Modern poverty includes AC, big-screen TV, DVD player, XBox...

Yep, my wife teaches public school where a lot of "poor" kids attend. She was required to take a class that explained how "status" is very important to poor people, which is why they own a Cadillac Escalade, have large flat screen tv's, xbox's, etc, yet there Children get free breakfast and lunch.

Don't forget to include being 150lbs overweight....

Sharon Jasper sits in the living room of her voucher-backed private residence. "I might be poor but I don't like to live poor. I thank God for a place to live but it's pitiful what people give you."
 

The old poor:

The new poor:


People in many, many countries around the world would love to be poor in America.







 

 

78.3% of poor people have AC?



I'm obviously doing it wrong.

I was watching the HBO mini series leading up to the Winter Classic.  One of the Washington Craps players was delivering Christmas presents to a "needy" family in the projects.  

He put the presents down in front of what was about a 60 inch flat screen.

This comment nails it:

What was it that Benjamin Franklin said about making poverty uncomfortable???

I am all for abolishing tags like "poor" and "rich" in America.  I have been to third world nations where regular people (i.e. what we would call middle class) were cooking over open fires because they didn't have stoves or electricity.  Our poor have no clue as to what true poverty is.

Cough *selling drugs* Cough

I don't even have all that shit!

"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means.





I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.





There is no country in the world where so many provisions are established for them; so many hospitals to receive them when they are sick or lame, founded and maintained by voluntary charities; so many alms-houses for the aged of both sexes, together with a solemn general law made by the rich to subject their estates to a heavy tax for the support of the poor.





Under all these obligations, are our poor modest, humble, and thankful; and do they use their best endeavours to maintain themselves, and lighten our shoulders of this burden?





On the contrary, I affirm that there is no country in the world in which the poor are more idle, dissolute, drunken, and insolent."





~ Benjamin Franklin, On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor, November 1766
 

The hell are you gonna do with Air Conditioning in Canada? Cool your home down to 71 degrees on those 72 degree July days?



 

I had a job where I would come across a lot of people in section 8 housing.  They had all sorts of nice stuff from rent a center and the latest cell phones.

QFT. I wish I was one of the "poor" that had a 60" flatscreen TV

I don't need my blood pressure to go through the roof this morning so I'm not going to click the link.

They're not poor.

They have never known hunger.
They have never known shame.
They have never been tormented by the all-consuming fear of having no safe place to lay your head at night.

I have seen poor.  I have personally stood as close to the edge as I could stand.  But that was by choice, and with the security of the means to walk away at any time.


When I consider that true poverty means that there is no reprise and no security, the very thought of it scares the shit out of me.  Not literally; that would be gross.

But short of war, I really cannot think of anything more fearsome than true poverty.


And that's the difference between "us" and "them."  We fear poverty.  They don't.

Sickening....

x2 fuck. I'm catching a cold or something.





 

Open the windows... There's your A/C.

Those people aren't poor. They're leeches, looking to get over on anyone they can con into giving them free shit.

Go to rural Iraq or Afghanistan. There, you will see poor.

Until we do away with the Democrats' bloated "free shit for votes" system, America is fucked.

It's 80 here right now, thank you.  





 

Yeah.    I spent two years in Mexico, half of that time in some really poor areas.

People in the USA simply don't know what the word "poverty" actually means.

I think it got down to 80 last night.
 

i knew i was poor, i dont even own an xbox! just ac and a tv, but the ac is required to live through the summer here

people still have VCRs?  really?

When I shop at my local Wal-Mart, I notice that Tamiqua and LaShonta have the latest Iphone 4G on their hips.



I don't have an IPhone

Not really telling me anything I haven't already known for years.

Last September I helped do some carpentry work with our church for people in need throughout the community.  One place we went to needed a new door.  It was an old run down single wide trailer, occupied by a young single girl with two or three kids.  The door was basically falling off the side of the trailer.  Inside was a massive flat panel tv with all sorts of other devices hooked to it.  People tend to fixate on their wants instead of their needs.

In Europe your "poor" would be labelled "upper middle class."

Threads like these really show how far behind we Europeans are in terms of economic prosperity.

This has been my experience with the Netherlands side of my family.  They do appear to work less than we do, though.

Don't worry.  We will soon catch up to you

That's probably a correct assessment, but the fact that we generally work less than you do is not necessarily because of some European mindset of sloth, but more due to government tax policies that punish people for work and enterprise. I for one have zero motivation for working a second job if fourty percent (or even more!) of my second wage goes to the taxman.

That was poor, but not the bottom end of poor.  There is clearly a wood floor in that cabin.

Yep I deliver to some of the Shittiest Apt. projects in the city.....60 inch sony TV's Xboxes Imac PC's.....fuck i can't afford that stuff...and of course the lastest cell with net hookup......fucking leeches

I bet the people who lived in that cabin worked for a living too.

Another thing it includes is 14K gold chains, gold teeth, several name brand hats, name brand sun glasses, expensive watches, the newest Nike sweat suit and the newest set of Air Jordans to hit the market.  

My work is right by the Human Services building, aka the building where you go sign up for food stamps and whatever other entitlement program you feel like taking advantage of.  You see BMW's, Mercedes Benz, Audi's etc pulling up in the lot, then the entitlement leaches make sure they bring their 7 kids with them.  All of them get out of the car and have new, clean, pressed clothes, Nike Jordans, iPhones etc.  You can tell the people that "may" really need help because they show up on foot and their clothes is well used as well as their shoes.

EDIT:  When I was a kid, <10 I lived with my mom on the South Valley of Albuquerque.  My dad left my mom when I was 2.  My mom had a part time job because that was the only job she could find at the time.  She drove an old beat up truck that someone spray painted "FUCK YOU" on the side of.  We didnt have grass, only dirt.  We shopped at Goodwill and used the layaway at Walmart every year for new school clothes.  My mom never got food stamps or welfare of any sort.  My dad paid child support and with that money my mom would pay for our health insurance through her employer.  Our neighbors and my moms friends were very kind and they would often bring us food.  It wasnt because we were poor, it was just a traditional thing to do.  Neighbors back then would like to make bulk food like Tamales, Tacos etc and share them.  So we always had food.  I remember my mom lost her job.  For three months straight I ate Peanut Butter sandwiches and water for breakfast lunch and dinner.  My mom had to use the child support to pay the house payment.  


We had a black and white TV with no cable and the knob was broken so we had to use a set of vice grips to change the channel.  I watched Thundercats, Heman, Transformers etc in black and white.  Eventually life got a lot better and my mom remarried to a hard working man and he provided for us.  We upgraded to a color TV and cable.  Still shopped at Walmart and Goodwill.  We were definitely poor for a while there.  But we had shelter, A/C and clothes.  My dad bought us a Nintendo one year and we played it on the black and white TV.  Super Mario Bros was still fun in black and white.

I know a guy who is getting by on less than $500 a month for him and his three kids.  His ex-wife is an addict and won't pay support.  He's doing alright.  They have a TV, which is their only luxury.  I'm giving him a PC tonight so the kids can at least do their homework and stuff when school starts.  He had to sell theirs a month or so ago to help pay for a car repair.  Dude is poor and a real survivor.  We're all trying to find him a job but in an area with nearly 20% unemployment, and with him having no real support structure for the children, he's kind of screwed.

I agree.  I didn't mean they were lazy, far from it.

If you can call it that.  Sharecropping did not provide much room for economic mobility.

Yeah, and they own a wash tub, so they got that going for them.  Of course there's probably a few posters on here that would call them worthless hillbillies and declare them morally bankrupt on account of their poverty.  





 

that is not poor...that is the entitlement class....
I was gonna post up more but I really dont feel like ranting right now and I probably would end up with multiple COC violations..

Holy crap , after looking at that list I must be destitute.  Hell I want to now move up to poor.  Lucky Bastards.

 
 

I managed a Section 8 Apartment community a number of years ago.  One of my residents' rent was subsidized such that he paid around $50 a month in rent and Uncle Sam paid the rest.  His car in the parking lot?  Dodge Viper

I had another resident who paid $8 a month in rent.  Each month she would wear this shirt she had made when she came in to pay her rent.  "Why work, I'm on welfare"

Dove Meadows Apartments, Wilmington, N.C.   (currently demolished)

Why am I working 70+ hours a week and I only have a 42"?

I need to guy a bigger TV to keep up w/ the poor people
I had customer a while ago debating on buying a new bed for her child...she told me that she only had X amount to spend because she needed the rest of her available cash for an upcoming cruise that she could NOT miss She lived in the projects and probably paid about $20/month in rent, but couldn't afford a new mattress for her child because it would interfere w/ her cruise money



Last week I had a lady try to write me a check for a mattress, to be delivered to the projects. I told her I don't take checks and she reluctantly pulled out some cash, bitching that it was cutting into her drinking money. Then she said that she doesn't get "her money" deposited till the following week (welfare day)...i.e, she just admitted she tried to write me a bad check



But my favorite is the little dope dealers around. They think they are hot shit because they make about what I PAY in taxes every month These individuals will have the giant TVs, pristine white sneakers, overpriced athletic clothing etc...yet are unable to purchase a car I never understood how someone could spend $500+ a month on clothes and shoes, yet not desire a vehicle and have to rely on others for transportation?
Anyway, the priorities are completely wrong. People in this class will snub their nose at those who don't posses the same level designer clothes as them, but spout hate and envy at those who work for the same things.
Speed

I enter a lot of ghetto homes and apartments doing my EMT gig.



A hell of a lot of them have at least one large TV, video games, stereo system, etc...

Here let me help get your blood pressure up a bit more....

State Helps Some Buy Beauty Supplies[url=http://www.news4jax.com/news/28590648/detail.html], Beauty Shop Accepts Government Assistance [EBT] Cards[/url]

Screw the tv and the video games check out their vehicles. My precinct is loaded with projects and the parking lots are full of BMWs, Benzs, Lexus, Infinitis, and assorted $50k and up SUVs.
ETA: Almost forgot, because we're in NY all the vehicles have out of state plates from down south or PA because they're all committing insurance fraud to get cheaper insurance.