Originally Posted by
patrickt
I wouldn't say they don't work. When I talk about poverty in the U.S. I always mention whether I mean U.S. poverty or real poverty. Poor people in the U.S. are richer than many working people in other parts of the world.
What isn't working is people such as Blad whining about poor people in the U.S. His comments are especially galling to people old enough to remember poverty. I remember working hard and having less than "poor" people have now. I can remember a congresswoman from California whining on NPR that some of her poor constituents were so poor they couldn't afford cable television. I'm sure we've solved that problem. When a liberal demanded to know if I had no sympathy for the millions of people staring to death in the U.S. the only response I could think of was, "Anorexia is a terrible disorder." What kind of alternate universe to these people live in?
I grew up sharing a bed with two cousins. The two girls slept in what was originally intended to be a dining room. My aunt and uncle shared a small bedroom with the baby. When I got married we not only didn't have cable, we didn't have television. Another critical thing we didn't have was some high-paid government bureaucrat telling us we were poor and hopeless and demanding we take "assistance".
Now I live in Mexico and sadly we have real poverty here but people do have hope. How strange.