. Basically, cutting programs for food stamps could effect these children for the rest of their lives. Something I doubt a racist would mind.

[Silvia Crow]

Ya know, 90% seems...absurdly high. To the point that it sounds like they just pulled that number out of their a**.

[ultimec1a]

Because that article uses purposely loaded language in an attempt to bait individuals into an argument of irrationality, I will question its validity and sources.

[Lord Cameron]

It only claims that 90% of black people have once used food stamps, which seems about right.

I've used food stamps before, and I'm not poor, or black, it was just the most economically feasible thing at the time. So, really your whole post means nothing.

[Disa Uniflora]

It has been picked up by some other organizations, though I haven't found the study yet.

[BlueCollarJoe]

Quote:

Among black children and children living in single-parent households, the percentage is much higher: around 90 percent live in homes that receive food stamps at one stage or another.

And nearly all black children in single parent homes where the head of household has less than a high school education live in financial and food insecurity during part of their childhood, the study says.

Wait a minute. You're cherry picking, yet again. The survey states 90% of black children and children living in single parent homes, not just 'black children' as you are pushing.
It also goes on to state with a less than high school education for the parent.
Survey sounds like bullshit, and you're altering the statistics.

http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/acrossstates/Rankings.aspx?ind=107

Now, take a good look at the percentages across the country. Do you see any correlation?

[LightWarrior]

Silvia Crow

Ya know, 90% seems...absurdly high. To the point that it sounds like they just pulled that number out of their a**.

If there is one thing I learned at Gamepolitics is that Data and polls can easily be twisted around to fit someones agenda


On a side note.

My lunch was paid for by food stamps. Yum yum....

[Dermezel]

BlueCollarJoe

The survey states 90% of black children and children living in single parent homes, not just 'black children' as you are pushing.

90% of African American children have relied on food stamps

90% of single parents have utilized food stamps

This potential ambiguity can be clarified by the opening sentence of the article:

Quote:

Nearly half of all US children, including an overwhelming majority of black children, will eat meals at some point during their childhood paid for by food stamps

[Dermezel]

Silvia Crow

Ya know, 90% seems...absurdly high. To the point that it sounds like they just pulled that number out of their

Okay let's examine this argument from various perspectives to see how its measures with respect to strength of premises and logical validity aka Crow needs logic 101.

Premise 1- "Ya know, 90% seems"- the argument from seeming. I was not aware that "seeming" was a valid way of evaluating statistical accuracy. To me that sounds somewhat subjective, perhaps I am not up to date on modern statistical method and the whole "seeming" standard flew right past me.

Premise 2- "absurdly high." I guess where Crow lives African-Americans have historically been a privileged, class, which were never harmed by racism, or slavery, or segregation. And where Crow lives we can assume racism has disappeared entirely. Unfortunately for Crow this place cannot be the United States.

Premise 3- "To the point that it sounds" so along with the argue from how the statistic seems, we now have the argument from how the statistics sounds.

Therefore- "like they just pulled that number out of their" foot. Now let's consider the validity of the statements, we go from the way the statistic seems, to how the statistic sounds, and then conclude it was pulled out of someone's foot.

And let's turn this around: "Silvia Crow seems a little bias. To the point where he/she sounds like he/she won't want acknowledge real problems plaguing African-Americans. Therefore we can conclude that he/she will reject/ignore/dismiss all inconvenient data, even if that means he/she has to pull an illogical objection, based on weak premises and invalid reasoning, out of his or /her..."

[Azrael Aluminous]

We have to view poverty in a holistic view we can't just rule out some other factors which may seem unlikely.

Here are two.

Culture Some people argue that depending on the culture which a group is situated in their actions may vary. For instance, a culture which promotes the perfection of women both financially and in beauty may have more women who are more efficient. They're efficient since they're culture desires them to be efficient and they must live up to their expectations by society. Likewise a society which promotes poverty, war, crime, drug dealing, etc would be likewise to take as severe stances on these issues. A culture which says oh being in a gang is great, war is beautiful, drugs are fine, etc may have more people on drugs because oh it's alright in this society, an example of this may actually be Russia. Russia seems (from what I remember) to have an indifferent view of bribing in their society because of this corruption through bribery is rampant because it's seen as no big deal.

Poverty Chain?
It's how people are basically ruined and it's a theory which has been mentioned before. Basically it's like this: "Because my daddy is too poor to get a well paying job he's poor. Because I can't afford a good school and I can't get a better job I'm poor. Because I can't afford to send my children to a to a better school they too are also poor, etc"

This would "essentially" be fixed if (higher) schooling was free or there was a different way to pay for it which was more effective (hint: Labour Debt).

History tells the Americans that they had used the blacks as slaves. Since they used the blacks as slaves they were not as educated, since they were not as educated they can't get high paying jobs, since they can't get high paying jobs the poverty chain continues.

[Mobilize For War]

Wow, that title is one of the most ******** things I have seen here in a while.

[BlueCollarJoe]

Just find a copy of Little Rock, 50 Years Later. It is an amazingly blunt insight into culture.

[Jay Riot]

Lord Cameron

I've used food stamps before, and I'm not black. So, really your whole post means nothing.

[Durgress]

Ok, so you say it is becuase of a "flimsly social safety net"? I say it's cause people are verminous, lazy leeches if given the chance and the simple fact is a LARGE percentage of people in public schools will not get a high school diploma. Not because of bad teaching (well, mabey), but because they DO NOT WANT TO LEARN. I think that people not wanting to live a productive life has more to do with the use of food stamps than a safety net.

[Jay Riot]

Durgress

Ok, so you say it is becuase of a "flimsly social safety net"? I say it's cause people are verminous, lazy leeches if given the chance and the simple fact is a LARGE percentage of people in public schools will not get a high school diploma. Not because of bad teaching (well, mabey), but because they DO NOT WANT TO LEARN. I think that people not wanting to live a productive life has more to do with the use of food stamps than a safety net.

Lol, yeah, people deliberately didn't make enough money so they could qualify for government welfare. Or they passed up opportunities to make too much money, that makes so much sense it's ******** insane!