The census divides the population into three groups; children up to aged 17, adults from aged 18 to 64, and the elderly, aged 65 and up. 16% of those living in poverty are children, larger than any other group. The working poor traditionally fluctuates, usually amounting to about 10% of the over all population. This number holds true in good economic times. However, the current economic cycle has pushed this number to almost double or 20%. The elderly tally similar figures.

Children below the poverty line live primarily in the west and southern parts of the country with many residing in rural areas. Central urban cities also tally higher percentages of children in poverty rivaling the numbers from rural areas. Poor children can live anywhere in the United States. No one area is free from poverty. The numbers are grim for children under the age of 6 who live with a single female parent. More than 54.8% of these children live in dire situations. Children under 6 with two parents are considered in poverty at about 10%. These numbers break down along racial lines to 26% of Blacks, 13% of Asians and Pacific Islanders, 26% of Hispanics, and 26% of whites. Overall 39% of the poor in America are children, while children make up only 26% of the total population.

Poverty of children in metropolitan areas stands at 16% with the city of New York topping the list. Children in nearby counties of huge metropolitan areas number about 19%. There are only seven states where child poverty rates were not higher or exceeded the median rates as found by the national census report. The federal poverty level is set at $19, 350 for a family of four. Families making less than $9765 are considered to live in extreme poverty. It is generally believed that a family four who isn’t making at least twice the federal poverty level limits cannot meet its debt responsibilities.

Today’s ongoing economic crisis and recession has severely inflated these numbers right along with the unemployment rate. The official numbers won’t be known until later in 2010 when the official census is complete. The census is slated to officially begin in March and is expected to take up much of the year. For this reason, the Obama administration has recently turned its attention toward getting America back to work. Solving this problem as well as the housing and lending crisis will go a long way in saving millions of people from the ever widening cycle of poverty.

A depressed man will try to hide his condition, becoming irritable at the least little thing, or by drinking too much. He may even become a workaholic so as not to face his real problem or problems. He will in most cases of male depression, blame others for his problems instead of looking within for solutions. On the other hand, women blame themselves, regardless of the problem. They internalize and show it by overeating or under-eating, or doing too much in an effort to compensate for their perceived lack of self worth. While women become sad, apathetic, men get overly angry and ego driven, lashing out at all around them.

A man suffering depression tends to create conflict, welcoming it in fact, as a validation of his manhood and control. Women, on the other hand, usually avoid all confrontation and conflict at all costs. Depressed women attempt to conceal their inner pain by being docile or overly nice to their abusers. Men simply try to pick a fight or start an argument. Women withdraw into an inner isolation while men tend to attack others either verbally or physically. This is classically demonstrated in the domestic abuse cycle between couples.

A common theme for depressed women is that they don’t respect themselves nor demand it from others, while depressed men expect from everyone, even when they haven’t earned it. They feel the world works against them setting them up to fail, publicly to embarrass them. After sometimes years of feeling this way, they lash out, by killing their family, burning down the family home or flying a plane into a building as an act of defiance against a government agency. Women rarely act out in this overt fashion, preferring to kill themselves rather than others. Depressed women don’t feel they deserve to be respected or what ever problem they have, is their own fault and they deserve what they get from life.

One sociologist described it this way, she said that depressed women always feel guilty for what they do, while depressed men usually feel ashamed for who they are and feel frustrated when they don’t receive enough praise or appreciation for themselves or their work and accomplishments. Yet, when each gender ends up in therapy, women find it easy to talk things out, kind of reveling in the attention of the doctor’s attention and concern for their problems. Men, however, are terrified to talk about their weaknesses, fearing they will be perceived as less than manly. Psychologists tell us that men don’t feel safe in life unless they are perceived as the king of the world. Women need only to blend in, in order to feel safe. The tools of “self medication” are also different. Women abuse food, love and friends, while depressed me us alcohol, sports, watching television and sex, to fight off the effects of their illness.

Women believe things will turn around for them if only then can better themselves, while men are convinced that their problems will go away when everybody starts treating them better. To sum it up, women think they need to be more caring and lovable, while men feel they need to be loved more by those around them.

For instance, a patient who is depressed might say, “I’m worthless,” and a person with a phobia may have the belief, “I am in danger.” While the patient probably believes this statement wholeheartedly with a therapist’s help, the person is taught to view such beliefs as wrong thinking rather than fact, and to test out such beliefs by running experiments. Furthermore, those in distress are encouraged to monitor and log thoughts that pop into their heads as a means of enabling them to see the patterns in their thinking. Seeing these patterns help them to develop more adaptive alternatives to their thoughts. People who seek CBT should expect an active, problem solving and energetic therapist.

Many simply decide to live with their emotional pain rather than talk it out with a doctor or therapist. CBT is based on the idea that cognitions or thoughts, emotions and behavior are all interwoven. Becoming aware of them, by analyzing them and examining them, it is possible to determine how these thoughts trigger or initiate depression, or anxieties or various behaviors. Most autistic people as well as those who suffer from asperger’s are exceptional at logical thinking. Locating the illogical in their thought process would seem to be a snap. In CBT emotions are discussed at length, explained in depth and talked about in a very concrete way that makes sense to the patient.

The point of the exercise is to better understand emotions, how they feel and how they function, to enable people to manage them better on a daily basis. CBT used a goal oriented systematic procedure in order to address and solve the problems concerning the dysfunctional emotions and behaviors. CBT is known to be affective against a number of problems including anxiety, eating disorders, substance abuse, psychotic episodes, violent mood swings and personality disorder. CBT can be used in individual therapy sessions or group sessions. Some portion of the therapy can be adapted for self help sessions as well.

Cognitive behavioral therapy for autism was developed due to a merging of behavior and cognitive therapy. CBT uses common ground between the two types of therapy by focusing on the present or here and now, in order to lessen symptoms. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommends CBT as treatment for a host of mental health problems including PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder, OCD, bulimia and depression. It is also used to treat some neurological conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome.

Studies examining the effectiveness of CBT have shown that it can be used to solve a variety of behavioral problems including anxiety and mood disorders, personality, eating and substance abuse disorders. CBT is also effective in working with patients who have severe psychotic disorders in addition to the many forms of autism. Experts say that CBT is as effective as any antidepressant medication on the market today. Therapists are being encouraged to use an approach that utilizes both CBT in combination with some medications.

In a free market economy, no one provides education, health care, or housing. To sum it up, the rich get richer and the poor become more deprived. There are no public goods such as street lighting, police, and fire services, or public transportation, because there is no profit in providing these goods. Products like cigarettes and alcohol will proliferate because there is profit to be taken by making them available to the public. The environment, road conditions, air, water supply will be ignored, again, because it doesn’t put money in a rich man’s pocket. To sum it up there will be wasted resources in a free market economy, social injustice will prevail and economic instability will result.

Monopolies will be another common occurrence, due to lack of regulation within the industries. Small business will cease to exist. Competition will prevent new players or start ups in the marketplace. The monopolies will result in the artificially inflated pricing for all goods, which can be restricted to simply drive up the price and availability. Consumers will be forced to pay those higher prices for bad quality goods and lousy levels of service and supply. Since the market is free there is no one to stop the corrupt corporate exercise of power. Government take over by business is inevitable.

Free market economies make luxury goods readily available to the wealthy consumers because this is where the money is. The drawback is that providers allocate all resources to pleasing the whims of the wealthy while neglecting the poor. Bear in mind, there will be no middle class in this type economy. It is either rich or poor, with no in between. Private firms in a free market ignore all social costs passing them on to those who can least afford them. Probably the worst problem of all is the neglect that will happen to the environment. There will be nothing to stop industry and corporations from polluting the air and literally killing the environment.

The disadvantages of a free market economy are many, leading one to wonder why would anyone be in favor of living under such a system. Well, in a free market place, capital flows to the source of greatest return which leads to maximum expansion. Anyone who has a good idea can get it to market more quickly. Free Market represents the ultimate in supply and demand. It is also easier for the guy with the good idea to transform persistence and hard work into major material wealth.

To summarize, free market economy is a survival of the fittest scenario. In other words, those who have the best ideas and can market them, will make it. Those who can’t will fall by the wayside. Money or the making of money controls all. Social policy and things such as health care, police and fire protection do not thrive, and in most cases, do not exist in a free market economy.

Experts argue that risk and cost must be taken into consideration when deciding to enter into war. An example could be the Korean War in 1950, where the US jumped in to defend South Korea. However, not doing so would not have been the end of the war. So the question becomes, is any war really, really necessary. Going to war is always a choice, and this holds true for Afghanistan. Obama’s choice to escalate the situation in Afghanistan is really no different than George Bush’s so called preemptive strike against Iraq.

Some contend that Obama claiming necessity in Afghanistan is a grab for moral purity in international affairs, that while apologizing for past American actions, this administration seems to be saying that it won’t commit any new sins, including fighting wars of any kind. All collateral damage in a necessary war is usually forgiven as are all moral ambiguities which are part of any exercise of power. But it’s a dream to think that moral burdens can be shed so easily. Just because America says it doesn’t make it so in the rest of the world. Claiming necessity does not and will not absolve the Obama administration from responsibility for its actions. The problem with Americans, some say, is that America can’t seem to reconcile the fact that exercises of power are always morally ambiguous even when good can and is accomplished.

To put it bluntly claiming to fight a war because you have no choice is bogus reasoning and will not avoid the moral dilemma , costs and burdens of fighting. If America really wants to win the war in Afghanistan, then it needs to pursue it’s opponent more seriously, with the intent of eliminating them from the scene altogether. The Obama administration must realize the immense damage that will be done should a small ragtag band of fanatics defeat the world’s best army. Such a defeat would do a great deal of harm to the world order and stability of the global hierarchy. Many actions are right or just, but are still sometimes not necessary no matter how you paint it. Several months into this latest uptick or surge, the jury is still is still out on why it was better to march forward than to think about pulling out.

Much of the global community continues to see the war in Afghanistan as an imperialistic act on the part of the United States. Many have wondered why the world’s only super power has been warring for so long over a country that is made up of mountains and little else. Few understand that simply pulling out after all this time will be painted as a loss for the Americans, and after Vietnam, this is unacceptable. So it remains to be seen what success will manifest from this latest military action on the Taliban strong hold called Marjah.

Examples of this systemic corruption can be seen in the countries of Kenya, Zimbabwe, DRC, Nigeria or Tanzania. These so called indebted and poor countries are some of the richest in the world in natural resources who at the same time, have a well educated work force. Yet the people are poor because their government abuses them and their resources, keeping the wealth for a few rather than for all. Canceling the world debt will not trickle down to the people as long as corrupt government officials stand in the way.

Canceling the debt may encourage more bad economic policy choices, while at the same time allowing irresponsible lender governments off the hook, free to form new alliances with criminal regimes. Much of this so called debt was merely a way for developed nations to carve out a stake in the natural resources of the poor country, in order to protect their personal interests. By canceling the debt corrupt lending countries can hide their complicity in the denigration of the poor country and its people. Hanging a blanket cancellation onto a country also means that it is not a creditworthy nation in the eyes of other world governments, making things worse.

Nor does it stop the cycle of criminality, because the countries must still borrow in order to survive and meet their other debts in the future. One way third world countries can get out of the financial and poverty inducing rut is to stay away from the patronage of rich nations who put them in trouble in the first place. Another way is to demand respect and proper treatment from creditors while eliminating the corruption endemic in their governments. It has been proven over and over again that the criminality and graft is a two way street. International law already allows countries to repudiate debt contracted without the consent of, nor spent in the interests of the people.

Under international law citizens of a country do not have to repay those financed their oppression such as America propping up tin hat dictators like Mbutu, to name one. What seems to be lacking is a will to eliminate the underlying root causes of third world problems. The tools for doing such are already there waiting to be used. Third world debt cancellation is merely addressing a symptom that will only give very short term relief while allowing the problem to recycle and become entrenched again. Breaking the cycle is the only way to alleviate the problem on a more permanent level.

With so much social action taking place from behind a computer screen, adults and teachers are concerned about the loss of social skills among young people. In other words, the ability to communicate up close and personal with friends and family is becoming extinct. Young people simply don’t know how to hold a conversation. Take away a kid’s cell phone or computer and they tend to withdraw, don’t know what to do with their hands, become sullen. Hours in front of a computer on the internet also lends to the obesity problem plaguing America and the rest of the world. And a lack of exercise isn’t the only physical problem. Eyesight wanes after long hours in front of a computer screen. Bad posture, and body pain can develop from long hours spent sitting, not the least of which is bad circulation in the legs. Many young people who spend a great of time in front of computer are beginning to show symptoms of disease and illness not usually seen until someone reaches middle age or senior citizenship.

There are also many upsides to time spent in front of a computer. Young people today are able to log on and talk to their counterparts growing up in other parts of the world. The internet literally opens up the possibilities of world culture them enabling them to understand and to appreciate diversity. Painfully shy people unable to hold a face to face conversations can go online and talk for hours with someone elsewhere in the world, who may be in a similar situation at home. The internet enables young people to find answers to questions that they may not feel comfortable discussing with their parents and friends and teachers. An example of this might be sex education, which is only given cursory attention in most American schools.

Some studies have even shown that young people who regularly use the computer have better reading skills, spatial skills and visual skills. The one drawback to being on the computer that it is done in isolation, away from the watchful eyes of parents. Some of the information accessed my not be good for young people. The younger mind may not be able to process the information correctly. Parents should keep a watchful eye without seeming to smother their growing child’s independence.

Like all things in life, the internet is a two edged sword, one edge good, the other edge bad. Parents should use internet access as a teaching tool, helping their youngsters to understand the duplicity involved in life in general including the internet and the world wide web.

The international community has not yet developed a unified coping strategy to handle these myriad problems, preferring to react to a given situation rather than seek proactive solutions and presenting a unified front. The result of this lack of joint policy speaks to the instability of the situation. Experts, some of them anyway, feel that the correct way to a stable and democratic world order must be grounded in dialog and communication if it is to succeed. Led by the UN General Assembly, that dialog has begun and show promise.

Attempts by nations to deal with threats unilaterally rather than in a multilateral fashion are useless and doomed to failure. A classic and recent example is the Bush Administration’s illogical military launch against Iraq. The US was forced to back down and broaden its international coalition in order to right the ship, so to speak and work toward the downturn in the war as implemented by President Barack Obama. The UN continues to work with the United States to stabilize Iraq and enable an American pull out in the next couple of years.
Russia has indicated that it believes the new world order must be predicated on collective mechanisms for handling global problems.

Russian leaders have said this new system must contain as many tools as possible to guarantee world stability. It has signed onto the idea that broader accord and interaction must take place across the globe and must include, G-8, the European Union, China, Japan, India, Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

Russia is behind a move to keep the UN Security Council from rubber stamping the use of force in any governmental difference of opinion. Officials argue that each situation must be looked at individually with a preference for preventive interference rather than preemptive strike tendencies as espoused by the Bush Administration’s failed policies and false accusations leading to the conflict in Iraq. The dissolution of the Cold War bloc has led to positive changes for the Russian Federation which continues to build and improve upon its ties to the international community.

History teaches us that democracy cannot be imposed from the outside, as witnessed by American NeoCon attempts in the Middle East. Removing a leader by force only works to destabilize a country to the detriment of the people. Democratic institutions must be created from within with the help of the international community.

For instance, the probability of a first marriage lasting 5 years is 20%. However, after 10 years of marriage the chance that it will end in divorce is 33%. According to the study the probability of separation or divorce depends on the woman’s age and whether or not she was herself raised in a two parent home, whether she is religious, and whether her family was considered high or upper middle class. The report showed that marriages don’t always end in divorce. Some end in separation, with neither party formalizing the relationship into a divorce. White women are more likely to divorce after just 3 years. That figure is in fact 91%. Separated Hispanic women divorce at the rate of 77%, while Black women divorce at the rate of about 67%.

The probability that these women will get married again within 5 years is 54%. The statistics show that white women will usually get married again, Hispanic women may get married again while Black women might not get married again. In fact, the probability that divorced women will marry for a second time, has been declining since the 1950’s. During the ’50s more than 65% of all women married for a second time. Divorce rates have leveled off, however marriage rates are still on the decline with a large number of children being raised today living in single parent homes.

More than half of all Black children live in single parent homes, meaning their parents divorced or were never married in the first place. This compares to 20% of white children. The study also shows that more people are putting off getting married. This applies to men in particular. 17% of all men aged 35 to 39 have never married. Never married women in the same age group total 11%. Within the never marrieds 35% are Black men. Overall, a quarter of Black men do not live in any kind of family grouping. The rate for white men is 28%.

Many sociologists blame outside economic factors for the decline in marriage. They also make note of the fact that women are putting off child bearing in favor of advancing their professional careers. This has pushed the median age for first marriage upward to nearly 27 years for men and 25 years for women.

Others blame a loss of moral compass in society, and lax divorce laws. Many contend that getting a divorce is simply too easy and that the law should be strengthened.

A recent study revealed that diets high in saturated fats can actually impair memory, which is very unfortunate since foods high in saturated fats make up much of the school lunch menu. Foods such as french fries, cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets are lunchroom staples in most schools nationwide. The foods may satisfy their hunger but it diminishes their cognitive abilities when they return to the classroom. These high fat foods also contain high amounts of sugars which can cause rapid drops in energy. When sugar or glucose is ingested, the body releases insulin. Sometimes the glucose levels are too high for the insulin to effectively do its job and kids experience an after lunch crash.

Other bad foods include white or refined breads, sugared desserts and soda pop. All of these contribute to a loss of energy rather than an increase. Medical studies have shown that diets high in glucose can lead to kidney disease, deteriorating eyesight, hardening blood vessels and nerve damage. A common disease is the on set of diabetes. Some lesser side effects of bad diet include irritability, lack of focus and fatigue. These days, it is estimated that one out of every three children suffers from obesity. In the United States, both overweight and underweight kids are considered malnourished. Malnutrition does not necessarily mean that there is a lack of food. It also means that there is sometimes too much food. Both situations are a sign of the lack of the right kind of nutrients.

While most children in America take in large amounts of calories they are generally missing essential vitamins, minerals and other nutrients necessary for strong healthy bodies and brain development. Malnutrition affects the brain, impacting emotional and stress reactions. Children diagnosed as having malnutrition usually have learning disabilities as well as other medical complications. Developing language skills, motor skills and personal social skills also suffer. Some of the worst foods for these children were found in the school cafeterias and on school lunch menus.

Many school districts having been made aware of the links between diet, nutrition and learning ability have begun to change the foods available to kids during the school day. Many are choosing to change the selections in vending machines or choosing to remove the snack machines altogether. Fast foods such as french fries and wholly processed foods are being removed and replaced with fruits and vegetables, salads, whole grain breads and leaner proteins. This switch in nutrition is already being seen in the classrooms where kids are more energized and able to focus better.

Schools are now going to work on parents to make them more aware of the foods they are serving to their kids at home. Many experts say kids function best on smaller meals throughout the day and snacks every three or four hours. These small meals instead of three large daily meals keeps kids from getting hungry and allows the body to function properly.