Poverty in America: Why Can’t We End It?

[kentay]

 

 

 
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/why-cant-we-end-poverty-in-america.html?ref=opinion

[clistensprechen]

Poverty isn't just for the working poor anymore, which is why cons want to "expand the tax base" to include taxing the poor.  I'm speaking of the millions of middle class people who have been booted from their jobs and then got foreclosed on, who are now poor.

Without much of a middle class left, the only people to "expand the tax base" to is the poor.

Poverty is the result of predation by the 1%.  They are economically predatory.

[kentay]

Poverty isn't just for the working poor anymore, which is why cons want to "expand the tax base" to include taxing the poor.  I'm speaking of the millions of middle class people who have been booted from their jobs and then got foreclosed on, who are now poor.

Without much of a middle class left, the only people to "expand the tax base" to is the poor.

Poverty is the result of predation by the 1%.  They are economically predatory.

You're right on its the first time since Hoover that others besides the poor are feeling the effects of Republican policies.  I am really surprised that none of the poster care to post about the poor. Maybe all your poster are in the top 1% except you and I. Maybe since many in the middle class are feeling the effect of Republicans policy it may cause them to think about their vote and who really cares what happens to the middle class and poor. it's not today's greedy, hateful, selfish, and yes some very racist Republicans. kentay

[donni]

there are a few reasons poverty exists, but the biggest reason for it is that capitalism NEEDS it. without it everyone would demand a living wage. but because there are so many in dire need of your job they can keep you working harder and harder, for less and less. this race to the bottom is fun, ain't it?

[clistensprechen]

Capitalism has never been able to profit without slavery or indentured servitude (the formal, legal title of our labor laws is "Master Servant Law") and while whining about staying competitive in a global marketplace, it has now become dependent on communism--for as long as Communist China provides for its citizens, capitalist corporations don't feel the need for workers to work to earn their own health care and retirement anymore.

Capitalism is just as communist as Communism is, where government is concerned.  And yet here, they whine about a "welfare state".  I'd like to see 'em try that in China about China's "welfare state". Capitalism can't live without it anymore.

[kentay]

How can we as a country brag we are the greatest when poverty is increasing drastically,  we don't have universal health care and we love wars. No other civilized country in the western world has those kinds of statistics for its people. If the type of capitalism we have is so great then why isn't the rest of us benefiting, who are not in the top 1%. When we built the largest middle class the world has ever known was when we have village capitalism where people got wealthier but so did everyone move up under the wealthy at that time. I can remember when the wealthy actually care what happen to all the people of this country and our country became the envy of the world because we were truly number one. But now we are headed down in all of the markers that make countries great except in one and that is the growth in people making million and billion dollars within the top 1%, while the rest of our incomes are falling as well as our standard of living. We also don't build anything big any more something that the wealthy use to do all the time. Today the only fairy tale like vision I have is seeing a wealthy person in his vault playing with his money and only trying to get more and more while doing nothing for the society that others built and he was raised in. kentay        

[clistensprechen]

Stats show that we can't brag anymore, but you can count on plenty of finger pointing at the side opposite as to why this is.

And yet there are still cons who will continue to brag about exceptionalism. A grip on reality never was a con's strong suit.

[Ted S]

Small world.  As luck would have it, I just viewed a short video on this very topic that brings some reality into this conversation:

http://www.learnliberty.org/content/are-poor-getting-poorer

[kentay]

5 Reasons Why America's Middle Class May Soon Be Extinct

[clistensprechen]

It's already extinct. That's why, when cons speak of "broadening the tax base", they mean taxing what little the poor have: the middle class is now poor.

[donni]

capitalism could be fixed- two things simultaneously-one: regulations like glass -steagal, etc., two: when the fed puts money into circulation-via loan outs from banks they should also have to put out the same amount thru charities/social welfare programs/universal medical, etc.. this would allow the actual REPAYMENT of the loans. economy would certainly move-we'd be cleaner and Love our work better.

as it stands-capitalism puts out money in the form of loans that the only way to repay is to somehow get it out of the 'other guy'. for every dollar a person makes-someone has to lose-that is capitalism. someone ends up basically being the slave. this makes us all predatory on one another-even tho we may not realize it. because they never put the money out to repay except in the form of the money they loaned to some one else. someone always has to lose in this set up. and the greedier the elite/financially savvy get the more slaves we become doing all the dirtiest jobs for 2 dollars a day. just like a third world country! why were they third world? because we fed off their resources to have our nice little middle class-well the party's over-too bad-the resources are finite, after all-the greedy smell blood and it's the middle class's right here in america now. who is running our world any way? we better wake up!

[kentay]

The New Company Store: The Final Step in the Corporate Takeover of Americahttps://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/07/11-9

[donni]

good article, kentay-thank you.

"...But let us have the candor to acknowledge that what we call 'the economy' or 'the free market' is less and less distinguishable from warfare. For about half of the last century, we worried about world conquest by international communism. Now with less worry (so far) we are witnessing world conquest by international capitalism. Though its political means are milder so far, than those of communism, this newly internationalized capitalism may prove even more destructive of human cultures and communities, of freedom, and of nature. Its tendency is just as much toward total dominance and control. Confronting this conquest, ratified and licensed by the new international trade agreements, no place, no community in the world may consider its self safe from some form of plunder. More and More people all over the world are recognizing that this is so, and they are saying that world conquest of any kind is wrong, period...."-wendell barry 2002

2002...well, it's been 10 years since his (so far)'s and we have arrived. what shall we do about it? status quo is not going to work much longer no matter, but we could avert chaos (something the greedy (mental disease) seem to Love from their high perches)

wendell goes on to say- "Here is the other question that i have been leading toward, one that the predicament of modern warfare forces upon us: How many deaths of other people's children by bombing or starvation are we willing to accept in order that we may be affluent, and (supposedly) at peace? To that question I answer: None. Please, no children. Don't kill any children for my benefit....the best advice, and the least obeyed:

"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."


yes, we need to remember this as we go on from here.

[kentay]

good article, kentay-thank you.

"...But let us have the candor to acknowledge that what we call 'the economy' or 'the free market' is less and less distinguishable from warfare. For about half of the last century, we worried about world conquest by international communism. Now with less worry (so far) we are witnessing world conquest by international capitalism. Though its political means are milder so far, than those of communism, this newly internationalized capitalism may prove even more destructive of human cultures and communities, of freedom, and of nature. Its tendency is just as much toward total dominance and control. Confronting this conquest, ratified and licensed by the new international trade agreements, no place, no community in the world may consider its self safe from some form of plunder. More and More people all over the world are recognizing that this is so, and they are saying that world conquest of any kind is wrong, period...."-wendell barry 2002

2002...well, it's been 10 years since his (so far)'s and we have arrived. what shall we do about it? status quo is not going to work much longer no matter, but we could avert chaos (something the greedy (mental disease) seem to Love from their high perches)

wendell goes on to say- "Here is the other question that i have been leading toward, one that the predicament of modern warfare forces upon us: How many deaths of other people's children by bombing or starvation are we willing to accept in order that we may be affluent, and (supposedly) at peace? To that question I answer: None. Please, no children. Don't kill any children for my benefit....the best advice, and the least obeyed:

"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."


yes, we need to remember this as we go on from here.

Thanks donni, have you noticed our Republican friends avoid this thread like like Vampires who avoid the light (truth), oops maybe they are money sucking Vampires. kentay

[Ted S]

I've been avoiding this thread because I'm a realist.  Eliminating poverty is a great dream..... but that's all it is, a dream.