Homeless and Tent Cities in USA (crime, college, wage)
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I really feel you are trying to make more of a political statement by calling the US a 3rd world country than a factual one. I've been all over the US and i've been to countries considered part of the 3rd world and it's frankly it's somewhat insulting to those people living in the 3rd world to downplay their poverty to make some political comparison to the US.
Frankly many of if not most would gladly trade in their lives to be "poor" in the US. Until you've traveled through some 3rd world slums like i have i don't think you can be making your statement. The worst looking neighborhood you can find in the US will still look 10X better than this:
The US regardless of it's problems still has actual basic infrastructures in places. Something many 3rd world countries do not.
You're exactly right, that idiot is just trying to make a political statement! The US is definitely not a 3rd world country...
Sadly there are homeless in America. I've seen children who are homeless, and walk to school. I've also seen tent cities. Sometimes people fall on hard times. Sometimes people are homeless because that's the life they choose. In America a person can still become anything they want to, they just have to work and want it bad enough.
This thread is for bashing the United States. That is the ONLY reason. Third World Country? What a laugh. Some of those who have not worked hard enough to have achieved much are sometimes the first in line to criticise. Those who want to come to the USA, no matter what, are not disappointed when they arrive. I am so thankful I grew up not expecting something for nothing. Like many others of substance, I was encouraged to be an individualist, but, to practice charity and help my fellow man and not expect the government to take over my life.
I was horrified when I watch on TV, a report showing a lots of homeless and Tent Cities in USA.
I never imagined that the greatest world's superpower had so much poverty.
It is look like a third world or African country.
What is happening??
I can not understand because I grew up learning that U.S. was the land of opportunity and and richness.
The US should do a lot better in helping its needy (and a lot of other things) given its massive GDP, however, I don't think that's what lies at the heart of your confusion.
I think it might be because you have no understanding of what poverty in "a third world or African country" is like and have likely never looked into it. You probably also haven't thought to adjust for local variations in a country as large as the US or do any sort of statistical analysis of what the differences in metrics among US, Brazil (for better understanding through your own local context), and countries that are actually seriously in the tank. Those factors would probably be much larger factors in leading to your confusion and lack of understanding.
This thread is for bashing the United States. That is the ONLY reason. Third World Country? What a laugh. Some of those who have not worked hard enough to have achieved much are sometimes the first in line to criticise. Those who want to come to the USA, no matter what, are not disappointed when they arrive. I am so thankful I grew up not expecting something for nothing. Like many others of substance, I was encouraged to be an individualist, but, to practice charity and help my fellow man and not expect the government to take over my life.
The author of the topic is, like me, brazilian. No surprise. Historically brazilians had some complex of not having the same worldwide cultural prestige of Europeans - since the 19th century, in the imperial times, and nowadays of USA. Brazil has since about the end of the Second World War emerging consistently as a regional leader, but failed to reach the same level of the developed nations. And in the recent years it became more influent in the global economy, and, because of this, there is some boosterism in part of the people identified with the left-wing, and they love bashing americans when they have some opportunity. This is not, however, the feeling of the average brazilians.
Some homeless choose that way of life, believe it or not. There are a ton of government programs and private charities out there willing to help them, but once they get in a job where they actually have to work, or follow their boss's orders, they quit. Many homeless also have drug / alcohol dependency issues.
Bear in mind, 2 out of 3 Americans are 2 paychecks away from being homeless!
And there are the very poor, homeless with roofs over their heads!
I have one living with me! Construction industry in Las Vegas dried up, my roommate has only had little dribbles of work the past 4 years, not enough to pay the rent or buy food. He's been with me 13 years, I've been subsidizing him for 4 years, couldn't, in any way, let him become another homeless statistic! He's so poor he can't even afford an all-day bus pass ($5) and carts his tools to the few dribbles of work he gets via bicycle! Lost his truck!
His 2 brothers are in similar straits in CA, at the mercy of benefactors, like myself, who would end up on the streets otherwise.
The author of the topic is, like me, brazilian. No surprise. Historically brazilians had some complex of not having the same worldwide cultural prestige of Europeans - since the 19th century, in the imperial times, and nowadays of USA. Brazil has since about the end of the Second World War emerging consistently as a regional leader, but failed to reach the same level of the developed nations. And in the recent years it became more influent in the global economy, and, because of this, there is some boosterism in part of the people identified with the left-wing, and they love bashing americans when they have some opportunity. This is not, however, the feeling of the average brazilians.
My friend Brazilian like me,
I think you are very wrong when you say Brazilian "have some complex" in comparison with European.
I am Brazilian and I had never any complex by comparison to European and I'm not dazzled with Europe or any country around the world too.
I want say that is poverty is equal (or same thing) anywhere in the world.
There is not "better poverty" or "worse poverty" because where it is.
Poverty is poverty.
No one in America can legally live in tent cities or shanty towns. Instead, people have to live in houses or apartments or projects where it costs at least $10-$20,000 a year to live in, and that's at a poverty level. So they will likely need public assistance.
For this reason, Brazil, China, Turkey, India, etal., actually offer better lives for poorish people and the employers who hire them (not to mention the taxpayers). In Brazil it is possble to live decent lives in Favelas but very inexpensively.
It's America's hard-on for private property and disrespect for public places (along with rampant consumerism) that drives the cost-of-living up high for everyone.
I want say that is poverty is equal (or same thing) anywhere in the world.
There is not "better poverty" or "worse poverty" because where it is.
Poverty is poverty.
I think that's actually a really bad way of thinking about it, because if poverty is meant to be overcome in any useful way then what's necessary is to address poverty as it is locally. A broad definition of poverty with some kind of shared cutoff for all places would lead to a fairly poor understanding of how different poverty is around the world and what should be done to address it. Your idea of poverty in the US being the same as the kind of poverty met in some parts of say sub-saharan africa or south asia would be almost useless as a way to find a real course of action. Does it really make sense to address and prioritize infant mortality rates, to take for example, in Angola in the same way as it would for the Mississippi Delta? No, because the situations are so different that clumping the two together would be idiocy in terms of actually getting anything done.
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