Quote:
Originally Posted by Hell Puppy
Americans are a long way yet from 'suffering'. When lots of people are homeless and you start seeing huge bread lines because people dont have anything to eat, then we're talking "suffering".
We just sometimes have screwed up priorities. Alot of the people clamoring for socialized healthcare because they cant afford health insurance CAN afford multiple cartons of cigarettes per week, beer, cable TV and a cell phone. Chris Rock had a good observation, in lots of places in the world they do not have fresh water. We have it on tap nationwide. Perfectly good water. But we drink our water from bottles we pay for, the tap water is only used for shitting and pissing in and washing our ass with.
It's all a matter of perspective.
However, I really wouldn't want to own a small business right now that is providing what most people would consider a "luxury" or at least expendable product. Those are the first things to go when people lose their jobs or tighten their budget for other reasons. And the reason you then get a recession is the spiral that creates. As people reduce their spending, more and more jobs are lossed from things people are no longer willing to pay for.
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http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/g...ent?oid=578027
Aid agencies already are feeling the pinch. Susie Ivy at the Center for Family Services (the Cobb nonprofit helping Brooke and Solomon) says the center expects to serve 1,450 families this fall, compared to last year's 1,100. The Atlanta Community Food Bank, which provides dozens of metro groups with food for needy families, issued an alarm last month that its cupboards were nearly running bare.
"We have never seen what we're seeing now," says Bill Bolling, the food bank's executive director. "I'm having people call me who are saying, 'I have donated to the food bank for a number of years, and I'm embarrassed to say that I need help now.'"