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It's not easy to find houses that were built without AC or with no cable running to it.
Love this...from a poster in Miami, no less! Have you ever been to Perrine? How about Opa Locka? Or Overton? Liberty City? Believe me, there are pockets of urban poverty all over Miami. Severe poverty. Again, black folks, elderly...barely making it.
You can't compare poor in America with poor in Haiti.
You also shouldn't compare poor in NYC with poor in small rural southern cities.
Everyone has "stuff". We're a consumer economy for crying out loud.
A lot of the poor don't have new stuff; they have all that stuff that others throw out every 3 years because they need the latest and greatest, not because it broke.
But what you see is not the whole story. So many are living paycheck to paycheck and that includes those not considered poor.
As a nation we've been convinced that it's good to buy stuff with our extra money, not to save it and invest it for the future or a rainy day.
A government is a reflection of it's people. Look at the state of the government. Its people are in that same state.
I agree.....
Also, you can not compare being poor from one time period to another. Being poor in the 1800's or 1950's is not the same as being poor in the USA in 2012. You have to look at what is the norm or standard of the day (a baseline).
We already destroyed this nonsense months ago--but I'm seeing the same old drivel once again--people aren't really poor or in poverty unless their licking fungus off the walls and wiping their asses with dirt.
Please. Nobody here knows how these people obtained their wonderful "luxuries" like a refrigerator, washer\dryers, or entertainment devices. You can buy a VCR for $5 friggen dollars, an Xbox for $100--and for all you know, these things could have been purchased before people fell into poor-hood in the first place.
Keep hatin', Conservatives, it's worked brilliantly for you so far.
This is true, people are close minded to how it really is to be poor. Garage sales as well allow for some stuff you couldn't afford otherwise. People want to live as normally as they can. They have kids and want these things for their kids like anyone else does. Being poor doesn't mean you won't strive to have what others have.
A lot of these parents have addiction issues and can't really grasp life like some would like them to. They can't function mentally or physically. They rely on assistance for life and then try and live it as normally as they can. We don't have good mental services for these people. Doctors load them up on prescription meds for pain and don't address the real issues.
We should all think outside the box because most of us don't live like it's 1950. Things are different now, dynamics of family are different, this is a very close minded one sided thread, IMO.
If you've never been poor, in a poor area or received assistance you really have no idea. They have a different mind set altogether. They are treated different, and you can't really understand it unless you've been there or have worked with them. It involves a lot of factors.
There are many lower middle class folks who don't make enough but don't qualify as well. Those I see suffer the most in a lot of cases. They are caught between the two ideals of American life. Not poor, not stable. Usually people on aid have parents that just cannot function without it. We give aid for their kids, so they can eat and have clothing for school. Yes, sometimes a game system, that money isn't enough to go off aid.
Also, you can not compare being poor from one time period to another. Being poor in the 1800's or 1950's is not the same as being poor in the USA in 2012. You have to look at what is the norm or standard of the day (a baseline).
Exactly -- which still means the so-called poor today have everything they need and want. In the past poverty actually meant people didn't have heat, didn't have more than enough food, didn't have all the luxuries everyone else had. They aren't suffering today, they might whine because their car or truck is 10 years old, and they can't have a new lexus, or they envy those who travel and stay in 4 star hotels while they stay in affordable hotels. But they most definitely having to go without.
Love this...from a poster in Miami, no less! Have you ever been to Perrine? How about Opa Locka? Or Overton? Liberty City? Believe me, there are pockets of urban poverty all over Miami. Severe poverty. Again, black folks, elderly...barely making it.
I guess life didn't exist in the South before A/C ?
I lived in Florida for over a decade. And I have lived in older homes/apartments that didn't orginally have A/C (Miami Beach and Pompano Beach). They had window units. But, and a lot of folks don't realize this, back then homes were built differently; they were built to take advantage of Mother Nature.
The two homes I lived in were built to take advantage of prevailing winds and provided shade.
Makes a big difference. I did run the a/c to control humidity though.
I now live in Texas in an old renovated 1940's home. I have A/C but this home was built before that.
Built to take advantage of prevailing winds and shade. The a/c doesn't run all that much really.
I hear of $200-$300 electric bills and literally am floored when I hear it.
Today homes like that being built are called "solar passive" homes. Well that's the way homes used to be built because they didn't have the luxury of a/c.
Love this...from a poster in Miami, no less! Have you ever been to Perrine? How about Opa Locka? Or Overton? Liberty City? Believe me, there are pockets of urban poverty all over Miami. Severe poverty. Again, black folks, elderly...barely making it.
Yes there are those "international" cities like Miami and all along the border where you will see some of that but that's almost all imported poverty. People happily come from third world countries because being poor here beats everything they could have back home.
Poor back home would mean a tiny shack, no electricity, no refrigerator, no heat or air condioning, a black and white television instead of a big color one connected to cable. Back home they would go without health care. They come here because they get so much more here.
It's all relative -- the poverty here is nothing like the poverty you see in other countries.
Exactly -- which still means the so-called poor today have everything they need and want. In the past poverty actually meant people didn't have heat, didn't have more than enough food, didn't have all the luxuries everyone else had. They aren't suffering today, they might whine because their car or truck is 10 years old, and they can't have a new lexus, or they envy those who travel and stay in 4 star hotels while they stay in affordable hotels. But they most definitely having to go without.
Find a inner city meals on wheels program, and deliver a hundred meals on thanksgiving, and see how many of the poor have all the luxuries you think they have. Very few.
I guess life didn't exist in the South before A/C ?
I lived in Florida for over a decade. And I have lived in older homes/apartments that didn't orginally have A/C (Miami Beach and Pompano Beach). They had window units. But, and a lot of folks don't realize this, back then homes were built differently; they were built to take advantage of Mother Nature.
The two homes I lived in were built to take advantage of prevailing winds and provided shade.
Makes a big difference. I did run the a/c to control humidity though.
I now live in Texas in an old renovated 1940's home. I have A/C but this home was built before that.
Built to take advantage of prevailing winds and shade. The a/c doesn't run all that much really.
I hear of $200-$300 electric bills and literally am floored when I hear it.
Today homes like that being built are called "solar passive" homes. Well that's the way homes used to be built because they didn't have the luxury of a/c.
Exactly. Wealthy people didn't have air conditioning back 100 years ago, poor people didn't have it. They didn't have electricity either -- no matter how rich you were. No refrigerator, no television much less cable.
You can live in the SW desert without air conditioning - you can acclimate to 100 degrees so you can enjoy the outdoors rather than huddle all day next to your air conditioner. People used to go outside more 100 years ago, no they think they'll die and now kids have become very obese, rarely do you see kids playing outdoors. Rich and poor -- they cannot leave the indoors so they sit in front of the television for hours.
With cars, you don't see anyone out walking any more out of necessity, the rich as well as the poor simply jump in the car when they want to go to the store a block away. If you do see people out walking, it's generally not the poor and it's for exercise, not necessity.
If people were really poor, didn't have enough for the basics you would not see billions of recreational drugs coming over the border every day -- and many of our so-called poor are eagerly out getting their drug fixes each and ever day - costly drugs. As a nation we've got the drug addicts with the most money to spend and they do spend it, they don't have to worry about passing employment drug screens either.
It's amazing how much BS can be written over one flawed premise.
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