Andrew Tracy (FGCU) - Homeless and Handouts

With the recent state of the economy the unemployment rates have skyrocketed. With recent studies showing more than 3.5 million Americans are homeless, almost half of them being children. With the government giving “corporate bailouts” to already padded pockets, who is helping those who are truly in need?

 Tent cities are popping up all over the country, some holding as many as twenty thousand people.
In my opinion this recession is beginning to be more and more reminiscent of the depression during Hoover’s administration. In my hometown of Port Charlotte it’s hard not to notice the over abundance of “war veterans” at nearly every busy intersection. However it is not the war veterans that are really suffering, it’s the single moms and dads across the nation that are trying to support their family. In today’s economy being a single parent is a next to impossible feat, with jobs scarce and the cost of living not getting any cheaper, many are having to get multiple jobs in order to prevent joining the growing homeless population.  This leaves these families with few options. Some are lucky enough to have relatives in the area to watch their children while they work their sixty to seventy hour work weeks. However, children less fortunate are forced to raise themselves. This can have an impact on their social development as well as their academic life. This lack of parental supervision and guidance can lead to deviant behavior. What is worst however is the children whose parents have already lost their jobs. It is estimated that nearly 1.4 million high-schooler’s will not graduate due to the pressing economic conditions.

The Republicans have recently enacted a 45 billion dollar aid to help assist the growing homeless population. This I believe is the direction we need to be headed in. Giving money to already rich and careless corporate executives is not going to fix our economy, or make sure that 1.5 million children get an education. What will however is a change in thinking on how to fix our economy.

This entry was posted on 27. April 2009 at 22:48 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.