Walker's Policies Are Killing Wisconsin's Economy
Job losses and shrinking paychecks are to blame
Instead, under Gov. Scott Walker's leadership, the state is shedding jobs month after month.
In November, Wisconsin lost 14,600 jobs while the rest of the country added 120,000. In the past five months, Wisconsin has lost 34,900 jobs.
Walker's track record is so bad that the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found that Wisconsin is dead last in job creation among the 50 states.
The first-year effects of Walker's policies on public employees—as well as their ripple effects on the state's economy—have been analyzed in a new study from the Institute for Wisconsin's Future (IWF), which found:
- The average public employee has taken a pay cut of almost $3,000, or about $60 per week, thanks to Walker's requirement that they contribute more toward their health care and pensions.
- The pay cut given to 260,000 full-time public employees amounts to $700 million taken out of the state's economy each year, which means less money to be spent at Wisconsin's small businesses.
- The shrinkage of the state's economy due to public employees' pay cuts will lead to a loss of about 6,900 full-time jobs in the first year of Walker's budget.
- Walker's rejection of $553 million in federal funds—including $390 million for high-speed rail and $130 million for Medicaid in just the first year—will cause the loss of about 4,700 private-sector jobs.
- Walker's $975 million in cuts to state and local programs—including education funding, recycling and transportation—will cause about 5,400 full-time private sector jobs to be lost.
- The average pay cut to the 47,210 public sector employees in Milwaukee County is $2,620, reducing the local economy by $123.7 million.
Cutting Paychecks Instead of Investing in Workforce
IWF's research director, Jack Norman, said his organization's analysis, titled "The Price of Extremism," shows that Walker has taken the wrong approach to stimulating the state's sluggish economy. Instead of supporting the middle class during an uncertain economy, Walker's taken money out of workers' paychecks. Instead of being spent in local businesses, that money is then diverted to pension investments and health insurance companies.
"In the midst of a struggling economy, the worst thing you can do is to cut," Norman said.
He said a better way to produce growth is to ensure that workers are able to bring home steady paychecks, which they spend in neighborhood shops and restaurants.
"But Walker is driving money away from where we want it to be spent," Norman said.
As a result of reduced consumer spending power and demand for goods and services, Norman said that entrepreneurs wouldn't want to launch a new business in Wisconsin and established businesses won't want to hire more workers.
"Demand is what drives business decisions," Norman said.
But won't a property tax freeze help put money back into the pockets of Wisconsinites?
"That doesn't offset the cuts," Norman said.
And what about Walker's tax credits for investors and "job creators"?
"Tax incentives are long-term strategies," Norman said. "We need something immediate."
A recall, perhaps?
"There isn't a whole lot a political leader can do to create jobs," Norman said. "But a political leader can create a lot of damage by enacting policies that kill jobs. This is a good reason to get rid of Walker midterm."
In a press statement, Department of Workforce Development (DWD) Secretary Reggie Newson blamed the bad jobs numbers on the way employment data is gathered. The state surveys employers, then sends the data to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which then generates job estimates for the state DWD to release. The BLS revises its estimates as more information is received. In October, it reduced its estimate of job losses by 7,300, from 9,700 to 2,400 jobs lost.
DWD spokesman John Dipko disputed IWF's assertion that Walker's budget and collective bargaining changes have contributed to the state's stalled economy.
"The reforms in Act 10 not only are helping to balance the state budget, but they are making local governments work better and holding the line on property taxes, which benefit working families and businesses and support a climate for private-sector job creation over the long haul," Dipko wrote in an email to the Shepherd.
That is because you live in a bubble. Get out of your bax and think.
The way Walker has done this was wrong. Taking money out of the hands of public employees did not put money into other programs, that money is gone.
Walker gave huge tax breaks to wealthy individuals and corporations to create jobs. But where are the jobs? Where are the living wage jobs? Where did the money go? Corporate profits? CEO pay and benefits? Not job creation.
If anyone has cash flying out of his or her wallet due to Walkers tax breaks please get it on film and post it on-line. This would do a great deal to help promote Gov. Walkers policies. Seeing is believing!
Businesses create jobs as a need to produce a product or service. If there is no demand for the product or service they have no need for employees.
Not a difficult concept to understand.
There needs to be a demand for goods and services before a company hires employees. That makes sense.
The best way to generate demand is to put money in the hands of the people, lots and lots of people. When I say lots and lots of people I don't mean just a few wealthy individuals. Put the money in the hands of the 99%, not the 1% as Walker wants to. (I have to think that Walker owes a lot to the Koch brothers, they will get a big pile of money out of this state and they don't even live here. That money will completely leave Wisconsins economy.)
Fair and equitable taxes that are paid by every family and business in the state will make a difference. It will go to the local economies and stay in circulation in a way that will help the greater economy and keep families together, in their homes and out of poverty. It may prevent this economy from going down even farther. And don't forget, public employees are also tax payers.
Walker wants to save each family about $3 in taxes per year. Wow! $3!
Put that $3 into a pool and give it to state and municipal employees and you might actually be able to keep families together, in their homes and help put money back into the local economies and you could make a big difference.
Walker claims that the benefit costs of public employees is too high. Is it the fault of the employee that health insurance costs are too high? It doesn't matter whether it is a public or privat sector employee. Again I ask, is it the fault of the employee that health insurance costs are too high? Especially when insurance companies are posting record profits?
What has Walker done to lower the cost of health insurance in Wisconsin? Lowering the cost of health insurance in Wisconsin would help both public and private sector employees? Private sector employers are also complaining about the costs of benefits.
All that I remember about Walker lately it that he is raising a lot of money from out of state to help fight his recall. Helping himself, not me, not anyone else. Just helping himself.
Wisconsin deserves better than that.
The economy is booming and there is plenty of work for those who truly want to work. But no one is going to get a job showing up for an interview in a hoodie, tattoos, piercings, and asking if they can get Columubs Day off. I don't know what you want. You where are the jobs? Well maybe if you would go look instead of waiting for the government to come put you up and show you, you will see them.
"Lavishly overpay?" How about expecting a decent wage? My Mom works for the State in a prison and she is not, never was, and never will be "lavishly overpaid." Instead, she struggles to get by. There's something very wrong with your thinking. You should be pro-worker's rights, not pro-taking rights away. You're a worker too.
Where did you get the idea that public employees are 'lavishly overpaid'? I have been a state employee (in the same job) for over 25 years, I have a Master's Degree and I make just a bit over $30,000. In 2009 and 2010, I had mandatory furlough days which reduced that salary by almost $1000 a year. This year my salary was reduced an additional $300 a month.
Please do not suggest that I take another job. I love my job, I am very good at what I do, and I have always been proud to be a state employee.
Have another cocktail - Idiot...
All idiots that suppoprt that fool - Walker - need another cocktail; he's a mindless stooge of the Republican Party and a loser at Marquette - to boot...
A real man is always employed??? Sure if ya want to work three jobs at $8 Hr.,, Move out of state to get a decent payn job??? Thats the problem... there arent enuff decent payin jobs in the state!!! Is it unpatriotic to want to make enuff to support my family??? Yea, some people live in a dream world bubble!!
Thats right, then you work 3 jobs. You do what it takes. There are brave people moving to other states all the time to take advantage of better opportunties. When I was younger I was transferred several times moving from one state to another. Now I own 3 businesses to generate cash which is like working 3 jobs. So what if you have to move to the northern slope of Alaska to make $200k a year or North Dakotat to make $100k working the oil fields? Man up and take care of your family. Don't expect Gov Walker to just create some make-work job where you get to sit around in a cubicle playing solitaire and make big money. He's cracking down hard on that, thankfully.
Thats the problem Walker was elected for his promise to create 250,000 jobs. Since he an obvious failure and is tanking our economy by giving away money not to better projects but is actually wasting it in corporate loopholes and tax cuts. All he's done is cap the middle class and lessen their resources available to them. It's time to cut our losses before there is no state left to live in, and get ride of the corrupt asshat.
I don't see the economy taking. You don't judge a politician by the amount of phony make-work jobs being created or any jobs at all. I judge the governor by 1. am I getting richer? Answer yes. Are my taxes going down? yes. Are things getting cheaper for me like buying a home, interest ratess? Answer is yes. I bought a home for 20% less than what it was sold for brand new in 2008 with a mortgage rate under 4%. The taxes after reassessment went down about 10% from 2008 levels. Yeah Gov Walker. The $10,000 property tax bill is now $9000. My interest expense is down putting more money in my pocket - yea Gov Walker. The screwball teacher down the street with all his political signs in his yard had to move out and a Pakastani doctor moved in. Yeah Gov Walker. Now property values will rise as we weed out Democrats from the neighborhood.
So you want people to move out of Wisconsin to get a job? Maybe I'm wrong but wouldn't that also take money out of the economy here in WI? I understand that you do what you have to do but in Two Rivers there have been so many jobs lost that the number of unemployeed outweights the number of jobs that are still here (construction or otherwise). What about the people that own a house and can't just up and move because people can't afford to buy their house therefore they can't sell it? Would it be better to move and let the house get forclosed? How would that help in the long run? As a single mother the courts control how far I can move as well so moving to another state is not an option or would it be better if my kids grow up with only one parent? Yes, that also means that I WON'T work 3 jobs to support my family because I made my children and I will be home to raise them rather than letting them run the streets doing who knows what while I work. Or would you rather I get 3 jobs and let them turn into thugs because I'm not here to be a parent like I'm supposed to be? I just graduated college in the hope of not needing to work 3 jobs, I'm moving to Madison after my children finish school for better job opportunities and I'm doing the best that one person can to raise 3 children. Note I was married to a cheater who then became a druggie and I got out so it's not that I keep making babies I can't support which many people do.
The money that is cut from public employees is not being put into other projects either. Do you not understand that he is making cuts to "balance the budget?" Or does that mean that the budget isn't balanced he just transfered the spending?
There is also the issue of supply and demand. As a business owner you should understand that as demand increases so does the need for more employees which means that if people aren't spending money on your services you terminate employees. I agree that there are lazy people out there but some are not. My dad is 70 years old and due to age nobody will hire him. He was let go from his last employer because of lack of demand. Yes, he gets unemployeement but it's not because he's lazy! He has worked since he was a child working on the family farm and retired from a company and yet still got a job after retirement and went to school because he couldn't stand doing nothing.
Did you consider that cutting pay from public employees and job loss has increased the need for state aid such as food stamps and medical assistance? In the long run where does this save anyone money? The state is still paying for it either way and you would be ignorant to believe that it actually saves money or helps the economy long-term.
I'm not saying that I don't agree with public employees payign for part of their benefits. I do but it never should have gotten to this point and drastic changes all at once will create hardships. Funding has still been cut to the point that Manitowoc's mayor has said this will never work. People that have no experience driving heavy machines are now plowing snow which puts everyone in danger. Am I wrong to believe that I would put safety above the cost? I would rather pay more and know that the people driving those trucks know what they're doing than cut the funding and have even one person injured because of it. They cut out employees that have been there for over 20 years so that they can pay someone with no experience less money. Is that fair? These are emplyees that have earned their pay. Maybe put a cap on public employee salaries but don't fire them after that long. These people planned to retire from the city yet they're now looking for a new job. My nephew is left without insurance because they now have to find a way to pay for private insurance which is well over $1,000 a month but without a job they can't afford it. Is that fair? My brother made his life working for the city yet now he sits with nothing. Even if he gets a new job he won't make as much and will still struggle to pay for what they have. My sister-in-law is self-employeed and is now left to support the family.
You need to look at things from a different perspective rather than being so close minded. People like you are the reason the country is going to hell. Law makers create laws without knowing how they effect everything else, money is stuck into prisons rather than rehabilitating offenders, people lives are put in danger because of money, law makers lie to get a vote and the list of things that are wrong goes on. Until people can understand cause and effect we're screwed!
Outsourcing labor is one of the hugest problems with economic development and stability in state governance. Yes let us all move to Texas to the oil rigs, where supply of jobs will lead into lack of demand for laborers furthermore putting the control of wage earnings and fair treatment in the hands of the capitol machine. Texas wages aren't going to help WI's economy what so ever. Our educational systems can deplete, eventually are roads and parks can go into disrepair, and our criminal rates can increase because of the idea "go get a job somewhere else" Look how well that worked for Mexico.
Well if that isn’t astonishing, David Livingston telling people to “man up” and go work the oil rigs in North Dakota. Hilarious. Almost as hilarious as him claiming he was ever poor, especially since I’ve never met a poor Jew in my life and I’ve never met a Jew that could handle a whole day’s worth of manual labor. Before you go calling me anti-Semitic, you should probably have a better understanding of what that word really means. People from the Arabian Peninsula and Horn of Africa are Semites, not the Europeans masquerading as “Jews” as they would have us believe. Over 90% of Jews are of Eastern European and Central Asian descent and are therefore not Semitic in any way shape or form. The real anti-Semites are the Zionists forcing the Palestinians off of their native homeland.
Everyone has some sad sack story about how they screweed up and want bailed out. They got a divorce settlement that limits where they can move. They overpaid for a house they can't sell. They didn't prepare to be mobile enough to move. Whats the difference if a job is created in Two Rivers or in Seattle? A job is a job. People move. Thats life. We can't expect the government to create some make-work job for every person who doesn't feel like commuting more than 50 feet from their mom's house. If you are a single mom there is an easy answer to all your problems. Its called a husband. I'm the biggest jerk in the world, I'll admit that. You will be hard pressed to find a worse A-hole, jerk, bigot, than me and I have single moms hitting on me all the time.
That's because there are no buses to bring the people to Waukesha to work.
Well that explains it. - I'm not a real man.
I like how you point out there jobs out of state, of course there how does getting a job out of state help wisconsin. WOW, you really are intelligent.
"in Waukesha County."
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Yes!
We must get behind Gov. Walker so he can create 250,000 jobs in his first term, of course those will be jobs that pay minimum wage, or less if Walker really gets what he wants. Lets hope that he can create more than 250,000 jobs because many families will need to have at least 2 or 3 of those jobs just to survive.
Well we can't pay people $100k a year to be a dunce. Some people have simply messed up and they will have to work 2-3 jobs until they get their act together.
There is one primary reason that this state that tried Tommy's healthcare friendly ways, and Doyle's "Great Schools" has failed, turned greedy.
Our property values simply have not inflated as fast as those other "more desirable for retirement" states, so it became absolutely necessary to have the million-dollar back-drop payments to the retiring Milwaukee County officials, the ones that gave Walker leverage into politics. It was the only way they could ever retire to a place where white people lived well, and brown-skinned people knew their place and served them affordably with a smile. Even the McMansion of Merton is worthless compared to the price of the same square footage and acreage in those "desirable" places.
Wisconsin's decades of honest, pork-free politics ensured that Wisconsin would be a net taxpaying state (federally), therefore poorer economy than those pork-flush states that took in more money from Washington than the taxpaying workers and business owners paid to the IRS.
Result - the only way to make it here was to get over on your own neighbors. Remember what it is to "make it", it is not to keep pace with the Jones, it is to pull ahead of your neighbors and put some distance between you and them. People are not happy with being "equal", that's why Democracy or Socialism cannot make it here.
Unfortunately, Walker will not succeed, he would not accept that pork called high-speed rail, instead, he has chosen to invite the outside interests to come in and clean out any remaining value from our state, to reduce our workforce to southern-style half-scale wages, without any relief for the debts already incurred from the easy sub-20% financing that allowed people to use their piggy bank homes to buy non-home goods that fed the economies of other state's businesses.
Walker is not creating any jobs, the thief is eliminating jobs from the Wisconsin job market, all Walker is interested in is the graft money the rich Jews [koch Brothers] are illegally funneling into his personal and well hidden bank accounts. I truly feel sorry that Walker is so frigging stupid!!!!
"Some people are simply a dunce..." Yes, and with the massive cuts to public education, our population will continue to get dumber and dumber. Way to support Walker. Something tells me you're the dunce.
So let make sure I understand your comment. Teachers, fire fighters, police officers, district attorneys, engineers, correction officers, nurses, ambulance drivers, ect, ect have no economic value.
First it isn't the trickle down affect paying public employees a fair wage would have. The trickle down effect is what Republicans like to state will occur if you give money to the 1%. This has been proven time and time again to be false. The economic effect of paying public employees fair wage means that they will put more of the money back into the economy. Think about it this way, if you give a person that can barely afford food and rent at the same time $100 dollars they will put it immediately back into the economy because they have to or else starve or go homeless. It is a requirement for them to spend the money. That money then goes to the rental company or store where it is spent. If enough poeple do this, the business will need to hire more people to handle the customers. This is how jobs are created. If you give money to what the republicans call the job creators, they will put it into bank account and the money will not immediately go back into the economy, because they do not need to spend it. My second point relays to your statement that union pencil pushers have no economic value. While the jobs URB listed are not pencil pushers, the emergency planning departments in our state are pencil pushers, but they are also the ones that help prevent major catastrophers from happening in our state, guaranteeing that cops, firefighters, and even army personal have appropriate training to handle disasters, and protect people on the backline. Also some poeple need to do the accounting, copying, or even the managing of an office which while you may think it has no economic value, anyone that has ever done any of those tasks could see that it can make a huge difference in time and capabilites.
Just because you don't "see" it doesn't mean the laws of economics aren't real. Your beliefs are not facts. Even a basic understanding of economics includes that macro economies don't work like a family budget. Dollars spent on goods and services multiply and have larger growth impacts than dollars saved or even dollars invested in equipment. Dollars paid to middle class workers, such as government employees, multiply faster than dollars paid in tax cuts or tax breaks for investing. Fact.
True, dollars paid to middle class workers do multiply faster. But government workers are different. They produce not goods or services. Its the same was paying people to be on welfare. Most government jobs are basically welfare except people stand round a water cooler, sit idlelly in front of a computer screen, or talk quiety among themselves rather that stand at a bus stop with their mouth hanging open. It would be better for the economy to have the idlelites producing goods and services such as agriculture and manufacturing. By keeping their pay low at market value, we can rest assurd that they will put every nickel back into the economy. Heaven forbit they save and invest like those gosh darn rich people.
Dan, I am sorry to hear that you had to take a pay cut just to keep your job. I know that times are tough and I really don't wish a pay cut on any hard working blue collar person.
So many of the corporate spokespeople keep telling us that they need to make cuts, how hard it is dealing with the "uncertainty" of this, that or the other thing. The republican party keeps telling us that we need to give tax breaks to the "job creators" so that they will save us all. Well, Walker gave them the tax cuts and we are still waiting for that salvation.
If we can get past the B.S. that the corporate leaders and Republican politicians keep spewing out, we still have to think of the demand for the products and services that an organization provides. When the demand for widgets falls, the company producing widgets may have to cut costs. Unfortunately that may mean a cut in the labor force.
Dan, the demand for services provided by public sector employees has not dropped. Streets need to be plowed when it snows. Children need to be educated. Social services for the unemployed and underemployed need to be provided.
Just because you got screwed over does it mean that others should get screwed over too? Actually, more than a few of these state and municipal workers were taking cuts long before the economic crisis of 2008.
Dan - your thinking is backwards. I am also sorry you had to face pay cuts. Your reaction shouldn't be "well I got mine taken away, so everyone else should too." It should be "I got mine taken away, therefore I want to FIGHT to get mine back, as well as ensure no one else has to go through the same thing." Doesn't that make more sense? Why give in to corporate greed? Shouldn't we join together by our common need to make a good living and fight for our rights, together? There are more of us than them.
Poor people will not eat healthy food even if it is free. Look if you are on Food Stamps, going to the grocery store is pretty much like having a free spending spree. Many on food stamps have so much they can't spend it all so they end up selling the left over to the gals in the nail and hair salons. They don't buy healthy food because they want pizza and tv dinners. After Hurrican Katrina, Jimmy Johns offered free subs to the victims who were stuck on a bus. The victims threw the food back at the volunteers and screamed we want pizza and McDonalds hamburgers.
Ask any grocery store manager what kind of food is shoplifted the most. Its not apples and organges. Its candy bars.
Now David J. Livingston, I’m not saying you’re a bold faced liar and that you pull stories directly out of your anal cavity, but would you mind providing some type of link to a story about the Hurricane Katrina/Jimmy Johns incident? I find it curious that conservatives always have access to information that the rest of society is not privy to; sort of like when Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer claimed Americans were being beheaded by drug cartels in the desert yet no such incidents ever took place.
Bad people?! We have over 40 % of our students that are in poverty...are they the bad people?! Do they deserve to go to bed hungry?! So we as teachers are the"infestation?" We have dedicated our lives to the education and well being of each of our students...many who wonder how they are going to keep their own family's head above water financially. Cutting an unprecedented amount of money from education, from K through the university system is the worst thing you can do...you are taking away the only hope many students have to make it in the world on their own...and they will be in charge some day. I only hope they will be forward thinking and compassionate when it comes to taking care of us...and believe me, if we go down the road you are proposing, we will need help!
No!
Lets hope that the next generation will be as mean and spiteful as the bunch that is running our state (into the ground) right now.
Lets hope that when they are running this country that they will take vengeance on those who are trying so hard to make this state and nation a worse place to live. Lets hope that they get in control and round up all of these people, Walker, the Fitzgeralds, Grothman, Vukmir and the whole bunch of them and put them in the supermax prison until their bones dry up and blow away on a gust of wind.
Walker was one of the big supporters of the supermax, it would be poetic justice.
The only reason why we have 40% of th kids on poverty is because we set the poverty standard too high. Poverty should mean living in a tar paper shack ans starving. But in in Milwaukee. Poverty is having heat, cable tv, and massively overweight due to overeating of junk food bought by food stamps.
Its great that teachers have dedicated their lives to educaiton. But lavish executive level salaries was going too far for compensation. Teaching should not be about money. Where I come from teaching is a low paying job. If they want more money they pick up farm work, construction work in the summer.
Believe me if you choose to work harder and smarter than the next guy, you will not have to worry about money.
I live near a state office building and I see all these workers going home at 4:30 or 5pm. Gee doesn't anyone work late to get ahead? Of course not, they are not going to work one minute more than they have to.
6 figures?! What are you drinking? I am paid far less for my investment of both time and money in my own education than those in the private sector with EQUIVALENT education. I am still paying on my school loans (credits not paid for or subsidized by the business world or elsewhere). I teach because I love to teach. I chose this profession knowing I would be underpaid in comparison to those of equal education. I continue to have to PAY for continued education in order to maintain my license. Graduate credits are not cheap. Benefits that were bargained for helped offset all these costs. Teachers do not get rich. They never did. And now, between the loss in income and the inevitable growing demands of trying to teach in a reasonable fashion - so that our children will be best prepared - the teaching profession has become less and less attractive as a career path to potential gifted educators. Tell me, who loses?
I work at least 60 hours a week with the load and demands that an average worker probably does not fully understand. Try having hundreds of students, parents, and administrators each needing something from you minute by minute. Compare my fast paced, high demanding, noisy work environment with quiet offices and slow paced work places where people chit chat over soft music playing in the background, go to the restroom whenever it suits them, eat lunch for more than 20 minutes and not at his/her desk, doesn't have to pay for his/her own Clorox wipes for the desks filled with students' cold germs, nor buys supplies for other peoples' kids. Or how about juggling the ART of teaching with endless phone calls, emails, lesson plans, discipline, research, professional development, and collaboration that occurs each and every day? All this amidst students' desperate need for acknowledgment, attention, and compassion from someone who will take precious time to listen?
To label good versus bad, really has just labeled you as ignorant. Tarpaper shacks? Really? Hold a child's hand once who is hungry for food, attention, a chance at life - and you tell me that child is "bad"... It's always been the haves and the have-nots. The children, and our future, are the ones who will definitely lose the most – creating a larger and larger have-not populace. Increased class sizes, programs cut, and on and on... This is just the tip of the destructive iceberg that Walker has created. He's simply against education. He’s for the haves.
And on top of that Walker has taken away our Constitutional right to assemble coupled with our right to collectively bargain. When you read and hear the endless number of people calling for his recall - what you are witnessing is democracy - the verb - in action. Millions of people are not ignorant of our country's founding principals, will not stand for its abuse, and WILL stand for something bigger that big business.
It’s never too late to see things as they are.
well as for people leaving 4:30-5pm is because they have. They are not allowed to work off the clock (nor is anybody in the US and if a company is found to be allowing that they can be fined from here to china and back) and they are not allowed to work overtime because the budgets don't allow for it. If my husband had the ability to work over time he would, and he has when the budget has allowed it. So no it has nothing to do with wanting to "get ahead." As a former teacher myself, I know of no teachers making 6 figures. Hell I started out making only 24k. and that was in 2004. A very close friend who has been working for over 15 years and has a masters is just barely making in the mid 40's. and now is back under the 40's for take home pay, definitely NOT a six figure income.
Anonymous wrote "The only reason why we have 40% of th kids on poverty is because we set the poverty standard too high. Poverty should mean living in a tar paper shack ans starving. But in in Milwaukee. Poverty is having heat, cable tv, and massively overweight due to overeating of junk food bought by food stamps."
Umm first wow what a lovely definition of poverty you have. How dare the government makes sure people have heat especially in a state where it is winter for 5 months of the year (well except for this year appartently). We should just let people freeze to death because money is tight. Secondly the statement about people on poverty being morbidly obese. There is a reason people on poverty eat junk food. It is the only food they can afford. Have yoiu seen how much fruit and vegtables cost?Or how much chicken and beef costs? Now have you seen how much a Mcdonalds hamburger and french fries cost? While it is important to eat helathy it is just as important to be able to eat something anything at all. We have come to a point with high fructose corn syrup, salts, and various sugars are so cheap to produce that the junk food provides some substance for a minimal cost.
Cost of healthy food to high? Five pounds of carrots, or potatos, or rice, or banans, or onions, cabbage, etc etc will cost less than a box of Ding Dongs. Go to Kwik trip, Banana, Onions and Potatos are 38 cents a pound. A pound of Hostest cupcakes is about $10 and a pound of McDonalds hamburgers is about $3. Do the math, fresh veges are cheaper than fast food per pound.
I suggest you study the product movement reports of supermarkets in low income areas. You will see that the percent of sales of chicken and beef are higher than in high income areas. Why? Pet food is not covered by Food Stamps and therefore poor people buy fresh cuts of beef and chicken to feed their dogs and cats.
Ask a poor person in the inner city what they like more - a fresh salad or a quarter pounder with cheese. You know the answer.
People are poor because they make a serious of bad decisions over and over, not because some politician isn't doing their job. Don't ever defend poor people and their stupid decisions to me. I've been poor and I'll admit it was because I made dumb mistakes. Then I made a personal decision to become rich. Then I realized wealth is a personal decision, hard work, and lifestyle choice, not some kind of 1% luck.
It would be nice if we could measure food by the pound, but that isn't really how it is being eaten. It also doesn't account for the nutrients that people are required to eat to continue to live. A more accurate way to account for food costs is to measure it by the calorie. For example a pound of potatoes has a much different calorie count than a pound of beef. A pound of potatoes has approximately 350 calories a pound of lean ground beef has approximately 800 calories. To sustain oneself a need of about 1800 calories is required. Now how that 1800 is acquired is the debate. While a pound of lettuce may be cheap it will not get the person to the total calorie count needed. There are countless articles on the internet that discuss this very topic (for example Reuters http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/04/us-food-costs-idUSTRE7734L620110804 states that it eating healthy costs $380 more per year). THe problem is with obesity is largely caused by the fact that bad food is so much cheaper than healthy food on a per calorie basis. While the hamburger may resolve the person's hunger and put the person closer to calorie count needed, it doesn't do that for as long as a whole grain sandwhich with organic natural turkey.