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One in Four California Families Can't Afford Food for Their Kids
SAN FRANCISCO -- One in four California households with children reported food hardship, according to a new analysis of Gallup data released last Thursday by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC).
Children’s healthcare advocates worry about the consequences of a lack of access to nutritious food. “It’s disturbing, but not surprising,” said Kelly Hardy, director of health policy at Children Now.
The report analyzed data gathered as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index project’s responses to the question: “Have there been times in the past 12 months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?”
“It sends a clear signal of economic distress, particularly for families with children,” noted James Weill, president of FRAC. “The answers to the question reveal there are times that these families are going without eating a meal, or the parents are skipping a meal for their children, or children are skipping meals.”
California had the second highest number of metropolitan areas with rates of food hardship in households with children in 2009-2010, according to the report.
According to Kidsdata.org, a project of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, which tracks the health and well being of children in communities across the nation, 68.6 percent of students in schools in Fresno County and 65.6 percent in Los Angeles County were eligible to receive free or reduced-price meals in 2010.
But sadly, “California has one of the worst records of enrolling those eligible in federal food programs,” said Weill – an assertion borne out by a report by the California Food Policy Advocates, which talks about the dismal enrolment in CalFresh, the federal food program in the state. The finger-imaging requirement discourages many from participating in the program, the report says.
According to the FRAC’s findings, California has four of the top 20 metropolitan areas in the nation facing food hardship. Fresno ranked fifth (32.6 percent) nationwide among large metropolitan cities in households with children facing food hardship. The Riverside-San Bernadino-Ontario area ranked eigth (30.4 percent), the Bakersfield area ranked 11th (29.5 percent), and the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana area ranked 18th (28.3 percent).
And, according to Kidsdata.org, 59 percent and 62.3 percent of children living in the Fresno and Los Angeles County, respectively, are Latino.
Children’s healthcare advocates worry about the consequences of a lack of access to nutritious food.
“It will lead to development and health issues which affect performance in school,” Hardy said. “A lack of nutritious food can also lead to poor oral health, which has been shown to lead to heart disease.”
Kelly noted that there is a connection between food deserts -- areas where there is a lack of easy access to affordable nutritious food – and obesity. These areas are often found in the inner-cities or rural areas such as Fresno and are often the cause for poor nutrition choices, she said.
California Association of Food Banks policy director Eric Manke worries that the newly setup federal Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, also known as the “Super Committee,” set up to further reduce federal spending by $1.5 trillion, might target federal food programs.
The Super Committee is set to hold its first meeting when Congress returns to Washington after its August recess. The California Association of Food Banks, along with FRAC and other non-profit food organizations, is urging Congress and the Super Committee to protect food programs for the low-income population.
“Our goal is to make sure they don’t target the federal food programs,” said Manke, noting, “Folks in Congress must understand that there is a great deal of need for these type of programs, and this is the opposite time to think about cutting programs that serve those with the most need.”
70 Comments so far
Show AllSorry kids the right abandoned you after you left the birth canal.
Sarcasm on...
Your on your own now. Have your lazy parents get another job so they spend less than 1 hour a day with you so we can blame thier bad parenting for your future incarceration. Oh God bless America!
Sarcasm off.....
How about not having kids when you can't afford them? Common sense folks, unless they produce off springs so they can collect welfare on each head and spend it on cadilacs and booze.......How about controling the exploding population which is the real cause of shortage of food, unemployment, etc...and it's only getting worse. How about letting this tired overexploited earth recover a bit from that virus called 'Humanity'? Seems like it's hopeless!
OMG! Where do these cockroaches come from when the lightswitch is flipped on with the words "childhood poverty"?
Let's see aeitan, with the phrase "how about not having kids when you can't afford them?" I am going to conduct a little mind experiment. It costs ball park $200,000 to raise a child in the US given certain parameters. Would you like to see that amount in one lump sum or may we obtain an annuity before you issue our permit? Others have addressed the exploding population question; the answers vary from needing another 27 earths to everyone could comfortably fit into Texas.
Here's a wake up call aeitan. Plenty of us who have sought food stamp assistance started out with plenty of money in the bank, health insurance, a good business that not only provided for ourselves but employed others, good education and any other social measure you could wish for when we produced our brood. It's what happened to us since then that threw a spanner in the works. In our case, a chronic progressive disease with a midlife onset, lax government regulation of big businesses that hired undocumented workers against whom we had to compete in bids (thanks St. Ronald),NAFTA (thanks Billary) and finally, the various financial bubbles that have decimated savings, pensions,equity and the various 401k vehicles engineered to steal our thriftiness and productivity from us( thanks just about everyone of policy-note between Maine and Florida for the last 30 years). Instead of blaming the base of the pyramid, why don't you redirect your vision to the top of the heap? Those are the people driving Cadillacs and swilling booze, which is what seems to engender your jealousy. That one statement alone tells me all I need to know about your focus. Grow up.
FWIW, netminnow, I have an aversion to declaring that a given ambiguous comment is deliberate satire or parody.But if aeitan sincerely believes that offhand lame and offensive stereotype, he or she has learned his or her lessons well.Notice that "Cadillac" is misspelled "cadilac", exactly like redneck wingnut Guy Drake spelled it in his reactionary '70s hit tune "Welfare Cadilac".In case you don't recognize the title, or have mercifully forgotten, this was a dimwitted, leaden satirical country music song elaborating on the popular pejorative stereotype of the low-life "welfare queen" who, unlike Decent Folk, abandons personal responsibility in favor of using generous handouts of gummint money to buy and drive around in fancy "Cadilacs" while shamelessly and cheerfully letting home and family go to hell.This turkey aspired to be down-home, common-sense devastating criticism of both the imaginary welfare queens and the foolish politicians who scandalously enabled them; one could just imagine beer bottles being thumped on the bar en masse when this tune rang out from the jukebox, and a chorus of "Damn straight!" belching out in accompaniment.Although Drake purposely misspelled "Cadillac" to give the lyrics the proper feel of low-life slacker illiteracy, it was typically "automatically" corrected-- nowadays, Internet search engines have all but buried the deliberate misspelling.I'd be sure the comment was a parody if it had been published by "Okie From Muskogee". ;)
What jealousy? I don't give a damn about owning staff. I live a simple life within my means. I agree with your assertion regarding the top of the pyramid, however, I think that people need to take responsibity for bringing kids into this world. You can't have twelve kids in Gaza and than cry that you can't feed them. I know it's a cultural thing, but it's about time to educate the poor masses that producing these amount of kids you can't feed (toddlers that are malnourished, tend to have a brain's development problem, and thus the kids are less likely to succeed in life, just produce more morons...) Nobody talks about the population problem because it's good for capitalism and the various churchs which are mainly supported by the poors, (see South America). I was being slightly sarcastic (cadilac and booze), however if this problem is not addressed you will see mass starvation, beginning now in east africa, and spreading all over the world.
Is that justification for people at the bottom of the pyramid to steal from us? That's what aeitan is criticizing, not the legitimate need for public assistance that all "citizens" should be entitled to. Live in the SW for a while, you'll see how the illegals work the system; they're not the "poor unfortunate souls" that naive progressives like yourself like to believe. The "anchor baby" scam is quite prevalent and despite the BS horror stories that get printed about broken up families it simply doesn't happen as a rule. Once the kids are "citizens" they qualify for all sorts of public assistance and don't think for one minute that your "hard-working undocumented immigrant" has too much pride to apply. The medical system is similarly burdened, my son is an emergency room tech, these people can't pay and seldom get turned down. Those of us with health care plans -we pay. Also, calling people "cockroaches? You're a class act, minnow. It's quite interesting to see the "progressive" movement feed upon itself; it's exactly what your masters intended.
Spare me.
One, lots of people "work the system".
Two, the "working the system" done by the poor, is nowhere at the level of "working the system" done by the rich, the upper middle class, in terms of money involved.
logitech, thank you for your informed comments.
That a rich state like California, that a rich state like California that produces a lot of food, that is one of the world's bread / food baskets, has problem feeding its people should tell you that the problem is not population, and not producing enough food, but rather, how that food is distributed, the concentration of wealth.
California could be one of the ten richest nations on earth if we were not part of the United States. If we could secede from the union we could keep our tax funds here. No hungry kids, no people without health care and no homeless people. The problem of our nation is the federal government. They take our money and give it to the banksters and the war profiteers and even more to the banking 'industry' (as if those crooks created anything but debt!).
The federal government is not interested in "promoting the general welfare". They don't care much about "insuring domestic tranquility" or "justice". Their task, for which they are well paid, is to enrich the already wealthy and to keep the people of this land ignorant, frightened and obedient.
It's time for a rebellion.
That's what they do in the UK, lazy usual under achiever's don't bother learning how to read or write leave school get knocked up by some other lazy useless under achiever then they get a FREE house and FREE money..
It's ok until the kids actual need anything, like food and a university education..
Welcome to the cycle of poverty...
No sympathy for them, you don't have any money don't breed...
Facts ON! In 2010, Los Angeles paid out $600,000,000 in social services to undocumented aliens. 44% of new births in 2010 in the US were by Hispanics while they only represent 16% of the population (no family planing there). In 2010, there were over 320,000 hospital births to undocumented aliens @ $10,000 - $28,000 a wack not counting complications like premature twins - you do the math. If you don't have a job, have a baby is primitive. It is estimated that U.S taxpayers spend $12,000,000,000 a year on primary and secondary school education for the children of illegal immigrants. Obama has deported over 500,000 illegal immigrants already more than Bush in his whole term. Day laborers do not pay taxes. NOT EVER! They are paid cash. The employer deducts them from his taxes as "Contract Labor". They have no SS#s. If they do, it's a # that belongs to someone else, or it's not assigned yet (maybe your baby daughters SS#) and then they declare 8 dependents and are DUE tax credits and financial assistance. 59% of all Americans now receive money from the federal government in one form or another.
The total population of Mexico is 107 million. 55 million Hispanics citizens (not including undocumented persons) live in the US. Freedom ends where the cost of rearing your unlimited offspring reaches my pocket.
Really? What netminnow said above, insert here! You really belive that LosAngeles alone paid out 0.6 BILLION dollars? Just to undocucumented folks? Where are you getting your 'data??' Plus, the sneaky conflation of 'undocumented,' with 'Hispanic,' is extra sleazy...Twelve trillion a year on undocumenteds for education? Yeah, that's realistic- almost the entire GDP of the U.S. Where are you getting this stuff? Oh, and please send me some of the stuff you are smoking, but kindly remove the components that are harmful to reasoning, and that have mummified your sense of humanity before sending. Tell us, what do you think you are going to do, once the wingnut fantasy of zero 'illegal immigrants,' here is achieved? Guess what, things are still going to really suck for you and every working person. Then who are you going to target for elimination?? I suppose then you will just shift to inciting resentment against the disabled and elderly that you will imagine are draining your coffers. Or maybe members of some race or religion you do not like. Forget about trying to ferret out the next group that is shafting you, and just start looking in the damn mirror.
Thanks, Drinsula! Great comment! And good for netminnow, too!
Bill in Dubuque
Yeah, I thought 12 trillion too, but I was just following the sensationalism of the comment. It's 12 billion, not that it matters. The person could have meant twelve zero's, it would all be horse shit that they're trying to come up with.
"Guess what, things are still going to really suck for you and every working person."
Yes, and your "reasoning" is so much better...jeesh
Urban gardening should become a priority along with food assistance.
The illegal migrant slave labor in California's agricultural areas are underpaid and impoverished? Gee, maybe the answer is to announce that the federal government will no longer be deporting illegals, which will encourage the slavers to recruit still more illegals to breach the border, further depressing wages and further increasing poverty and hunger.
That's what Obama did two days ago, as he left for his $50,000/week beach-house vacation in Martha's Vineyard.
So just out of curiosity, how much did you bitch while W was on the combined YEAR of vacation time he took on OUR dime? Sorry, but your complaint rings pretty hollow.
Big agra loves our 'immigration policy' just the way it is, low paid non union workers living in miserable conditions. I'm no Obama lover but this administration is averaging 395165 deportations a year (assuming you like the idea of deporations and splitting up families etc etc which I do not). The numbers of children living in or near poverty don't just include illegal and migrant workers, there is plenty of poverty to go around. Presidential vacations....not a great idea to go to a playground of the mega rich, maybe a Motel 6 near the beach in Virgina might have been better. The role model clearly for presidential vacations must be the great GW and the summer White House in Crawford, remember the loyal press corps camping out with nightly updates on the progress of brush clearing.
I oppose the misery inflicted on illegal migrant wage slaves.
The best way to prevent it is to oppose the illegal employers who recruit them, the bought politicians who pursue Wall Street's low-wage agenda, and the "liberal" stooges who bait people with their pie-in-the-sky amnesty, open borders, and legalization/normalization rhetoric, in spite of the hunger and misery they know awaits the migrants here. (Not to mention the economic harm to U.S. citizens caused by ever-lower wages and benefits.)
The best message we can send out: Don't come! Don't get cheated, raped, tortured or killed. Don't die crossing the desert. There will be no new amnesty/normalization in the U.S. After the election, the deportations will resume. Stay home, work hard and build a life with your family in your own country.
---"Stay home, work hard and build a life with your family in your own country..."---
The ignorance of that remark is breathtaking. I assume you have never been to a Central American country. The wages and working conditions they encounter here are still better than the squalor and oppression they face at home.
The best way to improve their, and ours, lot is for the immigrants to organize their workplaces - as our but-for-a-technicality-"illegal" Irish, Italian, southern-German and Slavic ancestors in the coal mines, steel mills and railroad yards did.
I assume you know nothing about the crushing poverty, abuse and hunger in neighborhoods just a few miles from where you live in comfort. It takes a rock-hard heart and a crippling prejudice not to see it.
This very article states that one in four children in California are going hungry. Across the entire U.S. the number is one in five.
Then there's the death, and the physical, sexual and economic abuse, wreaked upon the trafficked migrants you entice across the border with your false equivalence and empty promises of "better" in the U.S. That's what the plantation owners said about their African slaves. Appalling.
lolol I love your counter argument. I don't care where anyone goes, if anyone cares to read it, and good luck if you try to live a happy and peaceful life. If that doesn't work, we all gotta die some time ~ make the best of it!
No idea what this post means. I read some other comments by nevermored and they seem confused as well.
Yes! Organize their workplace in their country of origin. Immigration before the 40s is DIFFERENT from today. Then there were no social services and "free for all who live here" medical. Then you had to be tested for contagious illness like VD. We are having outbreaks of Whooping Cough, TB, all those childhood diseases because there is no control over immigration. We allow people with AIDS in which is deadly and contagious and extremely expensive to treat. My grand parents on both sides all went through, I think it was, Ellis Island (not sure about the name) but they were all detained. We were Italian, Polish, Austrian and all spoke broken English before they got here. They were LEGAL and paid for their own Doctors. They registered at the door .
So when you say "give me your tired and your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free.....", What if we SEND THAT STATUE BACK TO FRANCE ALONG WITH THE ILLEGALS IN CALIFORNIA AND LET THEM LIVE UP TO THEIR STATUE, DO THINK THEY CAN? I don't think they ever meant freedom from the cost of living, freedom to burden my neighbor with as many babies as I can pump out. Times have changed. We no longer have railroads and steel mills. Get a grip. America isn't what it used to be.
This just gets better and better, like a rotting skunk in a garbage bin...You have mass outbreaks of communicable diseases now because a bunch of rock-heads decided that vaccinations were unhealthy or a plot by government or aliens (or government aliens?) or something, and so they decided never to have their kids vaccinated! Has nothing to do with the hordes you imagine are inundating the borders every waking second. Too bad there is no vaccine against stupid!
That comment did shotgun your whole point about Irish and such being immigrants. It sucked donkey balls for the older older older generation, especially the ones picked on through racial stereotypes the most. These days, the system is so much softer that even though I'm a bleeding heart, I wanna call them all weak for crying about how they may get deported (and probably not beaten at any point) so that they may try again. Poverty sucks and I've eaten out of trash cans and slept beside highways, but reading about how it was in the past and what people did to work themselves and their families into a better way of life, it's just inspirational... and then, this is the modern world where we cure diseases and such and such. We could feed the world, as some people speculate, quite easily and cheaply, but we choose not to. There's your answer. It's a big, silent F U. So much for all them nice talking religions, eh?
jpheran again? just a wild guess. Similar ranting style....Anyway, Central and South America and Mexico have some of the highest STD rates in the world. Check out CDC or if you need colorful pictures here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:STDs_excluding_HIV_world_map_-_DALY_-_WHO2004.svg.
Take hope Drinsula, most illegals have their children here in the US where they can get all their vaccinations, exams, even their education on our dime. It's a great plan that self-flagellating progressives love. You get one pocket picked by corporation the other by illegals. BTW, I live on the border, have all my life- the hordes aren't imaginary and all illegal border crossers are not without malicious intent.
logitech sez: " I live on the border, have all my life- the hordes aren't imaginary and all illegal border crossers are not without malicious intent."
Gosh, I thought you were from Alabama, like the anti-immigrant bigot logitech on freerepublic.com:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2732615/posts?page=1
"To: grundle
I grew up in Mobile,Al in the 60’s & 70’s. Virtually all of the so called “southern racists” want black people to do well. It is the Sharpton’s and Jackson’s of the world that are oppressing them, depriving them of a livelihood and keeping them in poverty. I see the harm every day that they have wrought on “their” people for 4 decades! It is truly disgusting.
8 posted on Fri Jun 03 2011 21:28:49 GMT-0700 (Pacific Daylight Time) by logitech"
More freeper madness from logitech at:
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:logitech/index?tab=comments;brevity=full;options=no-change
The point is not Obama's vacation. Bush had taken three times as many vacation days at this point in his first term. (Bill Clinton had taken just 28 days a this point, less than half the number of Obama's vacation days.) The point is that Obama gives the working poor, unemployed and hungry a giant FU! on the same day he retires to the beach.
Green-lighting the worst, most abusive, most unconscionable illegal employers to continue their illegal and despicable practices without fear of federal law enforcement, purely to obtain campaign contributions from Big Ag and votes from Latino wages slaves, is beyond contempt!
Obama's campaign slogan should be "To Hell with Working People!"
How is that any different from what the republican party has been doing for the last 30+ years? We've had 3 decades now, of right wing worker bashing, family bashing, divide and conquer politics on a daily basis, and now you want to blame this ALL on Obama?
Come on. I'm no huge fan of his, certainly not for the way he's NOT stood up for workers, but put things where they belong. This is a right wing war against ALL of us who aren't in the top 2%. Where is your blame of those who have ACTIVELY worked against us? You seem to want to make it sound like it's ALL just the fault of one person. That's just disingenuous.
If I'm missing something, I'm sorry, but I'm just sick of people always thinking that ONE person has so much power that they could snap their fingers and everything is perfect, but they just AREN'T doing it. If that WERE the case, I'd be right there with you, but that is obviously NOT the case. With THIS congress, just what do you think he really COULD get done? Congress is trying to kill us all off by abandonment anyway, do you think they would pass up an opportunity to do so if he were behind something? Not a chance, they would stand in the way ON PURPOSE.
I don't mind blame, just be realistic about it. And put it where it belongs.
In this case, the decision to stop deportations of illegal aliens was Obama's alone. So, all of your protestations amount to nothing.
As to the blame for right-wing policies over the past 30 years, that goes to the Republicans, the trickle-downers, the "free" traders and their sycophants and stooges. While I never said I blame Obama for "all" of that, I certainly think Obama is and has always been a trickle-down, Reagan-admiring, free-trader. And I have stated many times that I consider him a Republican in Democrat's clothing.
Everyone wants to blame the "other" party for the ills of America. What no one addresses is the fact that the two "parties" are just a PR Scam to make us think we have a choice.
It is all the same party, run by the same Oligarchy that is decimating America and the world for its own immediate profit. They don't care whether the Dims or the Repugs are in "power," for they both do what they are told. We the People have nothing to do with it, except to pay and provide cannon fodder for their endless wars of personal profit.
They care in Wisconsin, and Ohio, and many other states. Your "they're all the same" crap is only true of Obama-led Democrats in Congress. (Fully 50% of House Democrats voted against the debt-ceiling fake "compromise" bill.)
Obama, who pursues all the same policies that George W. Bush pursued (the worst president in memory, Republican or Democrat), is NOT a typical Democrat. Learn it.
We know how that works too. The ones who might have a problem "get cover" when it is known that the thing is going to pass anyway. Tony
Your "point' is irrelevant.
..and reminds me more than a little of the criticism of Bill Clinton that the Republicans used to haul out every time someone criticized Bush.
Obama is his own President. Criticism of what HE does is fair game, regardless of what anyone else might have done.
personally, I don't think President of the United States should get any more vactation than anyone else who has been at a job for two years (two weeks for the vast majority of jobs).
If Obama wanted to 'vacation", he should not have taken the job.
personally, I think the President should get paid based on performance. -- eg, X dollars for every 1% drop in unemployment.
Unfortunately, like CEO's our presidents get paid no matter how crappy their performance is (and recently -- with Bush AND Obama -- it's been pretty damned crappy . Two of the worst Presidents this country has ever seen)
Yes, two of the worst. It verges on the insane that George W. Bush was the worst president in modern times (worse than Reagan, Nixon and Bush I), and along comes a "Democrat" who gets elected in a landslide, controls both the House and the Senate, and still pursues all of Bush's policies! The very policies he was elected to "Change!"
Add to that, he pushed through the Republicans' wet dream of mandatory health insurance (which no Republican president could have done) and is now working on a so-called "compromise" which will kill Social Security and Medicare.
Yet, some "liberals" still defend him, out of some antiquated them-or-us mindset I suppose. I oppose fake-Democrat Obama. That does not mean I favor any Republican candidate. If enough people will stand against Obama's re-election, a third-party candidate or even a Democratic primary challenger will emerge. THAT is what we desperately need.
Jimbo, You speak the truth.
“Folks in Congress must understand that there is a great deal of need for these type of programs, and this is the opposite time to think about cutting programs that serve those with the most need.”
Please don't refer to those self-serving psychopaths as "folks." It's way too cute and humanizing.
I"m here reminded of junior's promise to "get the folks responsible."
these turned out to be the Faux Foe Folk.
Tax the rich and feed the poor. Pretty simple solution, but no one in power will take this advice.
Taxing the rich is still playing into the capitalists game of exploitation.
Give people living wages .
“Our goal is to make sure they don’t target the federal food programs,” Sorry, but too late. I work for a non-profit here in California and can tell you for a fact that federal food funding in my area was cut by 28%. We were told we were lucky because the national average for federal food cuts was 40%.
We are also seeing the end of moneys from the American Recovery & Reinvestment act which provided funds to keep those at risk of homelessness from ending up on the streets.
If you think things are ugly now, just wait.
Urban farming and do it yourself home kits for building guillotines should become a priority along with overthrowing cannibal casino Wall Street/Pentagon abetted FASCISM.
After you're born, you're never too young to be abused by the Hobbesian state of nature that is our neo-liberal "society."
"I wonder how the ruling elite came to hate their fellow citizens this much. There is no bottom to what they will do to anyone who isn't in their circle."
I don't think this is hate, I think this is some kind of sordid game, trying to see how much they have to squeeze social and welfare programs before the first million die off. So rich and so bored...
I am sick to death of hearing about where and how social programs can be cut. Every person on the planet could be fed for two billion dollars per year, the cost of two stealth bomber airplanes. I'll bet you won't hear that stat on network news.
To hell with the bosses of this planet. Every person could have decent housing, a healthy diet, and exposure to art and literature. No money for bombs? PERFECT!!
Time to confront the victimizers is spot on.
You said,
"How much hatred of other people does it take to refuse action and worse, to actively impede effective measures that will insure the well being of others? I wonder how the ruling elite came to hate their fellow citizens this much. There is no bottom to what they will do to anyone who isn't in their circle."
My response is that the ruling elite insulate themselves as much as possible from working-class people except their own personal and family servants and corporate yes-men and yes-women. They gradually come to think of themselves and those who either willingly share their beliefs or who can be readily convinced to share them as the only "true Americans." Since they are THE quintessential manifestation of distilled white Manifest Destiny, the people who tend to identify with, or who are easily compelled to share their beliefs tend to be affluent white bigots who are just a less affluent (but still affluent compared to the rest of society) version of themselves. Over time the centemillionaires and billionaires at the top of this "true American" chain start to think of themselves as the capitalist and political equivalent of gods or demi-gods. This isn't the first time in human history the most arrogant portions of a society's upper-class decided they were gods and that all their perceived inferiors existed to serve or suffer for them and their sacred ultra-materialist lifestyle.
The only way the Amurkan version of such self-deified plutocrats could get enough of the public to either side with them against the most vulnerable or look the other way while they victimize the weak is corporate and pseudo-religious propaganda applied daily for many hours for decades.
Having seen various aspects of the lives of those at the top of the food chain, I re-iterate your conclusions. That recent article posted on CD about an innate lack of empathy of the Point One Percenters just confirms what we have observed over the last 30+ years. For those of you wondering why the so called Masters of the Universe hate us so much, I have to break it to you gently. We are a complete matter of INDIFFERENCE to the Ubermenschen. Most of them don't hate us; that would require a level of emotional engagement that we simply do not merit in their eyes. It's a scary idea to consider what extremes matters would have to get to, to break through that barrier they have erected between the rest of us and our meeting our needs.