For Some Ohioans, Even Meat Is Out Of Reach

General » General Discussion

Site Notices

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - For Some Ohioans, Even Meat Is Out Of Reach

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:18:23 PM EDT

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92592545

All Things Considered, July 17, 2008 · A generation ago, the livelihood of Gloria Nunez's family was built on cars.

Her father worked at General Motors for 45 years before retiring. Her mother taught driver's education. Nunez and her six siblings grew up middle class.

Things have changed considerably for this Ohio family.

Nunez's van broke down last fall. Now, her 19-year-old daughter has no reliable transportation out of their subsidized housing complex in Fostoria, 40 miles south of Toledo, to look for a job.

Nunez and most of her siblings and their spouses are unemployed and rely on government assistance and food stamps. Some have part-time jobs, but working is made more difficult with no car or public transportation.

Low-income families in Ohio say they are particularly hard-hit by the changes in the economy, according to a new poll conducted by NPR, The Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard School of Public Health. Two-thirds of lower-income respondents, or 66 percent, say paying for gas is a serious problem because of recent changes in the economy. Nearly half of low-income Ohioans, or 47 percent, say that getting a well-paying job or a raise in pay is also major problem.

'I Just Can't Get A Job'

Nunez, 40, has never worked and has no high school degree. She says a car accident 17 years ago left her depressed and disabled, incapable of getting a job. Instead, she and her daughter, Angelica Hernandez, survive on a $637 Social Security check and $102 in food stamps.

Hernandez received her high school diploma and has had several jobs in recent years. But now, because fewer restaurants and stores are hiring, she says she finds it hard to find a job. Even if she could, she says it's particularly hard to imagine how she'll keep it. She says she needs someone to give her a lift just to get to an interview. And with gas prices so high, she's not sure she could afford to pay someone to drive her to work every day.

People tell Nunez her daughter could get more money in public assistance if she had a child.

"A lot of people have told me, 'Why don't your daughter have a kid?'"

They both reject that as a plan.

"I'm trying to get a job," Hernandez says. "I just can't get a job."

Hernandez says she's trying to get training to be a nurse's assistant, but without her own set of wheels or enough money to pay others for gas, it hasn't been easy.

'What's Going To Happen To Us?'

Most of their extended family lives in the same townhouse complex. The only employer within walking distance is a ThyssenKrupp factory that makes diesel engine parts. That facility, which employs 400 people, is shutting down and moving to Illinois next year.

The only one with a car is Irma Hernandez, Nunez's mother. Hernandez says that with a teenage son still at home, the cost of feeding him and sending him to school is rising, and she can no longer pay for the car.

She's now two car payments behind.

"I'm about to lose my car," she says on her way to pick up one of her daughters to take her to Toledo. "So then what's going to happen to us?"

So Nunez and her daughter are mostly stuck at home.

The rising cost of food means their money gets them about a third fewer bags of groceries — $100 used to buy about 12 bags of groceries, but now it's more like seven or eight. So they cut back on expensive items like meat, and they don't buy extras like ice cream anymore. Instead, they eat a lot of starches like potatoes and noodles.

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:19:35 PM EDT

[#1]

This will not end well.

Lazy Fucks get off your fat asses and get some education and then get a job.

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:19:46 PM EDT

[#2]

Officer peekay with the dupe police.

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:20:15 PM EDT

[#3]

I feel compelled to mention that in my county, there is NO ONE that looks like that - for right or wrong.

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:20:39 PM EDT

[#4]

They look like they'll be fine for a while.

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:20:48 PM EDT

[#5]

40 years old and never had a job?

That is what's wrong with this country. That fat fucking cow shouldn't get a dime.

ETA- I love drinking and posting

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:21:45 PM EDT

[#6]

Whale oil is the solution to America's energy problem.

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:21:45 PM EDT

[#7]

The one on the left appears to have some sort of lobster tattoed on her wrist...

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:23:35 PM EDT

[#8]

they could eat the neighbors!

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:23:54 PM EDT

[#9]

Sounds like those fat fuck machines eat just fine

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:25:47 PM EDT

[#10]

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:26:20 PM EDT

[#11]

Fat can be rendered to make biodiesel.

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:27:43 PM EDT

[#12]

They look like they could skip a few hundred meals....

And based on the chart above, they are apparently saving more money by not having a car....

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:32:38 PM EDT

[#13]

The part that really saddens me is that they can't have extras, like ice cream, any more.

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:33:33 PM EDT

[#14]

All Things Considered, July 17, 2008 · A generation ago, the livelihood of Gloria Nunez's family was built on cars.

<snip>

So Nunez and her daughter are mostly stuck at home.

The rising cost of food means their money gets them about a third fewer bags of groceries — $100 used to buy about 12 bags of groceries, but now it's more like seven or eight. So they cut back on expensive items like meat, and they don't buy extras like ice cream anymore. Instead, they eat a lot of starches like potatoes and noodles.

And all her friends are telling her to have babies so the government will pay everything.

USA = FAIL

You KNOW foreingers mock us openly, laughing at how stupid the usa is, they can come here, illegaly and have kids and the gov will pay for everything.
media.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2008/july/ohio/nunez540.jpg

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:33:57 PM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
www.npr.org/news/graphics/2008/july/nunez_family.jpg

Fucking parasitic leeches.

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:35:27 PM EDT

[#16]

so theres no burger joint, 7-11, or gas station near buy that they cant work at?

i find that VERY hard to swallow.

if nothing else those two could sell "IT"

or weed on the street corner.

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:37:20 PM EDT

[#17]

Fuck, meat must be the only food group out of reach of those fatbags.

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:38:18 PM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:

Nunez, 40, has never worked and has no high school degree. She says a car accident 17 years ago left her depressed and disabled, incapable of getting a job.

WTF? I love how the news article just states that so matter-of-factly. News flash, there are people who have lost limbs from serving this country that aren't too depressed or disabled to get a job. Get off your lazy ass and get a job!

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:41:52 PM EDT

[#19]

I have heard of stocking your preps...but DAYUM!...DOING it from the inside out?

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:46:38 PM EDT

[#20]

They are both disgusting lazy parasites and the inevitable heart attacks can't some soon enough.

ETA: Fuck Nunez! A car accident left her too depressed and disabled? FUCK HER and her shuffling gravy-boat of a daughter. They both look like they could skip a few meals. Her disgusting morbidly obese 400-pound daughter should mosey her ass to work at the Shop-n-Rob or whatever.

There's a Circle K down the block from "the only employer within walking distance." I gave up on these worthless sacks of shit after successfully finding laundromats, tire shops, muffler shops, and every variety of fast food establishment in bum-fuck Fostoria, Ohio.

FUCK THEM.

I have Ankylosing Spondylitis (Read about it if you care) and I work my ass off 60-70 hours a week as a truck driver. I manually load trailers of hazardous waste. I walk like an 80-year old some days and I get people asking me all the time what's wrong with my back. Before this job I worked at Home Depot humping lumber and building materials. I never considered going on disability. Fuck, I'm divorced, broke, tired, my windshield is cracked, and my crank kinda curves to the left- but too dpressed to work? No. Bitches.

I am thoroughly disgusted. The only way I would be moreso is to have read that some poor cocksman had impregnated young Jabba the Hernandez.

-p.

Posted: 7/18/2008 8:54:24 PM EDT

[#21]

I will say this, here in vt, getting a job if you live in the sticks will cost you $100/wk. that being said, get a fucking job, try, and don't give up. Half the problem with this country is that we enable the weak........

Oh, and drunk posting FTW!

Posted: 7/18/2008 9:00:28 PM EDT

[#22]

Well, they don't live far from me, and I believe they are right about not being able to get a job.

After all, it is VERY hard to work for a living when you weigh as much as Orca.

(Clue: For people who actually know how to work, there are plenty of jobs around here).

Posted: 7/18/2008 9:05:44 PM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
so theres no burger joint, 7-11, or gas station near buy that they cant work at?

No, because these two would consume the products.

Posted: 7/18/2008 9:07:44 PM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:
They are both disgusting lazy parasites and the inevitable heart attacks can't some soon enough.

ETA: Fuck Nunez! A car accident left her too depressed and disabled? FUCK HER and her shuffling gravy-boat of a daughter. They both look like they could skip a few meals. Her disgusting morbidly obese 400-pound daughter should mosey her ass to work at the Shop-n-Rob or whatever.

There's a Circle K down the block from "the only employer within walking distance." I gave up on these worthless sacks of shit after successfully finding laundromats, tire shops, muffler shops, and every variety of fast food establishment in bum-fuck Fostoria, Ohio.

FUCK THEM.

I have Ankylosing Spondylitis (Read about it if you care) and I work my ass off 60-70 hours a week as a truck driver. I manually load trailers of hazardous waste. I walk like an 80-year old some days and I get people asking me all the time what's wrong with my back. Before this job I worked at Home Depot humping lumber and building materials. I never considered going on disability. Fuck, I'm divorced, broke, tired, my windshield is cracked, and my crank kinda curves to the left- but too dpressed to work? No. Bitches.

I am thoroughly disgusted. The only way I would be moreso is to have read that some poor cocksman had impregnated young Jabba the Hernandez.

-p.

don't worry, YOU and I will be paying for them way into their late 60's thanks to "free health care".

Posted: 7/18/2008 9:09:16 PM EDT

[#25]

I think the most noble thing in this story, that many may not have noticed,

She goes on record saying tha tpeople ahve been telling her she should just have a kid and let the .gov pay for everything- so she can get on welfare.

And she says she refuses to do that.

Posted: 7/18/2008 9:10:46 PM EDT

[#26]

Quoted:
I think the most noble thing in this story, that many may not have noticed,

She goes on record saying tha tpeople ahve been telling her she should just have a kid and let the .gov pay for everything- so she can get on welfare.

And she says she refuses to do that.

She's probably tried, just can't get some guy drunk enough to do the deed...

Posted: 7/18/2008 9:29:47 PM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I think the most noble thing in this story, that many may not have noticed,

She goes on record saying tha tpeople ahve been telling her she should just have a kid and let the .gov pay for everything- so she can get on welfare.

And she says she refuses to do that.

She's probably tried, just can't get some guy drunk enough to do the deed...

Hell you could have a tactical insemination squad with a jizz-filled Mossberg Line Launcher and its probability of reaching Heavy Jumbo's Fallopian tubes is < 0.00000000001%

http://www.mossberg.com/manuals/LineLauncher.pdf