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Welcome to the new American ghetto

Texashiker

Texashiker

Lifer
Poverty rates are not climbing, they are soaring.

There are currently more suburban residents than city dwellers living below the poverty level.
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http://moneyland.time.com/2011/09/26/suburban-ghetto-poverty-rates-soar-in-suburbia/


If there is one political issue I would blame, it would have to be free trade.

Related thread - China in the 1980s

Is there even a middle class any more? It seems to me that the rich are getting super rich, and the middle class and the poor are getting poorer.

Where do you see the middle class in 10, 15 or even 20 years? If china becomes a world super power, maybe china will start exporting its jobs back to the USA? Somehow I doubt it.

As more people are living in poverty, this means more people can apply for social benefits. Someone has to pay the bills for those benefits.
 
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Texashiker said:
Is there even a middle class any more?
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Yes, but it's disappearing. The upper-middle class will be the last to go.

If you're poor, it's probably better to be in the city for transportation reasons isn't it? You can theoretically bike or take public transportation somewhere as opposed to the burbs where you have to fill up your Denali at $4.00 a gallon.
 
Infohawk said:
Yes, but it's disappearing. The upper-middle class will be the last to go.

If you're poor, it's probably better to be in the city for transportation reasons isn't it? You can theoretically bike or take public transportation somewhere as opposed to the burbs where you have to fill up your Denali at $4.00 a gallon.
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Denali's will defiantly put people in poverty.
 
yes, I agree, free trade is what killed it.
Middle class pretty much gone.
Extremely thankful I got out of college and a few years of job experience under my belt when I did. I mourn for those graduating in the coming years.
 
You have seen nothing yet, wait until govt money means nothing or they pass austerity measures to save the dollar. Then the killing starts.
 
but this isn't the end of the world. People will figure out how to live on less. Food and clothing at GoodWill are plenty cheap. You can live together with people to save on rent like me and 2 other dudes do, I only pay $400 after utilities.
 
soccerballtux said:
You can live together with people to save on rent like me and 2 other dudes do, I only pay $400 after utilities.
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How do your wife and kids feel about your buddies living with the family?

How does that work? You and your wife in one bedroom, all of your kids in another bedroom, and your buddies in another bedroom? Do your kids and your buddies share a bathroom?
 
Texashiker said:
How do your wife and kids feel about your buddies living with the family?

How does that work? You and your wife in one bedroom, all of your kids in another bedroom, and your buddies in another bedroom? Do your kids and your buddies share a bathroom?
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I'm just speaking of the mass of unemployed graduates getting out of college, no more.
Although, two married couples I know of live together. Cost of living for 2 bedrooms divided by four. Definitely doable.
 
LOL. Trying to equate what is going on in America to an actual ghetto is laughable.
Even the poorest of the poor have an unparalleled standard of living compared to 90% of the world.

(I also find it funny how "progressives" are against free trade but are for free immigration)
 
Patranus said:
LOL. Trying to equate what is going on in America to an actual ghetto is laughable.
Even the poorest of the poor have an unparalleled standard of living compared to 90% of the world.
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My personal opinion, I think most Americans have forgotten what its like to be "really" poor.

My dad, born in 1948, did not get electricity until he was around 6 years old. He was raised in a house where the only heat was from a fireplace and the toilet was an outhouse in the chicken yard. My aunt told me they used to have to take a bath in a washtub full of creek water. If you did not raise your own food, hunt or fish, you went hungry.

Today, the poor can rely on public housing and food stamps.
 
Infohawk said:
It's not like we're going to un-invent fire. The problem is people are getting poorer. Saying that we have it better than starving Africans completely ignores a serious issue.
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I don't think it ignores the problem Infohawk as it does to try and marginalize it. Sure we could have it worse, but why? Those others should have it better, ideally. The thing is there isn't one specific issue to fix. It's tons of things and there's no agreement in our nation, simply divide because to many people have been indoctrinated into rooting for their "team". It doesn't matter if they have a logical or fact based argument, the team agrees, the consensus agrees and that's all that matters.
 
It's not just offshoring, it's automation and changes to the tax structure that favor the wealthy. When all this started in earnest, back in the Reagan era, we should have raised top tier taxes, not lowered them, and become more socialistic, not less, so as to compensate the lower 99% of the population for job loss. We shouldn't have busted the balls off labor unions- we should have strengthened them, and we should have imposed capital controls on the flow of investment dollars out of this country.

Had we maintained the distribution of taxable income of 1980, or its equivalent, the median family would have 40% greater income, and if we'd maintained the tax structure, the federal debt wouldn't be anything to worry about.

Y'all been chumped, flimflammed, bamboozled by the rhetoric of the Right, the stuff that makes you feel good even as you're getting screwed.
 
Texashiker said:
My personal opinion, I think most Americans have forgotten what its like to be "really" poor.

My dad, born in 1948, did not get electricity until he was around 6 years old. He was raised in a house where the only heat was from a fireplace and the toilet was an outhouse in the chicken yard. My aunt told me they used to have to take a bath in a washtub full of creek water. If you did not raise your own food, hunt or fish, you went hungry.

Today, the poor can rely on public housing and food stamps.
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It was clearly better back then.

Question,

were black people allowed to use the same creek water?
 
Zebo said:
You have seen nothing yet, wait until govt money means nothing or they pass austerity measures to save the dollar. Then the killing starts.
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That's what the Teapublicans want to bad it looks like some Dems are buying into that BS they are shoveling.
 
JS80 said:
Let's raise taxes and not let anyone get rich! That way we'll all be equally poor!
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How about we just keep the 1 percent from getting "OMG how can they ever spend that amount of money in 5 life times" rich at the cost of everyone else constantly getting poorer.
 
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