Many older adults scramble to pay for food

[Liberal_in_LA]

Many older adults scramble to pay for food

NASHVILLE – Therese Marrs has learned the art of stretching a link of smoked sausage, a jar of cheese and box of macaroni into three meals every week.

The 56-year-old mother struggles to make the meals come together for her husband and 16-year-old daughter each week since she was laid off from her job at a factory in February. She spends almost every day looking for work, but she fears the worst once her unemployment benefits run out in a few months.

"I've learned how to cut my meals. My food stamps only stretch about three weeks," Marrs says. "I've been working in factories since I was 15, but I can't seem to get anybody to hire me."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-09-11/hungry-Baby-Boomers/50362428/1

[pitohui]

1. seems they're trying to deliberately make her unsympathetic

considering they photograph her smoking a cigarette and the cost of a pack of cigarettes (which i assume is a day's supply) is more than MY daily food budget for 2 people plus my pets...you can't help but think, put down the cigarettes, lady!

i know it's a sorry way to think, but it was also a dirty trick to photograph the lady with a cigarette in her hand

OF COURSE no one wants to hire her, you're going to hire somebody to clean your house who smokes? not knowingly, you wouldn't...as for the factory work, that's long gone

[KamaAina]

3. which you assume is a day's supply?

Remember what happens when you "assume"... there are plenty of people who smoke less than a pack a day.

[pitohui]

4. well sure plus i'm angry because i feel i'm being manipulated

the writer of the story prob. meant to send a different message but the photographer was deliberately cruel (or the editor was)

it just pisses me off, i feel i've been manipulated to dislike someone who is struggling and who has done me no harm

and i wonder how the writer and the subject reacted to seeing that photo in print alongside the story

it seems unnecessarily cruel

[Claudia Jones]

2. there is a helpful thread here

There is a lovely helpful thread here offering friendly tips for job seekers, and promoting all sorts of by-your-bootstraps Reaganism and right wing "labor market" and "supply and demand" ideas. We are being told that "this is just the reality" that we need to accept.

[pitohui]

5. yeah i decided i didn't need to read that thread

i think i read the original post which pretty much said stuff than any DUer already knows, like don't share personal issues in a job interview

and i guess i would assume most people know, don't smoke in a job interview

but people under stress sometimes act as if they're under stress

what a world of "gotcha!"