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There has always been poor people in the US. There seems to be more shame and stigma attached now though, along with denial. I think that is one of the reasons

by Hilift 2y ago

There has always been poor people in the US. There seems to be more shame and stigma attached now though, along with denial. I think that is one of the reasons the iPhone is more popular in the US. It helps people feel like they aren't poor.

defrost 2y ago
> There has always been poor people in {X} has been a classic dismissal throughout history - it was the excuse in Dickensian England also. What has more leverage and potential for positive change is an analytic approach looking at multiple countries, quintile various income|asset bands, look at food and housing security in these bands, look at the movement from band to band and quantify what it is to be poor and how many are poor - look to the factors that cause or are tightly bound to being poor.
gadders 2y ago
There have always been poor people, but also wage earners managed to support a nuclear family and have a mortgage on a house with a non-working partner through working a blue collar job. This seems to be disappearing.
coldtea 2y ago
>There has always been poor people in the US. ...and those poor people in the US could always look up to much better social mobility trends than the current ones.
- watwut 2y ago
  "Always" is massive overstatement. If you was a woman, your only way up was if you found rich guy to marry you. It is not that women did not actually worked, but they had only lower paid jobs with no possibility of promotion available. If you was black, your abilities to go up were obviously severely limited. Even for whites, south had very stable social hierarchy - you had a place where you was meant to stay at. It was resembling aristocratic setup rather then actual free for all capitalism. Civil war changed that by a lot and opened mobility options that were not there before.
throwpoaster 2y ago
There have always been poor people, but those poor people keep getting richer when compared with each other across time. Better to be working poor now than a king in the middle ages (in terms of access to information, health outcomes, food quality, healthspan, lifespan, etc., etc., etc.).

by Hilift 2y ago

defrost 2y ago

> There has always been poor people in {X} has been a classic dismissal throughout history - it was the excuse in Dickensian England also. What has more leverage and potential for positive change is an analytic approach looking at multiple countries, quintile various income|asset bands, look at food and housing security in these bands, look at the movement from band to band and quantify what it is to be poor and how many are poor - look to the factors that cause or are tightly bound to being poor.

gadders 2y ago

There have always been poor people, but also wage earners managed to support a nuclear family and have a mortgage on a house with a non-working partner through working a blue collar job. This seems to be disappearing.

coldtea 2y ago

>There has always been poor people in the US. ...and those poor people in the US could always look up to much better social mobility trends than the current ones.

watwut 2y ago
"Always" is massive overstatement. If you was a woman, your only way up was if you found rich guy to marry you. It is not that women did not actually worked, but they had only lower paid jobs with no possibility of promotion available. If you was black, your abilities to go up were obviously severely limited. Even for whites, south had very stable social hierarchy - you had a place where you was meant to stay at. It was resembling aristocratic setup rather then actual free for all capitalism. Civil war changed that by a lot and opened mobility options that were not there before.

throwpoaster 2y ago

There have always been poor people, but those poor people keep getting richer when compared with each other across time. Better to be working poor now than a king in the middle ages (in terms of access to information, health outcomes, food quality, healthspan, lifespan, etc., etc., etc.).