There are approximately 80 million children (0-17) in the United States today. Approximately 8 million of them are malnourished. In my work I saw infants born to seriously malnourished mothers and those infants came into the world with brain damage. Malnourished children end up developmentally delayed, don't do well in school, and have problems coping as adults due to developmental delays.

We do not live in Biafra and I do not accept the concept that any child born here should be so malnourished at birth that they are underweight and have brain damage. This is not "liberal" this is common sense. The kind of common sense that a farmer uses in feeding pregnant cattle sufficient feed so that the offspring are healthy.

I am not about to compare the population of the wealthiest nation in the world to places like North Korea or Bangladesh. Bzzt. Those are not apples and oranges - those are mangos and lamb chops. One thing I know about comparisons (did you ever take statistics?) is that you have to know what you're comparing and remember that correlation does not equate to causation.

I suspect I've seen more gross poverty in America than you ever knew existed, since I deliberately chose to work in the largest poverty pocket in America outside of Appalachia. I've seen people who are a few steps away from starvation - many of them children - children so deprived of food you can see right through the skin to the blood vessels underneath.

Further, I started working when I was 8 years old - in the family business and on the farm. So what? What does that have to do with anything, other than the fact I had the opportunity to do things most city kids never get to do? Does your working early qualify you for sainthood? I don't think so.

I'm not a liberal - in fact - my liberal friends (and I have a number of them) despair of me. My conservative friends feel the same way about me. I am a cultural anthropologist who went into social work. In fact, I think all social workers and helping professionals should study cultural anthro to understand people and their cultures before they get to experiment with live human beings.

You can opt for all the independence you can create, but you are not allowed to apply your draconian standards to others. That is a societal decision and the decision of this society is that we don't turn people out on the streets to die. So my elderly clients I tend to pro bono don't need to worry that I will allow harm to come to them. For a "compassionate" woman I can be a hell on wheels b*tch to anyone who besets these frail old folks I watch over.

You were born to and have chosen to remain in this society so you're going to need to grin and bear it. Thanks so much for caring for your Mother. If you die before she does what happens next? Lingering by the roadside? I don't think so. Our society has laws about protecting our elders.

I do believe military retirement kicks in well before social security. Wish you well on that regard.

The sign below is still correct - corporate welfare is the problem not the poor.

Wait, can we still say "coon"?

Pilot, you are way off and want to talk about things you know nothing about. I read your profile and that made me laught. You need a reality check.

Charity is a virtue, it is not an obligation. The sanctitiy of property is a right. Receiving charity is not, it is a priviledge. The role of government is to protect rights, not to abridge them. Therefore charity should be left to charitable organizations and is not the reponsibility of government. To be charitable is a personal decision based on your own standards and morals, it is something you are free to do. To be charitable should never be forced upon thsoe with different standards. When it is it becomes little more than redistirbution of wealth which in itself is simply a form of government mandated theft.

As far as the VA goes boogie, it is something you earned. Is part of the contract between you and the government as a result of your service. It has nothing to do with "charity". It is not unlike Social Security and Medicare that are funded programs that people pay in to over a working lifetime.

Funded programs programs are very different than programs like WIC, food stamps, subsidized housing, Medicaid, and free Obama phones. Those programs reward people for doing nothing and encourage them to continue. They trap a lot of people that might otherwise be prodcutive into generations of poverty and subservience to government bureaucrtas.

Give to the Lord what is the Lords and to Ceasar what is Ceasars. Unless every single tax paying person in the country, 100% of them, agree that access to charity is a right it cannot be. Government has no business becoming a mythological "Robin Hood". Unlike contributing to collective needs like defense and the maintenance of a military to defend the nation, no matter how nice and warm and fuzzy it feels to forcefully take from one to provide for another on a personal level is immoral because it is simplystealing.

Suffering has nothing to do with it. Gates and Buffet paid in, they deserve to be paid out. So does your mother, you and me and anyone else that contributed to the "funds". People that do not deserve to be paid are those that never contributed at all. Their "safety net" is dependent on whatever charity others want to provide. If you and your mother and Gates and Buffet want to there is nothing to prevent any of you from making direct contributions to the hard luck casse of your choosing. It doen't give you or anyone the right to take stuff from anyone else to support your own "good deeds".

That is exactly the point. She should. So should everybody. If we give it one we are obligated to give it to everyone equally, don't you agree?

That is exactly the point. She should. So should everybody. If we give it one we are obligated to give it to everyone equally, don't you agree?

OMG ~~~ another one that thinks all the crap on the internet is true, correct, and factual. ..... sheesh .... When will they learn that it takes verification of facts ... not just a copy and paste article of someone else's opinions to make a point relevant?

And who is going to verify these facts? Lame stream media? The internet? You can't even go to Cnn, fox, msmbc, cbs, nbc, new York times, any media and get the straight truth without spin on anything. So good luck with that cup. So I guess it is up to the viewer fact check it or believe it.

The Social Service program IS NOT welfare in the same term which is being implied to refer to low income and poor families.

Joke ,.. dayum son .... all Social Service departments are not administered within the confines of the Children & Family Service division. Where the hen have you been?