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There are statistical challenges for determining a good metric for poverty, but it doesn't take a lot of insight to recognize that poverty in United States is c

There are statistical challenges for determining a good metric for poverty, but it doesn't take a lot of insight to recognize that poverty in United States is considerable: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/04/poverty_numbers.html http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/04/poverty_numbe... Levels of inequality are important for many reasons: notions of justice and respect, regressive taxation, access to quality education, etc. The Nation commissioned a symposium on the matter: http://www.thenation.com/article/36894/inequality-america http://www.thenation.com/article/36894/inequality-america Many developing nations have far worse poverty than United States, but the cause is often rather unsurprising: US and global destabilization of economies, forced "liberalization" and economic reform (that end up tipping the already vulnerable citizens into extreme poverty), etc. Class is, in fact, as entrenched as it ever has been. The list of rich people you mention (white men, all of them) were all born of considerable privilege (parents were millionaires or at least upper class). Even a quick look on Wikipedia will tell you this much. This is a common misconception about wealth in the US. The old Horatio Alger story that Americans' want to believe in. Here's a few examples of just how bad some Americans have it (no one with a conscience should need such a reminder, but evidently some do): http://www.pbs.org/klru/forgottenamericans/ http://www.pbs.org/klru/forgottenamericans/ http://southernspaces.org/2010/worst-times-children-extreme-poverty-south-and-nation http://southernspaces.org/2010/worst-times-children-extreme-... This list of examples could, of course, go on forever.

watchandwait 16y ago
The number one health problem among America's poor is obesity and its related illnesses. The American poor mostly own cars, TVs, and air conditioners, and often live in residences bigger than middle class homes in Europe. Sorry, poverty in America is nothing like Third World poverty where survival is a daily struggle.
- billjings 16y ago
  So if your fellow man isn't starving to death they're doing all right? This idea that survival and happiness is all about how you're doing by some absolute scale of quality of life is absolutely bonkers. The plight of third world people has about as much to do with the poverty of your countrymen as the plight of political prisoners in North Korea has to do with Bradley Manning. Which is to say, we have our standards of justice and wealth and they have theirs - that's why this is the United States and that's North Korea. It is completely legitimate for someone in the United States to be upset that Warren Buffett can make his billions while they can't make rent, even though they're willing and able to work. They are trying to maintain this idea that we live in one nation, after all.
  - anamax 16y ago
    > So if your fellow man isn't starving to death they're doing all right? Not at all. However, if they're doing pretty well.... > It is completely legitimate for someone in the United States to be upset that Warren Buffett can make his billions while they can't make rent It may be legitimate to be upset, but that doesn't imply that it is legitmate to claim that poverty in the US is at all comparable to poverty in, say, the Sudan. If you can't, or won't, distinguish being poor in the US from being poor elsewhere, you're either dishonest or ignorant. Which one is a reason to listen to you?
  - orangecat 16y ago
    It is completely legitimate for someone in the United States to be upset that Warren Buffett can make his billions while they can't make rent, even though they're willing and able to work. Yes, it is. What isn't reasonable is pretending that destroying Warren Buffett's wealth (reducing inequality!) would make anyone better off.
- ericd 16y ago
  They're not obese because they eat too much, they're obese because they can only afford shitty, carb-laden, borderline toxic food which causes insulin resistance and eventually diabetes. Obese mice on a ton of insulin can literally starve to death without losing weight.

watchandwait 16y ago

The number one health problem among America's poor is obesity and its related illnesses. The American poor mostly own cars, TVs, and air conditioners, and often live in residences bigger than middle class homes in Europe. Sorry, poverty in America is nothing like Third World poverty where survival is a daily struggle.

billjings 16y ago
So if your fellow man isn't starving to death they're doing all right? This idea that survival and happiness is all about how you're doing by some absolute scale of quality of life is absolutely bonkers. The plight of third world people has about as much to do with the poverty of your countrymen as the plight of political prisoners in North Korea has to do with Bradley Manning. Which is to say, we have our standards of justice and wealth and they have theirs - that's why this is the United States and that's North Korea. It is completely legitimate for someone in the United States to be upset that Warren Buffett can make his billions while they can't make rent, even though they're willing and able to work. They are trying to maintain this idea that we live in one nation, after all.
- anamax 16y ago
  > So if your fellow man isn't starving to death they're doing all right? Not at all. However, if they're doing pretty well.... > It is completely legitimate for someone in the United States to be upset that Warren Buffett can make his billions while they can't make rent It may be legitimate to be upset, but that doesn't imply that it is legitmate to claim that poverty in the US is at all comparable to poverty in, say, the Sudan. If you can't, or won't, distinguish being poor in the US from being poor elsewhere, you're either dishonest or ignorant. Which one is a reason to listen to you?
- orangecat 16y ago
  It is completely legitimate for someone in the United States to be upset that Warren Buffett can make his billions while they can't make rent, even though they're willing and able to work. Yes, it is. What isn't reasonable is pretending that destroying Warren Buffett's wealth (reducing inequality!) would make anyone better off.
ericd 16y ago
They're not obese because they eat too much, they're obese because they can only afford shitty, carb-laden, borderline toxic food which causes insulin resistance and eventually diabetes. Obese mice on a ton of insulin can literally starve to death without losing weight.