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What poverty? How many Americans that actively try and better there lives are truly poor? Maybe they can't get the latest iPhones or go to outback every weekend, but truly poor? As in no home, and are starving?
Most Americans who are without a home or digging thru the trash for meals are a result of their own poor decisions. In a country of 300m that has a decreasing sense of 'one community', that will never be eliminated.
It's not realistic that everyone is born with the same exact opportunities. But for the overwhelming majority of Americans, the opportunity to better oneself is there.
What poverty? How many Americans that actively try and better there lives are truly poor? Maybe they can't get the latest iPhones or go to outback every weekend, but truly poor? As in no home, and are starving?
Most Americans who are without a home or digging thru the trash for meals are a result of their own poor decisions. In a country of 300m that has a decreasing sense of 'one community', that will never be eliminated.
It's not realistic that everyone is born with the same exact opportunities. But for the overwhelming majority of Americans, the opportunity to better oneself is there.
I wish people like you would spend a week in these people's shoes then come back and tell your experience. You probably wouldn't last 2 days. It's so easy to judge and tell people what to do when you actually have no idea what their situation is.
I wish people like you would spend a week in these people's shoes then come back and tell your experience. You probably wouldn't last 2 days. It's so easy to judge and tell people what to do when you actually have no idea what their situation is.
The only thing bad about being poor, is having to live near other poor people. Trust me.
Other annoyances of being poor. Obnoxious cost of car insurance + car tags(varies from about $500 a year to $1000 a year). Ridiculous cost of rent for pretty much anywhere that isn't public-housing. If you get to own your own house for whatever reason(even if its a craphole), then having to pay property taxes is pretty annoying as well.
Trust me, I live in almost squalor. It isn't bad.
It is the constant(and high) expenses and the ****ty people that ruin everything.
The only thing bad about being poor, is having to live near other poor people. Trust me.
Other annoyances of being poor. Obnoxious cost of car insurance + car tags(varies from about $500 a year to $1000 a year). Ridiculous cost of rent for pretty much anywhere that isn't public-housing. If you get to own your own house for whatever reason(even if its a craphole), then having to pay property taxes is pretty annoying as well.
Trust me, I live in almost squalor. It isn't bad.
It is the constant(and high) expenses and the ****ty people that ruin everything.
Ah, but most states have lower property taxes on owner-occupied homes than on rental property, and some states (e.g. Michigan) allow poor homeowners to defer paying property taxes until they sell, move, or die. And there are often privately-organized projects that help poor homeowners with painting and minor repairs. And a poor homeowner can reduce their housing costs and sometimes live in the house for free by renting out extra rooms. (Better than renting with roommates because YOU get to decide who lives with you.)
So it's usually better to be a poor homeowner than a poor renter.
And yes, you hit on a major downside of being poor - the quality of the people who surround you.
Subsidized housing exists in many places, I don't think anyone is building "projects" like they did in the past. That's nothing but trouble. There are issues that go along with subsidized housing too, like any rent control type of set up. Some people will ride on it forever, meaning that once someone gets into a place they will never leave, which makes it social welfare instead of a stepping stone. In other words, nobody else will ever benefit from it because THAT GUY got there first and, in many cases, that makes him less likely to change his situation in any meaningful way. There are places where people have been in a building or area for generations because someone in the past got something. Not sure that's a good thing.
Affordable housing and safe communities are necessary and we need to figure out better ways of delivering that.
I will say that this can be a solution for SOME of the people who get into it. Others are just going to enjoy cheap rent for the rest of their lives while others wait for them to die so maybe they can get in.
It doesn't work, obviously, since "poverty" still exists.
As long as poverty is tied to a percentage of someone else's income it will always exist.
"Poverty" as it is used now is another means of class warfare.
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