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Yes, there are very rich people in this country. There are also very poor people. This is true in any country. Go to the most poverty stricken country on earth. I'll bet you the ruling elite live a lifestyle far above the common man, there is just less of them to enjoy what little wealth there is in that nation.

Now let's look at those described as living in poverty by the government here. Many of them live a comfortable life when compared to those living in poverty in other nations. Things like clean running water, public education, indoor plumbing, reliable food supply are nonexistent in some countries. Yes, there are those who live on the streets who lack all of these simple needs. But overall, I'd rather be poor in this country, then south America, Asia or Africa (BTW, I HAVE been poor!).

In many countries a person born into poverty has no opportunity to improve his life. He has no access to education or training to earn a better living. His only option is to somehow make his way into the power elite, usually the military.

In this country there is free public education, foodstamps, unemployment insurance, housing assistance, & medicaid. A person born into poverty has more of an opportunity to rise thru society then in many other countries. But you need to apply yourself, get good grades, stay away from addicting substances and other aspects of criminal life.

You are responsible for yourself. What you make of yourself depends on you. Blaming others only makes you a whiner. So what if some guy in New York is a billionaire. Taking his money and giving it to someone else is useless, because the person you are giving it to has no appreciation for it, as he did not have to earn it.

There are no guaranties in life.

Thank you very much for your thoughts (that goes for everyone here, by the way).

I agree completely with you that it's definitely better to be poor here than to be poor in many other countries. There's no doubt about it, even poor people here have a very high quality of life relative to someof the world's poorest countries. I guess my stumbling block is that we aren't one of the poorer countries on earth, we are indisputably the richest. And here's the rub, there are many countries, all of whom are poorer than we are, in which the quality of life for the average earner, is higher.

Take myself for instance. I'm fairly bright, I've worked hard, gotten good grades, stayed away from addictive substances, never had any trouble with the law, in other words, I've played by the rules. I've also lost my job, have no health insurance, and am having to borrow $20,000/year to make my tuition payments. Now, if I were living in Europe, not only would I not be paying tuition, I would actually be receiving a modest stipend to cover my living costs while I was in school. In addition, I'd be covered by a public health plan, which admittedly would probably not provide quite as good a coverage as the private insurance I could opt for if I wanted to spend the extra money on it, but at least I would have something, which, compared to the nothing I have right now in our wealthy US, sounds kind of like a step up to me.

I don't know, I hear what you're saying and partially agree with you, but I'm not sure it's fair to compare the quality of life in the US to that which prevails in the worldest poorest countries. Of course life in the US is better than life in Afghanistan, that's not saying anything, they're two totally different countries. The question in my mind is how do we compare with other similarly prosperous countries? That is to say, let's compare apples and apples, not apples and oranges.

As for appreciating the value of money, I can't help but feel that, if anything, the working poor in this country who often have to work multiple jobs just in order to make ends meet, would be more appreciative of the value of an earned dollar than some billionaire who rakes in millions simply by clicking a button and selling a bunch of stocks.

"Taking his money and giving it to someone else is useless, because the person you are giving it to has no appreciation for it, as he did not have to earn it."

Not to mention removing the incentive for many to continue to work hard at earning huge amounts of money when it is just going to be heavily penalized. I mean why should I work to provide for 3 of us when you won't even work to provide for one or why should I earn more if it is just going to mean that I qualify to have more taken from me by the government?