SNAP
As a followup on our household debt discussion, it would be worthwhile to take a look at SNAP officially known as "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program". The article to which I refer indicates that 42,000,000 Americans use SNAP to provide food for themselves and their families.
The same article refers to the United States as the richest of nations. There seems to be a disconnect here somewhere. If household debt is 18,400,000,000,000 and 42,000,000 Americans are relying on government assistance for food, how does it translate into being rich? Just saying!
We are told we are rich; we are the greatest, wealthiest, most prosperous nation ever seen. We all believe this because the statements confirming this are continuous and have been given us our entire lives. At the same time we spend almost a trillion dollars in the defense budget - - you know, building another aircraft carrier that can get blown out of the water by any sort of missile at any time. We have to be rich, don't we, if we are the greatest and have the most aircraft carriers? But what about food?
Now don't call me unduly pessimistic or of simply trying to ruin your day, but once in a while we ought to look around and make an effort to comprehend our world and what it means for us and our descendents. It just might be that things are not what others say they are and the people in charge are not who we think they are.
Maybe we should pay attention once in a while! Maybe we should ask a question once in a while! I do pose one possibility, and it does often seem more than a possibility, that our elected representatives really don't represent the people who elect them, they represent the people who give them money. This seems to be the case here in Iowa: our national representatives appear to represent Trump, not us, and our state representatives appear to represent Reynolds, not us. When our elected representatives come back home for the purpose of justifying what they have done rather than asking us what they can do to make our lives a little better, it should be clear who they are actually representing - - not us.
I'm not saying that this matter of representation is the reason that we have $18,400,000,000,000 in household debt and 42,000,000 receiving food stamps, but it is certainly something that should be considered and be given some thought. It wouldn't seem to me that we, as a nation, are particularly rich. There are certainly many people here that are rich and there are many who have an income that qualifies them in the minds of many as being rich, but that doesn't necessarily mean we are a rich nation. The facts seem to be contrary.
Richard E H Phelps II
Mingo
