A modest proposal for journalists and politicians: talk about poverty. And, when I say "poverty",

[Atticus]

Last edited Sun Mar 5, 2023, 07:35 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm not talking about those who have to tell the kids "No Disneyworld this year". I'm talking about the people who have to tell their kids "Sorry---we have no food today" or "Just for a little while, we'll sleep in the car". And, of course, not all poor people have families. Too many are alone---eating out of and sleeping behind dumpsters.

64% of Americans, according to CNBC, live paycheck to paycheck. That makes them extremely vulnerable to employers who require unpaid overtime, exposure to dangerous or unhealthy working conditions or outright theft from their paychecks. They hear "If you don't like it, leave. I have a long list of applicants who can start tomorrow!" And, mostly, they stay, because losing that next paycheck means no rent money, no grocery money, no asthma emergency inhaler, no insulin---and no dignity left.

There are hungry people in this land of plenty RIGHT NOW---as you read this.

Some are beside themselves with the stress of wondering how they'll feed their kids; how they'll get their elderly parent's meds; if they'll get ticketed for driving uninsured; if--- they should just quit trying.

John Edwards had one thing right: there are "two Americas".

Why aren't we hearing about the "other one"?

Better yet, why aren't we doing something for those who live there?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. These are the hard questions, my dear Atticus, the necessary questions.

We aren't answering them, or doing something about them, because they aren't priorities for most of us.

The political will just isn't there.

Indeed.

[zipplewrath]

2. They don't watch cable news

News is tailored towards the audience that reads it or watches it.

[haele]

3. Unfortunately, America has too many Calvinist thinkers.

If you're poor, or born an outsider, it was pre-destined because Gawd sent a soul to be born into that situation as punishment. No matter what type of person they are, what their talent or potential is, or if they were just "not lucky enough".
If you won the vagina lottery, or managed to become wealthy and not in jail, Gawd intends your soul to be rewarded no matter what type of person you are.
That's the simplest answer. Jesus may want us to be charitable and nice and all that, but Gawd is the ultimate judge.

Haele

[Ishoutandscream2]

8. THIS!

[GeoWilliam750]

4. Why do Republicans do nothing about unauthorized immigrants

About 5% of US workers are unauthorized immigrants - between 8-9m, or about 5% of the population.

Only about 8-12 cases per year are prosecuted. None are corporate employers.

Imagine if law enforcement were to walk into one of the major meat packers, and prosecute everyone who had anything to do with the hiring. By the way, the penalties are basically non-existent. Really, they are strong incentives to hire unauthorized immigrants. If the person for whom the unauthorized immigrant was working had to pay $50,000 per year and spend a year in jail for each immigrant they employed, both the HR, foreman, his boss, and all of the directors.

However, the situation we currently have is that unauthorized immigrants have almost absolutely no rights at all, which strongly supports the very wealthy. During the Trump years before the recent boom in oil and gas, and finances, US domestic profit was about $1tr (adjusting over-much to the downside) The simple arithmetic was that the savings per US unauthorized immigrants was about $25k/year for about 8-9mn workers - and there is a substantial shortage of workers in the US. That equates to an underpayment of $200bn alone, just for unauthorized workers.

However, the big difference was that for 35 years after the end of the WWII, the US was heavily labor, and these are the people whose incomes have been well and truly knocked back by unauthorized workers. Goodness knows how much of profit has been hit due to the unauthorized labor in the US labor force. Back in 1970, there were only about 5-6% of the US working population foreign born, and the world began to change under Nixon (who could be argued was one of the last liberal presidents we had - ucckkk), but really accelerated under Reagan. Now, the foreign born part of the working population is about 15-16%, and typically they work harder, and not in union jobs.

Yet, we nearly have wars over things that could be very easily cured with real legislation.

[RANDYWILDMAN]

5. 211 million is a sickening number, with all the freakining billionaires

who build their fortune on the labor of others....Fuck people share the wealth

[Autumn]

6. The politicians only talk about the middle class or the working class. "Poor" seems to be a

dirty word to them so they ignore it. To cut the extra snap benefits from the pandemic seems cruel. When they cut childhood poverty during the pandemic it showed me that they can do something about poverty. They just don't want to.

[Evolve Dammit]

7. Spot on Atticus. Spot on.

[MiHale]

9. One word...wish I could do this in 100pt font...

GUILT.

my story is mine, if related ahh whatever.

I’ve lived both sides. John Edwards was my main man. Yeah. That hurt.

I’m back in the midst of people I comfortable being around, people with nothing or very little.

People I can trust. People who help each other… because, just because. We share unrequitedly.

Guilt. Most people can’t handle it, make for uncomfortable feelings.

Guilt.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

10. I was talking to my daughter-in-law about this and that.

Between her and her husband they make well over 100K a year. Somehow we got on the subject of general societal conditions in the US. I could tell she suffered from a lack of information. I had her look up the MEDIAN income in the United States (it's about 45k). She was shocked that her and her hubby were doing so much better than most.