Poverty...it's not sexy

[cvoogt]

21. I have been poor in America.

I speak from experience. I was lucky in that I had the immigrant experience, in a way. We were at or below the poverty line for the first 5 years that we were here, but we did alright after that. But I know there is enormous inequality and it kills me that our tax dollars go to fund wars abroad and barely help the poor among us. We had times when my birthday present was a happy meal toy, or we had gas spill in the trunk of the car and get in the groceries, but we still ate the bread even though it tasted like gasoline. I know: I've been there.

I have also been to other parts of the world and seen what goes on there. It breaks my heart EVERYWHERE. In Atlanta, the homeless got shoved out of the city, out of sight, out of mind, because the Olympics were coming. When I was there I would sometimes take a homeless person to a local eatery, or give them bagels from the local gas station. Not that I could really afford to (I was in debt myself) but I sure as hell could afford it more than they could.

That said, the poor among us are still better off than the poor in some other parts of the world, and I don't care if anyone thinks it's a RW talking point because I am the farthest you can get from RW. When Bush got selected in 04, I moved to Amsterdam in part because I thought the US had lost its collective mind. I dearly wish we could adopt a more socialist and equitable system, like what Holland had until they started making things more free-market, of late. I wish Obama would be much more liberal in his actual policy-making.

In the US I have never seen a 6 year old girl hawking her 6 month old sister as her own daughter in the hopes of receiving a nickel, or homeless folks missing several limbs asking for money for food, or eight year old boys drinking gasoline while selling napkins to stranger. I'm sure others have but my point is it is much more prevalent elsewhere and things are relative. That isn't diminishing anything about the situation here in the US. Both are dire, but elsewhere it is simply more widespread and more severe. I just got back from India and Ethiopia so maybe my opinions are coloured by those recent experiences, since they affected me deeply.