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Title: Poor In America: Cable TV, Cell Phones, Video Games and More
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URL Source: http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-ne ... -video-games-and-more_07282011
Published: Jul 29, 2011
Author: Mac Slavo
Post Date: 2011-07-29 16:13:52 by Capitalist Eric
Keywords: None
Views: 2301
Comments: 3
In America we’ve been conditioned so that when we hear the term poverty it evokes feelings and images of destitution and hopelessness – people who are hungry, without clothes and homeless. There is no doubt that a certain segment of the population lives this way – roughly half of a percent of Americans (about one in every 200) experience homelessness in any given year. However, the majority of poor Americans are not as bad off as we may have been led to believe – at least in terms of everyday amenities. With a government social network that includes benefits like unemployment, food stamps, welfare, rental and mortgage assistance, and health care, the poor in America are still doing fairly well compared to their counterparts in most other countries around the world. The following chart from The Heritage Foundation shows that even poor Americans – those who fall below the official income poverty line – usually have a DVD player, video gaming system, multiple televisions, a computer, washer and dryer, cable TV, dedicated internet, a cell phone, and in a very limited amount of cases, even a jacuzzi. The figures were taken in a government consumption survey near the height of the financial and economic bubble in 2005. With “poor” people enjoying the benefits of what would traditionally be considered middle class is it any wonder, then, that the entire debt based system of this country is in collapse? America, it seems, has the richest poor people in the world. We have created a culture of entitlement in this country, where the “poor” and even the “middle class” have been led to believe that they can spend above their means, and any income discrepancies will be offset by government assistance (incidentally, it seems that our premier corporations are operating under the same narrative). It is, after all, the right of every American to have a cell phone, or internet, several TV’s, and a washer & dryer. If that means we have to take income from one group of people at the barrel of a gun to make sure Joe Poor-Pack has these critical amenities, then so be it. The gap between the middle class and the poor is certainly being closed. Unfortunately, it is closing in the wrong direction. Instead of the poor moving up the income and net worth ladder, it is the other way around. The depression, wage cuts, inflation, taxation and destruction of credit is knocking the middle class down one rung at a time. Soon, there will be only the poor and the wealthy, but at least we’ll all have cell phones, iPads and cable TV.
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#1. To: Capitalist Eric (#0)
(Edited)
I already posted this at least twice in the last two months. The first time I posted this, loonymom's head just about exploded. Prior to the Great Society, the poverty rate in America was 14%. What is the poverty rate today? 14%. The sad fact is that government transfer payments are NOT counted towards a person's income to determine the poverty rate. So, in spite of the fact they we hand them money to buy video games, flat screen televisions, etc. they are still considered to be "poor". In fact, given that transfers payments are NOT included in the poverty calculation, we could give every poor per in America a multi-million dollar mansion on the beach in San Diego and they would still show up in the "poverty" statistics. No matter how much money is redistributed, those people are still considered "poor", so of course we need to transfer more money. The entire system is rotten to the core and needs to be ripped out at the roots. The government is out of control. It's time to put it in the loony bin.
LMFAO! It'll happen soon enough... when the government has no more money to spend. Let's hope sanity prevails in D.C., before the natives are compelled to show up with "pitchforks."
It used to be the leftists that had bumper-stickers that said things like "Question Authority.' Today they follow slogans from 1984: War is peace. They blindly LOVE Big Brother. They believe competition, pride & profiting from ones labor, are evil things to be banished. Stephen King observed, "The beauty of religion mania is that it has the power to explain everything... [so] logic can be happily tossed out the window. This describes socialists. They will ignore logic and "common sense." They will ignore REALITY. Because THEY are religious zealots... THEIR God... is the STATE.
I think they'll show up with something more ominous than pitchforks!!!!!
When asked by a Liberal what I bought my Granddaughter for her 1st birthday I replied, "MORE AMMUNITION"!!!! -----------------------------"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. — Thomas Jefferson
#2. To: jwpegler (#1)
The first time I posted this, loonymom's head just about exploded.
The entire system is rotten to the core and needs to be ripped out at the roots. The government is out of control. It's time to put it in the loony bin.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
#3. To: Capitalist Eric (#2)
It'll happen soon enough... when the government has no more money to spend. Let's hope sanity prevails in D.C., before the natives are compelled to show up with "pitchforks."
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