The Poverty Hoax: Cases of Destitution in America are the Exception.

American Thinker ^ | 04/08/2014 | John Dietrich

[crazycatlady]

Thanks, you just bumped me up to upper middle class.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Then why are there people still in the bottom quintile, huh, smart guy? Do you think that’s fair?

(/libthink /sarc)

As Thomas Sowell points out, there is no shame in having a bottom quintile, if - as is the case in America - being in the bottom quintile is strongly negatively correlated with age. You could have a society in which everyone at any given age made the same amount of money - but in which everyone gets an equal raise annually. In such a society everyone would have identical prospects when born - but there could be more or less radical difference between the lowest-quintile youngsters and the highest-paid seniors.

[MrB]

You took me WAAAAY too seriously.

I was pointing out the intellectual vapidity of the left’s “caring about the pooowuh”.

[ctdonath2]

Some 87% of the world’s population lives below the US “poverty line”.
Half the world’s population lives on less than $2/day.
If you’re doing better than 9 out of 10 people on the planet, or even just half, you’re not poor.

Author makes good categories. “Destitution” and “want” are poor; “hardship” and “relative deprivation” are not.

Haiti has poverty, as there is nowhere near enough natural resources to support the population, and moving elsewhere is nigh unto impossible for most. Here, the problem isn’t resources, it’s the will to survive.

[Fledermaus]

Thank You. I lived in southern CA until I was eleven. I used to complain to my dad that I was “tired of being poor” since I didn’t have all the stuff other kids had.

One weekend he put us all in the car and drove us to Tijuana. I never complained again.

[Fledermaus]

Statiscally of course. Every family in the US could earn $100K a year and there would still be a bottom quintile.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I didn’t overlook the </sarcasm> but I just wanted to assure that no newbie or lurker lacked understanding of the “lowest quintile” non-issue.

[crazycatlady]

Shabazz Napier is the name if the person I was trying to think of. Something wrong there. Maybe he just mismanages his money. But his parents could send a care package or a little cash. Worse comes to worse, there are food banks, free meals at churches, etc.

[sitetest]

Dear crazycatlady,

During the school year, Mr. Napier has an all-you-can-eat meal plan at his college, as reported by his college.

Of course, the cafeteria is only open 12 hours per day, so maybe he just gets a little peckish in the very early morning hours before breakfast.

sitetest

[longtermmemmory]

the media (they are not main stream just well established in NYC’s media hub) is pushing these stories.

Today and yesterday NPR had nothing but glowing praise anecdote stories about the incredible wonderfulness of obamacare. 100% pure boldfaced lies in the face of reality but that did not matter.

(BTW time for NPR’s tax exempt status to end)

[crazycatlady]

Thanks. I was hoping that a thread would be devoted to school athlete unionization issue and Mr. Napier’s problems, but evidently not

These days any time I see a push for unionization of ANYTHING, I assume its because the unions are losing so much influence, they’re trying to grab it where they can.