Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
After two decades of right wing radio, the haters are more confident than ever and ready to publicly express their antipathy towards their fellow Americans.
In retrospect, it shouldn't be so surprising. The haters used to be able to aim their hatred at China and the USSR. But now the USSR is gone and their corporate masters have embraced Red China, so they are now commanded to direct their irrational anger at teachers, police, union workers, minorities, etc. The poor are just one of many on the list. And in many cases, "the poor" is code-speak for "minorities."
I'd say you hit it right on the head, hate radio/media and it's right wing fanatics have. done a great job of butchering the truth in media. This A.M. I got another email from a right wing nut showing "the real Trayvon Martin", of course it isn't the "real" Trayvon, it's some music rapper thug tatted up and looking pretty mean but to the sender of the email it was just another "proof" of "liberal media" not wanting to show us the real Trayvon. This is becoming a nightmare in America, do we want the truth or are the lies that substantiate a certain political position acceptable now?????
There's nothing in the US that matches the Indian caste system or the feudal legacy of class distinction in Europe, but there's definitely an attitude that says 'if you fail, its your fault'.
But I'm not sure the poor in the US are thought of particularly worse than they are in other countries- conflict between the haves and have nots has been a major global narrative for most of human history. Gee, someone should put that in a manifesto. While most histories of the rise of European nations are stories of the nobility, the royalty, and the wealthy, with the poor merely playing the role of unnamed peasants akin to slaves or bodies sent into the meat grinder at the whims of all powerful warlords, the United States has a unique identity in that its rise to power and influence in the 19th and early 20th century came as a result of being the destination for the world's tired, poor, huddled masses.
This belief is so widespread in the US that one who had never left that country might never question this belief; might never think that there is another way of thinking.
Obviously you are only talking about 1st-World counrites. In most 3rd-World countries the poor are despised because they are generally from ethnic or religious minorities and they are officially persecuted.
On the surface it seems crazy to suggest that Americans "hate" their poor more than other 1st-World countries. However, most Americans can trace their ancestry to poor immigrants, and we've heard the stories passed on from older generations of coming to America with nothing, or of being poor during the Depression, etc. Most other 1st-World countries are not made up of poor immigrants the way we are. Perhaps we do have a certain impatience with people whose barckgrounds are no different than ours, yet are still living on public assistance. If only they would just getout of bed in the morning and look for a job instead of waiting for their checks in the mail.
There's nothing in the US that matches the Indian caste system or the feudal legacy of class distinction in Europe, but there's definitely an attitude that says 'if you fail, its your fault'.
...While most histories of the rise of European nations are stories of the nobility, the royalty, and the wealthy, with the poor merely playing the role of unnamed peasants akin to slaves or bodies sent into the meat grinder at the whims of all powerful warlords, the United States has a unique identity...
Good points, but the egalitarian theoretical principles of America's foundation cut both ways. In a country with a rigid caste system, it's no surprise that low-caste people are poor. Maybe they are derided by the higher-caste members, but that derision isn't one of moral opprobrium. In contrast, one might say about American society that the lack of caste restrictions mean that there's no excuse for being poor. Poverty is therefore its own fault.
Similarly, if the nobility or priestly-class or other institutional upper-class is wealthy, again there is no surprise. Their privilege of birth is acknowledged. No one says that Duke So-and-So or Count Such-and-Such studied hard in school, applied himself, founded a successful business and therefore became a duke or a count. His exalted status is recognized as stemming from birth. But in a theoretically egalitarian society, we are wont to ascribe high-status or high-success to personal fortitude, such that demonstrably doing well is testament to being good.
I don't hate the poor but growing up poor I did everything in my power to escape it. Unfortunately the poor have more kids then the middle class and those that are well off. The poor end up perpetuating theirselves much of the time.
I despised being poor and took all necessary steps to escape it. I chose to pursue an Engineering degree from a good school and it payed off rather quickly. If I chose to live as I grew up I could have retired at 35 or earlier.
OK, I noticed that in some on C-D when it comes to the finance area. They feel that people are poor because they did not get an education and that if we all had an education there would be no poor. I keep wondering who are these people that would not understand economics any better than this. So, yes, some do hate the poor. Funny thing is, these are the same ones that eat at the fancy restaurant and vacation where people are making minimum wage serving their needs and they freak out if they learn the people need public assistance to get by on! Then it becomes that they need to get a better job. Who the heck is going to clean the toilet, empty the garbage, check you out at the Super store if everyone gets a degree. Plus, they don't realize that a lot of the people at the checkout have a degree, the insurance salesman has a degree, the clerk at quick shop has a degree. Ignorance of how an economy works can make someone blame the poor for being poor. Ignorance is the problem, not the poor.
Well, I've seen the full-spectrum of thought on this subject in these posts, from those that confirm the notion that Americans do blame their poor for their situation and resent having to do anything to help them, assuming that most are living the good life on their tax dollar, to those who realize that poverty is about more than personal responsibility and laziness and lack of initiative, etc., and that the myth of the welfare mom who has babies for money is far from the norm, and those who argue that it is have an agenda, and no idea what poverty in America really is about. I invite everyone to take a look at the photos on this award-winning site and ask themselves if their notions of how the poor in America live perhaps need an adjustment, and see that wealthy right-wing commentators are not the best source of factual information on the topic. http://www.american-pictures.com/gallery/
I am not going to stake out a position in this debate, but am interested in reading the replies. Besides, I get tired of posting and having them cut by this moderator. He never explains himself and has not replied to my PM's. I'm sure this entire paragraph will be snipped, so might as well stop wasting my time typing.
Americans hate the poor people.
We always have, because most Americans live one paycheck short
of being poor. That why.
The rich hate the poor and the middle class.
They are trying to eliminate the middle class, but not realizing
if they do succeed in eliminating the middle class, they won't be as rich either. The USA will implode on itself.
It's strange, and hard to watch really....
Yes, and it will in the end be a good thing. This country is too large to govern effectively, and is way too diverse. Nothing can ever get done by govt that needs to get done. Only in places like Somalia will you see fully the effects of having no govt, but yet so many in this doomed country think that having no govt (right wingers) will solve all our problems. I have had it living in the same country with them. When the US implodes, and smaller countries result, those countries will be able to have the govt they deserve.
I’m surprised that no one has yet mentioned the role of parenthood in poverty. Most poverty-relief programs, be they direct transfer payments, Earned Income Credit, healthcare and so forth, are geared towards poor parents. I won’t turn this into a discussion of poor people exploiting the system by intentionally having children, but I will state that the childless poor have little recourse to public-sector resources. I have first-hand evidence of friends without health insurance being denied Medicaid because they don’t have kids.
So this is a fine example of acting responsibly by not bringing a child into the world that the parent can’t afford to raise, but in so doing, finding that the responsible act is precisely the one that limits access to assistance. I have seen this happen to college graduates who have been systematically unable to find employment in their profession, instead working part-time at Taco Bell for $8/hour.
Yup, if you are a single younger male who lost his job and savings while developing some sort of a chronic disease, you are as good as dead in the richest country on Earth. It seems to me that great many people in these thread get their "knowledge" of the social assistance largess from the prepaid talk radio clowns. I hope none of you will be a single jobless male in a need of medical attention, because you'd discover pretty fast that fairy tales about generous public assistance and emergency rooms providing excellent (and free) medical care to the hordes of illegals is nothing but hogwash.
I wouldn't use the word "hate." I would say that many Americans have disdain for the poor. We in America have been fed a lifelong, steady diet of messages about how we all have equal opportunities, we can "pull ourselves up by our bootstraps," we can do anything we set our minds to, etc., etc. While we do have many opportunities, we do not all have the same experiences and circumstances, and we are definitely not all equal in "real life."
Americans' predilection to engage in magical thinking seemed to reach some kind of new heights under the spell of "The Great Communicator," Ronald Reagan. I used to love how he would constantly intone, in that Dad-Is-Reading-You-A-Bedtime-Story voice, that he had once been poor ("raised in an apartment above the store") and, gosh darn it, he made it. Yes. He was a strapping, athletic, handsome, healthy white man with a nice voice, in an era when people threw jobs at people like that. Jobs like Movie Star. Nobody gave him any help? He didn't need any help! He graduated from college in 1932 (poor people did that during the depression?) and got his first job at a radio station. In five years he made his first movie. In another five years he was the lead actor in one of Hollywood's biggest movies of the year. College student to star of the silver screen in a decade. Those were some bootstraps.
I also think many religions today create situations in which the rich are pitted against the poor. It's often been observed that Americans are never more racially segregated than on Sunday morning. I would note that in many religions, people are also separated by class on Sunday morning. Most rich people go to church with other rich people. The "poor" are objectified for them. They hear dimly that they should "help" the poor. But it's never explained to them WHY some people are poor. They could certainly know poor people if they wanted to because in most cases the people who work for them are poor. But they'd rather not think about that. After all, those people could work their way out of their situation ... if they only tried harder.
There's a new custom license plate in my state. I depicts a beautiful night sky with a bright light shining through it. A message reads, Trust in the Lord. I saw my first one yesterday. On a Lexus SUV. I guess I would trust in the Lord, too, if he put one of those in my garage.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
