Extreme Poverty Doesn't Exist!

[Damen]

...according to this douchebag Republican.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/03/02/north-carolina-republican-says-extreme-poverty-doesnt-exist/

Republicans across the country have thoroughly demonstrated that they hate the poor, but none of them have claimed that poverty doesn’t exist. That is, until now.

George Cleveland is a Republican state representative in North Carolina and he is in desperate need of a tour of poverty-stricken areas in the United States. The North Carolina House is currently considering eliminating early childhood education. After reviewing a House committee report stating that more children are living in extreme poverty, Cleveland said on Thursday that poverty doesn’t exist.

   

“We have no one in the state of North Carolina living in extreme poverty. We might governmentally say they are, but they’re not. Extreme poverty is that you’re out there living on a dollar and a half a day. I don’t think we have anybody in North Carolina doing that.”

According to US Census Bureau statistics, Cleveland is woefully out of touch with reality. Approximately 17.5 percent of North Carolinians are in poverty. That’s 1.6 million people. That’s an increase of more than one percent since 2009. For a family of four, earning just $22,000 a year is the poverty level. To be in extreme poverty, that same family of four would only earn half of that amount. And as it turns out, 728,842 people in North Carolina live in extreme poverty. The House committee report wasn’t inaccurate either, because one in four children live at or below the poverty level in the state and one in ten children live in extreme poverty.

Cleveland is so alarmingly unaware of the hardships faced by Americans today, that he apparently hasn’t noticed that poverty increased by more than 7 percent in his home district in Onslow County between 2007 and 2010, and median household income dropped by 5.7 percent.

[D Laurier]

I'm reminded of Mayor Mel Lastman declaring that "there are no homeless people in northern Toronto" the day before a homeless woman froze to death in a bus shelter in... northern Toronto.

[Yaezakura]

I really, really wish it were legal to just beat people who say stuff this stupid with a baseball bat. Something like "defense of sanity".

[The Right Honourable Mlle Antéchrist]

I love this "some people have it worse, therefore, it's not bad" mentality these idiots take. If a family is unable to meet an acceptable quality of life -- proper nutrition, adequate education, residence in a safe neighbourhood, etc. -- because of a limited income, they're living in poverty. If a kid is sent to school in the middle of winter wearing runners, no socks, torn jeans, and a threadbare windbreaker because his parents can't afford warm clothing, he's living in poverty. If a parent is unable to bring his or her child to the doctor or purchase necessary medication because it's financially out of reach, they're living in poverty.

Making $11,000 a year in the US might not be as bad as making pennies a day in a war torn, famine-plagued country, but that doesn't change the fact that it's not an acceptable quality of life. This isn't a god damn contest, where only the person who has it the absolute worst gets help -- if a human being is living in poverty, regardless of how "bad" he or she has it on a global scale, it's a tragedy.

[Yaezakura]

Making $11,000 a year in the US might not be as bad as making pennies a day in a war torn, famine-plagued country, but that doesn't change the fact that it's not an acceptable quality of life. This isn't a god damn contest, where only the person who has it the absolute worst gets help -- if a human being is living in poverty, regardless of how "bad" he or she has it on a global scale, it's a tragedy.

In some ways, it can be. Those pennies a day may not buy a bean here, but it does allow those people to feed their families, because the prices of items are drastically lower. Yeah, if we kept making the same money we do here in the US over in some shit-hole country, we'd basically be royalty--but that doesn't mean anything when where we live is here, and eating enough to stay alive for a single day here can cost a year's salary in some third world country.

[The Right Honourable Mlle Antéchrist]

That's quite true, though I was thinking more along the lines of other factors, such as famine, war on your doorstep, etc. In any case, the relative levels of poverty are somewhat secondary to the main issue: People being unable to meet an acceptable minimum quality of life is a travesty, period.

[ThunderWulf]

Yes, not having poverty is exactly why people are jobless and losing their houses all over the country.  -_-  Idiot.

[D Laurier]

Extreme poverty is all around us.
I help at a drop in center for homeless people. These folks cant afford any of the basics of survival.
These people get their one decent meal a day at the center. Sometimes that meal is chilli that I made.
The center has shower facilitys. Every day homeless people line up to have a shower so they can be clean.
They sleep under bridges, or in dumpsters, or allyways.
These people exist in a small city like Owen Sound. They are everywhere, and there are more every year.

[Podkayne]

But they have mobile phones!

[sandman]

How did someone with such an utter lack of common economics and sociology ever get elected to any public office? This man has apparently never heard of something call the "cost of living index." 40K a year here in Cleveland is enough for a modest, yet stable and secure lifestyle....but 40K a year in New York City or San Francisco would be a problem. You would need to boost your income to 73K a year in New York and 83K in San Fran just to maintain the exact same standard of living. In Mumbai, India, you would only need $24K to maintain the same standard of living as in Cleveland, and in Bangalore you would only need $20K.

It is true that there are some areas of the world where people live on a dollar a day. And that is, absolutely, extreme poverty. But in the USA, $20K a year is also abject poverty. It's not like you can just go down to the riverbank in the USA and build a mud hut to live in. You can't just gather food in the forest. But the entire system is bullshit. Remember that the Federal government considers a family of 4 with a gross monthly income of $1,922 to NOT BE IN POVERTY. That translates to a yearly poverty level of a little more that $23K for a family of 4. Here in Cleveland, which has a notably low cost of living, that much would put you out on the street begging for food from passersby.

[Podkayne]

How did someone with such an utter lack of common economics and sociology ever get elected to any public office? This man has apparently never heard of something call the "cost of living index." 40K a year here in Cleveland is enough for a modest, yet stable and secure lifestyle....but 40K a year in New York City or San Francisco would be a problem. You would need to boost your income to 73K a year in New York and 83K in San Fran just to maintain the exact same standard of living. In Mumbai, India, you would only need $24K to maintain the same standard of living as in Cleveland, and in Bangalore you would only need $20K.

Is there a site you got that from? I'd be interested to see how Australia compares to other places.

[sandman]

Just do a Google search for "Cost of Living Index." You'll get a bunch of sites, some more reputable than others.

[Podkayne]

thanks

[Podkayne]

Also, read this http://dailycaller.com/2012/02/28/damn-i-just-want-some-jam/#ixzz1nn52QG9u

[Morgenleoht]

That was posted, I think, in the Jim Crow laws thread.