Your people are starving to death and you are sitting there watching a show?

[Odysseus]

United States: Over 16 million children go hungry every day due to lack of money. Enough food to feed everyone.
Great depression (A better comparison for the DPRK when comparing the economic crisis both countries have faced): 7-8 million Americans starve. Too much food. Farmers are paid to dump food. Prices are too high, yet food is abundant.

A few points: First, food is abundant, so why are people in the US going hungry? We spend hundreds of billions of dollars on programs that are supposed to feed poor people, and appear to be working too well, if the obesity stats are any indication. So, why is it that in the midst of plenty, not to mention incredible generosity, 16 million children are allegedly going hungry? The answer is, they aren't:

Although the mainstream media broadcast alarming stories about widespread and severe hunger in the nation, in reality, most of the poor do not experience hunger or food shortages. The U.S. Department of Agriculture collects data on these topics in its household food security survey. For 2009, the survey showed:

• 96 percent of poor parents stated that their children were never hungry at any time during the year because they could not afford food.
• 83 percent of poor families reported having enough food to eat.
• 82 percent of poor adults reported never being hungry at any time in the prior year due to lack of money for food.

Other government surveys show that the average consumption of protein, vitamins, and minerals is virtually the same for poor and middle-class children and is well above recommended norms in most cases.
http://www.heritage.org/research/rep...-americas-poor

The stats that you cite are a crock. The stat is not that 16 million children go to be hungry ever night, but that over the course of a year, 16 million children were cited as having been in food jeopardy. That's not the same thing. If it were, then we would be seeing the effects of malnutrition throughout the US, including severely underweight children and stunted growth from malnutrition. In fact, we're seeing the opposite. As the chart below shows, consumption of critical nutrients exceeds requirements among all children, including poor children, in all age groups.



The chart below shows the rates of stunted growth globally. The US has a far lower percentage of children with stunted growth than any other region of the world.



In other words, the stats are false.

DPRK: Official statistics unavailable. Only recorded famine occured during early 90's and lasted until the later 90's. Lack of food to distribute and the USSR had collapsed, giving the DPRK no one to recieve food from. 1-3 million starve due to lack of food. China has since become an ally to the DPRK, providing the food needed to end the famine.

First, the famine has not ended. It is simply being alleviated by donations from other countries which do not share North Korea's communist economics, and are therefore capable of growing a surplus of food and exporting it. Second, even with the food aid, malnutrition in North Korea is endemic. Just comparing North and South Korean height averages demonstrate that stunting of growth continues, which means that the famine continues:

HEIGHT DIFFERENCE IN NORTH AND SOUTH KOREANS

Source:Soonyoung Park, Seoul National University (North Korea)
Korean Agency for Technology and Standard (South Korea)Korean Agency for Technology and Standard (South Korea)

Now, if you want to argue that the US economy during the Depression approached the current level of famine in North Korea, you'd still fail. The stats are nowhere near as bad for the US, although Roosevelt certainly tried to stall the recovery with his imposition of central planning. Regardless, your arguments are false.

[NJCardFan]

Ody, have you ever tried pissing up a rope? Well, you're doing it now.

[noonwitch]

United States: Over 16 million children go hungry every day due to lack of money. Enough food to feed everyone.
Great depression (A better comparison for the DPRK when comparing the economic crisis both countries have faced): 7-8 million Americans starve. Too much food. Farmers are paid to dump food. Prices are too high, yet food is abundant.

DPRK: Official statistics unavailable. Only recorded famine occured during early 90's and lasted until the later 90's. Lack of food to distribute and the USSR had collapsed, giving the DPRK no one to recieve food from. 1-3 million starve due to lack of food. China has since become an ally to the DPRK, providing the food needed to end the famine.

16 million american children go hungry every day? Where did you find that statistic, 1934?

You are right in one thing-there is absolutely no reason why any american should go hungry. Outside of the fact that we have the food stamp program and other government programs that address hunger, there are soup kitchens, food banks and churches that give food to people every day. There are also secular groups like Forgotten Harvest/Gleaners who get day old bread from the stores and give it to poor people.

The main problem I see in the US for the poor and hungry is getting to the food. Transportation can be a problem in both urban and rural communities. But in a city, there is at least one church in every part of town that gives away food at least monthly.

[Odysseus]

Ody, have you ever tried pissing up a rope? Well, you're doing it now.

Not at all. Talking points need to be refuted, and this soundbyte about 16 million kids going to be hungry every night is a pernicious one. Every time it is allowed to stand unchallenged, it filters into the culture and becomes an accepted truth. Also, communists need to be defeated whenever they try to take the moral high ground. They get over because they claim to be idealists, but never allow us to look at the nature of their ideals.

[NJCardFan]

Not at all. Talking points need to be refuted, and this soundbyte about 16 million kids going to be hungry every night is a pernicious one. Every time it is allowed to stand unchallenged, it filters into the culture and becomes an accepted truth. Also, communists need to be defeated whenever they try to take the moral high ground. They get over because they claim to be idealists, but never allow us to look at the nature of their ideals.

Then perhaps I should word it differently. People like this new troll don't want to hear real facts. They will ignore everything you've said and still parrot and believe the tripe that is fed to them. Communism isn't about individual thought, it's about group think. Think outside the group and you're targeted for re-education. The truth of the matter is is that you would have a better chance explaining calculus to my dog except the differences is that after a while my dog will actually start understanding calculus.

[AmPat]

Not at all. Talking points need to be refuted, and this soundbyte about 16 million kids going to be hungry every night is a pernicious one. Every time it is allowed to stand unchallenged, it filters into the culture and becomes an accepted truth. Also, communists need to be defeated whenever they try to take the moral high ground. They get over because they claim to be idealists, but never allow us to look at the nature of their ideals.

Polly just wants a cracker. This is another mindless (and brainless) moonbat spewing memorized talking points. He has no proof to back up his false but emotionally charged allegations. He felt the truth and is proud to pass the false message on. Any dissent is merely hate speech.

[Odysseus]

Then perhaps I should word it differently. People like this new troll don't want to hear real facts. They will ignore everything you've said and still parrot and believe the tripe that is fed to them. Communism isn't about individual thought, it's about group think. Think outside the group and you're targeted for re-education. The truth of the matter is is that you would have a better chance explaining calculus to my dog except the differences is that after a while my dog will actually start understanding calculus.

Agreed, but the next time that he does it, he'll be nuked by anyone who's read my response, and it will be harder for him to parrot the same talking points once they've been discredited. I don't expect someone who calls himself a communist to deal in facts any more than I would expect someone who called himself a Nazi to admit to the facts of the holocaust. Denial of reality is what totalitarians do, but if we don't rebut them forcefully and with overwhelmingly logical and rational arguments and facts, they will continue to lie with impunity.

Plus, I get to refine my arguments so that when my daughters get this same line of BS from her school, I have the response at my fingertips.