1 in 6 Americans in poverty?

Satya said:
Revised formula puts 1 in 6 Americans in poverty - Yahoo! News

Thoughts? Is America still the "greatest" country on Earth?
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I've read somewhere (okay, on cracked.com) that the overall happiness level in Nigeria higher is than the one in America.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that being poor is accepted in Nigeria, but if you are poor in America, you don't belong there.
You are looked down upon, and their society is a bit too competitive.

I'd rather be piss poor and happy, than being poor in Ameica :P
 
American's aren't as happy because we over-complicate things and make it harder to figure out what really matters to us.

As for the poverty figure...I dunno about that. Maybe in some areas; however, grouping the entire nation under that figure is a bit extreme. I've been all over my state, and I really have not seen tons of hobos out on the street around garbage fires.
 
America hasn't been the greatest country to live in for a while. Ireland and Australia are a couple of the top dogs on a lot of statistics nowadays. I think America is somewhere around #13?

Inflation causes the poor to get poorer, they don't have much money to begin with, then inflation makes it nearly worthless while the rich with exponential sums of money barely notice. This is what we get for having a private entity provide the money we print with board members that are also on the boards of the banks that were bailed out...

If you hadn't noticed, I have given serious thought to leaving America.
 
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gloomy-optimist said:
As for the poverty figure...I dunno about that. Maybe in some areas; however, grouping the entire nation under that figure is a bit extreme. I've been all over my state, and I really have not seen tons of hobos out on the street around garbage fires.
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Every city has significant amounts of ghetto areas. I live far in the country and it is not uncommon to see a scruffy person hitchhiking into work because their car was broken. Your definition of the poverty line might not be accurate or at least not consistent with the statistics. You are addressing specifically homeless people, and I don't think 1 in 6 are homeless drifters. It is also not equating American poverty to Third World poverty. I believe the comparison involves other industrialized nations.

I probably grew up technically "lower middle class" because my mother was a school teacher, but she had no financial support outside of that income and some years she had no job, so we couldn't always buy food. Sometimes it got close to having nothing, but sometimes we would have a bag of rice and dry beans to cook and lived off of that for extended periods, or she would bring home popcorn from school events, and we lived on that and discount canned peaches for a month or so I remember. Those were actually pretty good. There was seldom money for milk, butter, bread, etc. We lived without heat one winter when she lost her job. We usually rented a trailer in a trailer park. As a teacher there were usually children in her class whose family would get food by waiting outside the grocery store for when they first threw out the past-date foods into the dumpster. I don't know the realism of those statistics, but they seem close enough based on my experiences which were not nearly as bad as many people's. I think if you belong to a different class you just aren't going to see it or recognize it when you do see it. During times when I didn't have food, I still had a favorite little red dress I bought at a yard sale for 25 cents that I wore proudly to school. I always combed my hair, was polite, and smiled enough to not expect there were food issues even though I was skinny. My situation was only borderline, but unrecognizable as such.
 
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I'm not saying there's not poverty; actually, a lot of people in America don't realize how bad the poverty here is. However, the statistic that 1 in 6 is in poverty...well, that just doesn't seem accurate to the whole for me. I can understand that in a big city and in some other areas, but it's not been true in any of the areas I've been -- rural and suburban and whatnot. I'm not saying that statistic is totally inaccurate, but grouping all of America under that single statistic for poverty seems kind of skewed; not incorrect, but not correct either, if you will. There's a lot of things missing that we need to know there.
 
Downtown Salt Lake City has a real problem with homeless people. They built a new park and hobos kept sleeping there, so they finally had to send people down to kill them out daily. I don't know how they did it but basically that park is homeless-person free.

Edit: Yeah, I meant shoo them out.
 
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Sounds about right. One serious medical issue or disaster of some sort and you're boned in the good ole USA. And of course, there's all those people who have no idea what they're doing with their own money anyway. They all end up broke one way or another.

Also average pay rates are shit, even for the higher educated folks... unless you live somewhere special of course.
 
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Mainly the homeless population in SLC is because of the HUGE alcohol/drug problem the city has. I blame it on the mormons. Everyone who isn't mormons moves the the city and by the end of the first week of them living there, they're smoking crack.
 
Satya, you might be interested in reading this article as well. It''s a good companion piece to what you've said: http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-bu...s-with-the-biggest-gaps-between-rich-and-poor.

The United States is #1 of all the Western countries and #3 in the world, behind only Hong Kong and Singapore.

I think when people think "poverty" they assume it's any bum on the street. But if you make less than $15,000 a year, you're probably living at the poverty level. It has much to do with cost of living in your area, and what it takes to survive. Some families try to live on less than $20,000 a year and it's not easy. My mother is on the poverty level, but she owns her own home. I don't know how she does it, but she survives and lives well.

People who "have" and have always been secure, or who have never been without don't really know what poverty means. I was homeless for a year or so, but I wasn't on the street; my mom and I were living with some friends while she tried getting back on her feet. And when I grew up there were several years where my paper route paid for our bills and paid for food on the table.

There are ways of making money and staying afloat, but you can still be considered "poor."
 
arbygil said:
Satya, you might be interested in reading this article as well. It''s a good companion piece to what you've said: http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-bu...s-with-the-biggest-gaps-between-rich-and-poor.

The United States is #1 of all the Western countries and #3 in the world, behind only Hong Kong and Singapore.
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Wow, not only are 1 in 6 Americans likely living in poverty, but the US has the third biggest gap between the rich and poor. Where do we get off telling other countries how to do business?
 
arbygil said:
Satya, you might be interested in reading this article as well. It''s a good companion piece to what you've said: http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-bu...s-with-the-biggest-gaps-between-rich-and-poor.

The United States is #1 of all the Western countries and #3 in the world, behind only Hong Kong and Singapore.

I think when people think "poverty" they assume it's any bum on the street. But if you make less than $15,000 a year, you're probably living at the poverty level. It has much to do with cost of living in your area, and what it takes to survive. Some families try to live on less than $20,000 a year and it's not easy. My mother is on the poverty level, but she owns her own home. I don't know how she does it, but she survives and lives well.

People who "have" and have always been secure, or who have never been without don't really know what poverty means. I was homeless for a year or so, but I wasn't on the street; my mom and I were living with some friends while she tried getting back on her feet. And when I grew up there were several years where my paper route paid for our bills and paid for food on the table.

There are ways of making money and staying afloat, but you can still be considered "poor."
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I'm really glad I'm not the only one who's ever been homeless.
 
I love to read all the hate for America,it makes my heart swell.

I live well below the poverty line in the U.S., and would you believe it. I'm completely content with my life. I love my country and acknowledge it's faults, there is still no other place I would rather lay my head. I don't over complicate things and I know what I want.
 
It is sad :/ but I do NOT think it is an issue of arguing whether the US is the greatest either. I mean that is just selective attention.

Firstly, I'm wondering what poverty in America is defined as... is it low-income?

Secondly I think the statistical representation demonstrate a much bigger problem:
Poverty rates were higher for non-Hispanic whites (11 percent), Asians (17 percent) and Hispanics (29 percent) when compared to the traditional measure. For blacks, poverty remained flat at 24.7 percent, due to the cushioning effect of non-cash aid.
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Pristinegirl said:
It is sad :/ but I do NOT think it is an issue of arguing whether the US is the greatest either. I mean that is just selective attention.

Firstly, I'm wondering what poverty in America is defined as... is it low-income?

Secondly I think the statistical representation demonstrate a much bigger problem:
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Actually I see it as correct.

Again I grew up poor. I never been homeless but ya I've had times when my family didn't have very much money.

I currently live in poverty . I make well below the poverty level. I'm on SSI and food stamps. I'm a student and it sucks have no money. but I don't think I could do a job plus school and do it all via the bus.

If you have never lived below middle class you won't understand.

I know many living below the poverty level.

Just because your not homeless doesn't mean your not living with no money.

Trust me knowing the USA this static seems right.
 
Blind Bandit said:
Actually I see it as correct.

Again I grew up poor. I never been homeless but ya I've had times when my family didn't have very much money.

I currently live in poverty . I make well below the poverty level. I'm on SSI and food stamps. I'm a student and it sucks have no money. but I don't think I could do a job plus school and do it all via the bus.

If you have never lived below middle class you won't understand.

I know many living below the poverty level.

Just because your not homeless doesn't mean your not living with no money.

Trust me knowing the USA this static seems right.
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I wasnt implying that I think it is wrong or anything like that. I think that the statistics show something much more than the poverty... It shows WHO are subjected to it. All I was saying was that I dont think it is an issue of whether America is Still the greatest country in the world..

I'm not exactly wealthy myself... in Sweden, which you 'cannot be poor'.
 
00chris00 said:
I love to read all the hate for America,it makes my heart swell.

I live well below the poverty line in the U.S., and would you believe it. I'm completely content with my life. I love my country and acknowledge it's faults, there is still no other place I would rather lay my head. I don't over complicate things and I know what I want.
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I'm guessing you are a college student, in which case, you aren't truly living in poverty as you are obtaining an education.

Edit: Of course BB makes a good case for such.

Pristinegirl said:
Firstly, I'm wondering what poverty in America is defined as... is it low-income?
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Typically it is defined as living with an income under 3 times the estimated cost of food.
 
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