BoFox! Ocre! iRollo!

[ocre]

I guess it's different living in the States.  I know every time I go there I'm shocked at how many and at just how large the ghettos are.  It's extremely sad.  I could see having to be careful about where one lives.  We don't really have that problem here.  I mean, we have our bad neighborhoods, sure, but nothing like what I have seen in the USA.

I think your general attitudes towards the poor is extremely telling as to the general sentiment there, and it's really the cause of the problem to begin with.  The poor in the USA get no respect and no compassion.  They have no means to dig themselves out of it.  Glass ceilings everywhere.  They can't afford to go to college, heck, they're more worried about having food to eat and a roof over their heads.

Actually I was reading a news article where they were talking about the minimum wage, it really saddened me to read the comments from people worried that groceries were going to be more expensive.  The thing is, people earning minimum wage are our most vulnerable.  Not only that, but they are *working* and contributing to society.  They're not at home collecting social assistance, draining money from the tax base.  They are doing their best to contribute to society and get by.  Not everyone has the means or the ability to obtain a higher education.  That doesn't mean that they are any less important as human beings.  We need to live in a society where people generally have a decent chance at success and a decent chance at a happy life.

Really Rollo I find it appalling the way you talk about the poor and those less fortunate than you.  Even telling your son that he has to dress a certain way and not shop at thrift shops.  So what if he wants to shop there?  Maybe it will give him more money for other things.  I'm sure he doesn't have an endless supply of cash, none of us do really.  I know that I personally am doing great but guess what, I have continued my frugal ways from when I was younger and in university.  I continue to save money in any way I can.  It just gives me more money for the things I really want.

I also have issues with the way the blacks are treated in the US.  It broke my heart to read that Michelle Obama was called an "ape" by a government worker in Virginia.

Anyhow that's a bit of a rant.  You're not going to change any time soon, Rollo.  I'm just trying to help you see the world a bit differently, through a more compassionate and less arrogant lens.

What do you know about the poor in the USA? You have no clue the amount of crap fed to you by groups with agendas. You truly know nothing first hand. It amazes me how so many people are fooled, the extent is mind boggling. People have been misled in so may ways and they have no clue how badly. I have said many times on this forum that the "poor" today live a standard of life that far exceeds the majority of all humans since the dawn humankind. But there are so many groups and people who have found ways to capitalize on propaganda that many people seem all too eager to fall for. Those people feeding and pushing the propaganda, they have agendas which have nothing to do with saving the poor.

You would be surprised to find out how much of what you think you know is completely warped. The manipulation is made easier when they constantly push, pull, and feed on people's guilt. But, I know you cant possibly be anywhere near accepting what i just said. What you think you know now, its burned in so well that you may never be able to realize it.

But nevertheless, there are the facts.

Lets start off with the huge obesity epidemic for the "poor" in the USA. Yep, the poor starving people in the US are starving themselves to unprecedented obesity.




But facts like these, they are not talked about... unless there is some way to spin it, the narrative has to be how mistreated the poor is. And so these kind of facts, they even try to spin something like this so that it is somehow an act against the poor.
So they make it into something like this: Super smart specialist theorize that the higher obesity levels in the poor may be due to the fact that poor people dont have access to the same food that people with higher incomes have.

And i am serious, i have read that exact claim many times. But, see.. the poor are not forced to buy junk food. Its actually insane, nuts... junk food is not cheap, Sodas, snack cakes, and all that crap... you can make real meals on the same budget. You can make real meals, home cooked for less than the mass amounts of junk food obese people eat. And the obesity levels trend with income in the US. The lower incomes have not only a higher percentage of overweight people, its also the level of obesity. And it takes a lot of junk food to gain and maintain huge Body Mass Indexes.
Sadly, in the US you can go into any grocery store and find people pushing shopping carts piled to the max with junk crap food, individuals pushing multiple overflowing carts to the register and paying with foodstamps...all of it pure fat, sugar, junk food. All across the nation.

But, you know.. the poor, oh how they all suffer. Lets just look at how bad they got it:

http://www.heritage.org/poverty-and-ineq...acts-about

-> Poor Americans have more living space in their homes than the average non-poor Swede, Frenchman, or German.
-> Some 96 percent of poor parents report their children were never hungry at any time in the prior year.
-> Sound anti-poverty policy must be based on accurate information and address the causes of poverty, not merely the symptoms.

- 80 percent of poor households have air conditioning. In 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
- 92 percent of poor households have a microwave.
- Nearly three-fourths have a car or truck, and 31 percent have two or more cars or trucks.
- Nearly two-thirds have cable or satellite TV.
- Two-thirds have at least one DVD player, and 70 percent have a VCR.
- Half have a personal computer, and one in seven have two or more computers.
- More than half of poor families with children have a video game system, such as an Xbox or PlayStation.
- 43 percent have Internet access.
- One-third have a wide-screen plasma or LCD TV.
- One-fourth have a digital video recorder system, such as a TiVo.

Not too bad.... right?
Well, those statistics are from 2011. Instead of things becoming worse, these kind of stats have only increased since then. I am linking to this specific article because it is so broad and full of well written, with so many facts and statistics most people will never see, all in one place.

Sickbeast, at the very least, read the linked article. I feel you ignore and completely close out things that go counter to what you believe in your head. At least understand that there are things in this world that dont perfectly fit in the predefined box you think they do. That sickbeast POV is a skewed and limited to the portals which you base them on.