I
know it seems like the destructive
government shutdown was
light-years ago, but the longest shutdown in
history ended only about
a month ago. There is still a lot to unpack
on that situation alone,
but I’ll save that for another column. The
statistic that stuck out
for me is how many Americans receive SNAP
benefits. Forty-two
million. One out of eight Americans.
There
will be a lot of talk about human rights
this week, and this month.
The United Nations signed the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights
on December 10, 1948. As a human rights
educator for nearly 30 years,
I've always been fascinated by how people in
this country can point
out human rights violations in other
countries, while overlooking
issues within our own borders. It’s as if
the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights (UDHR) does not apply to the
United States. Malcolm X
and others attempted to take the case of
African Americans to the
United Nations. It was a radical act,
highlighting the human rights
violations faced by an entire racial group
within this country.
Most
of the 42 million people receiving food
stamps are not lazy.
According to the USDA, about 44% of SNAP
recipients live in
households where at least one member is
employed. Employment status
among recipients can vary, but estimates
indicate that approximately
30% work full-time, while another 30% work
part-time or occasionally.
These individuals are working hard yet still
cannot afford to eat
without government assistance. This
situation is criminal.
Of
course, the same thing can be said of those
who are unhoused. About
40 percent of those without housing have
some form of employment.
This is criminal.
When
Michael Green published a thought-provoking
article on Substack, he
proposed that $140,000 should be considered
the new poverty line.
Green, who is the chief strategist at
Simplify Asset Management,
argues that the current formula for
determining the poverty line is
outdated. He believes it has not kept pace
with the rising costs of
food, housing, and healthcare. This
assertion echoes the claims made
by welfare rights activists and social
justice advocates for decades.
The
Right to an Adequate Living Standard is
Article 25 of the UDHR. This
government was clearly in violation of
Article 25 before the MAGA
monster came into office. His policies and
actions have accelerated
the number of people being thrown into
economic free fall with no
safety nets in place to catch them.
The
Affordable Care Act, also known as
Obamacare, is set to expire at the
end of this year unless legislators take
action. This seems unlikely,
as the main reason Democrats prolonged the
government shutdown was to
pressure the MAGA supporters to address
healthcare benefits. This
situation is not just a policy issue; it is
a matter of life and
death that can have severe consequences for
working people. Those
facing serious medical issues may accumulate
mounting debt,
potentially leading to the loss of their
assets. The inability to pay
rent or a mortgage could result in them
being evicted and left
homeless.
The
trump plan is to create extreme financial
chaos for working-class
people so that they can only focus on
survival. While we are fighting
for our very lives, we won’t have the
energy, time, or resources to
fight against the MAGA regime. A world where
food, shelter, and other
necessities of life are guaranteed is
becoming elusive. These are the
human rights we should be fighting for,
especially as we witness the
disappearance of legal protections that are
subject to the political
whims of the day. Universal human rights
should always triumph over
untenable laws that exist on paper.
