And understand, please, that in real life (not aggregate and opportunistically manipulated statistics) one actually NEEDS somewhere between 200% and 250% of the federal poverty level to just barely meet BASIC needs.

    Ain't talking cable tv. Ain't even talkin' old computer. Ain't talkin' money for the kids to go on school field trips. Ain't talkin' stewmeat or whole fryer chicken. Not talkin' fresh veggies or fruit. I'm talking day-old thriftshop bread. I'm talking worn-out clothes that don't fit from Goodwill. I'm talking shutting off the heat everywhere but the living room and bedding down the kids in the floor there for the winter. I'm talking about no money to buy a $10.00 window fan for when it is 95 degrees day after day in a third floor flat.

    I don't think we actually can design programs that will end poverty, though we can work in that direction. I understand that poverty is a multifaceted, complex matrix of personal and societal choices. I don't believe in Utopia. However level the playing field, the people on it are going to differ in their talents, strengths and resources. There are and will be winners and losers. But widespread malnutrition, homelessness and lack of minimally adequate healthcare do not have to exist in this country.

We really and truly did have a social safety net in this country. The weaving of it started with the New Deal. It was adequately but not excessively completed during the time of Johnson's Great Society. During the time of the Reagan administration, threads started being cut, and has been steadily unravelled since then, whether the Democrats or the Republicans were in power.

I blame the politicians, yes. But I also blame the voting public who has let it continue, from ignorance,denial,undocumented assumptions, fear and plain old selfishness.

Janie