- Joined
- May 22, 2011
- Messages
- 10,821
- Reaction score
- 3,348
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Centrist
Do you actually have any evidence of this?
The poor a century ago didn't have cars,air conditioning, heating, refrigeration, food stamps, welfare, good public education, cellphones with government life line services,TVs, and many other things.
People in other countries must be screaming that is not poor. Your idea of miserable must be different than ours
I also just ate stake for lunch.
(I’m joining the army because I don’t want to continue to be a moocher)
The poor in the USA are so well off that they live the lives of the middle class in other countries. The poor are spoiled and have distain for those that have more than they do.
They simply don’t do what will get them out of poverty. If they have time to organize and demand someone remove them from poverty than they have the time to do it themselves.
Joe, the only American I've ever heard of who ate rat's have been in "survivor" reality shows. Idiocy of claims is not a very conducive argument. Today I heard that the top 2% have 90% of the country's wealth. Idiotic hyperbole is not a very convincing argument - then I suppose it is not so if you are trying to convince those who are not equally as idiotic.From walking the streets in Washington DC, which to be Frank were quite horrific, I do not believe the poor are any better off in the USA. Infact I would say it is better to be poor in any other first world industrialised country than the USA.
Most people in poverty feel ashamed, the lack of human empathy shown for such people is disturbing to say the least.
I think it's one of those 'until it happens to you' sort of things for most people sadly.
(I was trying to find the interview where they were forced to eat rats but it's been pulled)
The first shall come last and the last shall come first
Do you actually have any evidence of this? The poor a century ago didn't have cars,air conditioning, heating, refrigeration, food stamps, welfare, good public education, cellphones with government life line services,TVs, and many other things.People in other countries must be screaming that is not poor. Your idea of miserable must be different than ours
Exactly. The options in the poll are pretty laughable. Welfare? Welfare existed since Bismarck. Manufacturing and farming? Have anybody who chose those options ever worked in a factory or a farm? Cities? Cities have existed for millennias.
I think SAM's opinion is the most valid in this thread
Higher to the point of being unrealistic. Not everybody can fly off to the south of France for a film festival, ya know.
If any of them are to be paid for by someone else, then yes.Is it unrealistic to expect to be able to get medical treatment? Or have access to a nutritious diet? Or be able to travel to and from work? Or obtain the education to get a decent job? Or have a home that you won't get evicted from? Are those unrealistically high expectations?
You probably noticed, at least subconsciously, that I didn't include anything even remotely similar to any of those subjects as my example. On purpose. My posts have to do with the advent of the media and information age, where perks of the wealthy are thrown in everybody's faces on a daily basis, hence many people long for... and possibly even expect is or should be within easy reach... when they are not. Key word: "easy". People sit around and get bombarded by a blitz of advertising for the trendy new cool product, and watch shows glorifying the trips that celebrities take, then sit back and contemplate why they're so lacking and thus conclude that they are unhappy.Is it unrealistic to expect to be able to get medical treatment? Or have access to a nutritious diet? Or be able to travel to and from work? Or obtain the education to get a decent job? Or have a home that you won't get evicted from? Are those unrealistically high expectations?
I would just like to say for the record that public schools in poor neighborhoods are absolutely terrible, and AC and your car are the first things to go when you're broke, so obviously you don't know much about being poor.
But secondly, you've just named a bunch of items that have nothing to do with quality of life.
What good does it do you to have some old TV if you can't afford to get a rotten tooth treated?
What good does it do to have welfare if you can't qualify for any one of dozens of bogus reasons (being single, for example)?
What good does it do you to have a cell phone if all the damn thing ever does is remind you that you don't have rent this month?
I don't really think a lot of people understand the mindset of being poor.
Exactly. The options in the poll are pretty laughable. Welfare? Welfare existed since Bismarck.
Manufacturing and farming? Have anybody who chose those options ever worked in a factory or a farm?
Cities? Cities have existed for millennias.
In many places elementary school, middle school or high school those schools can cover multiple neighborhoods of different income levels.I would just like to say for the record that public schools in poor neighborhoods are absolutely terrible,
and AC and your car are the first things to go when you're broke, so obviously you don't know much about being poor.
Actual poor people do not have those things.But secondly, you've just named a bunch of items that have nothing to do with quality of life.
What good does it do you to have some old TV if you can't afford to get a rotten tooth treated?
What good does it do to have welfare if you can't qualify for any one of dozens of bogus reasons (being single, for example)?
What good does it do you to have a cell phone if all the damn thing ever does is remind you that you don't have rent this month?
No. It's posed this way to generate thought and discussion, not to prove a claim or opinion.
Nor were they aware that they lacked these things, because these things did not exist. We're not pouting today that we don't all have our own personal robot that does all our chores for us, because they largely do not exist. Maybe this speaks to why (I'm presuming) the poor today are more miserable (psychologically, I mean) despite their increased standard of living, than they were a long time ago.
State of mind vs. standard of living. I'm taking about state of mind. A middle class person can be psychologically tortured about his/her normal life, and a person in poverty can be happy-go-lucky and at peace with his/her surroundings. When I said "miserable" I was not implying "worse living conditions."
I think it's a fair generalization that the poor today are more psychologically distressed about it than the poor a century ago were, and I'm asking why.
So in other words you lied just made up something to generate discussion.
I am pretty the standards of living back then were pretty obvious between the poor and rich and the rich had luxuries that the poor did not have.
The state of mind is irrelevant to the definition of being financially poor.
Select all that apply.
I ask this with the underlying questions being, "What is it about poverty that we should be trying to resolve? Is it more important for those in poverty to organize and demand that their poverty be somehow eradicated...
...or is it more important for those in poverty to find ways to feel empowered, fulfilled, and independent, despite their limited means?
If I could like this 1000 times, I would.Expectations. It's all about expectations. If you've ever listened to those who grew up during the depression, you know some real poverty stories. My mom used to eat lard-and-bread sandwiches. They ate dandelion greens. They couldn't afford chickens because they didn't have any money to buy feed for them. Couldn't have pigs for the same reason. They had a cow because she could graze on the land, so they had milk and butter. They ate lots of fish they caught in the river . . . a 6-mile walk from home . . . the boys would stay overnight.
Mom had one dress. One. That was for Sundays. They had no car . . . walked everywhere. Did they know they were poor? That answer would be, "No, they didn't." That was life.
And now we have politicians telling us that we're poor . . . that the middle class is dwindling . . . that we're entitled to have the wealth spread around. And we pine.
You must be young. Financial aid was available to students in the eighties. As was unemployment insurance.
Being poor and being dirt poor (for lack of a better term) are two different things, I have been both.From walking the streets in Washington DC, which to be Frank were quite horrific, I do not believe the poor are any better off in the USA. Infact I would say it is better to be poor in any other first world industrialised country than the USA.
Most people in poverty feel ashamed, the lack of human empathy shown for such people is disturbing to say the least.
I think it's one of those 'until it happens to you' sort of things for most people sadly.
(I was trying to find the interview where they were forced to eat rats but it's been pulled)
The first shall come last and the last shall come first
This is exactly the sort of attitude I'm asking about. Why is this so prevalent? "Yeah yeah, we have all these conveniences that people didn't have fifty years ago, but it doesn't matter, because I STILL HAVE PROBLEMS!!!" Of course you do. Living organisms always develop problems. What's with the helpless attitude?
That's right, we don't. That's why I'm asking this question. But I'm not asking "hey, what's it like to be poor? Tell me a sad story..." I'm asking why such intense psychological distress about being poor today (even though they have such better living conditions/standards today than the poor did a long time ago)?
A century ago, lifestyles of the rich and famous were something you read about in fairy tale books. We depended upon our family, friends and neighbours whereas to day, we depend on the state. Today, ANY no-brain can hit it big playing stick and ball games, becoming a rapper, dealing drugs or if they have no conscience or decency at all, a Wall Street broker. The "stuff" of wealth is put on those free TV screens 24x7 in every slumlord appartment, so we find that to be the new normal and feel so horribly hard done by when we can't have all of that too.A century ago people understood how to live within their means and enjoy the finer things in life like family, friends, and comradery. That was their reality that we all will have to learn to do as well...live within our means.
Plenty of money is being spent on education.
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?