Is This America?

[kasjaws]

Last week the US Census Bureau released figures showing that 46.2 million Americans live in poverty. That means 1 in 6 Americans – a record number – cannot meet their basic needs for food, clothing and shelter for themselves and their families. A record number of Americans live in poverty. Let me say that again. A RECORD NUMBER OF AMERICANS LIVE IN POVERTY.

Did you know we are still the richest country on earth? Yet our poverty rate of 15.1% is the highest of any industrialized nation on earth. So who are these people living in poverty? Let’s look at some real examples though I am leaving out any names.

A 38 year old mother of 2 in Chicago is our first person. You think she is a single mother don’t you? You think she grew up in poverty don’t you? Well you would be wrong if you thought that. This women and her husband have been unemployed for nearly two years. They’ve lost their house. They’ve lost their car. They are no longer middle class. The decline – or is it the end – of the middle class in America is a reality. But are our politicians doing anything about it? Sure they are hurrying it along.

There’s a small town in America’s Midwest with about 3000 people. The town is basically gone. They have lost the post office, the supermarket, the pharmacy, the barbershop, the school, the gas station. What is left? Well there is a 58 year old man on Social Security Disability. His wife drives a school bus in another town and he sends his kids to a school 20 miles away. He and his family live in a trailer and have $18,000 a year in income. $18,000 – 2 kids – food, medical expenses, transportation, utilities. Which ones does he pay and which ones does he let go?

In another town there is a woman who along with her husband once earn a combined $100,000 a year. Now she is standing in line at a food pantry hoping for something decent to feed her two kids and husband. They lost their home and their car. They live in a low income apartment. In a newspaper interview this woman who has an infant and a teenager, said this “ I never understood all the food pantries before or why people couldn’t just get on their feet and get going. Now that I am in it I fully understand.”

Is THIS America? Is THIS the America we all grew up believing in? Who are the poor in America today? They are not who you think they are. They are your next door neighbor now that he lost his job and his unemployment is out. They are your friend who is on Social Security Disability and gets $1000 a month but her COBRA for medical insurance is $500 a month. Does she pay the insurance? She has kidney disease. So how does make the mortgage payment, the car payment, the electric bill, groceries on $500? She can’t. She is the new poor in America.

This is a disgrace to this country and our history. No one will do anything about it in fact the politicians yell about cutting the government spending not helping anyone. Refuse to pay the American Jobs Act. Refuse to tax the rich. Cut off the unemployment insurance. Cut the meager Social Security payments even more. Charge more for Medicare. Watch the poverty level grow in America. Watch it devour the middle class. Watch it grow and grow until it eats you too.

[fuzzywuzzy]

another cheap shot on my behalf this morning because I'm in a mood .......Now you're all poor should the rest of us paint you all as the enemy and invade you and bomb you because you're so poor no one will notice?

Karma's a bitc'h eh?

but it's okay. If you're my friend I'll get you out and then you can organise your families to escape the country in little refugee boats and we'll put you in detentions centres and process you and call you illegal immigrants until proven safe cause we don't want our enemy blowing us all up now do we?

Oh and because you're poor we'll be able to afford an international court to prove your leaders are guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. ....

[littleCJelkton]

fuzzywuzzy;1370017 wrote: another cheap shot on my behalf this morning because I'm in a mood .......Now you're all poor should the rest of us paint you all as the enemy and invade you and bomb you because you're so poor no one will notice?

Karma's a bitc'h eh?

but it's okay. If you're my friend I'll get you out and then you can organise your families to escape the country in little refugee boats and we'll put you in detentions centres and process you and call you illegal immigrants until proven safe cause we don't want our enemy blowing us all up now do we?

Oh and because you're poor we'll be able to afford an international court to prove your leaders are guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. ....


Are you ever in a mood where your not making an emotive and aggressive attack on a spread of generalizations that have nothing or litttle to do with the threads in which they are in?