Posted on 11/03/2011 2:26:16 AM PDT by markomalley
The ranks of America's poorest poor have climbed to a record high 1 in 15 people spread widely across metropolitan areas as the housing bust pushed many inner-city poor into suburbs and other outlying places and shriveled jobs and income.
New census data paint a stark portrait of the nation's haves and have-nots at a time when unemployment remains persistently high. It comes a week before the government releases first-ever economic data that will show more Hispanics, elderly and working-age poor have fallen into poverty.
In all, the numbers underscore the breadth and scope by which the downturn has reached further into mainstream America.
"There now really is no unaffected group, except maybe the very top income earners," said Robert Moffitt, a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University. "Recessions are supposed to be temporary, and when it's over, everything returns to where it was before. But the worry now is that the downturn which will end eventually will have long-lasting effects on families who lose jobs, become worse off and can't recover."
Traditional inner-city black ghettos are thinning out and changing, drawing in impoverished Hispanics who have low-wage jobs or are unemployed. Neighborhoods with poverty rates of at least 40 percent are stretching over broader areas, increasing in suburbs at twice the rate of cities.
(Excerpt) Read more at old.news.yahoo.com ...
“There now really is no unaffected group, except maybe the very top income earners,”
Any cop, fireman, or teacher in NJ that has NOT been laid off is doing very well (at the expense of their less-senior co-workers whoe were laid off to fund their outrageous salaries and increases). It is eerie; their disconnect from reality when speaking to them is bizarre. They can’t understand why someone earning $20,000 per year (or whatever else they can get in NJ’s crumbled economy) doesn’t want to pay $8,000 in property taxes...
What do you expect to happen? The Great Society was a failure based on the ludicrous theory that “poverty” could be defeated.
We have an immigration policy designed to soak up the “refuse” of the world. Both political parties refuse to secure the border.
It is impossible for taxpayers to win the War On Poverty until the US government stops bringing in foreign reinforcements for the other side.
At the risk of seeming really insensitive there seems to be a full court press from the left to influence the super-committee to raise taxes with this kind of talk. I heard a very interesting speech on C-SPAN by John Allison former chairman of BB&T banks who reminds us that ‘goverment transfer payments’ such as ‘welfare’ and food stamps, nevermind working off the books are not reflected in this whole scenario. And if it was really that bad we wouldn’t have the immigration problem.
If the government would stop “helping people”, I think the number of poor folks would probably decrease dramatically.
***If the government would stop helping people, I think the number of poor folks would probably decrease dramatically.***
And if tax-payers refused to pay the IRS (cutting out the middle man) the number of rich people would really increase;)
the government releases first-ever economic data that will show more Hispanics, elderly and working-age poor have fallen into poverty.
Sounds like double-talk; if people are already poor, how do they fall into poverty? Statistics can be used to prove anything you want. It's tautological that any given percentage will be at the bottom of the economic scale unless you forcibly spread the wealth around to make things fair.
Poverty is relative. A poor person in America is not a poor person in the third world where we are surely heading.
Pelosi, Reid and Obama tried to screw the rich and they screwed the poor 10 times as badly. There is a parable in this, or at least proof of the "Law of Unintended Consequences".
You’re absolutely right. The “assistance” programs are designed to keep the poor on the plantation indefinitely, rather than actually help them succeed.
Our company has been hiring like crazy for the last two years - I can’t find enough good people who actually WANT to work for a living. Entry-level manufacturing jobs paying over $13 an hour, with plenty of overtime and excellent benefits. I actually had one person say to me, “But if I work that much, they’ll cut my food stamp money and my rent will go up! No thanks...”
In some areas, sure, unemployment is high because there aren’t enough jobs. Here in central KY, unemployment is high because there are a lot of people who 1) don’t want to get off the dole, 2) can’t pass a drug test or background check, or 3) simply don’t want to work for a living.
“A poor person in America is not a poor person in the third world where we are surely heading.”
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Apparently the intent is to eliminate the first, second and third world distinctions and have one world of very poor and oppressed people ruled by a small clique of elitists who will own and control everything including the people. This does not end well.
“A poor person in America is not a poor person in the third world where we are surely heading.”
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Apparently the intent is to eliminate the first, second and third world distinctions and have one world of very poor and oppressed people ruled by a small clique of elitists who will own and control everything including the people. This does not end well.
No probably about it.
I’m saying a minimum of 25% of “the poor” wouldn’t be “poor” anymore, and that number could go as high as 75%.
These people could be put to useful work to earn their bread and work their way out of dependence.
The rest can be taken care of with voluntary and private charity.
That imbalance is still there when you normalize for income.
This is because of the cultural tendencies to spend on consumables vs assets.
This indeed IS the goal of the elitists.
There is a mix of communists in there, but the two are working together with the same goal.
My theory is that these wealthy elitists, being indeed elitists, value the DIFFERENCE between themselves and others more highly than their actual level of lifestyle.
Once they reach a certain level of lifestyle, they experience a huge case of diminishing returns - they just can’t get much “more” in this world.
So, to increase what they really value, the DIFFERENCE, they must reduce the lifestyle of everyone else.
How many of these suppossed poor were offered free education K-12? 100%. They didn’t take advantage of it. How many, if they had completed K-12, and were from a poor background could have gotten free college or at least a huge subsisdy and loans? 100% They didn’t want to study - “it’s hard”. How many started families with no visible means of support and counted on the taxes taken from others at the point of a gun for their subsistence? Many or most. Phuck ‘em, they can do menial labor like every other soul in a third world country with no education or money.
Of course. It's good to be King. They know even the “lower” elite of the past had far more power than those of today. Greed and power of evil people has no limits when unchecked.
Several hundred years ago, royals had nearly unlimited power over the peasants in their domain. They could take (tax) any possessions they saw fit, sleep with any peasant women they pointed at and slaughter as many peasants as they desired. Even some dukes are responsible for thousands of murders.
The US is the first modern rejection of this “divine right”. In fact, at the beginning of the American revolution, the Colonists met with the King's representatives to negotiate. The Lords were simply dumbfounded that the colonists rejected the King's authority. It was incomprehensible back then. Wars at the time were essentially shows where Kings lined up rows of bright colored peasants to see who was left standing. The guerrilla warfare tactics the colonists used was also incomprehensible.
I fear that the elites are trying to take us back by spreading mass ignorance and dependence. Only this time, technology will be the shackles and there wont be anywhere on the planet to run.
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