1 in 8 Americans living in poverty

[bugscufle]

There were 36.5 million Americans, or 12.3 percent, living in poverty last year

For one person, the poverty guideline is $10,210.00. For a family of two adults and two children, the level is $20,650.00.

In Mississippi, which has one of the highest rates of poverty in the United States, nearly every third adult -- 30.6 percent -- was obese, and slightly more said they engaged in no physical activity.

The poverty level is the official measure used to decide eligibility for federal health, housing, nutrition and child care benefits. But if you get these benefits, are you still in poverty? If a family makes $10,000.00 a year more, but doesn't get these benefits, are they better off?

The median household income was $48,200.00 dollars last year.

[seekeroftruth]

a couple of things.

living at the poverty level doesnt neccessarily mean being destitute. *if you live your life simply, and frugally just about anyone can survive at poverty levels.

the problem is we think everyone has to have everything. *new cars, new stereos, the latest movie on blueray or whatever.

second. *very few of the people at the poverty level have to be there. *the problem is alot of americans quite simply dont want to work for a living. *they dont want to struggle and sweat to make it in a better job. *in other words they dont want to pay their dues. *too much of society today is the "gimme gimme" attitude in stead of the "let me earn what i have" attitude.

ok.. thats my 2 cents.

my advice to poverty level people... get a job, get an education, quit spending money on things you dont need.

p.s. *one of the largest people groups at the poverty level in America the US military.

people dont realize there are alot of military families receiving food stamps. *

sad isnt it?

(former Coastie) B

[RangerRick]

Responsibility or a lack there of is the leading cause of poverty in America.

[bookwormom]

I guess you guys don't know the cookbook "Dining on a Dime"by Tawra Kellam and Jill Cooper.
According to them, the first step to staying poor is to have a messy kitchen. if the dishes are not washed you do not feel like cooking a decent, low cost meal. Unbelievable what little things mount up to in the course of a year.
one bag of potato chips amounts to over $150 in a years time, enough for shoes for the kids. a couple snack cakes per day runs to something like 460 bucks a year. And you carry it around on your butt for ever. Soda's are money guzzlers and give you no benefit whatever.
I often told my husband if I was in the military I would save all my money. We occasionally ate at the mess hall. But the lines were longer at Burger King, Popeyes and the Pizza place. The food at the messhall was free and better.
I think one problem is that kids nowaydays are terrible at simple arithmetic. If the cashregister does not tell t hem what the exact change is, they are not able to make change on a $2.50 purchase if the customer hands them a 5 dollar bill. Serious, I have lived with that, the place I worked at had a cashregister that did just that.
All my kids are poor. Two are poor artists and one is handycapped. All know how to squeeze the most out of a nickle. My handycapped now has a girlfriend who in a months time went throuh his savings and now wastes their two SS checks within the first half of the month. right now they have no food and i would let them go hungry, but my softy husband. the girl is obese she can barely waddle. I have never in my life seen anybody so lazy. She has time all day, she could pick up alu cans if nothing else, or volunteer at the library, it is nice and cool there.
save on airconditioning. All the money is spent with nothing to show for it. worse, I have seen people with debts and you wonder what for, they have nothing. I am wondering if it is bad training or is it in their genes.

[alma]

If the bosses paid a living wage, there would be no poverty among american working people.

As it is, the government picks up the responsibility of the bossses who prefer cheap labor, american citizens be damned.

Those in political, socio-economic power who make the laws want things just as they are, and low wages secures for them the life stype they desire, and maintains the status quo, at the cost of the american workers.

When workers can't pay for health insurance, the government pays those benefits that workers once had when america was really "the land of opportunity" for AMERICANS before the invaders came, and our jobs were shipped overseas, again, for cheaper labor.

Doesn't anyone care what is happening to our country, and it's not the american workers, employed or not.

Can't people see that we are decending into the pit as far as labor is concerned, and the "land of opportunity" belongs to the opportunists, foreign or domestic, and not to the american mom's and pops any longer.

There was a time when enterprise was free, and simple little people could live by their wit, and the products they produced in their homes many times, without all the laws that cut into free enterprise, and often make workers outlaws. It isn't free any longer, if it ever was really free, nor are we as "free" as we think we are.

Need has more to do with greed everywhere in the world. It takes real courage to go after the cause of some of these undesireable effects.

Enough is enough, and to some people enough will never be enough.

Teaching kids economic skills and social skills and good early nutrition and parental care would help to level the playing field.

Like the "communists" used to say, "Workers of the world unite. You have only your chains to lose."

I like that statement, even if the devil himself wrote it.
It is true.

Divided, and fighting among each other is just what the economic powers that be desire.

Civil strife, civil war is their greatest weapon against a real revolution that would change things. --and sticking together would be some kind of revolution, now, wouldn't it? love, alma

[Txanne]

If the bosses paid a living wage, there would be no poverty among american working people.

As it is, the government picks up the responsibility of the bossses who prefer cheap labor, american citizens be damned.

Those in political, socio-economic power who make the laws want things just as they are, and low wages secures for them the life stype they desire, and maintains the status quo, *at the cost of the american workers.

When workers can't pay for health insurance, the government pays those benefits that workers once had when america was really "the land of opportunity" for AMERICANS before the invaders came, and our jobs were shipped overseas, again, for cheaper labor.

Doesn't anyone care what is happening to our country, and it's not the american workers, employed or not.

Can't people see that we are decending into the pit as far as labor is concerned, and the "land of opportunity" belongs to the opportunists, foreign or domestic, and not to the american mom's and pops any longer.

There was a time when enterprise was free, and simple little people could live by their wit, and the products they produced in their homes many times, without all the laws that cut into free enterprise, and often make workers outlaws. *It isn't free any longer, if it ever was really free, nor are we as "free" as we think we are.

Need has more to do with greed everywhere in the world. *It takes real courage to go after the cause of some of these undesireable effects.

Enough is enough, and to some people enough will never be enough.

Teaching kids economic skills and social skills and good early nutrition and parental care would help to level the playing field.

Like the "communists" used to say, "Workers of the world unite. You have only your chains to lose."

I like that statement, even if the devil himself wrote it.
It is true.

Divided, and fighting among each other is just what the economic powers that be desire.

Civil strife, civil war is their greatest weapon against a real revolution that would change things. --and sticking together would be some kind of revolution, now, wouldn't it? love, alma






And if frogs had wings they wouldnt bump their butts.

If the Fed-Gov. would stay out the wage business and mind their own business---

And IF the entitlement program was scraped all togather---GUESS what?

These over-weight --- baby making plague of society
would either go to work or starve to death---and a clean gene pool may just be in order huh?

People that are handed their daily food ration---never go to work--they dont have too.

I am not talking about the very ill--the elderly that cant keep up with the younger money making ones--I speak of generations of welfare who%$#@@-----its a business with them.

And they use the system in every conceivable way possible---for generations!!!


I know a family of 4 that receive 568.00 a month in food stamps---I work a full time job---and cant afford to spend that kind of money on food---CAN YOU ???

1 in 8 living in proverty?

And who's dam fault is that?

Our liberal ways have ----whiney liberal blood-suckers.


ARE we tired of it YET?


Txanne

[chloe3388]

Annie, dang you didn't even give me a chance to reply!! All I can say is ditto what Annie said..

[Quietgentleman]

You are always gonna have poor people. No matter what you pay the lower sector they will always be poor. The landlords and utilities companies know just what they can afford. Its because our economic system knows how much it can take from the poor and still keep them a viable part of our economical system. The only way out of being poor is through education hard work and the determination to change your lot in life.

QGM

[nancy1340]

I'm with Annie and Chloe. Don't want to work at a $7.50 a hour? Get your arse out and find a better job or get some training.

I don't have an education so I worked as a bartender for 15 years then started a house cleaning business. When I first started I cleaned two or three houses a day for $40 each and then at night cleaned new construction apartments for Roger Stauback's company.

I was working from 7 am to midnight, I was tired but dangit, my bills were paid and I could afford a new Harley. I was making $2,000 a month 23 years ago. When I retired the first of this year I was making from $60-$80 per house. I had some of the houses almost twenty years and one for over ten. It's easy to do two a day. And it real easy to start a cleaning business. Just go to Kinko's and print up some fliers to pass out in a target neighborhood. I stapled some bright yellow with red print business cards on them and stuck them in doors around where I wanted to work.

[exodus]

I promised myself that I would not open myself up to more condescension but I can't resist getting into this thread. ((Please Wiley do not "my dear" me)

I agree with annie completely. She and I have both lived almost as many years as alma. Neither of us has had anything "given" to us. I worked two jobs getting through college (no government loans in those days) and mim. wage was whatever the boss was willing to pay. Hungary meant eating an apple on the run...cheaper than potato chips and who could afford a dentist. By the way when I say on the run, I mean that literally...who could afford a car..buses worked and my feet toward the tuition time.

Clothes...yeah..when a button popped off, you sewed it back on...when it was out of fashion, you remade the darn thing over. Shoes...they had better last...period.

Speaking of tuition...my husband sold his blood to help pay for books. My blood was the ordinary type so mine was free.


Oh and alma, we were churchgoers and were trained to pay the Lord first so we tithed our hard earned cash first.

Later when our children were grown and we could afford to send them to college...guess what...we didn't...no student loans for them....they had to work for it and all three made it just fine. We loved our kids just like our parents loved us...well enough to let them make it on their own.

Perhaps today's children have too much. A thought.


Exodus

[Txanne]

I tto raised 3 boys by bending my back---back then it was called commodities---later became food stamps--NEVER took a dime.

Like Nancy---I waitressed--went to school---I have been the Jill of all trades--But i have never taken another families hard earned tax dollars and sat on my butt untill i was so fat I had a multitude of illnesses from the weight gains---no ambition and didnt have to care--cause the liberal entitlement programs---fixed all my problems for me.


Entitlements and continued proverty go hand in hand.

Welfare is the biggest lie ever told this country.


Txanne

[Katrina-Sisu]

I understand people using welfare until they get back on their feet, but I don't understand people who just park it on the porch all day and wait for the free money to roll in.

Americans in general are obese, rich or poor. Most people think it's economical to get some junk off the 99cent menu at McDonalds than cook food at home.

In Finland it's cheaper to buy junkfood because the vegetables and fruits are just too expensive. When I've been grocery shopping in America it seems the same way.

The job market sucks world-round and if we get closer to recession in America, it's just going to get worse.

Kat

[DaNgEr_KiTtY]

i agree with alma! i am betting she would agree with me that a living wage should be about $67.50 hr plus full benefits & retirement. then force the people who are now selling the $42 big mac meal to never fire an employee either.

using the same theory, i also think that we should add 2 letter grades to all students & that will make everyone smarter!

i really dont get how people get to these conclusions. grew up in a screwed up & poor house. by the age of 12 or 13 i was able to work & buy my own clothes & books for school, plus feed myself & have spending money. i did not take the free lunch that i qualified for, instead i bought 2.

i actually feel sorry for people that have to pay someone minimum wage cause most of them might be worth 1/2 that if they are lucky. this "i deserve this" liberal mentality has caused me to fire all of my employees & just work by myself. its great! i can do 4-5 times the work of a union minded socialist liberal any day of the week.

[AlchemyAcres]

A much better and much larger (assumed) list would be a list of those who are 'dependent' or partially 'dependent' on the system......I don't make a lota money, most years ...by choice...but I'm certainly not dependent......
Throwing out a few income numbers doesn't really mean much....
Earned income?
Unearned income?

Blah Blah Blah....LOL


~Martin ;)

[Txanne]

i agree with alma! *i am betting she would agree with me that a living wage should be about $67.50 hr plus full benefits & retirement. *then force the people who are now selling the $42 big mac meal to never fire an employee either. *

using the same theory, i also think that we should add 2 letter grades to all students & that will make everyone smarter!

i really dont get how people get to these conclusions. *grew up in a screwed up & poor house. *by the age of 12 or 13 i was able to work & buy my own clothes & books for school, plus feed myself & have spending money. *i did not take the free lunch that i qualified for, instead i bought 2. *

i actually feel sorry for people that have to pay someone minimum wage cause most of them might be worth 1/2 that if they are lucky. *this "i deserve this" liberal mentality has caused me to fire all of my employees & just work by myself. *its great! *i can do 4-5 times the work of a union minded socialist liberal any day of the week.


Union minded socialist liberal---now thats a new term--

And I find it enlightening----and quite befitting!!

But of course redundant----

I have worked with many many--that thought they deserved a paycheck for just showing up---and really get side-ways when thet are required to work for it--


I am sick of dragging people through a nites work--and of course many of them pay for their [[ lunch ]] with their Lone Star Food stamp card.


How can a Nation as brillent as ours---with all the modern inventions ie: the inter-net--still believe in handing out free lunches.

How can we expect the working class to continue burning themselves out--dying at early ages from stress
to provide for these worthless---leeches?


I for one--have NOTHING but total distain for them.


Txanne

[bookwormom]

quote by alma:
If the bosses paid a living wage, there would be no poverty among american working people.

Now I must admit, talking about being poor and living well is a subject dear to my heart. Maybe because I grew up very poor and had a happy childhood.

There are people who make lots of money, a lot more than we ever made, who can not make their mortgage payment. I know, my son finally got a "real job" and he councels with just people like that. he tells me how weird it is, they make loads of money and are up to their nostrils in debt. so it is not the "living wage" that is the one and all, because there are people who make more than a living wage and can't make it while others live the good life on very little money. I think you all made good points and that the issue is not clear black and white. I have hired someone (18 years old) and I can outwork him any day, and I am old enough to be his grandmother. (Now this has nothing to do with skill, what would a living wage be for him? I would say, first a kick in the butt to get him moving. we hired him because we are up to our ears in work and as a favor for his mother. he worked until noon. Last time I saw him he was playing with the computer).
I have seen young people working hard for minimum wage. not all are lazy bones and there is exploitation. some are working their butt off so the stockholders of the company will be happy. I know some young people, when they were still in school and had jobs, they came in, hung up their jacket and fell to it. I have seen some, mostly around here unfortunately, they are very willing to stand around first and socialize, then get a slow start, do a fraction of what a real worker would do. the young people I was talking about all made good, they just were on the ball. Nothing comes from nothing.
When we lived in Europe our handycapped son worked in a facility for handycapped people. The shop carried itself, did not cost the state. He did not make much, pocketmoney. But a bus picked him up every day, he got lunch and he had medical insurance. He also was content, he saw there were people who were a lot worse off than he and he helped some go to the bathroom and carry their lunchtray and he had some friends. here the social worker told us with disdain they do not have such workshops but prefer to train them to work in real companies. yea, I see how successfull they are. My son does not want to, first of all he is scared, he had a job at the PX once and it was crummy. He says they will look at me and make fun of me. He has experience and I could tell you stories. the workshop was security, and a certain amount of success. And now he gets more money than he did working. We are disgusted, how can you just hand money to people like that. he went to some kind of talk therapy that put thoughts in his head and there met his girlfriend. since he lived our frugal lifestyle and was used to saving for what he wanted (when he was a teenager he told my aunt Hilda after he had saved for a boom box, that he was now saving for a dishwasher because he didnot like washing dishes) he had saved most of the money he got. it was gone within a month without a trace. There is a kind of poor due to circumstance who will roll up their sleeves, make a good life, manage what they have well and prosper. there are poor who wind up paying more for everything. If they buy a car it will cost them more than for someone who comes in with cash in their hand. I have checked that out because I like to figure the cost of things. they pay high rent for dumpy rooms, they wind up paying high prices for lousy food. My son wound up living in a trashy motel room that cost over 400 dollars a month and every room was taken, and not by travelers. We have had a real battle. He is struck on his girlfriend (he says who else would want me) and we saw to it that they got a small apartment they can afford and we see to it that they pay the rent and utilities, fifty fifty and on time. It is tough. There are some poor people I just learned the past two years,who are determined to stay that way and will not do anything to change their lot, whether it is cleaning up their dump or eating better. Everything is met with hostility and determination to live on red pop, bought at the filling station because it is so cheap there, junkfood bought for premium prices etc. The girls parents are in the same kind of poor. their telephone was just cut off. We wish we could get our son out of there, we noticed she has his bankcard and he has not a penny. she spends it all and is mean to him, I have heard it on the phone, it would make a sailor blush. He did come for his Dad's birthday and she was mad as hell, he was afraid to go back. I think he is abused and taken advantage of by a "poor "person who will stay poor and complains because she gets more. I could tell stories. sorry for unloading on you all, it just spilled out.

[JAK]

It takes a village to raise an idiot.

[bookwormom]

you guys are both wrong. I grew up in a village and my mom and dad raised me. I would say it takes a mother and a father to raise a child. Growing up in a village like that is a good way to live and Hillary does not have villages in mind, what does she know about village life? Hot air, because it sounds good. No, estrange the kids, get them away from divorced mom and dad and let them be raised by strangers(that's supposed to be the village people). wanna bet?

[DaNgEr_KiTtY]

i am very curious on how hillary is gonna take over raising our kids with her village as opposed to the parents having that responsibility. but then again i can see how she comes to that conclusion cause it takes a village of women to satisfy her husband.

[RangerRick]

It's called socialism and to think, after all this time it looks like we finally got another one around here. Guess things will liven up for a bit.

;D

Ranger Rick

[wax]

Bugs- But if you get these benefits, are you still in poverty?

Wax- No... but then your weren't "in poverty" without those benefits.

The simple fact is that there is no poverty in America... not classic poverty at least, so some start to grade on a curve.

Now don't get me wrong, there are Americans with severe disabilities who are starving tonight. They are dying without anyone noticing. But they are not noticed because they are so very rare and because liberals are looking elsewhere.

There simply is no poverty in America.

Let's simply look at the numbers folks:
"For one person, the poverty guideline is $10,210.00. For a family of two adults and two children, the level is $20,650.00."

Hmm...
There are some countries in which the average yearly wage is $2000.00 American. Think about that for a moment.
None of those who earn that amount are in "poverty" because they are the average.

My father was very big on "urban survival" and he taught me a very important fact: one would need to fail completely to suffer real poverty in America!
We are so affluent that one can live off of that affluence better than any of our ancestors ever dreamed.

Just think about this statement once: "one of the highest rates of poverty in the United States, nearly every third adult -- 30.6 percent -- was obese".

That really defines the problem doesn't it?
We have become so affluent that we can judge obesity as not only being a bad thing (when it is actually a blessing that nature rarely allows) but a sign of poverty!

There is no poverty in America.

Yet it is almost understandable that most Americans have no idea what real poverty is.
I have seen it.
Go to Belize after a hurricane hits.
But better yet spend one night in any city in India.
There is an entire class of people there that do not officially exist... they are non-humans, less than dogs... in fact much less than any potential pet because they are not even potentially a meal!
If they were in America they would live quite well but the garbage they sift through has already been sifted.
They would love to eat out of our dumpsters.
They would be blessed by our garbage, where clothing is thrown out because it is too small.
None of them... absolutely none of them are obese.
But they dream of that chance, while they slowly die.

And they do die, in very great numbers. But nature is a rather cold mistress because they do not fade away as the wealthier members of the society they live in wish they would.

You see as far as nature is concerned twenty five is a good age to die. You can breed at fifteen or a bit earlier and your offspring will either starve without you or live to see a starving child themselves.
Poverty and obesity have absolutely no connection as far as nature is concerned.

But nature has at least some good news.
The hungry who do manage to survive are very quick and the affluent become extremely slow.
The affluent... in order to remain affluent... restrain themselves with false constructs and rules.
The hungry and the quick know better!

[Koolibri_Rantso]

If the bosses paid a living wage, there would be no poverty among american working people.

As it is, the government picks up the responsibility of the bossses who prefer cheap labor, american citizens be damned.

Those in political, socio-economic power who make the laws want things just as they are, and low wages secures for them the life stype they desire, and maintains the status quo, at the cost of the american workers.

When workers can't pay for health insurance, the government pays those benefits that workers once had when america was really "the land of opportunity" for AMERICANS before the invaders came, and our jobs were shipped overseas, again, for cheaper labor.

Doesn't anyone care what is happening to our country, and it's not the american workers, employed or not.

Can't people see that we are decending into the pit as far as labor is concerned, and the "land of opportunity" belongs to the opportunists, foreign or domestic, and not to the american mom's and pops any longer.

There was a time when enterprise was free, and simple little people could live by their wit, and the products they produced in their homes many times, without all the laws that cut into free enterprise, and often make workers outlaws. It isn't free any longer, if it ever was really free, nor are we as "free" as we think we are.

Need has more to do with greed everywhere in the world. It takes real courage to go after the cause of some of these undesireable effects.

Enough is enough, and to some people enough will never be enough.

Teaching kids economic skills and social skills and good early nutrition and parental care would help to level the playing field.

Like the "communists" used to say, "Workers of the world unite. You have only your chains to lose."

I like that statement, even if the devil himself wrote it.
It is true.

Divided, and fighting among each other is just what the economic powers that be desire.

Civil strife, civil war is their greatest weapon against a real revolution that would change things. --and sticking together would be some kind of revolution, now, wouldn't it? love, alma






Alma, you have lived on the fruits of someone else's labours most, if not all, of your life. I can tell this. You are a true bolshevik of the worst kind. I laugh at your kind these days! haha Communism is fine as long as you are on the receiving end of the government teat of course! But, you would truly not know the difference between freedom and something else.

Koolibri

[bookwormom]

quote by Alma

Like the "communists" used to say, "Workers of the world unite. You have only your chains to lose."

of the world?
heck, the Chinese, Mexican etc. laborers are mighty glad to get the jobs shipped their way from America. What do they care if an American has a job as long as they have one. If we lived in the horse and buggy days of self sufficiency where a village could survive very well due to all the necessary factors right there, blacksmith, weaver, baker, farmer, you name it, plus the school marm, we could just boycott the whole shebang out of existance. Now the powers that be can laugh at us, we are helpless and dependent. They got us over a barrel. All we can do is wait for the S to hit the F.
so if you can sit and watch TV all day, have money for Videos and chips and pop, are you poor? and if not, what are you?

[Katrina-Sisu]

Socialism looks squeaky on the outside but it's full of problems.

Finns aren't paid a living wage but they get alot of monetary kickbacks from the gov't instead. It sounds like a good plan except people realize that it's easy to get on long term unemployment than break their back for the loose change the gov't gives them. Also the gov't help can be cut off at any time.

I do wish we had public healthcare in America, but it's not feasible. America just has too many people for the system to work. We only have 5 million + people here and our public healthcare struggles.

It took me 3 months to get in for "critical" dental surgery...wasn't too fun but at least I have basic coverage here overseas. If you are elderly they boot you up the waiting list to make room for the younger folks.

I'm ranting, again lol.

Kat

[CarolAnn]

There IS poverty in America. Poverty may be relative, but it's also real, and there are people so poor that they'd rate as poor compared to any "third world" country. I've seen them, talked to them, and shared my bread with them.

Mom and Dad retired to Arkansas. One family next door lived in a tent until he could get a rough cabin built. And I mean rough cabin! (No glass in the windows, no running water, no power, no well.) The mom and teen aged daughter shared one pair of shoes; when mom had to go to town, daughter had to stay home from school. They weren't well educated, didn't get welfare, either, as far as I know. They got their drinking water in jugs from mom and dad's well, and they washed with what collected in old barrels from their roof (once they got one.) They smelled pretty bad, too! Another neighbor was a 60-something year old guy who was disabled. He had hooked up with a young wife, had two kids, then she split, leaving him with the small children. He made his house by cutting saplings off at 8' from the ground - then nailed whatever crappy wood he could scrounge on for walls. They had a thick bed of sawdust for a floor and the roof was made waterproof with tarps. They had electric power to a pole - and a drop cord provided one lamp and an electric skillet. No fridge. The mattress was right on the ground - no sheets, just old nasty blankets. He'd been hurt in Korea, and got some sort of disability, but not much.

Coming from nice, clean Iowa, it was a shocking revelation to me that people actually lived like this. Mom was cooking for these folks all the time, and scrubbing their kids in her tub every time she got a chance to. We (her kids) all gathered clothing and stuff to give to both families. Were we wrong to do that? Were we "enabling" them to stay poor?

Please, God - never let me find out first hand how things can get that bad!

[exodus]

It does not take a village, it takes a family.. a real family with at least 1 wage earner. It takes a family that takes care of their children.

If Billary has her way she will tell you all how to raise your children because as with Yugoslavia, the children will be raised by the state and both parents will work. Power to the people....a lot of hogwash...less power to the people and more power to the state!

With freedom comes responsibility. That means that families will have to work out problems for themselves. When children misbehave, it is YOUR responsibility to chastise them.... Not the schools. It is YOUR responsibility to see that your children are educated, not the STATE. When they are ill, it is YOUR responsibility to make sure they have health insurance, NOT THE STATE. It is YOURresponsibility to raise them in a religious home if that is what you want,IT IS NOT THE STATE'S BUSINESS.

If you cannot do these things, DO NOT BREED MORE CHILDREN.

Exodus

[Katrina-Sisu]

My parents grew up poor but they had a common goal to give me and my sister the life they didn't have. They successed and thank God my sis and I never had to know hunger growing up.

Carolann's post got me thinking about a family I went to school with in high school. They were the poorest kids in our school but real nice.

The parents both worked minimum wage jobs but couldn't make ends meet. They had their car repoed in the middle of the night. The oldest sister had many babies. The two youngest were my friends.

Mom knew how poor they were and she packed TONS of food into my lunch so I could feed them too. They got free lunch but were hungry as anything. They lost their mobile home too and ended up living with 7 people in a single wide.

My mom says life is a ladder, even when there are people ahead of you there are even more people below you.

Kat

[wax]

CarolAnn- There IS poverty in America. Poverty may be relative, but it's also real, and there are people so poor that they'd rate as poor compared to any "third world" country.

Wax- As you said it is perhaps relative based on observational bias.
You pointed out some good examples of this by describing a family who had land to live on, a tent to live in, then a cabin, a pair of shoes to share, a well they could access, old barrels... and not to mention a roof!

You then describe a man who had land to build a house on, saplings he could build the house with, nails... other wood he could scrounge, sawdust, waterproof tarps, electric power and a pole to connect it to, a drop cord, a lamp and an electric skillet. This is not to mention a mattress and blankets!

There are places in the world where all of these things are luxuries beyond imagination!

Again... there is no poverty in America but most Americans don't understand what poverty truly is. Like you have just done they compare a standard defined by thier own observations.

There are children at this moment as I type squeezing toilet paper they have managed to scoop from the sewers of Bangladesh in the hope of getting whatever water they can obtain from the feces soaked remnants. One can only imagine what they would do for acess to a well and something completely out of the realm of possibility like a pair of shoes they could share with someone!

As you pointed out, poverty is a relative thing.

[Txanne]

It takes a village to raise an idiot.



annie --falling out of her chair---laughing!!


Kitty----more like a city.


annie

[Txanne]

Be nice to Alma, she has wisdom and insight that younger people do not have.

Smilin Bob *;D

One of you being nice is enough --thank you tho--for the invite.

And how old do you have to be too have insight??

Kinda thought I'd ask.

Txanne

[JAK]

I would argue that the average family in most socialist countries is probably doing a better job of raising their kids these days than most folks in North America. Socialism vs Capitalism has nothing to do with it. Regardless who is in government, people have to get their own priorities straight.

[bugscufle]

And how old do you have to be to have insight??

Same age that you have dementia. Insight or dementia depends on whether you agree or disagree with the person bestowing the status.

[Txanne]

And how old do you have to be to have insight??

Same age that you have dementia. *Insight or dementia depends on whether you agree or disagree with the person bestowing the status.


Ahhhhhhhhh so----hadnt thought about it that way---!!!


annie

[ol_hoot]

I have noticed that as I grow older I seem to see things differently than I did when I was younger.

Quiet often I have to use glasses to do it with too.

But I do think that age does bring about, at least, some experience to put into the mix of what your take is on things.

[Txanne]

I have noticed that as I grow older I seem to see things differently than I did when I was younger.

Quiet often I have to use glasses to do it with too.

But I do think that age does bring about, at least, some experience to put into the mix of what your take is on things.



True -----very true and if you are a liberal whiner--the wisdom changes to fit the political climate of the day.

[[not saying your a whiner] Not at all.

and they never learn from our mistakes---they go make their own and it seems to be costing us our Nation.

These new generations-- are welfare maggots---they dont want to know or learn.


once again----Welfare is the BIGGEST entitlement lie ever told to the American people.

It teaches one thing----take all you can get---suck the life out of the system.

Ever suck all the air out of a plastic bottle? It starts to collaphse---then flattens-----thats what is happening to this Nation of beggers and ner'do'wells

Txanne

[ol_hoot]

"and they never learn from our mistakes---"

I sure never learned from my Mom and Dad's mistakes, did you ?

[ol_hoot]

Poverty is a whole lot a state of mind.

Some people just have that Woe is me attitude and never will be able to pull themselves up because THEY think they can't and are not worthy of enjoying any better life than what they presently have.

There are too many succes stories of people that had nothing and made something of themselves tomake me believe that there is no way to bring onesself out of poverty.

But first, one has to want to and be willing to put forth some effort.

[Txanne]

Poverty is a whole lot a state of mind.

Some people just have that Woe is me attitude and never will be able to pull themselves up because THEY think they can't and are not worthy of enjoying any better life than what they presently have.

There are too many succes stories of people that had nothing and made something of themselves tomake me believe that there is no way to bring onesself out of poverty.

But first, one has to want to and be willing to put forth some effort.


Proverty is a state of mind---sure as hell is.

Look at all the rich---[ahhhhh filthy rich--] they have their pill Drs. on speed dial--their in and out of jail---rehab---and marriages/relationships.

If their car breaks down--they call and order a new one---they have apts. houses villas and still run and cringe and cry---waaaaaa is me.

And some of the greatess minds we know---as you say---were born in great proverty---and contributed all they had of their minds to better our lives---Go figure huh?

I hear then all the time [[ in my particular job now ]] griping about having to go in and prove the daddys' of their [[off=spring]] dont live with them---

And they will have a string of kids with them--and pregnant with another---shopping on my tax dollars
and I want to scream at them---DONT you see what the Nanny is doing to you????

You are now helpless--if your on welfare---YOUR not allowed too work to better yourself---you must continue to produce off spring SO THAT THERE will be other generations to come up and continue the cycle---

The Chicken in every pot speech started this evil drain on this Nation---Now the only chicken in the pot belongs to the welfare generation/


Are we there yet?? Are we sick and tired of the hours we work--keeping about 1/3 of our pay for ourselves?

Evidently not.


Txanne

[333]

Peace,

As a bachelor lets say 17- 27, I survived and lived modestly with a mean income over 10 years 19 -22 thousand. (Paycheck to pay check comfortable but alway just above water............)

Now, 10 more years "self employed, but sub contracted,", sustainable average income, lets say 23 -29 thousand (with wife and children)

Same result.......(Paycheck to pay check comfortable but alway just above water............)

It was, ironically, the pocket change, each night, over 25 years (9,000), and ONE "self contracted client", at 67.50 hour, that secured some life long goals.

i agree with alma! i am betting she would agree with me that a living wage should be about $67.50 hr plus

Don't miss understand me, it was good enough to repel the creditors, some years homestead payment/ taxes, But the pocket change will be providing the building materials each year. Now .... just one more of those "self contracted" clients would be nice.

Poverty like a great many things is a choice some have no choice but ......, social welfare should be available for those "with out" any choice, not those whom would choose because welfare is a choice.

It takes a village to raise an idiot.

And to think.... It takes just One idiot to raise a village.
;)


333