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We're at the point where poverty has mostly been eliminated in the USA. There is little starvation. The government provided safety net does an excellent job of catching most everyone in need.
The idea that there will be no jobs in the future is not credible.
We're at the point where poverty has mostly been eliminated in the USA. There is little starvation. The government provided safety net does an excellent job of catching most everyone in need.
The idea that there will be no jobs in the future is not credible.
We're at the point where poverty has mostly been eliminated in the USA. There is little starvation. The government provided safety net does an excellent job of catching most everyone in need.
The idea that there will be no jobs in the future is not credible.
You appear to be uninformed about hunger in America.
Listen to the rich witch complain about the price of entertaining on her $40 million yacht (she only has 10 of them, poor dear). We have a billionaire class to support and we cannot divert the taxes workers pay from the top 10% of earners to a bunch of starving kids.
Making an absolute prediction for the future is beyond my capabilities (re: jobs), but the powers that be care naught for the "producers" of America's goods and services. We become a drag on the billionaire class if we get sick, old, or are devistated by a natural disaster. They'd rather we die than interfer with their profit margins.
Poverty, meaning material deprivation, has been practically eliminated in the US. No one is hungry. No one is shelterless. No one is unclothed. The figures round to these conclusions.
Individuals who still lack food, clothing or shelter are either addicted to drugs or mentally defective. Poverty reduction programs can't do much to help these people. Neither can other programs.
50 years ago mental cases would be institutionalized. They were under someones care or at least attention.
50 years ago the drug industry was in its infancy. It's now big business. Organized, powerful, ruthless. It corrupts governments and law enforcement. It makes its own customers.
Most drugs come from Mexico. Cutting them off at the border is the only way to win this war.
But as for poverty of the 1964 variety, it's over. Of as close to over as it ever will be.
There are none so blind as those who WILL NOT see.
There are over half a million homeless people in the USA. That's not even getting in to all the people who are un or underemployed and doing very very poorly indeed.
I'm not even going to get in to the COPIOUS statistics showing poverty, restricted or no access to medical and dental care, poor nutrition because cheap food is crappy food, bad schools in poor neighborhood, transportation problems, not being able to afford child care, and little or no access to or expectation of ever getting any kind of post secondary education. Oh yeah, and crime and increased mortality rates for the poor across the board.
You appear to be uninformed about hunger in America.
Listen to the rich witch complain about the price of entertaining on her $40 million yacht (she only has 10 of them, poor dear). We have a billionaire class to support and we cannot divert the taxes workers pay from the top 10% of earners to a bunch of starving kids.
Making an absolute prediction for the future is beyond my capabilities (re: jobs), but the powers that be care naught for the "producers" of America's goods and services. We become a drag on the billionaire class if we get sick, old, or are devistated by a natural disaster. They'd rather we die than interfer with their profit margins.
Please don't use "The Onion" as a source. You do know it's satire, right?
The rich keep getting greedier. They hoard and hoard and grab grab grab. It's beyond anything they could ever use in a hundred lifetimes, but still they are desperate for it all. They want every penny from every person. It is never enough. They are black holes of need.
The funny thing is that the rest of us are taught to support and admire their greed. They "work hard" and we don't. They "deserve" it all and we don't. We buy this and chant it back over and over. If you try to say otherwise, a dutiful zombie will attack you for being unAmerican or Socialist or anti-Capitalist etc. It's not possible to just be a logical, reasonable person asking plainly why a person born into money "deserves" it more than anyone else since they didn't actually work for it anyway. Or why a hard working average Joe doesn't deserve anything better than the scraps he gets for his 16 hour work days.
Face it, rich people don't work "harder" than anyone else. Their money makes money while they sleep. They could never work for what they have, it's not even possible. But they perpetuate this story, this fable, that they came from nothing and built themselves into mega rich people based solely on blood sweat and tears.
@jertheber - Welcome to India, USA. And jobs are ABSOLUTELY going to disappear - the sort of jobs our lost middle class used to have that enabled them to be home owners, to have one or two cars, and to take the odd vacation and put their kids through college.
Sure there'll be jobs. Bootblack, for instance. Upstairs and downstairs maids. Footmen. Chauffeurs. Valets. Butlers. Gardeners. Kitchen staff. Scullery maids. Cleaners. Nannies.
You get the drift. And those jobs will require you to live in tiny rooms and you'll get a half day off every fortnight, but dating will not be allowed and if you turn up pregnant, out on the street with you!
I should modify my first statement.
Welcome to VICTORIAN India, USA
Quote:
Originally Posted by raggedjim
So you think the poor are murderous robbers?
No. Rich jerks think the poor are murderous robbers. We've already got "gated communities" all over the place. The ones I see around are already in good neighborhoods. If they think they need to keep the riff-raff out when the riff-raff are actually just slightly well off, imagine how they're going to be about REALLY POOR people encroaching on their extra specialness.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CamillaB
The rich keep getting greedier. They hoard and hoard and grab grab grab. It's beyond anything they could ever use in a hundred lifetimes, but still they are desperate for it all. They want every penny from every person. It is never enough. They are black holes of need.
The funny thing is that the rest of us are taught to support and admire their greed. They "work hard" and we don't. They "deserve" it all and we don't. We buy this and chant it back over and over. If you try to say otherwise, a dutiful zombie will attack you for being unAmerican or Socialist or anti-Capitalist etc. It's not possible to just be a logical, reasonable person asking plainly why a person born into money "deserves" it more than anyone else since they didn't actually work for it anyway. Or why a hard working average Joe doesn't deserve anything better than the scraps he gets for his 16 hour work days.
Face it, rich people don't work "harder" than anyone else. Their money makes money while they sleep. They could never work for what they have, it's not even possible. But they perpetuate this story, this fable, that they came from nothing and built themselves into mega rich people based solely on blood sweat and tears.
Isn't true tho.
This. This is a nation of wealthy grasshoppers living off the fruits of the worker ants. It is as if the grasshoppers are armed with automatic weapons so they can just walk in to any anthill and strip it bare. The grasshoppers play and play while the ant hills burn.
I disagree and think you are entirely too optimistic and naive. The world of the future will have the rich and the poor.
The rich will live in houses surrounded by 6 feet walls, wall spikes, electric fences, spot lights, and private security similar to how South Africa is today.
Is that the world you want to live in?
That is where we are going. On the bright side for those that have, the level of security they will have will be far superior to what we had in the past, especially when they can get the automated targeting drone systems and robots online.
Still though, people are creative and will find ways to rob and kill rich people even with all the tech.
How do you not see this coming? Lol.
Your post seems to be conflating poverty with income or wealth inequality, as if shrinking the former necessarily reduces the latter. Not necessarily so.
They are neither the same thing nor do they always correlate positively.
You want to see lots of equality?
Go to Cuba or Venezuela.
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