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This is a misconception. I have been dirt poor as a child and am still relatively poor. I live with my dad. He makes less then 20k a year. We don't actually get anything free from the government at all, but when we lived in the cities we used foodstamps sometimes, living check by check every year.
Some programs help but unless you can find a really good job, you're going to be stuck in poverty. The rich get everything, the middle class is well off, because even they can afford to loose their job, they would easily obtain another in some instances.
A poor person working at mcdanolds is more likely going to be stuck in poverty, it's like a cycle and if they lose their job atleast they have some safety net with our public programs. Public programs make alot of difference sometimes, and sometimes they make none. All depends on the persons situation.
Oh boohoo. Your dad could try to get a better job or how about you? Why don't you try to figure how to GET OUT of that crappy situation? It's not the tax payer's problem that you are poor. It's YOURS.
Notice how the entire line for the United States resides in the top portion of the graph? That’s because the entire country is relatively rich. In fact, America’s bottom ventile is still richer than most of the world: That is, the typical person in the bottom 5 percent of the American income distribution is still richer than 68 percent of the world’s inhabitants.
Now check out the line for India. India’s poorest ventile corresponds with the 4th poorest percentile worldwide. And its richest? The 68th percentile. Yes, that’s right: America’s poorest are, as a group, about as rich as India’s richest.
Liberals live in some fantasy land where they think the poor are starving and dying in the streets, but it's in fact the opposite and they are doing quite well.
>The poor have Medicaid which doesn't get declined. Nor do the poor have to pay anything for their government insurance, no premiums, no copays.
What planet are you living in?
not all get free ****, they have to suffer more then any other class just to servive, so i wouldnt be saying they have it easier (Im not saying you said that, I mean in general)
People who get medicaid don't have to pay monthly premiums. When they show up to a doctors office or ER, they aren't expected to come up with copays.
The middle class pays a huge chunk of their income every month on insurance premiums and often a pretty good co-pay every time they see a doctor. And inspite of paying thousands of dollars each year for insurance, the middle class usually has to meet a deductible of $2000 or more before insurance kicks in.
Really the poor don't realize how good they have it when the government just hands them their Medicaid card and they pay nothing for their health care costs.
The working poor have it bad - but not the welfare poor.
Are there time limits on how long you can live on welfare these days?
No.
There is one welfare program called TANF which is the cash giveaway that has a 5 year limit but the other welfare programs have no time limits. You can receive food stamps, Section 8, Medicaid, utility payments, SSI your entire life.
Notice how the entire line for the United States resides in the top portion of the graph? That’s because the entire country is relatively rich. In fact, America’s bottom ventile is still richer than most of the world: That is, the typical person in the bottom 5 percent of the American income distribution is still richer than 68 percent of the world’s inhabitants.
Now check out the line for India. India’s poorest ventile corresponds with the 4th poorest percentile worldwide. And its richest? The 68th percentile. Yes, that’s right: America’s poorest are, as a group, about as rich as India’s richest.
Liberals live in some fantasy land where they think the poor are starving and dying in the streets, but it's in fact the opposite and they are doing quite well.
There you have it Liberals, let that be a lesson for yer! Until 6 year old kids are sifting through needles and raw sewage in an underpass in Calcutta all day for a morsel of stale bread and a glass of muddy water then the good ol US of A hasn't truly arrived as a nation.
There you have it Liberals, let that be a lesson for yer! Until 6 year old kids are sifting through needles and raw sewage in an underpass in Calcutta all day for a morsel of stale bread and a glass of muddy water then the good ol US of A hasn't truly arrived as a nation.
Americans have no idea what real poverty is.
If a poor 6 year old only got 2 new $60 video games instead of the 4 he wanted, they feel very poor. If the poor have free cell phones from the government but not the newest iPhones, they think they have it very tough.
Try living in a country where the poor don't have food stamps to fill up their grocery carts with hundreds of dollars of food every month, and don't wear $100 shoes and aren't given $2000 for housing costs each month. Here the poor don't know what's it's like to have a thermostat set below 70 degrees or how it is to live in the summer without air conditioners running full blast. Not many poor in the USA can imagine living without televisions, electricity, video game players.
I think we can all admit that our poor live like kings compared with the poor in Calcutta who truly experience poverty and could not imagine someone in the USA with every need met, more food than one should eat, and many luxuries would consider himself poor.
If a poor 6 year old only got 2 new $60 video games instead of the 4 he wanted, they feel very poor. If the poor have free cell phones from the government but not the newest iPhones, they think they have it very tough.
Try living in a country where the poor don't have food stamps to fill up their grocery carts with hundreds of dollars of food every month, and don't wear $100 shoes and aren't given $2000 for housing costs each month. Here the poor don't know what's it's like to have a thermostat set below 70 degrees or how it is to live in the summer without air conditioners running full blast. Not many poor in the USA can imagine living without televisions, electricity, video game players.
I think we can all admit that our poor live like kings compared with the poor in Calcutta who truly experience poverty and could not imagine someone in the USA with every need met, more food than one should eat, and many luxuries would consider himself poor.
Don't know what it's like to have a thermostat set below 70 degrees. Not that I'd dare to suggest that you're using a sledgehammer to hammer home a nail in a pin cushion but you do appear to have overplayed you're hand just a little. Of course there are many parts of the world where poverty is greater than 'THE RICHEST' nation in the world but there are also places with alot less disposable wealth than America who would not tolerate the ghettoisation and poverty seen in some parts of America.
And I simply don't see the logic in explaining America's deficiencies away by exposing the virtues of the horrific levels of poverty seen in sweatshops in Bangladesh, China and parts of India. In India their dismissal of their poor is not something to be applauded. But then they've taken on the American mantle of choosing nuclear programs and lavish lifestyles for the minority in favour of the welfare of the majority of their people.
So what are you suggesting? I bet you'd love to give any kids claiming hardship to be sent on some reality TV style 'Bootcamp In Calcutta' experience. That'd teach em ay. Bet you'd like to see similar treatment dished out to American kids on a more regular basis too. Why not bring back child labour and chimney sweeping? Don't see why not, there's always somewhere worse off. Don't like it? "Well, get back down that chimney before I give you sixty lashes of my birch before sending you on a slave ship to Calcutta". "Then you'll know what it's all about sonny Jim. Then you'll quit your bellyachin and a boo-hooing".
The essential and prevailing theme of your argument is that no-one in America can complain until their living standards plunge to the barrel scraping depths of poverty seen in places such as Calcutta and other parts of Africa and Asia. It isn't an argument that holds up well to scrutiny unless you believe this race to the bottom tripe served from the ever expanding gut of the uber rich elites who are increasing their helpings of pie whilst preaching to everyone else but them "Hey you, lower your standard of living. When it gets nearer to the bottom of the barrel, get back to me. And then we'll see if we can lower standards just a little more".
What happened to looking to achieve raising living standards for everyone?
Last edited by Fear&Whiskey; 01-16-2012 at 04:56 AM..
It is easier to be poor in a 3rd World country than in the US.
In a 3rd World country, you can grab an "abandoned" piece of land and build a house that doesn't meet any regulation without any problem.
Try doing that in the US, and you'll end up in jail.
Do you actually think that Americas poor would lift a finger to build something?
If they had that in heir DNA, they wouldn't be poor.
And people like you always assume something bad will happen to everybody because it either A) happened to you or B) you just WANT it to happen to someone else so they'll be stuck down at the bottom of the barrel with you. so petty and bitter.
I'm pretty sure the person you responded to was stating that it would take a catastrophic chain of events to sink him down to where you're at. Which is typically true. One thing won't make it happen for those of us who plan well.
The left excoriate the rich.
It's beyond a lefties comprehension to see beyond the Boundaries of government assistance.
There are lots of wealthy lefties who promote the entitlement mentality among the poor.
That's why I always say "socialism is for the people, not the socialists".
Ever notice how the same rules don't apply to those making the rules?
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. Not that I'd dare to suggest that you're using a sledgehammer to hammer home a nail in a pin cushion but you do appear to have overplayed you're hand just a little. Of course there are many parts of the world where poverty is greater than 'THE RICHEST' nation in the world but there are also places with alot less disposable wealth than America who would not tolerate the ghettoisation and poverty seen in some parts of America.
