Poor are getting poorer, just don't call it "class warfare" or "redistribution of wealth" though

[ck4829]

The poverty rate in the United States hit 13.2 percent last year, according to a study released Thursday - up from 12.5 percent the previous year.

That's an 11-year high, and it means that nearly 40 million Americans were living below the poverty line, the equivalent of a family of four living on about $22,000 or less a year. CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston has more on the stark reality behind the numbers.

"More and more families simply don't have enough income from work," said Nancy Cauthen, director of the Economic Opportunities Program at the non-profit Demos. "They're working but their incomes aren't keeping up with the rising cost of things."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/10/eveningnews/main5301548.shtml

[Romulox]

1. People want to pretend they can support cut throat capitalism, and still be "progressive"

Crushing poverty is an entirely predictable component of your "progressive" capitalism. :hi:

[KillCapitalism]

5. +1

Capitalism = death

[infidel dog]

14. What a concise, simple and absolutely goddamn true equation.

Right on, kc.

[TBF]

8. Or my favorite - those who think they can "regulate" capitalism.

Good luck with that.

[laughingliberal]

2. It's like that sign the Billionaires for Wealthcare use

Wealthy lady standing with a sign that says, "It's Class War and We're Winning."

[raccoon]

3. Off to Greatest with you! nt

[RoccoR5955]

4. It's the dissolution of the Middle Class

Something that the Cons have wanted since the days of FDR.

[Greyhound]

6. And let's not forget the millions too poor to even be counted. K&R.

[Hannah Bell]

7. k

[TBF]

9. K&R n/t

[anonymous171]

10. K&R. nt

[mzmolly]

11. An excellent

point CK. :(

[kenny blankenship]

12. Something to remember when ppl say "Oh we can have Switzerland's private healthcare w/ mandates"

Switzerland and the Netherlands BOTH have a poverty rate that runs only ONE THIRD that of the U.S. historically. They are both like tiny middle-class bedroom communities of Western Europe. In the United States, we let whole cities go to ruin, and millions of people languish in poverty and joblessness. Because of our abundant land resource, the rich and middle class can simply move away from all the poor and workers barely above poverty. Our system is designed around the idea that "those unfortunate people" live in a different country - a different world, and that nothing should force the more fortunate to care about them. There are other reasons why Switzerland and the Netherlands can afford mandates--the NON-PROFIT regulation binding insurers in Switzerland, the MASSIVE SUBSIDIES in the Netherlands--but the lack of tolerance for high levels of poverty and inequality in their societies is another. It's a little harder to talk about because it's not a feature intrinsic to any "health plan" like, for example, a rule that forbids denying coverage based on preexisting conditions. Their less extreme division of wealth and generous social safety nets make individual mandates more supportable and workable.

Any proposed health care reform should place obligations on the GOVERNMENT, instead of on the most vulnerable classes of people. So far, our healthcare proposals are perfectly in line with a class system that lets tens of millions rot in poverty and tens of millions more live their entire lives teetering on the edge. It is "uniquely American" that something called health care REFORM would be written in America in such a way that millions of people stand to be dragged into court for the crime of not being wealthy, and then to be lectured by a Judge for having given INJURY to those people who have money enough to pay for insurance. Well, it's uniquely American nowadays: I think Charles Dickens could have imagined such a grotesque scenario and he was English.

[burning rain]

13. Why do you hate freedom, commie?

;-)