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Half of U.S. now in poverty

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spacejamz said:
the ones in texas are the ones that border Mexico...coincidence???

I would be willing to be that ones in AZ, MS, LA have large populations of other ethnicities as well...
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I hope this is referring to the fact that a lot of those Southern counties were formerly governed by racist Jim Crow types and that it still lingers in more subtle ways. And even that is getting aside from things, which is that these are all rural and likely uneducated/poorly educated people. Blaming this on Republicans or minorities is lol-worthy.

EDIT: Although you may have a point regarding the Mexican-border counties. Welcoming a large number of people to work sub-minimum wage jobs will naturally bring down the average income a bit.
 
ShawnD1 said:
Shittiest counties in the US
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowest-income_counties_in_the_United_States
lots in South Dakota (republican)
lots in Texas (republican)
North Dakota
Arizona
Mississippi
Louisiana
Kentucky
etc
Those red states that want to mimic China seem to be doing a pretty good job.


Man, thank god for free shit like universal health care. It's the only thing that keeps a lot of people around here out of poverty. My gf is a full time student and she needs knee surgery due to calcification in the joint that prevents her from walking or working at most jobs. It's free here, so it's no big deal. If she had to pay that out of pocket, she would fall into the pit of poverty. Can't work because she's disabled, but can't afford to fix her disability because she can't work. What happens to people like that in the US? They stay poor forever.
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What a surprise...conservative policies end up in poor living conditions for people who live there!
 
So true. I have a bunch about 1/2 mile away. They sell drugs and do some work off the books. Live in the shack their folks left. Get food stamps . New furnance that gooberment paid for . Drink and do drugs like there be no tomorrow yet they have no money for food. So the food stamps medical ass. ect ect ect . With all that they eat well and have a roof overhead. If it wasn't for government promoting there existance they would either starve or spend their Ill gotten money on food and give up booze and drugs . I left out the fact they are Dems all the way. They hate paul . He would destroy their drug income.
 
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Relative poverty is entirely different to absolute poverty.

I lived in a major city of 6 million people on only $15k/year. Decent quality of life as well. So people having that level of income means nothing except they can afford fewer luxuries compared to others.
 
spacejamz said:
What exactly are you basing your CLAIM that only a small chunk of actual fiscal frivolity exists?
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Conversely, what are you basing YOUR assertion that a LARGE chunk of financial frivolity exists and that this is a detractor to the fiscal health of the "average Joe"?

It works both ways. That is just a flycatcher issue. It really factors in very little compared to issues like housing, loans, and the real estate market in general (being influenced by questionable business practices).

Red herring.
 
Infohawk said:
This is like not enforcing the law that people drive on the correct side of the road and then blaming people for the ensuing car crashes. Government is necessary to coordinate some human behavior otherwise you will have a free-loader problem. Here, government needs to deal with the illegal supply of labor. Most Americans want that to happen.
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No, it isn't.

It is like trying to stack sandbags higher along the riverbank that going downstream and dredging the silt from the mouth of the river to allow better flow.

It is like doing more sandbags than retention basins UPRIVER when you put in a shopping mall and do not account for the higher watershed.

Stepping up border patrols is not an efficient way to deal with illegal immigration. It is not even effective. You need to find a way to lessen the electromagnetic differential so you do not get as much tunneling through your EM barrier (modern physics 101).

Does that mean you eliminate the barrier and get rid of the laws? Not really, but at risk of another analogy, you do not depend on the sponge to stop the flood. You just use it to clean up what gets spilled.
 
MomentsofSanity said:
Haiti has an over 40% unemployment rate. Why are Americans bitching about jobs so much? They are sitting pretty.
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Also, we need to look at the government practices between Haiti and their neighbor (DR)

Haiti on left:

Haiti-Dominican-Republic-border-aerial-view-deforestation.jpg
 
HamburgerBoy said:
Those lists don't seem take into consideration the lower cost of living in those areas, not to mention that clicking through a lot of them reveals them to be Native American land, which is fucked up for entirely separate reasons.
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COl is a factor, but it does not vary so much that you can just ignore the other numbers.

NYC is definitely expensive (for most) but the COL is still low enough in some areas, even w/o help, for people to live in rather crowded conditions (Chinatown, Bed-Stuy)....
 
SagaLore said:
Where did you stay?
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Short periods in Austria, Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Turkey, Mexico, Canada, and Japan.

While in each, I always strapped on some comfy walking shoes and tried to see the backsides of storefronts and see how the people worked...


that was hardest to do in Tokyo, but rather nice in Kyoto....
 
Infohawk said:
Did you really think that nobody else would have already made that argument? They did make that argument and it misses the point that things are going in the wrong direction.
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It has to go the other direction. Americans have been living high on the hog for too long and it's unsustainable. Our "prosperity" has been based on deficit spending, both private and public, cheap energy, and cheap overseas labor. Those things have to end, which means the lavish American lifestyle has to end.
 
Or it just has to be reined back to something it saw in the 1970's.

People did not have 3 computers and an HDTV in each room. There were less "luxury" cars available, and a "Vacation" usually meant climbing in the car and driving somewhere within a days ride.

We are not talking about restructuring back to colonial times, but I do agree we have come to expect too much as "commonplace" these days....
 
Ninjahedge said:
Short periods in Austria, Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Turkey, Mexico, Canada, and Japan.

While in each, I always strapped on some comfy walking shoes and tried to see the backsides of storefronts and see how the people worked...


that was hardest to do in Tokyo, but rather nice in Kyoto....
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Okay. It is good to know the opinions you have formed on based on actual observation and not the ramblings of an internet geek with too much time. 🙂

I re-read your original post that I responded to. To rephrase and summarize - you were saying that our problem is that we've pushed our standard of living so high that when the economy tanks, we don't just simply lose that standard of living, but we're hurt by the "debt" of it? Does that sum it up?
 
Ninjahedge said:
Or it just has to be reined back to something it saw in the 1970's.

People did not have 3 computers and an HDTV in each room. There were less "luxury" cars available, and a "Vacation" usually meant climbing in the car and driving somewhere within a days ride.

We are not talking about restructuring back to colonial times, but I do agree we have come to expect too much as "commonplace" these days....
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Precisely.
 
SagaLore said:
Okay. It is good to know the opinions you have formed on based on actual observation and not the ramblings of an internet geek with too much time. 🙂

I re-read your original post that I responded to. To rephrase and summarize - you were saying that our problem is that we've pushed our standard of living so high that when the economy tanks, we don't just simply lose that standard of living, but we're hurt by the "debt" of it? Does that sum it up?
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Kinda.

It wasn't just the SOL that killed us, but the whole thing that we had where we though that houses were the one safe place to have our money.

That was over-inflated, sucked dry, then allowed to collapse back in on itself, leaving many in a pit they had no way out of.

I will have to re-read my post to see if I am not crossing over thoughts from other threads, but I believe that covers it.
 
irishScott said:
So you can get further raises and exceed said benefits?
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Push through the pain and arrive on the other side both better off and stronger for it?

I like it!

Unfortunately, I think you're asking way too much of those at the bottom. Very few seem to have the strength, courage, or tenacity to ever attempt such a thing... it's much easier for most to just accept their lot in life and never consider "walking through hell to get to heaven"...
 
palehorse said:
Push through the pain and arrive on the other side both better off and stronger for it?

I like it!

Unfortunately, I think you're asking way too much of those at the bottom. Very few seem to have the strength, courage, or tenacity to ever attempt such a thing... it's much easier for most to just accept their lot in life and never consider "walking through hell to get to heaven"...
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You sound like an enormous douche bag.
 
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