Your Opinion: Change focus to address hunger

Dear Editor:

A recent News Tribune article provided some interesting information. At the "most affluent" school in the JCPS system 45.8 percent of the students were born to parents who can't afford to feed them. At the "least affluent" school 88 percent of the students were born to parents who can't afford to feed them.

Another recent article reported that "Advocates from all walks of life came together Tuesday to discuss how their agencies can work side by side to figure out how to end poverty across the state." Over 40 percent of all births are to unwed mothers. Taxpayers foot the bill for nearly half of all births. 11.6 percent of families have incomes below the poverty level while 30.4 percent of single parent families headed by women have incomes below the poverty level.

Even with these "elephant in the room" statistics I saw nothing in the article suggesting that better decision making (not having unprotected sex if you can't afford to support a child) would lead to dramatic reductions in the levels of poverty.

"To me, a great nation does not let kids be hungry, so how will the president-elect interpret that?" To me, citizens of a "great nation" show themselves to be aware of the consequences of their actions. The citizens of those nations don't have millions of children they can't afford to feed.

"All of the presentations Tuesday had a common theme: There needs to be a change in policy in order to help people come out of poverty." Interpret this to mean, "How do we get more money from taxpayers so that we can increase the size of our fiefdoms." How about some discussion on a "change in policy" that would provide disincentives for actions that lead to poverty?

A CATO Institute report on America's welfare system, for the year 2013, revealed some interesting information. "The federal government funded over 126 separate programs targeted toward low-income people, 72 of which provide either cash or in-kind benefits to individuals."

The value of welfare benefits available to the typical Missouri single parent household with 2 children was $22,800. This equaled 73.1 percent of Missouri's median salary and 137.4 percent of the federal poverty level.

If the parent went to work and lost all benefits, he/she would have to make $10.96/hour to break even.

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