---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote :
I have to agree, Michael, having also grown up in the South. If you have any doubts that shanty towns still exist in America, all you have to do is watch "True Detective," filmed in modern-day Louisiana. One of the most effective "visual effects" in the show was just to show miles and miles of such landscapes in aerial pan shots. They worked because it was good cinematography, but also because many of us in the audience were saying to ourselves, "But wait...there aren't *really* places in America that look this poor, are there?" Typical, get your information from a TV show. There are. With regard to poverty elsewhere, I can speak from more recent experience about New Mexico. It is the second-poorest state in America, and it shows. The shacks in New Mexico may be made of adobe instead of "found lumber," but that's only because mud is easier to find in the desert. Recent? When was the last time you were living there? The current percentage of people living below the poverty line in New Mexico is 19.5% If that figure surprises you, the same figure for the United States as a whole is 14.9%. The middle class is in some ways worse off, living with low salary levels that make working at McDonald's look like a good job. When I lived there, over 50% of the population had no health insurance and no auto insurance, because they couldn't afford to pay for that and also pay for rent and food. Here is an interesting fact sheet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentage_of_population_living_in_poverty http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentage_of_population_living_in_poverty Also interesting to note that poverty is defined by earning between $1.25 and $2 per day. But of course it is way more complex than that and poverty can be defined as much more than money-based life situations. Living in Santa Fe, I *could* have remained unaware of how upscale it was, and how atypical of life in the rest of the state it was. But I chose to wander further, and thus drove, hiked, and rode horses through a lot of the desert on the outskirts of Santa Fe and in neighboring towns, and thus got a real education in what "life in America" is really about. America is all about *hiding* its poverty levels, and pretending that they don't exist. Thus it's easy to understand that many people who never leave their middle-class cocoons don't believe it exists. Where did you get this theory? Deep poverty is everywhere and everyone knows this. But poverty-stricken people in the US and in first world countries is particularly ugly because it shouldn't be like that, there are resources everywhere and human rights and privileges are far less censured here than in many other countries where war, corruption and tyranny is rampant. Poverty in the US seems so much more of a "crime" because there is "plenty" everywhere and yet the educational (lack of education) and the ethnicity factors exacerbate the problem, not to mention substance abuse issues. It exists. D-uh. From: "Michael Jackson mjackson74@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Wednesday, July 2, 2014 12:05 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: A billionaire who "gets it" Come here to the South and go into some of the African American sections - plenty of people living in shacks there. I grew up around it, and its still here. From: "fleetwood_macncheese@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, July 2, 2014 5:50 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: A billionaire who "gets it" People in the US are incredibly spoiled, and have a fantasy view of the rest of the world. When I see beggars at every house, and people starving, I will be concerned. When I see the poor in rags here, and living in shacks, I will be concerned about a revolution. One thing I *never* saw in third world countries, were able bodied men, begging. I see it all the time here. The USA doesn't even know poverty as it exists elsewhere, and if, as you say, people starve here, (which I have never heard about) it is out of ignorance, as food is always available. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <noozguru@...> wrote : Homeless do starve in the US. And indeed corporate run food establishments throw away food at the end of the and.... fire workers who give this food to the homeless. We had a case of that at Starbucks recently right here in Martinez. Twenty years ago I would suspect folks in Greece would have laughed at anyone who suggested a day would come when there would be riots over food but that's what is happening in that country today. I see the steps toward austerity coming to the US in fact it is already here. Excuse while I go sharpen my pitchforks. On 07/01/2014 09:49 AM, fleetwood_macncheese@... mailto:fleetwood_macncheese@... [FairfieldLife] wrote: I have to agree with Steve - People in the US have it incredibly easy compared to the poor countries in the world. Even the homeless here don't starve. However, I also heard on the news last night, that at a UC school (for those out of state: University of California - the highest tier of public education in the state, e.g. Berkeley, or Santa Barbara), one year of tuition and boarding, costs $33,000! Four years is $132,000! Sheer insanity - no one can begin, even a professional career, with such a burden of debt. There is so much padding in this country, economically, that we are a long way from civil violence, but dysfunctional elements in our higher education system don't help. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <noozguru@...> mailto:noozguru@... wrote : You haven't been reading about the increasing food prices? Where do you live? In some big retirement community where everyone is flush and doesn't understand why people are getting pissed? Revolutions are fomented by the young, not old farts like us. And when they can't get jobs after racking up a huge college loan the shit will hit the fan. Believe me. Now, I mentioned a solution earlier. Check it out. Mikey won't like it though. :-D On 06/30/2014 05:43 PM, steve.sundur@... mailto:steve.sundur@... [FairfieldLife] wrote: I think he's wrong. In the past people didn't have food to eat. Now we have food to eat, reasonable shelter, and entertainment galore. What are they going to get up in arms about? That that super rich are able to eat better food, travel more, have luxurious accommodations, or are able to attend sporting events in person when everyone else has to watch them on a flat screen, high definition TV? Relatively speaking, everyone here has it reasonable well, except those on the bottom end. And even they have food to eat. Am I being callous, or just realistic? ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <noozguru@...> mailto:noozguru@... wrote : Billionaire Nick Hanauer thinks that a revolution could occur in the good ol' US if inequality continues. http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-28068277 http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-28068277 You betcha!
