Reverse discrimination does exist. I got massive grants from a private college because I am Hispanic and grew up poor. Taking into account scholarships and other grants I only had to take loans for about 20% of my education. I do not think the poor are a problem or anything is their fault, but I believe we do need poor people in this country in order for there to be rich people. All I'm saying is that poor people have it comparitively well in the US, and they are poor because of choices they made in their life. No one is forcing them to be poor. That's one of the things that makes America great, it treats its poor well. Many of the poor people I know are content with being poor. They are not ecstatic about it, but content. Sure their lives may be harder and they may feel cheated, but their lives aren't bad enough that they feel the need to make drastic lifestyle changes. Welfare ensures this. Even if you are poor in America you can still feed your family and afford a television. Any US citizen who tries hard enough can work their way out of the ghetto. The only people who really have an excuse to be poor are new immigrants. Being poor in the US is a choice for anyone who was born here. It would be a problem if every poor person successfully made their way out of the ghetto though. We need janitors, cashiers, farm workers, grocery stockers, etc. It's because we make it easy enough for people to willingly be poor that we don't need to force people to be poor (or worse, take away their free will and make them do what we want).
Trader Joe's saves you money? Not in my town, holy moly. But besides that, there's a good reason the supermarket chains have left the poor areas. It used to be that you could find the chain stores in every neighborhood, whether it was rich, poor or in between. Sadly, the poor neighborhoods had higher crime rates and the stores could not afford to offer the same quality items at the same prices it could at places where people weren't stealing stuff left and right. So they lowered quality and raised prices. And the "champions" of the poor (people who feed off the misery of others) raised holy hell. They demanded that the chains offer the same quality products at the same prices! Since the stores could not do that and cover the losses due to theft, they left. The reason the poor cannot get groceries for a cheap price is because they ran the providers out of town.
I bought a brand spanking new washer and dryer when we built our house. They weren't top of the line by any means, but they only cost (AIR) $250 and $400. You can pick up rerurbished units for $75. But $150 is a lot when you don't have it. How many poor people have cell phones that they pay $30 a month for? 5 months of cell service - there's your washer and dryer.
The reason the poor cannot get groceries for a cheap price is because they ran the providers out of town. ---------------------- It wouldn't be too bad if the poor swiped a can of Spam but they steal steak and lobster.
Don't you be dissin' Spam! I plan on frying some up for breakfast in the morning. Good stuff - slice it really thin and fry it `til it's crunchy. Yum!
You are a smart fellow. I seldom give complements to people on ET, but you deserve it. I have never lived in a real hood, and was able to go to decent schools, but have on occasion worked with urban youth and many are in need of better education and compassion not jails, discipline and contempt that so many are so quick to dish out. Unfortunately, many in the US (not all) think that a good whip and stern approach is the solution. Then again their idols are Rush L. and the Fox misinformation channel not Zinn and Chomsky.
What do you expect? For the past 40+ years we have warehoused the poor and ignorant with other poor and ignorant?
WTF? Cars are damn expensive, and the article just got done talking about how poor people don't have them. Now we are supposed to feel sorry for her because her car broke down and she can't afford to fix it? When I was in college, I couldn't #@&^ afford a car! I hoofed it all over town. How about you don't spend what you don't have and save that $10 a month on caller ID? Even when I was in college making about $3.50 an hour for 20 hours I could "afford" a savings account. Didn't cost me a thing. I couldn't write checks against it, but I could cash my paychecks for free. It was so #@^* far away that I would save up a month's worth of pay before walking down there, though. While I use my credit card for most everything, I also pay it down every month. My first new car I bought, I paid 10k and borrowed 4k. My second, I paid in cash. The only thing I really needed credit for was my house - and if I could not get credit I would have rented and saved up. The poor don't have credit because many of them won't pay it back. WTF?! Free - just fill out a form and show your ID. I've done this when on vacation out of state to save a few dollars on a one time trip. But, the poor cannot be bothered, I guess. And then he bitches about the "high prices" and demands a refund. Strangely the prices were printed on the store shelves before he choose his items. Not in this market. Not if you have half a brain enough to contact more than one place. And finally: I take public transit to the office every day. It takes me an hour each way. Most of the people in our office do the same. When I take light rail, it's supposed to come every ten minutes. Twice this week, my car has been stuck for an extra ten minutes. On top of this, I pay a crapload in taxes. So when's the article coming out about The Really High Cost of Working for a Living?
analyzing your collective statements on this thread i conclude that : 1) poor people suck, are lazy, and thus deserve to be poor and unimportant. Indeed, they deserve to be treated like crap, and to be forced to pay the bills by using 35 % payroll advance loans, because massa done outsourced da jobs, all the while bitching to high heaven about the "welfare queens" sucking the socialist tit, as he cashes the publicly-funded economic stimulus check, so graciously afforded him from the pound of flesh extracted from said welfare queen's children; 2) superior sorts never get unfair advantages, they simply "worked harder;" 3) none of you understands that accumulated wealth invariably leads to birthright aristocracy ... eg: GWB' s presidency; 4) your belief in the religious perfectabilty of man is just so much bullshit; 5) we are doomed, because none of you accept that those who know the truth about life have a responsibility to lead, rather than screw over your brother (or his really hot, tho untermensch wife) for a few shekels. 6) reality is when it happens to you.
most of the wealth on this planet is created through automated machines (biological or mechanical). In order to create wealth, more than 90% of the work is done by nature and machines, and less than 10% is done by humans, as we learn to automate tasks the need for human work (mental or physical) decreases most people in this world work doing hardly anything, sometimes useless tasks, their job has almost no meaning other than circulating money, people high up in the social pyramid know this, but middle class fool themselves into thinking all of their wealth came from their own efforts people don't get higher paying jobs mainly because they work harder or have better skills or are smarter, it is mainly because we create barriers to entry, we build complex systems, and complex rules, to make it harder for those not one of us to earn like us, that is how we create the pyramids we do