A journey through a land of extreme poverty: welcome to America

[Willie Pep]

Pretty depressing but important article from The Guardian on extreme poverty in the United States.

The UN’s Philip Alston is an expert on deprivation – and he wants to know why 41m Americans are living in poverty. The Guardian joined him on a special two-week mission into the dark heart of the world’s richest nation

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/dec/15/america-extreme-poverty-un-special-rapporteur

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. Why? Because if your wealthy, you're never wealthy enough.

[tonyt53]

5. You have to add in that the poor whites tend to vote against their own best interests.

One look at Appalachia verifies that.

[Ferrets are Cool]

9. And in my home state of Alabama.

[tonyt53]

10. And in mine of Kentucky

[Kimchijeon]

12. Well most don't vote, period.. But yep you're right

[riversedge]

2. k for visibility

[RKP5637]

3. The US is not a well country, no matter how much BS is slung around about its greatness. n/t

[Glimmer of Hope]

4. 41 million.

[BSdetect]

6. That is measured by really out of date levels of income etc

The real figure is more likely 100 million.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. K&R

[Donkees]

8. LIVE 12pm Dec. 15 - U.N. Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights USA

LIVE 12pm Dec. 15 - U.N. Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights USA

On Friday 15 Dec at 12pm EST I will give a press conference on my two-week US visit. Location: 2121 K Street NW, Suite 800B, Washington DC** Live stream the event at http://www.livestream.com/AlstonUNSR/USA to hear preliminary conclusions on #USApoverty

Link to tweet

[DFW]

11. Haven't they heard the Republican rule of life?

"If you're rich, you deserve it. If you're poor, you deserve it."

i.e. your status is as it should be, and there is no need for adjustment in either direction.

If the Republicans had a rug big enough, they would sweep all our poverty cases under it, and forget about the whole issue. This doesn't even cover the tens of millions more who may not be poverty cases as statistics go, but are so borderline that they suffer the constant anxiety of slipping below the threshold with the loss of just one paycheck, or one tiny bit of bad medical news. They may not be on the poverty list as statistics go, but their quality of life is so diminished by their perilous economic status as to be "as good as." I have never been there, but my wife and I both have friends who are. There is a lot of perspective to consider, as we also have friends who are so far off the charts as far as wealth goes, they consider us to be poverty cases.

[Willie Pep]

13. I know people from both sides of the wealth divide too.

It is odd when you know some people who cannot even afford to go to the dentist or fix their ancient, broken down car and then other people who go on international vacations every few months and go through luxury vehicles like I go through socks.

[DFW]

14. I get the impression it's not a frequent thing

But when your wife is a retied social worker, it's inevitable that this happens. My two college roomies both came from poverty, and I lost touch with them after I moved away from Philadelphia after college, but I think they both made something of themselves. I'm sure neither of them intended to return to their origins of poverty. Some of my wife's charges, due to psychological problems never really made it away from complete dependence on welfare to survive, but she (and therefore we) still keep in touch. It's an odd thing to observe--the less well-off ones gladly accept our offers to pay for meals or a train ticket home, but never ask for anything. Their pride and their dignity is not for sale. The well-off ones are all over the map. Some, you wouldn't have the slightest notion they were "rich." Generous to a fault, and give no outward sign at all of their wealth (à la Warren Buffett). But some are so money-obsessed, you'd think they were the poor ones, and not the multi-millionaires they are.

There just isn't any rule of thumb that accurately puts all people into convenient boxes.

[Duppers]

15. K & R

"Black people are 13% of the US population, but 23% of those officially in poverty and 39% of the homeless.

The racial element of America’s poverty crisis is seen nowhere more clearly than in the Deep South, where the open wounds of slavery continue to bleed."