Who Will Need it Next?

Despite free and reduce lunches always being available throughout schools in America, the numbers of kids who need them have never been so high. According to the New York Times of data from the Department of Agriculture, recipients of this program rose to 21 million from 18 million. In addition, states such as Nevada, Florida, New Jersey and Tennessee have had four-year increases of 25 percent or more.

Obviously, the recession has hit many families hard, however, many families didn't think they were ever going to need this meal program for their children, now they do. For example, lay offs in large factories and corporations trigger an increase for the need of the meal plan. Sarah White, the state director of school nutrition, says that,“When a factory closes, our school districts see a big increase", which shows the impact of these lay-offs.

Even so, families still need to qualify for these benefits, despite there financial problems. According to the New York Times Article, "$29,055 for a family of four — are eligible for free school meals. Children in a four-member household with income up to $41,348 qualify for a subsidized lunch priced at 40 cents". As a result, not all families can receive benefits.

Nevertheless, the statistics are shocking and continuously growing and according to Leah Schmidt, a district's nutrition director, “This is the neediest period I’ve seen in my 20-year career".

(Image: Steve Hebert for The New York Times. More than 100 students eat a free dinner daily after classes at Ingels Elementary School in Kansas City, Mo. The Hickman Mills C-1 district feared students would otherwise go to bed hungry.)

Job openings still declining

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/business/economy/27jobs.html

Over the last year, we've all gone back to our daily lives and most of us probably think the economy is getting better, and it is. However, the job market isn't. Job openings are still decreasing and the unemployed are still rising, though layoffs have slowed down. According to Thomas A. Kochan, a labor economist at M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management. “There’s too much uncertainty out there, There’s not going to be an upsurge in job openings for quite a while, not until employers feel confident the economy is really growing.”

But how do we know the economy is "really growing". The less jobs everyone has, the less they will spend, and the less money companies make to give out paychecks. It's understandable that companies don't want to risk the economy dropping again and lose money from hiring people, but at times like these, the companies are the ones holding the economy back. 

-Weilu Jia

Every Country for Itself

Well, with this ever expanding financial crisis being on a global scale, the G-20 had made a sort of pledge/unofficial agreement to embrace free market policies and thus avoid being too protectionist because a burst of protectionism could possibly worsen this global recession. Unfortunately..., seventeen of the twenty G-20 countries have already implemented some protectionist measures in the last few months in an attempt to preserve their own jobs/industries.

*If you don't know who the G-20 are, here's a Wikipedia Link

According to the World Bank president, these tariffs or subsidies "can lead to a negative spiral of events" and that 47 "separate isolationist measures" have already been put in place since the last G-20 meeting in November.


In a way, we're all in this together as we ought to work together to fix the world's current economic crisis, yet I can also see the advantages of trying to weather the storm alone in an every-country for itself kind of way. What do you think needs to be done?