http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=230x4215Oh my.
The things children learn in school these days.
panader0 (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-04-09 07:09 PM
Original message
My son learned in school today that if you have a place to live, food in the fridge and some money in the bank, that you are among the top 8 percent of people in the world.
Well, I have a house, food in the fridge, and a coupla hundred in the bank, and I'm at the poverty level in the USA.
Kinda puts things in perspective.
Oregone (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-04-09 07:14 PM
Response to Original message
1. Thats just a load of BS
People try and spout this stuff to marginalize the poor in America and dismiss the impact of relative poverty.
Being poor in America, despite being in top 8 percent, means you can still starve, have your babies die, develop neurological disorder from poor nutrition, have no chance to improve your life, be denied healthcare....
This absolute poverty crap is bullshit. Some people with less wealth in much poorer areas can possibly thrive (or at least exist) more aptly than Americans below the poverty line. Their services/healthcare may be cheaper and their agricultural base may be stronger and localized. If you make $5-10 K USD a year in some countries, you are upper class and can live the good life.
You can't measure poverty with a dollar amount when you talk about the globe and apply percentiles. You have to measure it in hunger and pain.
Well, 0bama's had 16 days to cure the hunger and pain.
One wonders what's up with that.
panader0 (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-04-09 07:19 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. Agree, but do they have a bank account?
There were three criteria. Home, food in refrigerator, and money in a bank.
Oregone (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-04-09 07:44 PM
Response to Reply #4
6. Well, if thats your criteria, but anyone can make their own
And mine has more to do with pain, hunger, disease, and the ease of meeting sustenance level needs.
Now I'm not saying all the poor in America are worse off than all the inhabitants of the third world. I'm just saying there are clear exceptions and you cannot put a global dollar mark on what "poverty" really is. Doing so is incredibly deceptive.
tjwash (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-04-09 07:36 PM
Response to Reply #1
5. Co-sign...I have lived in third world countries, and in several U.S. cities.
The impoverished parts of all of the major U.S. cities I have been in, bear a remarkable resemblance to a lot of the so-called "third world" countries that we so love to look down on here.
In many ways it is worse here in the U.S. to be in poverty, than to be in a country such as Malaysia, where they have some semblance of a national health care.
Think about when you retire. Yeah...big deal. I've scraped and saved my whole life and own my house outright, and have the equivalent of 40000 a year income because I got lucky on my investments over the course of my earning years.
Now I have to come up with the equivalent a a big months rent every month for the rest of my life to pay for health insurance. You get sick without it...they sieze your house and toss you in to the cold.
Nope...agree with you a hundred percent. It's just marginalizing poverty here in the U.S. when they do that.
Uh, I dunno about Malaysia's free medical care for all.
shari (46 posts) Wed Feb-04-09 07:57 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. I agree also
By the way, you forgot to add.....TAXES.
Yeah, we have to get those Republicans to quit raising taxes.
stillcool (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-04-09 07:19 PM
Response to Original message
3. all kinds of shit was happening..to people in China when I was growing up. They didn't even have peas.
A newly-renamed primitive tries a funny:
juno jones (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-04-09 08:33 PM
Response to Original message
8. It's damn expensive to be poor in the US.
I dunno; it doesn't seem to me the primitives have ever been out in the world much.
