sunshine, Thanks. I don't know who you are or what you stand for but you just shot anything you have ever said straight to hell. Oktiri, its cool. You are right I scanned some threads and you and I disagree on some things. But I am fine with your ideas if your OK with me trying to figure out mine. Dave, I did see the increase since 2000. What sticks out to me though is the percentages. Am I looking at the chart wrong or are nearly half as many of the population living in poverty as in 1959? I thought the 50's were the golden years. Let me add just for the sake of balancing my views that I cannot hide well enough, that I am 100% for raising the quality of life of every living thing on earth. Hard to do mostly for livestock and anyting living near a lions den but still.
Not for the poor. (Or for woman, for that matter. Or blacks, come to think of it.) Medicaid was created in 1965. Food stamps were created in about 1961. Social Security was started in about 1937 which lifted a large number of elderly out of poverty, along with unemployment benefits which helped as well.
My friend, it is refreshing to see people like you in this forum who are willing to seek honest answers. In my view, the "poor" in America live infinitely better lives than the those who are truly poor in third world countries. If you took a look at the homes of the "poor," you would find that most have TVs and other items that the middle class in third world countries do not have. Unfortunately, it seems that the "poor" in America can never be satisfied because they will always see inequality. Life is short and we should take advantage of the opportunities that are given to us.
Based on the statistics mentioned, one thing I have to note here is that these social benefits have not done anything to address the fundamental issues that cause poverty. To make an analogy, these programs are giving a man a fish instead of teaching him how to fish. In order to truly solve the problem, the government should focus on fixing the source - single parent households, lack of education, etc...
No no no, he was for bombing the snot out of them. An allied nuclear power. Then sitting down with one of the lunatic muslim terrorist groups. Speak with our enemies and bomb our allies. Now there's a great foreign policy. We haven't had the best foreign policies in recent adminstrations, but the ObamaNation would make new lows.
About who is taking advantage of who ( poor vs rich ), I will offer you this perspective. If you are a talented, rich guy earning millions. Do you think you can achieve the same comfort living if you are the only person exists in USA? You are probably too busy hunting for everyday meal. On the other hand, if you are among the poor and your living is better than other 3rd world countries while your productivity is the same as those in 3rd world country. Who is supporting your above average living? The real answer is : the smart, talent population are making better use of these poor, untalented people. In return, the talent, rich people get a piece of the result and the poor also get a piece of the result. Where the line should be drawn, that can be argued forever, but one thing for sure, poor and rich together as a team has more productivity than separating them.
poy I understand your line of thinking but I do not agree(al the time) I am sure you are right and many people are making money off the backs of the poor. however it is a marxist view that the profits of the capitalist are stolen from the labor of the worker. I happen to think that I provided opportunity to my employees. They profit from me providing the opportunity and taking the risk with my capital. I profit from their labor. We both win. Now I do know that since I get a small % of each laborers profit I am recieving more as a whole. But since this is a capitalistic society we work in any one of my employees can save their money that I give them for their labor and then apply their own capital to hire labor. The probelms only arrise when employees are paid unfairly, and when employees spend unfairly. I can assure you my employees are paid more than fairly. They would of course like more money but I can promise that they know I am not screwing them. There are many things taught in school about business and capitalism that are straight up wrong. I am rather unimpressed with the way our finance industry is run from a businessmans percpective. Too much greed and not nearly enough freaking sense has caused nearly every problem we face right now. Everything I have ever used to be successful I learned from my father and grandfather, not a single thing I leaned in school has contributed to my relative success. School certainly increased my knowledge but that knowledge has not helped and can easily be done without. in many cases knowledge is what employees are for. I could go on forever but I have a drink waiting on me.