News > Culture > Feeling Poorer? Paycheck Not Lasting as Long? You're Not Alone.

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SATURDAY OCTOBER 20 2007 4:00 PM

Feeling Poorer? Paycheck Not Lasting as Long? You're Not Alone.

Submitted by Rahodeb

Edited by Rahodeb

Tags: economy, recession, food bank, poverty

Why are people with annual salaries of $35,000 lining up at food banks? Why are more consumers cutting down on nutritious foods like milk and vegetables, and buying more of their "groceries" at 7-Eleven, rather than the supermarket? Why, when "overall" wage growth is a solid 4.1 percent over the past 12 months? According to economists, it's because that "overall" wage growth is mostly happening for "top earners," while people who make less than $30,000 a year (and in some places, more than that) are having a tough time keeping up with rising rent, food, and energy costs.

The calculus of living paycheck to paycheck in America is getting harder. What used to last four days might last half that long now. Pay the gas bill, but skip breakfast. Eat less for lunch so the kids can have a healthy dinner.

Across the nation, Americans are increasingly unable to stretch their dollars to the next payday as they juggle higher rent, food and energy bills. It's starting to affect middle-income working families as well as the poor, and has reached the point of affecting day-to-day calculations of merchants like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., 7-Eleven Inc. and Family Dollar Stores Inc.

Food pantries, which distribute foodstuffs to the needy, are reporting severe shortages and reduced government funding at the very time that they are seeing a surge of new people seeking their help.

Grocery sales at 7-Eleven have surged between 12 and 13 percent in the last year, in response to steadily rising food costs, and the average family of four is spending about $40 more each month on grocery basics than they spent last year. They're also abandoning healthier foods for cheap, filling stuff like peanut butter, pasta, and hamburger meat.

Food costs have increased 4.5 percent over the past 12 months, partly because of higher fuel costs. Egg prices were 44 percent higher, while milk was up 21.3 percent over the past 12 months to nearly $4 a gallon, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Food banks are already finding themselves overrun by increased demand. One food pantry in Brooklyn has recorded an almost 70 percent increase from last year: 5,000 new families, on top of the previous 3,000.

"The reality of hunger is right here," said the Rev. Melony Samuels, director of The BedStuy Campaign against Hunger, a church-affiliated food pantry in Brooklyn.

"I am shocked to see such numbers," Samuels said, "and I am really concerned that this is just the beginning of what we are going to see."

If there's any silver lining around this ominous, dark cloud, it's that some of these food pantries are getting creative.

Samuels said her church, Full Gospel Tabernacle of Faith, just started offering free cooking classes to teach clients who are diabetic or have other health conditions how to prepare vegetables like squash. It's also offering free exercise classes.

"We are trying to make them health conscious," Samuels said. "It's not right to give them just anything. Our mantra is eat well and live well."

If you squint, you can almost kind of see it.

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Comments

Heigai

Columbus, OH

May 2004

OCT 22, 2007 04:52 PM

I'm looking forward to me and my lineage being part of the bright future's new permanent underclass.

There's always exciting things to buy!

OctEgon

Tustin, CA

July 2005

OCT 22, 2007 05:42 PM

This is why I'm going into Wells Fargo tomorrow, tail between my legs, and begging them to give me a student loan when I already owe them $5,000 from my line of credit.

I'm not shitty with money. Rent out here is growing out of control and I'm not getting big enough wage increases.

I can already see the vicious cycle laid out infront of me.

jadednerdgirl

Jacksonville, FL

July 2004

OCT 22, 2007 08:32 PM

[

freshprncebelair said:
With the advent of birth control, it's possible to time out exactly when you want to have children.

That is under the assumption that everyone is able to take birth control. Not everyone can. I could be dead in a year if I did.

I guess I could be happy that I did not have a child for a year.

Though that would be if they were 100% effective. I could have spend about 500$ at least and have a copper wire stuck into the ole happy vay jay jay and be taken care of for about 10 years. Too bad that my vagina can't afford that.

I could go on about the other stuff but I agree with Morgan. most of you are ignorant assholes and not worth my time. I already wasted enough of my time on you.

Clidna

Canada

January 2005

OCT 22, 2007 09:47 PM

Heathen_Dave said:

oyaji said:

Heathen_Dave said:
My parents talked to me about sex when I was a kid around twelve or thirteen. They told me that it would be best if I waited until marriage to have sex because of the dangers associated with sex, but that if I didn't wait, to use protection and be cautious.

Holy shit. It's like my parents did a better job at it than the government would have.

This is not to say that I think sex ed. in schools is a bad idea; I just don't like the idea of the government being blamed for people not knowing how to use birth control. That is what mom and dad are for.

Blah. Maybe I should give up my responsibilities and join the American way of continuing adolescence into one's late 40s.

You're missing the point.

Not only is birth control expensive, but one has to be educated in how to use it. The people least likely to be educated in how to use it are the same people who are least likely to be able to afford it.

So some snot-nosed Will Smith worshiping dude coming in and saying "birth control makes it possible to time when you have kids" is idiotic because you have to have the wherewithal to get and use birth control, and not everyone has that. Just because your parents were educated and responsible to have such a conversation with you does not mean that every parents have these qualities.

Yeeaaaah effective birth control isn't exactly cheap, but condoms are definitely a ton cheaper than buying cigarettes. And if you were one to put thought into it, you could cut out a lot of risk by playing with her schedule, which leads me to... I got the point you're after while I was writing my previous response: I have responsible parents, who waited to have kids until they were ready. People who have had three children before they were twenty I bet are less likely to have this conversation with their kids.

Or more likely, because of their experiences...

Also, what do cigarettes have to do with anything? Oh right, only poor trashy people smoke, and they buy cigarettes instead of condoms?

Evilgasm

Netherlands

April 2007

OCT 23, 2007 04:14 AM

This is one of the most thought provoking threads I've read in a while.

Amagi82 said:
Regardless, safety nets are unnecessary and even harmful. The more we rely on a government to solve our problems, the more tyranny and oppression we will face. On top of that, government by its very nature cannot solve problems as well as we the people can, and in most cases, the simple involvement of government serves only the exasperate the problem.

Coming from a country that has a very well established (even overdeveloped by some standards) social security system I can say that the idea of a government provided safety net is not one that will lead to "tyranny and oppression". If anything I see more of this happening in the USA right now than could even be possible under Dutch law (the way it is at the moment... we have a few politicians here who have some very messed up ideas).

People do not cover each others backs as often as your philosophy seems to believe we would. That is the essential necessity of a government system. The need for a central organization to get the jobs done and provide the services society would not provide out of its own accord. Including, IMHO, providing people with enough means to feed themselves and their families when they are unable to do s themselves.

That this necissary system is one prone to corruption and abuse of power is a sad fact of life. I wish I knew a solution for that.

On a side note:

To all Americans: Please stop complaining about your gasoline prices. Here in The Netherlands we pay (at the current exchange rate) over $7.50 a gallon.

Hearing abou how little you have to pay depresses me.

oyaji said:

shapeshifter23 said:

He will probably cut me down as being some kind of bootlicker for saying this, but...

Am I the only one who thinks this guy
oyaji oughta be a politics columnist here at SG? This guy's blog comments have a level of informed intellect, succinct irony and withering sarcasm that outwrites at least a couple of the staff bloggers here (whose names I will refrain from mentioning)...

[...] Plus, it's much easier to deconstruct than create something new. More fun, too, really.

Oh, also, there are a lot of people on here who consider me to be an intolerable douchebag asshole.

+1

Seriously though: Your comments (if sometimes a little inflammatory) are well thought out. The stuff that sparks debate. Exactly what a good political commentator should do.

Kudos for that.

Morgan said:
Some of you people are real assholes. Just so you know.

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