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Extreme Poverty Is Now At Record Levels
The extreme the wealth disparity in the U.S. keeps on widening. We already know that people at the higher percentage levels are doing well, particularly at the highest, while the middle class is shrinking rapidly. Here, Michael Snyder presents some handy statistics on the growth at the lowest levels of poverty. ~ Ilene
Extreme Poverty Is Now At Record Levels – 19 Statistics About The Poor That Will Absolutely Astound You
Courtesy of Michael Snyder of Economic Collapse
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty than they have ever measured before. In 2010, we were told that the economy was recovering, but the truth is that the number of the "very poor" soared to heights never seen previously. Back in 1993 and back in 2009, the rate of extreme poverty was just over 6 percent, and that represented the worst numbers on record. But in 2010, the rate of extreme poverty hit a whopping 6.7 percent. That means that one out of every 15 Americans is now considered to be "very poor".
For many people, this is all very confusing because their guts are telling them that things are getting worse and yet the mainstream media keeps telling them that everything is just fine. Hopefully this article will help people realize that the plight of the poorest of the poor continues to deteriorate all across the United States. In addition, hopefully this article will inspire many of you to lend a hand to those that are truly in need.
Tonight, there are more than 20 million Americans that are living in extreme poverty. This number increases a little bit more every single day. The following statistics that were mentioned in an article in The Daily Mail should be very sobering for all of us....
About 20.5 million Americans, or 6.7 percent of the U.S. population, make up the poorest poor, defined as those at 50 per cent or less of the official poverty level.
Those living in deep poverty represent nearly half of the 46.2 million people scraping by below the poverty line. In 2010, the poorest poor meant an income of $5,570 or less for an individual and $11,157 for a family of four.
That 6.7 percent share is the highest in the 35 years that the Census Bureau has maintained such records, surpassing previous highs in 2009 and 1993 of just over 6 percent.
Sadly, the wealthy and the poor are being increasingly segregated all over the nation. In some areas of the U.S. you would never even know that the economy was having trouble, and other areas resemble third world hellholes. In most U.S. cities today, there are the "good neighborhoods" and there are the "bad neighborhoods".
According to a recent Bloomberg article, the "very poor" are increasingly being pushed into these "bad neighborhoods"....
At least 2.2 million more Americans, a 33 percent jump since 2000, live in neighborhoods where the poverty rate is 40 percent or higher, according to a study released today by the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
Of course they don't have much of a choice. They can't afford to live where most of the rest of us do.
Today, there are many Americans that openly look down on the poor, but that should never be the case. We should love the poor and want to see them lifted up to a better place. The truth is that with a few bad breaks any of us could end up in the ranks of the poor. Compassion is a virtue that all of us should seek to develop.
Not only that, but the less poor people and the less unemployed people we have, the better it is for our economy. When as many people as possible in a nation are working and doing something economically productive, that maximizes the level of true wealth that a nation is creating.
But today we are losing out on a massive amount of wealth. We have tens of millions of people that are sitting at home on their couches. Instead of creating something of economic value, the rest of us have to support them financially. That is not what any of us should want.
It is absolutely imperative that we get as many Americans back to work as possible. The more people that are doing something economically productive, the more wealth there will be for all of us.
That is why it is so alarming that the ranks of the "very poor" are increasing so dramatically. When the number of poor people goes up, the entire society suffers.
So just how bad are things right now?
The following are 19 statistics about the poor that will absolutely astound you....
#1 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of "very poor" rose in 300 out of the 360 largest metropolitan areas during 2010.
#2 Last year, 2.6 million more Americans descended into poverty. That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.
#3 It isn't just the ranks of the "very poor" that are rising. The number of those just considered to be "poor" is rapidly increasing as well. Back in the year 2000, 11.3% of all Americans were living in poverty. Today, 15.1% of all Americans are living in poverty.
#4 The poverty rate for children living in the United States increased to 22% in 2010.
#5 There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity.
#6 In Washington D.C., the "child food insecurity rate" is 32.3%.
#7 More than 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.
#8 One out of every six elderly Americans now lives below the federal poverty line.
#9 Today, there are over 45 million Americans on food stamps.
#10 According to the Wall Street Journal, nearly 15 percent of all Americans are now on food stamps.
#11 In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.
#12 The number of Americans on food stamps has increased 74% since 2007.
#13 We are told that the economy is recovering, but the number of Americans on food stamps has grown by another 8 percent over the past year.
#14 Right now, one out of every four American children is on food stamps.
#15 It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point in their lives before they reach the age of 18.
#16 More than 50 million Americans are now on Medicaid. Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, approximately one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.
#17 One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one government anti-poverty program.
#18 The number of Americans that are going to food pantries and soup kitchens has increased by 46% since 2006.
#19 It is estimated that up to half a million children may currently be homeless in the United States.
Sadly, we don't hear much about this on the nightly news, do we?
This is because the mainstream media is very tightly controlled.
I came across a beautiful illustration of this recently. If you do not believe that the news in America is scripted, just watch this video starting at the 1:15 mark. Conan O'Brien does a beautiful job of demonstrating how news anchors all over the United States are often repeating the exact same words.
So don't rely on the mainstream media to tell you everything.
In this day and age, it is absolutely imperative that we all think for ourselves, and that we have compassion on our brothers and sisters. Winter is coming up, and if you see someone that does not have a coat, don't be afraid to offer to give them one.
All over the United States (and all around the world), there are orphans that are desperately hurting. As you celebrate the good things that you have during this time of the year, don't forget to remember them.
We should not expect that "the government" will take care of everyone that is hurting.
The reality is that millions of people fall through the "safety net".
Yes, times are going to get harder and an economic collapse is coming.
That just means that we should be more generous and more compassionate than we have ever been before.
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I've been to central and east Africa and seen poverty there. That doesn't make it acceptable, nor do I want to see it HERE. Believe me, when it's as bad HERE as it is there, you'll be roasting on someone's grill, and the last thing you'll have thought before they field dressed you was "wow, I wish I'd had more to give them back in the days when they were still taking things instead of taking US ..."
You are right. You have not seen poverty until you see Asian/African poverty.
The sobering thought is the number of people that are one month's expenses away from living inm the street. I'm reminded of the story of a man, living in a tent on the beach, when the realization hit him. It was the end of his first day of homelessness.
http://georgesblogforum.wordpress.com/2011/10/26/wage-slave-2012-update-...
Education and savings - indispensable...
Neither of which are available to the poor or the soon-to-be poor.
Wikipedia. I know tons of kids, myself included, that taught themselves how to program or how to build a pc from a pile of hardware from nothing but free online resources.
Hell I would say that most of the smart college kids in the computer science field are self taught and go to class just because they need a peice of paper to "prove" they know all the information.
That's the way I did it ... 20 years ago. I only needed the piece of paper so IBM would hire me. Without it, they wouldn't even look my way. I didn't learn anything I didn't already know prior to college (with respect to Computer Science - leaned a metric shit-ton of other stuff - especially Mathematics and the Humanities).
As far as programming, I was self-taught long before I entered college, and almost had to laugh at the curriculum as it was all easily learnable without having to attend college ... but you still needed that piece of paper to get hired.
It depends. I never finished college, but rather went straight into the workforce and began "hands-on" learning. I quickly became a supervisor (now I'm a department manager over a vital part of the company), and soon passed the equilibrium point...meaning that for some time I've been earning a higher paycheck than most people in my field who have college degrees. I had to work for it, and I had to outshine my peers to get there, but I did it.
On the other hand, I have a close relative who has been out of work for four years (yes...YEARS). Soon after he lost his job near the beginning of this economic turndown, he made a noble decision and went back to college to expand on his Bachelors and get an MBA. He finally graduated over a year ago...and he still hasn't found a job, despite all the applications and interviews. Turns out that (1) a four-year void in your work history is a big black spot against you, and (2) so many people have been going back to college and getting degrees, that the piece of paper isn't the magic Willy Wonka golden ticket it used to be. He's very frustrated, and saddled with tons of student debt for his efforts. I feel bad for him.
This is what the communists want. Obama, Acorn, unions, bankers, everyone wants to see America burn and they want the law destroyed.
Bankers? Wall St? They're all regarded as scum now. Wonder why?
"Bankers? Wall St? They're all regarded as scum now. Wonder why?"
Because they all signed up for government sponsered "assistance"?
why don't you just parrot the right wing spew of your buddies, Obama, Tea Party scum and gush limberger.
I'll see you over thge barricades, shit bird and I'll have a round or two special for you shit spewing mouth you fucking koch turd!
Fuck you and your spew
Can someone get me an interpreter please?
He say "You under arrest Mr Deckard".
Get ready to join the masses suffering from economic collapse, or die trying to defend your stack, Jack, 'cause things are not allright in the good 'ole USA, and the shit is going to hit the fan shortly. Banks and Wall Street? Dumb and dumber. Who came up with derivatives? Credit default swaps? How about the orgy of zero percent apr credit cards to hook everyone on cheap credit just to yank it out from underneath consumer and businesses alike? The steady run up of liar loans, zero interest mortgages, and negative interest payment mortgages? The banks and Wall Street created this mess, and they fried the entire nation to line their pockets.If you think this was not a carefully orchestrated way of grabbing power, influence, and money from all for the benefit of a few, you are fucked in the head. When Europe collapses, all of the putrid monetary crud created from nothing but paper lies is going to destroy the world as we know it. A curse upon those responsible is not enough. Hang 'em high. Too Big To Fail? I think not. Let 'em fail, judge, jury, and execute consequences for the architects who planned the destruction of the world of man to feather their nests with paper lies.
this may be filled with bullshit guesses but the main theory is correct.. if energy propduction goes down, so does population
http://www.paulchefurka.ca/WEAP/WEAP.html
maybe with less humans the wild kingdom will return and perhaps create mega monsters 100 feet tall.. perhaps even dragons and unicorns finally
I hope the unicorns are of the Skittle-pooping variety. I like Skittles. ;-)
always has been poverty; always will be.
We can talk about how you want to take, er, tax, er steal my money to pay for it after I finish loading my gun
So spoke Louis XVI.
Good luck w/that.
sure, but poverty for lower class wasn't enough for the greedy elites, so they had their banks put the lower class into debt slavery. Education, healthcare, auto, credit, mortgage...all that defines middle class has been financed via debt. now you HAVE to work.
Most Americans have negative net worth when you account for the debt. WORSE than some homeless bum in Africa with 0 net assets. At least that bum is free from debtor's prison.
African bum is more free than debt slave in American suburb.
That's right. At least in Zimbabwe, you get hungry, you can find a dead elephant and eat for awhile or pan some gold from a nearby stream. In America, when the EBT cards stop working.....boyz in da hood goin' be roastin' white long pig.
Uh huh... Yeah, those lumbering obese homies really can get around... (Shuddering with laughter) Not in my neighborhood son; but it sure would be some funny shiznit to see...
You 2 are becoming quite the double act, sort of a half assed Lethal Weopon.
And i like your act so much i'm going to deposit my turd of a story here.
Moving on with the point of Aldous above, i have thought long and hard about class and social mobility.
i grew up very poor in scotland to decent people who stressed education. i saw classmates eat from birdtables for extra food.
WW2 and its social aftermath, where the plutocracy were temporarily weakened allowed social mobility in the UK and through hard work, luck and leaving the UK i find myself in a job with a world wide shortage and making a lot of money.
i think about the social mobility, that i had, that is now closing and the arrogant plutocracy - the 0.1% as we in the 1% see it - who are greedily taking more.
the educational trap is indeed nasty but only if the degree involved is bullshit.
we are facing a return to victorian times... the fall of rome... a more fuedal set up....perhaps.
but in the past the professions still did well, if your degree is in that.. or engineering then things will be fine.
for example...as india is now ... where the priviliged become doctors even though many are very unsuited then so will it will happen in the west.
for sure i will pay extra to a dud uni somewhere so my kids all get that law or medical degree.
so if you're going to pull yourself out of the gutter - get on with it now.
You got 5 years.
A law degree? , pardon me while I puke. Try learning an honest trade.
Keep that War on Poverty going!
Errr, maybe that is the problem?
God bless the child that's got his own?
Hohum
I do not pay for protection. I have a CWL and carry a .45 Kimber whenever I am out and about. I'll deal with my own protection, thanks. ;-)
cbxer55,
That's super! I am sure having your weaponery and ammo will keep your standard of living where it is now!
I'm not saying TPTB aren't extracting wealth from the rest, but the "rest" were not complaining when they were living quite comfortably on the same ponzi scheme their now banker-masters are profiting from.
A lot of people have become accustomed to lifestyles that simply cannot be supported without debt. Everyone is going to have to learn to adjust. The sad fact is most people who are crying for "justice" are actually just throwing a temper tantrum because their debt machine broke down.
There is a huge difference between those people who are truly working hard and are truly suffering, and those who took on a standard of living with borrowed money, and now feel entitled. Entitled to what? To spend $50 a day on junk food and beer and soda alone? To drive a brand new SUV and have the full-service cable and internet bundle? The money was created by a ponzi to begin with, and yet they feel cheated when its gone. What they have to realize is that it wasn't theirs to begin with.
The problem with the entitlement programs is that they support the sense of entitlement, and the ones who pay for it all are the ones who really are struggling, going to work and paying their bills, paying taxes, and trying to save a little for a rainy day. Too many hard-working people, who paid off their mortgages and saved in case of this type of situation, are now being forced to pay even more into the system. I live on the equivalent of $18,000 a year. And I live pretty well. Why do I now have to pay for all these so-called poverty-stricken people's cable and iphone bill?
The squeaky wheel gets the grease. And the workers and savers get screwed. The problem with entitlement programs is that they rarely make it to the people who really are poor. There are too many people who know how to work the system. And the extraction of wealth that occurs in order to fund and run those programs is what removes any chance of helping those people, because employers cannot afford to hire, people do not have anything left to help their friends and families who are in need. The government deciding who is "in need" is the same thing as the government deciding which banks should receive bailouts and who should pay. We have seen very clearly what happens when government hands out "needed stimulus" to benefit certain privileged recipients. They handle the entitlement programs the same way. And they cost the taxpayers a fortune in the process through their bureacracy. Sadly, many of the people who ARE poor, have gotten there because of the high taxation rate they endure because they were forced to pay into those very same entitlement programs that are supposedly their salvation. The more people who are pushed into poverty by the weight of the State, the more they will need the State to "save them". And it is a downward spiral that does not end well.
Not sure what you mean by "I live on the equivalent of $18,000 a year. And I live pretty well. Why do I now have to pay for all these so-called poverty-stricken people's cable and iphone bill?"
If you're in the USA, I can't see how you think you're paying for others. How are you paying that? Your taxes? Something not quite adding up.
I didn't say I make 18,000 a year, I said my lifestyle costs me 18,000 a year. Instead of depending on someone else, I save and invest to have a safety net. I don't spend every penny I earn on electronics and iphone. I learned to always prepare for the worst, and so I've scaled back my cost of living to make sure I'm saving something for the future. I didn't max out my credit card and ask for a handout.
I pay taxes like everyone else, and yes, my tax dollars go to entitlement programs just like everyone else's taxes do. A lot of the people who were spending while I was saving are now receiving my money and yours, if you're a taxpayer.
The church recorded 150+ at 8 am who showed up at the monthly food pantry. By 3 PM there were over 300 and the food had run out completely and more were still coming. Some have driven 2 hours to get to food.
Walmart made up the bulk of the donated foodstuffs which included meats and what have you to supplement the basics.
I don't care about those whose properties are paid off such as mine. Because in these times maintaining them cost money.
It is more important to get out of the city and live in a small town or rural area. Places like Detroit are in total collaspe and you should take this sign as a warning to relocate.
I was able to make 5 filling dinners for myself on $4.50. And good dinner at that. But hell, if free food is offered somewhere, can you not expect people to take it? The fact that the free food is popular does not mean that the people in line were necessarily in dire need. (of course some are truly in need, and were probably turned away when the food ran out, because others who didn't need it were lined up at the trough.)
In some counties in California you get $40 a day for being homeless, plus a free cell phone. At the time I had a friend working at the bank where they came in to get their $40. She knew who they all were. We saw them everywhere. In the liquor store, at Starbucks buying $4 lattes, and all over town. Meanwhile there were help-wanted signs in many windows. I remember thinking at the time that I was an idiot, because I was working for minimum wage, which after witholding came out to $60 a day. So here I was spending 8 hours a day for $60, while they were getting $40 a day and had all day to do as they like.
In another town I was trying to hire workers and many would not accept the jobs because if they did, they would lose their entitlements. I feel sorry for business owners who have to compete with the government to try to hire workers, they try to get America running again, but the gov't pays workers more to stay home and keep this country at a standstill.
Welfare = subsidies for industries that serve the lower classes.
California is not liberal and doesn't care about bums. If they did, they'd get bums class advancing free education so he can get a job. But instead they let the bums become addicted to consumerism good for just another day...and eventually all that money becomes guaranteed profit for corporations. Just like foreclosure bailout is for the banks who lent bad loans, welfare is bailout for food/retail industry.
Ofcourse elites can't profit when they pay taxes and get back into their corporate earnings, so they had people like you pay the taxes, funnel into bum's pockets, and it gets aggregated into corporate earnings an eventually in the control of elites who own America.
Republicans = subsidies for old money industries like military, defense, energy.
Democrats = subsidies for new money industries
"Republicans = subsidies for old money industries like military, defense, energy.
Democrats = subsidies for new money industries"
Well said. And they both take turns screwing the taxpayer, through a silent agreement to take turns in office, and to keep out any third party voice that tries to expose them.
"If it helps you get through your day by thinking it will never happen to you and they are all a bunch of malingers, you need to spend more time trying to understand why your biases have made you blind"
It does not help me get through my day, and I do not ever think about the subject. Could'nt care one way or the other. And if it happens to me, well, SHIT HAPPENS. I do not lose any sleep worrying about it. I've made it to 50 without ever having to live that way, mostly by a lot of hard work and good work ethics. If it does happen to me, I'll just deal with it like I do everything else in life. I won't be out on a corner with a cup.
Good thing is I have a lot of family with a lot of room, so the likelihood of that happening is pretty slim. If things get so bad that it affects everyone in the family, in all probablilty you will not be doing well yourself. Truthfully, at the ripe old age of 50, if things ever got that bad, I would be more than happy to swallow a bullet. I've lived a good life so far with no regrets, I am still quite healthy thanks to a daily workout routine, and except for the loss of one ear due to noisy hobbies, everything else works. So if things got that bad, it would be self checkout time. I'd rather do that than beg from strangers anyhow. I've never begged in my life, ain't gonna start now. ;-)
And no, I did not "green" myself, I never do that. Evidently someone else out there agrees with me. ;-0
How many years have we spent building McMansions? How much have we spent on granite countertops and stainless steel applicances? On fabulous vacations? How often have we flown around the country on a whim? How much did that second custom Harley cost? How about the ski boat, or the new F350 King Ranch Edition?
Individual choices en masse are societal choices.
Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.~Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973), My Several Worlds [1954].
The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer
A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.
~Samuel Johnson, Boswell: Life of Johnson
The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.~John E. E. Dalberg, Lord Acton, The History of Freedom in Antiquity, [1877].
"...the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped. " ~ Last Speech of Hubert H. Humphrey
"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." ~ Mahatma Ghandi
"Any society, any nation, is judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members -- the last, the least, the littlest."
~Cardinal Roger Mahony, In a 1998 letter, Creating a Culture of Life
The greatness of America is in how it treats its weakest members: the elderly, the infirm, the handicapped, the underprivileged, the unborn. ~Bill Federer
"A society will be judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members and among the most vulnerable are surely the unborn and the dying,"
~Pope John Paul II
"When tween texting accounts are getting shut down to pay for food, then will the world hear, a once great nations death rattle." - Spanish Inquisition.
"Neca eos omnes, Deus suos agnoset"
In that case, given the obligations and liabilities bestowed on the recently and un-born, the country has failed miserably.
The state of "poor" in the U.S. is not what it is in most other countries. The poor in most other countries do not have a tv in every room with cable or satelite, a car or two in the driveway and cell phones. It is amazing how much food they could feed their "food insecure" children if they did not have to have the latest and greatest gadget on their belt.
The true poor, the homeless, a lot of them are there because they want to be. And then when you see that panhandler on the corner, you do not even know if he is truly there because he is homeless, or if he does that for a living. I have seen a van (nice one at that!) full of folks dropping them off one at a time on different corners. Due to this I flat refuse to hand out money to these losers.
Give money to charity? Probably half the money you give them goes to paying the salaries of those who work there.
Its a no-win situation. If your not willing to help yourself, you should not expect others to help you.
False. In places like central Africa the really poor people are indeed poorer than the poor in America in absolute terms, but they also do not have barriers to such things as surviving off the land as we do. Each culture has it's own relative poverty and wealth, and those societies are set up for that rate so that it is possible to survive more or less unmolested even if you are dirt poor. Not so in America, if you fall below the poverty line (or half that line) or less you might be OK if you are a female with children, but it is very unusual for a male to get assistance, I knew a couple guys with full blown AIDS that could not work, got NO assistance from government other than Medicaid, and one who in spite of being near death was homeless and not even allowed into the shelter because they feared liability and the possible violent response by other homeless men.
Our society is set up for a level of poverty that is actually pretty low and for poverty not all that deep, what we are seeing and the reason writers like Ilene are bringing this to our attention is that really true and deep poverty in America is exploding at rates hard to even keep up with.
No problem some of you say, go out and buy a ranch and feed yourself. WTF? Or, there are plenty of fish in our seas, lakes, and rivers. Try it, I do not know how a state as huge as Oregon is can have only 6 fish and game guys for enforcement but they seem to be everywhere at the same time. Cardboard hut under a freeway structure for shelter? You can do that for a few weeks till either the cops or killers of homeless get you, if you survive that there is always hypothermia, starvation. America is a very bad place to be poor compared to places like central and east Africa. Try scavenging for a living here, you will be breaking a number of laws.
By the way, you know most food stores now have their garbage bins locked or otherwise inaccessible to scavengers right? Fear of liability. And the sad part is we throw away more food than all the poor and homeless could possibly eat. Especially stores and restaurants which prefer to let it sit till it can't be sold because they have it so overpriced. You would think that right before it goes bad enough to be tossed out they would put it on some sort of clearance rack. Safeway here has a table with a lot of 50% off items that are discontinued or about to go out of date, nothing perishable and never basic foods.
No, the homeless are not there because they want to be. If you have even a remote understanding of mental aflictions, addiction, abuse and trauma, you'd have to rethink that line.
You are right though that the "poor" in the USA are not like the poor in most countries, especially African nations, Asian and Latin American nations. The poor (above the homeless level) here can at least be sustained. But it's not much of an existence.
Sometimes, people require the help of others to right the ship. One does not always have the answers nor can they see the path. Shine a light here and there.....
Many people who are homeless are homeless because the housing boom (falsely created) priced them out of the ability to afford a roof over their head.
Many people who are poor and homeless could not endure the burden of taxation and the cycles of unemployment that were created by government manipulation of the money supply, interest rates, etc.
Many people who are poor were given things for free. But the government hands out favors based on the whims of whoever is in office. Entitlements are granted and the people build a dependency on them, instead of being helped to help themselves.
A good many of the people who are homeless and hungry are pushed out of the realm of help by others who take the entitlements but do not need them. The government perpetuates a system where those who are really in need are often pushed out by favored groups who give according to quotas or artificial measurements of income that do not accurately reflect the person's real situation.
I try to help people when I can. Unfortunately, because the government extracts a quarter of my income to pay bureacrats to hand out freebies to many people who have no real need, my ability to really help people is limited.
If I had my tax dollars back I could support someone's ENTIRE annual budget in a decent apartment and with decent groceries. Sadly, my money instead goes to others like some of my coworkers, who work for cash under the table, making $50K a year, and then receive food stamps, HUD housing, free healthcare, free breakfast and lunch for their kids, subsidies for their utilities payment, and free money for "school" which they take and do not attend classes, and use the money on iphones and nacho-cheese Doritos.
Would I rather have my money back so I can help someone who is really in need? Absolutely. People must be taught and shown how to help themselves, or the poverty is just going to grow, and as they do, the wealth transfers, and the corruption of extracting wealth from the many to give to the few, will as well.
As with most of our problems, the solutions start with decentralization. TPTB like having an army of (often angry) dependents. Not only does it keep our nose to the grindstone to pay them off, there's always the threat (often now explicit) of rioting should society decide to stop paying for everything for able people. The dependency state only ends with real personal responsibility. And that only actually happens when we see real suffering that results from irresponsibility. We're not ready for that, yet.
Agreed. I also think that solutions to human problems are best handled on a human level, meaning local. When you see a real person in front of you who needs help, and can provide that support on a local level, with more than monetary support, but community support that helps people get back on their feet (the way that things were in the United States for a long time, and still are in many places, where people help each other out, even strangers, who are in need).
Local and individual charity also places a responsibility on the recipient to the person who helped them, to use the support wisely and to show that they are willing to use it to help themselves out.
There will always be people who are poor, because resources are scarce, because shit happens (even to good people who save and work), but also because there will always be people who take advantage and take without need or without accountability to those who helped them. Local and human-to-human charity helps weed out those who are scammers, and make sure that the resources are better allocated to those who need it. I also think that the human touch of kindness does wonders for getting someone on their feet, and that kindness is better felt by voluntary giving than by filling out a form in a government office. After awhile recipients forget that its not a form or an office that is giving to them, it is real people, who also have mouths to feed at home. When they see someone take from their own pocket, there is a true understanding of the kindness they have received. Also, they are more likely to help someone else out when they are finally able, and it is reinforcing over time.
People who embrace a truly free market do not wish harm to people in need. It is precisely in support of those people in need that we wish to do away with the burden of the State, which hurts both those in need as well as those who would be most willing to give if they could.
Man, I have seen some self congratulating, teabagging, circle jerks before but the above really takes the cake. It is not the poor in this society that are eating your lunch, capitalism in order to function has to create a poor underclass, it requires there to be winners and losers. It was the depth and breadth of the loser class that was so dire it actually caused shame in the eyes of those who were anointed winners, and who in return created some well meaning programs to help alleviate the worst of the suffering.
All those programs combined are but a fraction of the real budget of the USA. The interest on the debt is bigger than food stamps and HUD section 8 combined. Health and human services is the largest single entity in the budget but most of that goes to pay wealthy doctors and hospitals in our broken health care system. We could cut that expense in half without lowering the quality or quantity of care given. The second largest single department item is DoD, we cannot do without defense but there is a lot of corporate welfare built into that budget as well, look at the F35, awesome plane but at a billion and a half per we could have clouds of squadrons of cheaper F16's in such overwhelming numbers they more than make up for their non stealth profile. After DoD is the Treasury Dept. Pure welfare for the wealthy, financial games rewarded to the tune of hundreds of billions of those tax dollars you so wish you could keep.
The next largest item is the Ag Dept. While it is true that 100 billion or so of their budget is food stamps that is actually a small part of the overall federal budget, corporate welfare to MegaAg like Monsanto, Tyson, ConAgra, ADM, Armor, Cargill, just to name a few, are nose to trough pigs eating the rest of the Ag budget.
Then we get to the smaller departments at about 100 billion or less, education first, then Veterans. One Hundred billion for education is NOT too much to invest in education, though I think we all admit the Federal government does not make best use of it. Unfortunately the reason the Education Department came to be and grew so large is state and local funding for schools did not work, schools were constantly being starved for funds and many urban areas had schools in deplorable condition.
But ditto for all the human services budgets across government, the reason they were began was states and localities as well as private charity just would not take care of it. When you count what really is spent to care for the poor and disabled in our budget aside from real defense costs and social security which has paid for itself (even if you did nothing while TPTB stole it) you get well under half the budget. Corporate welfare and payments to a grossly mismanaged healthcare system make up well more than half of the budget. Instead of bitching and whining endlessly about "the poor" why don't you get off your dead asses and demand your tax remittances get spent, but wisely? You could give real help to real persons and still save half of what you pay.
What galls me is that what we pay in should mean we have a really great nation, but because so much of it goes to corporate graft we are all getting screwed. When the poor are poor enough, and the middle class is at last gone, when they really are the 99% and really are hungry, then you will see the rise of the under classes and it will not be pretty or fair. It will take the blood of the 1% to settle the score, wish it were not the case but watch for it because it is coming.
Here is a pretty good site that shows the "budget" in graphic form, and of course there is no budget, just spending bills. http://www.federalbudget.com/
You should probably stick to what you know if you really think "The true poor, the homeless, a lot of them are there because they want to be."
Why pray tell, would the homeless want to be homeless? Is it for the fresh air under the freeway bridges? Is it because of the gourment meals at the church missions and the wonderful found food in the dumpsters. Is it the marvelous company of mentally ill people and creeps? Is it the fact that you can die in alone, cold and diseased and no one will know.
just what is the marvelous attraction that makes people abandon their homes and apartments to live in cars and cardboard boxes?
Poverty is very real in America, sometimes it is the result of bad choices and sometimes it is a result of bad luck and sometimes it just happens. I don't think it is anything anyone strives for, no one wants to be poor and homeless.
If it helps you to get through your day by thinking it will never happen to you and they are all a bunch of malingers, you need to spend more time trying to understand why your biases have made you blind.
Cbxer55,
Perhaps, but what are the consequences to you of not helping these slackers through a charity, government, or otherwise? Have enough money for protection?