Real Poverty Exists in America, Let There Be No Doubt

Asyncritus recently posted that real poverty does not exist in America. I would like to question that statement, and here is one example of a website containing information disproving it:

http://www.app-pov-proj.org/5.html

He was saying that poor people in some other countries wish they were poverty stricken by U.S. standards.

Have you ever been to a third world country?

Many American "poor" have cars and cable TV. Now compare that to the poor in Madagascar.

The difference is, in America you are free and able to do something about it if one just gets off their ass and applies themselves.

At the very least you can achieve a basic standard of living that is far above the sort of poverty that exsists elsewhere in the world.

Here's a pictorial example of how some people live in America:

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/?id=369971&refnum=342642&Lang=en

Not too different from places in the Third World.

More information concerning poverty in America:

http://ourword.org/node/997

More pics:

http://www.american-pictures.com/gallery/index.html

Yeah, but he didn't word it that way.

See over here we gotta put up a lot more. I wish I could be somewhere that if I owned my little plot and house and could feed myself I would have nuthing to worry about.

But here, we have the taxes and the utilities and the high cost of living. Can I function without tv or radio. I grew up with all kinds of entertainment. Can I go without?

Its different if you never had all these wonderful things. If people weren't trying to sell you everything available.

That poor person in the other countries only think they would rather be poor in America. That shit is crazy. I think its almost worse over here.

Those poor people in Madagascar can build themselves a little house, grow some food, get a few farm animals and they are set. There will be no scorn if they make their own clothes or don;t mow their lawn.

Man I could go on and on.

That makes the assumption that all those that 'get off their ass' will succeed. That's not always the case.

Poor in America are poor because they choose to be.

I really don't give a shit regardless, because I'm not responsible for anyone but me and mine.

So good luck getting out of poverty or die in the gutter -- I really don't care.

So why do poor people from all over South and Central America risk their lives to come here illegally?

If they really had it better in some Guatemalan shit hole than here, you'd think the word would have gotten out by now.

That's a rather meaningless point. If I make $50,000 a year, it hardly matters that somebody else is making $500,000. But the difference between me at $50,000 and somebody at $5,000 is far more substantial, even though it is exactly the same ratio. The question comes down to whether or not I can afford the essentials -- food, shelter, medical care. I'd argue that all of these are far more available to the poor man in America than they are to the poor man in Madagascar.

Not to mention how many other countries have poor people who are fat. If anything that says how much more abundance we have in the U.S.

We should celebrate income inequality.

In a society like ours, it's an indicator of freedom.

Oh, and since the number one nutritional problem for the "poor" in America is obesity, fuck them x 2.

I find it interesting that the pictorial "evidence" posted by E isn't connected with any actual data about the picture. Makes me wonder if that's the best he can do, what there is to talk about.

But does this mean that the inequality is not just the same here? It does not.

Further, I would argue that if poverty distribution is along a bell-shaped curve, there are far more, in terms of absolute numbers, of the worst off Americans, that are comparable to the worst in Madagascar than is acceptable in an advanced post-industrial democracy.

In both relative and absolute terms, the ranks of the destitute in countries at an equal level of economic development to the United States, such as Japan and Germany, are not the same as that evident in the United States. If this is true, then what is so great about the United States, that we allow such radical poverty to occur?

It's all the more shocking to realize that the United States is not only wealthier by absolute measurements, but by relative ones, as compared to a number of other similarly advanced countries.

These and other reasons show why it is that the United States is consistently ranked below a significant number of other advanced post-industrial nations in terms of quality of life.

Of course, this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the cheapest food in the US is the stuff that is crammed full of fat and sugar, does it?

When you pay less for a Whopper than you do a bag of oranges, you know there's something wrong.

There are people in some places (parts of Ethiopia for example) that would think the Madagascans seemed almost as "rich" as westerners.

I would think though that these people wouldn't call themselves "poor" and that poverty is a pretty meaningless concept to them.

I posted information other than references to pictorial links.

Further, the United States has consistently ranked below a significant number of other countries in quality of life. In 2005, the U.S. ranked 13th in the world overall.

See: http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf

A bag of oranges is more food that a Whopper

Did you know that a pork tenderloin costs more than a cookie?

Let's not go overboard here, There is poverty in America.

http://www.fhfh.org/hunger.html

It means it is less relevant. In a society where the poorest are well fed, inequality is not the same issue as it is for a society in which the poorest starve.

Sounds like you don't understand the bell curve. But using Madagascar and the United States as an example, a bell curve would indicate that the vast majority of both countries is between extremes. In the U.S., that position, between extremes, is a very comfortable lifestyle. Without any further information, you might be able to make a valid point about the lower income extreme, but see bellow for why you can't.

Different countries, different issues. Neither (especially Japan) imports poverty at the rate we do. Much of the folks at the bottom in the U.S. are recent arrivals. There children move up a rung. Of course a wealthy nation that does not import poverty will not see this feature. Japan has virtually no immigration, and most German immigration is temporary (ie Turkish guest workers).

Is it? How do you make that determination? If you use static measures of narrowly defined metrics, you can certainly draw that conclusion. But that doesn't make it so. I'd say the most important reason why it is not true is the income mobility I hint at above.

You're fucking joking yeah?


In what sense?


'Cos 5 oranges probably fill more space in the air?

More food, less cals, I'll wager.

Who bags only 5 oranges? :flow2:

More information:

The U.S. ranks 8th, below Japan (the tenth most populous nation in the world, ranking in this respect above Germany, France, and the U.K., among others ( https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2119rank.html ) and its neighbor, Canada, and five other nations, in the UN quality of life index for the year 2006:

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0778562.html

That's the best you can do? The United States outranks the EU in that study, nimrod.

That's a whole other matter. But it certainly validates Storm's comment in post #12.

1 whopper is probably the equivalent of about 17 oranges "food-wise"

I aint seen many bags of oranges that big

The British. We realized buying 20 oranges means most of 'em are gonna rot before you eat 'em (hence why everyone I know who lived in the States confirms they got into a "pool" at work to bulk-buy and then divvy up fresh fruit).

5 oranges or 20, though, there are still more calories in a Whopper.

What, you buy 'em by the crate?

I go the the fruit seller on the corner and get a few oranges, a couple of pears, some grapes, and so forth.

Define success.

I'm saying anyone who chooses to apply themselves will be able to feed themselves, get a roof over their head of some sort and have the basic necessities of life.

Anyone has that opportunity in America. Not so around the world.