Posted on 09/02/2007 12:24:41 PM PDT by wagglebee
The MSN.com website did an article earlier this year on poverty, almost as an afterthought asking its readers who grew up impoverished to tell their stories.
The reaction was dramatic to say the least. The tales related made for gripping reading and would no doubt provide fertile material for enterprising screenwriters. The gist of it was a bit different from what the writer may have originally anticipated, however...
There are no two ways about it; in these United States, unless one is hobbled by disability, crippling injury, or chronic illness, long-term poverty is the reliable result of bad behavior, usually accompanied by addiction. Time and again the respondents told stories of chronically drunk, drugged, gambling or absent parents. Serial divorce, unwed childbearing, or an out-and-out aversion to gainful employment.
The depressing tales put another spin into John Maynard Keynes’ saying that there is a lot of ruin in a country but it also reinforced the ideal of hard work and education as the same people who wrote in with their hard-scrabble yarns were also the ones who had managed to overcome their grim circumstances, who had fought their way through abuse, neglect and shame to make good and build a life. I can’t give directions to the article and thread in question in the MSN.com archives but I’m pretty sure one can dig it up.
Your color TV beats the TV my parents bought in 1950 all holler. This article makes clear that the "poor" eat - or could, for the same price - as good a diet as I did growing up. And if they show up at the emergency room they have to be treated, with procedures/medicines which were not available to my family when I was a kid.The fact that you're too cheap to pay full price - a whole $60 or so - for a TV doesn't change the fact that you have a good (compared to anything I had before I was 30, great) TV. Poor people in my day didn't have TV, my parents had decent jobs and we didn't, until I was ten years old. Today "poor" people have not merely color TV, they have cable.
Look, if you're so het up about escalating the standard of what it takes not to be "poor," tell Hillary that the standard for "quality" health care she prattles about constantly is woefully inadequate. Because (unless she gets to "fix" the health care system first) standards of health care in 2040 will be such as to make 2007 medicine as unacceptable then as 1970 medicine would be unacceptable today.
“Then I look at roly-poly kids hanging on the cart and don’t have to wonder how they got that way.”
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You’ve got to check out Discovery Channel’s “Honey, we’re killing the kids” reality series where the dietician-therapist trains the cameras on a family 24/7 for a few weeks before bringing them in for consultation. It’s always variations on the same theme: No sitting down together, no family activities, no exercise, everyone in their own little electronic world after work or school. And (with a few exceptions) very little honest-to-God cooking to boot—fast food, frozen food, convenience food to the max.
Lots of people were dirt poor when they married. I know many. Neither bride or groom had nice clothes, cars or anything else.
Your quality of life isn’t based on how well or badly your neighbors do. If you think so, I suggest you go somewhere that is truly poor, where they don’t know when or where the next meal is coming so you can appreciate what you do have. And if you are bent on basing your quality of life verses everyone else then the simple fact is you are very likely much, much better off than at least 3/4 of the planet’s people.
Even fruit juice isn’t that great in large quantities. Sure it’s “Natural Sugar” but it’s still sugar.
Moderation is best!
While there is some poverty in the monetary sense, the poverty of spirit is much larger.
To B4Ranch: I would like you to read my post #27.
Although I am better off than my dad was in terms of “toys”, I am much worse off than he in other ways. My standing in society is so much lower that I cannot even approach a suitable mate for courtship. By now my age is such that it’s pointless anyway. I would probably not be accepted by any of the clubs that he was/is a member of...rotary, shriners, etc. I have no investments or savings. He never went to college. I have a master’s degree in engineering. In his day, a person like me would’ve had it made...without the college education. I love to work. I like manual labor. I am mechanically enclined. I know how to fix stuff. I inherited these attributes from him and he prospered from them. I am cursed by them, and by a changing economy. My personality is such that I cannot work at a desk all day 6 days a week...just as my father could not. I never should have been in college for as long as I was. It’s just not my thing. But I did it because I started it and I don’t quit, I finish what I start. The work I am doing today payed in 1970 more than a college professor made in 1970. Today it pays about the same as a garbage man makes, I think.
I never did join a union. Mostly on principal. But if I had, I probably would be in a much better situation right now. My dad was never in a union either. But it was different then.
It all depends on the type of woman you’re looking for. Yes, many women are obsessed with material possessions. Where did you meet these women who wouldn’t give you the time of day? Did you take your free time and maybe check out some local churches? There’s a lot more women then men at church! How about volunteering in the community? I met my wife when I volunteered to work as a sound technician for a theater group on an Army Base in Germany.
You should also examine your attitude. Try just being friends with a few ladies. Don’t try to take it any further! After awhile ask them for advice. They might even know the right lady for you.
Look; there’s plenty of creeps out there who don’t have two nickles to rub together who have no problem getting women. I’m not just talking about sex, I’m talking about long term relationships. You own a home and three vehicles. That’s more than a lot of other guys have.
You’ve got a lot going for you. Focus on that!
The poor in this country have no idea how wealthy they are. I sponsor a little girl from Honduras through the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging. She was abandoned by both parents, and lives with her grandmother in a hut with a dirt floor. Thirty bucks a month provides her with food, health care and tuition for school.
To have someone with a roof over their head, ample food, free access to health care, running water and electricity, a car, a TV, a stereo and a dishwasher whine about their “poverty” makes my blood boil.
No. Being here does NOT entitle you to a better life! You have the freedom to pursue a better life but that's about it.
If I’m mistaken please let me know what part of the Constitution you are referring to.
Just curious, how old are you?
If you live without cable, cell phone or expensive sneakers....you're poor in America.
And what job are you doing?
About 40, why?
It’s hard to put a title on my job since I am operating outside the unions. But I am a combination of these: Electrician, plumber, boilermaker, fitter, HVAC, foreman, bidder/estimator, and sometimes engineer. I’m primarily a fitter by the hours of work I do. But primarily a boilermaker by my credentials. Well, unless you count my college degrees, then I’m primarily an engineer.
Why does it matter?
Duh
Many, many people have also survived the bad luck portion of their lives due to making prudent choices earlier. Therefore, nearly all poverty is caused by poor choices.
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