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Life expectancy has gone down because of the Opioid crisis and suicides. That certainly does effect poor people, but it is not -because- they are poor. And poo
by partiallypro 7y ago
Life expectancy has gone down because of the Opioid crisis and suicides. That certainly does effect poor people, but it is not -because- they are poor.
And poor people usually do have money to invest, I grew up very poor. My grand mother had no plumbing, no A/C or central heating (and this is the US,) so I know what true poverty is. You will not find that virtually anywhere in the US now.
- scruple 7y ago> Life expectancy has gone down because of the Opioid crisis and suicides. That certainly does effect poor people, but it is not -because- they are poor. I beg to differ. The area where I grew up, in rural southeastern Ohio, has been ravaged by the opioid crisis. IMHO, it goes hand-in-hand with the loss of industry and jobs and the rise of poverty and hopelessness that's been left in the wake of that loss of economic prosperity.
- scarface74 7y agoNot directed at you, but I find it amazing that now that drugs are hitting “rural America” it is seen as caused by the lack of opportunity, jobs, and social mobility but when it was happening in the “inner city” it was all about “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps”, “the government doesn’t owe you anything” and because of a “culture of dependency”.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- idlewords 7y agoIt is true that if you redefine poverty so that no Americans are poor, and quality of life so that dying young of opioid overdose doesn't count against it, then the entire country is rich and happy.
- partiallypro 7y agoBecause, that's exactly what I said, that there are no poor Americans...right. You can acknowledge, at the very least, that living standards are much higher now than in the 80s, 90s or 00s...and every decade before.
- idlewords 7y agoThey're not. Wages in the US have been flat for thirty years, social mobility is down, student debt load is up, this generation of young adults will have a far harder time finding housing than their parents did, life expectancy is down. Most places in the world are better off than in the 1990's, but the United States is not one of them.
- partiallypro 7y agoSo, you're saying that technology has not positively effected people's lives? Are you saying that the number of people with access to the internet, computers, tech in general...better clothing and food is...not better than it was in the 90s? Did you even live in the 90s? Things that were once reserved for only the richest of the rich are now in the hands of the poorest of the poor. There has been enormous deflation in several realms that have absolutely improved people's lives or at the least improved their living standards. Almost all of your complaints have simple explanations behind them as well, and some of them aren't actually that bad. The majority of student debt is held by a very very small percentage of overall students, and many of them came from wealthy families or are going into very rich fields.
- hurryskurry 7y agoThe average debt is substantial if you consider over 30k substantial. Professional students obviously will have substantially more. But most professional school loans are private and not federal as there is a cap. Also I believe your argument along the lines of you don't have it as bad as your grandfather did therefore you aren't poor is a fallacy.
- mikepurvis 7y agoFor a good look at what modern poverty in America looks like, see Stephanie Land's amazing book Maid. The overall picture is of someone doing extremely demeaning, physically demanding manual labour, and spending months at a time barely able to afford food for herself and her daughter, in that precarious position where even a trivial unexpected expense could easily send her back to homelessness.