USA is unarguably the world’s richest and most powerful country after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1980s.The country\u00a0 is the only superpower left in the world with a both a huge economy and an almost invincible military.However despite the riches,USA remains a deeply unequal country.The income disparity has been steadily rising in the country with its middle classes barely managing to get through.Unlike the social welfare capitalism practised in European countries,US adheres to a more stricter form of capitalism.The current Global Financial Crisis has thrown the weakest sections of US into a considerable state of distress.With high rates of unemployment and global labor cost arbitrage,the poorest citizens of US are bearing the brunt.One in Eight Americans are forced to live on Food Stamps while the true percentage of unemployment is around 20%.The less educated and the young sections of the US society have the highest unemployment rates.<\/p>\n
Some 37.9 million people — one in eight Americans — received food stamps to help buy food at latest count, the government said on Tuesday as enrollment set a record for the ninth month in a row.Food stamps are the primary federal anti-hunger program. It helps poor people buy groceries. The economic stimulus package boosted benefits by $80 a month for a family of four.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Unemployment Benefits Not Extended to the Most Vulnerable Sections<\/strong><\/p>\n
On top of the unemployment problems,the political wrangling that has become a constant feature of US politics has led to a stop in the extension on unemployment benefits to workers who have not been able to find jobs for a long time.The reason given for the stoppage of these weekly payments is that makes the beneficiaries lazy and less likely to look for jobs.What is forgotten is that the people who have been out of jobs for the longest period of time are the most financially vulnerable.Most of them would have been exhausted mentally,physically and financially.A government that can use Billions if not Trillions of Dollars to bail out the Financial Institutions that were guilty of bringing on this crisis does not have the $388 a week to pay out to these helpless people.It is a classical sense of Capitalism gone awry.<\/p>\n
Obama Blasts GOP for Blocking Unemployment Benefits – Daily Finance
\n<\/a><\/h3>\nPresident Barack Obama wants Congress to pass an extension of unemployment insurance for the 2.5 million people whose benefits have expired — and he’s using GOP opposition to bludgeon Republicans as heartless politicians who don’t care <\/a>about the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs during the recession.With passage of the extension highly likely next week — thanks to the appointment of new Democratic senator, Carte Goodwin of West Virginia<\/a> — Obama is getting his last-minute political shots in.<\/p>\n
During his weekly address Saturday, Obama slammed Republican senators for threatening to block the extension because it would add $34 billion to the budget deficit. Obama said the GOP had no qualms about approving billions in budget-busting tax breaks for the wealthy, but when it comes to the unemployed, they’ve suddenly found their fiscal rectitude.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n