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What is poverty? The late political scientist Edward Banfield provided four degrees of poverty:
destitution, which is lack of income sufficient to assure physical survival and to prevent suffering from hunger, exposure, or remediable or preventable illness;
want, which is lack of enough income to support essential welfare;
hardship, which is lack of enough to prevent acute persistent discomfort or inconvenience. To this he added a fourth:
relative deprivation which is a lack of enough income, status, or whatever else may be valued to prevent one from feeling poor in comparison to others.
Poor people in America have a higher standard of living than middle-class Americans of previous generations. More people die in the United States of too much food than of too little.
The "poor" have a different set of values condemning them to poverty regardless of how much money is lavished on them. Yet there is no shortage of nail salons and liquor stores in these neighborhoods. The market determines what people are interested in buying. Tennis shoes, costing several hundred dollars, a pair are not marketed to middle class youth. The target market is inner city youth.
Continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.”
Certainly progressive academics are aware of the consequences of their policies. Perhaps that is their ultimate goal.
Poor people in America certainly have it a lot better than poor people in ancient times and in current 3rd world societies. That's not really debatable.
On the other hand, your motives for opening this thread are more transparent than a Miley Cyrus see through dress. You want to castigate the lower crust of American society for b**ching, while you lack the personal responsibility and self-awareness to stop whining endlessly about liberals, Muslims, black people, Obama, Mexicans, (god knows what groups I left off), despite being significantly better than most if not all poor Americans. And of course to write paeans to the upper crust of America as well.
Get another schtick. If you're as awesome as you think are, you can come up something more creative and less dull.
What is poverty? The late political scientist Edward Banfield provided four degrees of poverty:
destitution, which is lack of income sufficient to assure physical survival and to prevent suffering from hunger, exposure, or remediable or preventable illness;
want, which is lack of enough income to support essential welfare;
hardship, which is lack of enough to prevent acute persistent discomfort or inconvenience. To this he added a fourth:
relative deprivation which is a lack of enough income, status, or whatever else may be valued to prevent one from feeling poor in comparison to others.
I'd put myself in the 'hardship' category; I feel persistent discomfort and inconvenience. I like to say that I have to do everything the hard way (because I can't afford the tools, e.g. car, to do things the easy way).
Relative deprivation creates (extra) discomfort and inconvenience for unattached heterosexual males because humans are socially hierarchical; relative deprivation usually means that you don't get the girl.
Poor people in America have a higher standard of living than middle-class Americans of previous generations. More people die in the United States of too much food than of too little.
The "poor" have a different set of values condemning them to poverty regardless of how much money is lavished on them. Yet there is no shortage of nail salons and liquor stores in these neighborhoods. The market determines what people are interested in buying. Tennis shoes, costing several hundred dollars, a pair are not marketed to middle class youth. The target market is inner city youth.
I like to think there are two broad classes of American poor. The networked poor typically enjoy an array of government assistance programs, plus unreported assistance which can come from a number of sources including off-the-books work, from parents/siblings/relatives, from boyfriends, from baby daddies, from illegal activities e.g. selling drugs. They might be able to get their kid Air Jordans, or the kid might find his own way to scam them.
The unnetworked poor - typically childless adults - get little government assistance - and don't have a network of family and friends to give them free stuff. They would never dream of blowing money on flashy toys or fashion statements or looking good; they simply can't afford to do so.
I like to think there are two broad classes of American poor. The networked poor typically enjoy an array of government assistance programs, plus unreported assistance which can come from a number of sources including off-the-books work, from parents/siblings/relatives, from boyfriends, from baby daddies, from illegal activities e.g. selling drugs. They might be able to get their kid Air Jordans, or the kid might find his own way to scam them.
The unnetworked poor - typically childless adults - get little government assistance - and don't have a network of family and friends to give them free stuff. They would never dream of blowing money on flashy toys or fashion statements or looking good; they simply can't afford to do so.
That's because the "unnetworked poor" --- grown, abled-bodied adults with no children or other ties preventing them from moving, training or developing skills to obtain better position --- choose their life of poverty, or are too comfortable with little.
And that's why nobody feels sorry for them. Last person I'll ever give a dollar to are able bodied male beggars on the street. I can go to Home Depot right now and find 10 illegal guys, can't speak a lick of English, willing to do any work that comes their way, and who would jump at opportunities presented to them to move up.
[quote=freemkt;38137569]I'd put myself in the 'hardship' category; I feel persistent discomfort and inconvenience. I like to say that I have to do everything the hard way (because I can't afford the tools, e.g. car, to do things the easy way).
Relative deprivation creates (extra) discomfort and inconvenience for unattached heterosexual males because humans are socially hierarchical; relative deprivation usually means that you don't get the girl.[/quote]
I always wondered why that is if a guy does not have a car it is hard to get dates? You would think there would be some woman who are environmentalist that would latch on to a guy that rides public transportation. Maybe there are some woman and as your waiting on a bus you are missing them? start hitting on those woman that you see is what I would do.
What is poverty? The late political scientist Edward Banfield provided four degrees of poverty:
destitution, which is lack of income sufficient to assure physical survival and to prevent suffering from hunger, exposure, or remediable or preventable illness;
want, which is lack of enough income to support essential welfare;
hardship, which is lack of enough to prevent acute persistent discomfort or inconvenience. To this he added a fourth:
relative deprivation which is a lack of enough income, status, or whatever else may be valued to prevent one from feeling poor in comparison to others.
I am going with relative deprivation. I have a nice home and a fairly new car but if I drive into Remsenburg NY everyone has a much nicer home and nicer cars. And if they drive to Southhampton NY they feel can the same way and if the poor Hamptonites who don't live on the ocean drive to Dune Rd they can feel the same way.
I guess almost all of us can think we are in poverty using that definition depending upon who we compare ourselves.
I'd put myself in the 'hardship' category; I feel persistent discomfort and inconvenience. I like to say that I have to do everything the hard way (because I can't afford the tools, e.g. car, to do things the easy way).
Relative deprivation creates (extra) discomfort and inconvenience for unattached heterosexual males because humans are socially hierarchical; relative deprivation usually means that you don't get the girl.
You are 100% correct........you did put yourself in the "hardship" category.
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