Poor People Ages 24-31 or 32+

I did it.

100 dollars a month was the sole thing keeping you below the poverty line?

I'm done seriousing in this thread.

I'm done seriousing in this thread.

Oh. Phooey. Poverty happens to be one of my hot button issues. Especially how upset people get when poor people don't "look" poor. But I won't draw you into a fight you don't feel like having. No problem!

No one one here is poor. You are using a computer and worried about decreasing your food intake. Real poor people are starving.

http://im.rediff.com/business/2012/oct/23poor-india1.jpg

The presence of someone having it worse does not preclude the fact that other people have it hard. If that were the case, only the single worst off person on the planet would have the right to complain.

No change on any issue would ever happen if we simply said "No one else but THIS (insert group of people) has any right to complain."

No one one here is poor. You are using a computer and worried about decreasing your food intake. Real poor people are starving.

This. I am normally completely against the 'firstworldproblems' schtick, but most people have truly lost sight of what poverty really is.

Understandably, but does that mean that the poor here in America, who struggle to feed their children, are any less deserving of compassion and help simply because there is (could they afford it) plentiful food around them? A problem is a problem, no matter who is experiencing it. To say otherwise is to set up (what's called in some circles) the "Oppression Olympics", in which it becomes a round-robin game of nothing getting done because someone else always has it worse.

I'm done seriousing in this thread.

Oh. Phooey. Poverty happens to be one of my hot button issues. Especially how upset people get when poor people don't "look" poor. But I won't draw you into a fight you don't feel like having. No problem!

This just isn't the time and place for it. I also have strong feelings on this issue.

The only time poor people spending money on smokes and booze bothers me is when they ***** about how ****ty their life is.

Yes, because all they have to do to lift themselves out of poverty is quit spending 100 a month on smokes. They'll be rolling in their newfound health insurance and full auto coverage in no time. /sarcasm

high five

No one one here is poor. You are using a computer and worried about decreasing your food intake. Real poor people are starving.

This. I am normally completely against the 'firstworldproblems' schtick, but most people have truly lost sight of what poverty really is.

Understandably, but does that mean that the poor here in America, who struggle to feed their children, are any less deserving of compassion and help simply because there is (could they afford it) plentiful food around them? A problem is a problem, no matter who is experiencing it. To say otherwise is to set up (what's called in some circles) the "Oppression Olympics", in which it becomes a round-robin game of nothing getting done because someone else always has it worse.

Their problem is not mine. The fact that it is made to be mine via social programs is why I get pissed about it. If I could get up at 3 a.m. every day to kill myself shoveling 300 degree asphalt for 16 hours per day for seven years, they have no excuse. "But there's no work". Bull****. We have laborers come and go out of our door like it's revolving. Why? Because it's hard work, and people seem to be allergic to that **** these days.

Ah yes. The "I pull myself up with my bootstraps, they can too!" You are aware that the majority of the poor work full time, correct? And about a quarter of poor people who don't work are under the age of 14 and not legally able to work?

There's work. But it's damn hard to support a family on 7.25 an hour. There's no work that PAYS WORTH A DAMN, is the problem. (At least if you're unskilled and uneducated.)

Just gonna put this out there: I haven't found a paving company in recent years yet that pays their bottom of the rung laborers less than $10 per hour to start. Also, they should have thought of the consequences before procreating. Again, their bad decisions should not in any way weigh upon my obligations. I haven't (and won't) have children, because I know it is financially unfeasible to do so, even at what I make, which is well above the American average. It comes down to personal responsibility, and not making one person's problem everyone's problem. That crap only work on the small scale, like communes, where everyone knows each other. The hell do I care if some douche can't afford to feed his five kids because he made a bunch of crap decisions in his life?

Let me put it this way:

The Economic Policy Institute, in 2004, found that the US spends least amount of social welfare and has the highest child poverty rate when compared to other first world, industrialized countries. (Which is about 17 other countries)

2010: UN Human Development Reports ranked the US worst in 17 other comparable countries for the Human Poverty Index.

The US Guidelines for poverty was established in 1960's when families spent 1/3 of income on food - now they spend 1/7 of income on food, as housing, child care, health care, and utility costs have soared.

2012: 2009: 10.7 million people worked, 2.6 million of them held full time jobs. 5.6% of that number is comprised of children too young to work.

Full time minimum wage worker earns 81% below poverty level for family of 3. In 1968 that level was 17%.

Working harder will not solve this.