Poverty Does Not Exist in the United States

[connie254]

Hero huh ? The only hero's are the ones that fought and died for this country.

From dictionary.com
hero
a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities

[Oldmill]

Hero huh ? The only hero's are the ones that fought and died for this country.

[connie254]

Poverty is out there. But so are the people who take advantage of the system. Air conditioners help those with asthma and breathing problems, so are covered as a living necessity in those households(keeps those people out of hospitals). Witnessed someone who claimed they had no money for a refrigerator to keep their required meds cold-their church raised funds for this, then they turned around and placed their beer in there instead of their meds. Another person in and out of the hospital-grandson comes in after his drug deals and counts his money on grandma's obese stomach. Another person who works and makes good money goes to food banks where they don't check income so she has enough money for her gambling trips.
If you can figure out how to separate out the people who really need help from those abusing the system, I'm sure you'll be a hero.

[Oldmill]

Poverty huh ? I have first hand knowledge of a family in Ashtabula county that receive appx. $900.00 per month food stamps.and go to food banks, utilities paid  (propane gas-Electric) The 27 year old father head receives appx. $900.00 per month SSD or SSI don't know which. Kids each get $100.00 per month he works under the table cutting grass and odd jobs is able to work but supposedly has an anger management problem, his wife is pregnant with a fourth child . Poverty in America . Pure and simple BS !! This is just 1 case I know of.  How many more are there ? Many many more ! Why do you think mexicans and others come to this country ? freebies stupid. free school breakfast and lunches NO , I'm stupid for working for 33 years at a hard labor job . shoulders and back messed up . I am fed up about poverty in America . If you go hungry in this country its your fault !

[Rick Rowlands]

Two thirds of the population of the planet do not have a soup kitchen to go to!

[irishbobcat]

Spare me your narrow neo-con vision of the war on poverty, Ricky....

Go to a Y-town soup kitchen and look at poverty.....and tell me those folks have it made in America.....

Yee Haw!

[Rick Rowlands]

The war on poverty can never be won if it is continued to be defined as the lowest percentages of the income scale.   Just read Mr. Williams' second to last paragraph.  Actually re-read his entire article again.  There is no comparison between America's poor and poor in the rest of the world.  No comparison whatsoever.  Two thirds of the population of the world WISH they had it as good as the poorest people in the United States.

The war on true poverty has been won. but that removes one of your platform planks, and as such you have a vested interest in seeing that the war is never declared as being won.

[irishbobcat]

The problem is the Democrats have abandoned the war on poverty...

Democrats "generally support" such programs these days....The Green Party "overwhelming supports" such programs today.....

Democrats talk the talk but won't walk the walk....caving to republican ideals even when they have the majority.....

FDR and LBJ were great Democrats when it came to helping the poor.....which Democrat has come close since them?

The problem is Democrats today are not as progressive as they once were under FDR, JFK, and LBJ.

Today's progressives are now called The Green Party....

[Towntalk]

Read my post again Dennis I DID NOT say that poverty in America was good, BUT, thanks to presidents like FDR and LBJ our poor have a safety net that is nonexistent in other countries.

The Green Party did not invent the "war on poverty" contrary to what you might believe.

We Democrats have been castigated and pillared because of our concern for the poor, yet every safety net that we have today was because of our leadership, while the Green Party has nothing to show for all their talk.

Minimum wage

Democrats favor a higher minimum wage, and more regular increases. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 was an early component of the Democrats' agenda during the 110th Congress. In 2006, the Democrats supported six state ballot initiatives to increase the minimum wage; all six initiatives passed.

Renewable energy and oil

Democrats have opposed tax cuts and incentives to oil companies, favoring a policy of developing domestic renewable energy, such as Montana's state-supported wind farm and "clean coal" programs as well as setting in place a cap and trade policy in hopes of reducing carbon emissions.

Fiscal policy

Democrats generally support a more progressive tax structure to provide more services and reduce economic inequality. Currently they have proposed reversing those tax cuts the Bush administration gave to the wealthiest Americans while wishing to keep in place those given to the middle class. Democrats generally support more government spending on social services while spending less on the military. They oppose the cutting of social services, such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and various welfare programs, believing it to be harmful to efficiency and social justice. Democrats believe the benefits of social services, in monetary and non-monetary terms, are a more productive labor force and cultured population, and believe that the benefits of this are greater than any benefits that could be derived from lower taxes, especially on top earners, or cuts to social services. Furthermore, Democrats see social services as essential towards providing positive freedom, i.e. freedom derived from economic opportunity. The Democratic-led House of Representatives reinstated the PAYGO (pay-as-you-go) budget rule at the start of the 110th Congress. DNC Chairman Howard Dean has cited Bill Clinton's presidency as a model for fiscal responsibility.

Health care reform

Democrats call for "affordable and quality health care," and many advocate an expansion of government intervention in this area. Many Democrats favor national health insurance or universal health care in a variety of forms to address the rising costs of modern health insurance. Some Democrats, such as Representatives John Conyers and John Dingell, have called for a single-payer program of Medicare for All. The Progressive Democrats of America, a group operating inside the Democratic Party, has made single-payer universal health care one of their primary policy goals.
Some Democratic governors have supported purchasing Canadian drugs, citing lower costs and budget restrictions as a primary incentive. Recognizing that unpaid insurance bills increase costs to the service provider, who passes the cost on to health-care consumers, many Democrats advocate expansion of health insurance coverage.

Environment

Democrats believe that the government should protect the environment and have a history of environmentalism. In more recent years, this stance has had as its emphasis alternative energy generation as the basis for an improved economy, greater national security, and general environmental benefits.

[irishbobcat]

So we should be proud of our status quo concerning poverty in America???

Oh Boy, Yippee! Another reason to wave the flag this weekend!!!!!

Only conservative neo-cons can make poverty in America look good!!!!

[Towntalk]

Compared to people in third world countries in Africa, South America, India, etc. our poverty level people are rich.

Where in America do you see children with no opportunity to go to school ... rooting through garbage dumps for items they can sell ... drinking contaminated water ... living in shacks that have no utilities of any kind and no hope for a way out ... barley enough to eat ... only the cloths on their backs.

Organizations such as Save The Children and the Christian Children's Fund as well as UNISCO try to help but they are overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem.We in America don't really realize just how blessed we really are.

Is the condition of our poor good? No, much needs to be done, but its a much easier task for us than it is for the poor in the third world countries. We have safety nets for them that are nonexistent in the third world countries.

[irishbobcat]

Keep Drinking the Kool-Aid, Ricky.......

Like P.T.Barnum said....there's a sucker born every minute.....and your it.... HA HA HA

[Rick Rowlands]

 Walter E. Williams
Where Best To Be Poor

Imagine you are an unborn spirit whom God has condemned to a life of poverty but has permitted to choose the nation in which to live. I'm betting that most any such condemned unborn spirit would choose the United States. Why? What has historically been defined as poverty, nationally or internationally, no longer exists in the U.S. Let's look at it.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the 2009 poverty guideline was $22,000 for an urban four-person family. In 2009, having income less than that, 15 percent or 40 million Americans were classified as poor, but there's something unique about those "poor" people not seen anywhere else in the world. Robert Rector, researcher at the Heritage Foundation, presents data collected from several government sources in a report titled "How Poor Are America's Poor? Examining the 'Plague' of Poverty in America" (8/27/2007):

-- Forty-three percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage and a porch or patio.

-- Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.

-- Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded; two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.

-- The typical poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)

-- Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.

-- Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.

-- Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.

-- Eighty-nine percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.

What's defined as poverty is misleading in another way. Official poverty measures count just family's cash income. It ignores additional sources of support such as the earned-income tax credit, which is a cash rebate to low-income workers; it ignores Medicaid, housing allowances, food stamps and other federal and local government subsidies to the poor. According to a report by American Enterprise Institute scholar Nicholas Eberstadt, titled "Poor Statistics," "In 2006, according to the annual Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey, reported purchases by the poorest fifth of American households were more than twice as high as reported incomes." That additional money might represent earnings from unreported employment, illegal activities and unreported financial assistance. A proper measure of well-being is what a person consumes rather than his income. A huge gap has emerged between income and consumption at lower income levels.

Material poverty can be measured relatively or absolutely. An absolute measure would consist of some minimum quantity of goods and services deemed adequate for a baseline level of survival. Achieving that level means that poverty has been eliminated. However, if poverty is defined as, say, the lowest one-fifth of the income distribution, it is impossible to eliminate poverty. Everyone's income could double, triple and quadruple, but there will always be the lowest one-fifth.

Yesterday's material poverty is all but gone. In all too many cases, it has been replaced by a more debilitating kind of poverty -- behavioral poverty or poverty of the spirit. This kind of poverty refers to conduct and values that prevent the development of healthy families, work ethic and self-sufficiency. The absence of these values virtually guarantees pathological lifestyles that include: drug and alcohol addiction, crime, violence, incarceration, illegitimacy, single-parent households, dependency and erosion of work ethic. Poverty of the spirit is a direct result of the perverse incentives created by some of our efforts to address material poverty.