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And what area of the U.S. has an ideal climate where you don't ever need the A/C or heat, and please don't anyone come along and list southern California! I've heard that lie/exaggeration too many times!
I've traveled enough of the world where I happened to travel to spots, where there was much poverty, and yet, these poor people will never have to turn on the A/C or heater any time of the year.
Guatemala City, Tegucigalpas Honduras, Medellin and Cali Colombia come to mind.
Imagine being poor FL and can't afford to use the A/C (or not A/C present) or being in MN with insufficient funds to heat your apartment.
I had an Indian co-worker who used to sneer that America was the only country where all the poor people were fat!
Whatever, ..but when we had a garage sale at my parents house we couldn't even GIVE the older big TVs away.
Of course we didn't live in a poor neighborhood, so there's that.
And what area of the U.S. has an ideal climate where you don't ever need the A/C or heat, and please don't anyone come along and list southern California! I've heard that lie/exaggeration too many times!
I've traveled enough of the world where I happened to travel to spots, where there was much poverty, and yet, these poor people will never have to turn on the A/C or heater any time of the year.
Guatemala City, Tegucigalpas Honduras, Medellin and Cali Colombia come to mind.
Imagine being poor FL and can't afford to use the A/C (or not A/C present) or being in MN with insufficient funds to heat your apartment.
(last sentence )
Minnesota has a law that your electricity can not be turned off by the power company in winter due to non-payment.
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
4,409 posts, read 6,543,919 times
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Wat.
I grew up poor.
We had no AC, inadequate heating in the winter, no non-waste indoor plumbing save for a single sink pumped from the well, our toilet was unusable because it was sinking into the floor, no bathtub (we used a horse troth), the foundation of our home was damaged, we had one working burner on our stove, the entire house had five electric lights total (we did use candles), we went many times without a single working car, we had no TV, we only got by for food because of church drives, and when we did have a PC it was rented. Sometimes we didn't have power at all. I barely had clothing, and often what I did own was full of holes.
I literally slept on a blue tarp on a hard wood floor with a garbage bag of old newspapers as a pillow for over a year. Not even an exaggeration.
All that and I grew up in a "rich state". New York. Imagine how much worse it is in the poorest parts of WV, KY or Mississippi.
Sure, I had a video game system. I had it because friends of ours gave it to me for free. That's how I got my Nintendo. In 1998.
That's just one place we lived. We had to move a lot because of jobs drying up or things going poorly in some way. I hopped trailer parks, motel rooms, and even lived with my family in a mini van.
What's this "the American poor have cars and AC and blah blah blah" crap? Those people aren't necessarily poor. Struggling, perhaps, maybe impoverished but have items through the charity of friends. Nevertheless, that is not what I consider the American poor. That's more like lower middle class.
Consider this too, if they have those things they may be up to the heavens in debt. Eventually that will crumble around them and they will lose those comforts.
Sure, my poor still wasn't as bad as Calcutta poor, but it sure as hell was not desirable.
Poverty is relative to ones surroundings... if your very poor but live just round the corner from luxurious penthouses it must feel worse to sharing poverty with a large area.. people dont know any better sad as it is.
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
4,409 posts, read 6,543,919 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dizzybint
Poverty is relative to ones surroundings... if your very poor but live just round the corner from luxurious penthouses it must feel worse to sharing poverty with a large area.. people dont know any better sad as it is.
Growing up in NY the wealth disparity is extremely noticeable. I dare say you are judged more harshly here for being poor than you would be in more overall poor states.
It's an angle people in generally poor states don't often have to experience.
Agreed but I think the biggest difference in the very poor in the US (and the rest of the 1st world) vs. the poor in undeveloped countries is the amount of work done. The very poor (and their children) in the developing world are laboring around the clock to eek out a very basic sustenance. Failure often means death. There is little or no burden on anyone outside of their own communities. Its easy to sympathize with their plight.
The very poor in the first world are effectively wards of the state. They are guaranteed a basic sustenance and perform very little labor in exchange for it.
With TANF that was adopted under Bill Clinton, even “wards of the state” isn’t true unless you’re disabled or have dependent children. An able bodied single male can’t be a ward of the state. At best, they qualify for Medicaid and a tiny amount of food stamps. It’s why opiate addiction is so devistating. Not disabled, at least initially. Too drugged up to work. Begging and property crime are how they survive.
You want to be poor in a small first world country with a homogeneous population. It’s easier to politically support generous social services when everyone in your country is part of the same tribe.
No I have never heard of poor Australians being in envy of poor Americans.
Everyone here, poor or rich, has access to universal health care. We have a national disability scheme, a non contributory old age pension which is asset and income tested, so poorer people are likely to get the full amount. Plus many other welfare benefits.
The size of a house is not really as important as its function. The Japanese and Singaporeans live in small efficient spaces without discomfort. Having a car is not relevant if a country has excellent public transport, as does Singapore.
Having recently been in San Francisco, I saw a type of poverty that I have never seen in any of the six continents where I have travelled.
I am sure the poor in the US and indeed my country are materially better off than in many countries, but not necessarily socially. But to assume that poor people in the whole world envy those in the US is quite off the mark, to put it politely.
Nice to hear from you again Charles Koch - its been a while.
"Quit whining, American poor people and refugees from the middle class. You’re actually part of the 1 percent.
That’s the laughably misleading claim in a new ad from right-wing multibillionaire Charles Koch. The $200,000 ad campaign, now running in Kansas, starts off like one of those breathless infomercials: “Are you in the 1 percent?” a male voiceover asks. “Well, if you earn over $34,000 a year, you are one of the wealthiest one percent”—he pauses slightly before the kicker—“in the world.”
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