[Go Gordon]

Tell that to those in the United States who are cold and hungry, with holes in their shoes and little hope on the horizon. The myth of the poor not really being poor is just an excuse to look the other way and not help.

Indoor plumbing - check

Electricity - check

Air conditioning - check

Heating - check

Refrigerator - check

Cable TV - (sometimes) check

Cell phone - (often)check

Food stamps and free food - (often) check

Welfare and tax credits/subsidies - (often) check

Family/relatives support - (sometimes) check

Private charity assistance, including churches - (often) check

Other - check

Now go to foreign countries and visit with their poor and tell me the USA has a problem. Give me a break. Their are very few chronically poor people in this country, especially innocent chronically poor (not lazy, not drug addicts, not alcoholics, etc.)

[Dr. White]

You have sold yourself a checklist which doesn't apply to the legions of actual poor in America.

Presumably, you do so in order to either put a system you believe in up on a pedastel, or to 'justify' looking the other way while the actual poor suffer.