IRONY: Record Number of Americans Living in Poverty, Census Reports

[sunskyfan]

Considering the thread title thanks for moving this thread into the "Paid" section after I spent time contributing. I understand copying a thread into the paid section but I don't understand moving it there totally. Either unpaid visitors opinions have value or they don't. No, I can't afford to pay for the site right now. Sorry.

[unlucky]

Re: IRONY: Record Number of Americans Living in Poverty, Census Reports

Considering the thread title thanks for moving this thread into the "Paid" section after I spent time contributing. I understand copying a thread into the paid section but I don't understand moving it there totally. Either unpaid visitors opinions have value or they don't. No, I can't afford to pay for the site right now. Sorry.

Here you go:

(Originally posted by sunskyfan)

Here again we must consider the morality and ethics of our actions. If there are systemic reasons for the negative condition of a person then common resources should be utilized to address that condition. If the reasons are due to the specific willful decisions by an individual then only charity is appropriate. The difficulty in the US at the present time is that massive common resources are going to bail-out, protection, and in support of wealth. The wealthy argue there wouldn't be resources if it wasn't they did not exist as their argument for doing such whether it is Wall Street, Washington, or the Defense/Intelligence Community. The problem is that there that when there is no resolution to a crisis and eventually the common resources are not redirected those under systemic distress a permanent moral conflict is created. Either this conflict is resolved by policy (voting new people into office), catastrophe (assassination/revolution or economic collapse) or a totalitarian regime (Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, Sadam's Iraq, North Korea) that must control every narrative that exposes the moral conflict intrinsic in the society.

In the current US mess we use an expensive military to build schools in a land with no resources to protect ourselves from an enemy that largely exists in another country. Resolution by policy is the hope. We have one strike with Obama. We have two strikes with the 2010 elections. The elections of 2012 may produce a change and a correction but we all sense that is in real jeopardy. In our desperation we are vulnerable to dramatic change that sets the stage for the last two. Benign control of the narrative via the mass media and internet seems to be our quiet desperate hope and that it is possible that we will optimize our way out leaving the conflicting narrative behind. We console ourselves with phony economic data. Our political leadership doesn't have the guts to even use the term "depression" because the tenuous narrative of a better future is so fragile. This seems to be the general approach starting but success of this seems implausible over time and will we have any collective respect for ourselves anyway?

Yes, poor in the US and poor in Somalia are different but, eventually, one of the systemically oppressed will be a father, mother, son, or daughter and then when we are not be able to look away the societal resentment will become uncontrollable. Resentment is a world where there are more guns than resources makes for a very unpleasant life. Sure, let's make sure our terms are accurate but let's not dither on whether distance between someone with just running water and a Central Park Penthouse is poor vs rich. If help is to be provided to one of the two isn't the moral and ethical choice clear?

Call it "redistribution"

[sunskyfan]

Re: IRONY: Record Number of Americans Living in Poverty, Census Reports

Thank you. I feel better .

[Thailandnotes]

Re: IRONY: Record Number of Americans Living in Poverty, Census Reports

This report is getting a lot of press. I think the real story is how many are exiting the middle class highlighted by Proctor and Gamble adopting the so-called “hour glass” strategy…make products for the rich and poor, give up on the middle. Median income down 7-8 % this decade, another million without health insurance.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...rty?CMP=twt_gu

[lektrode]

Re: IRONY: Record Number of Americans Living in Poverty, Census Reports

...Benign control of the narrative via the mass media and internet seems to be our quiet desperate hope and that it is possible that we will optimize our way out leaving the conflicting narrative behind. We console ourselves with phony economic data. Our political leadership doesn't have the guts to even use the term "depression" because the tenuous narrative of a better future is so fragile.

some of us (round here) know better however - that is The Real Hope For Change and to hell with them that wont believe it!

[dcarrigg]

Re: IRONY: Record Number of Americans Living in Poverty, Census Reports

This report is getting a lot of press. I think the real story is how many are exiting the middle class highlighted by Proctor and Gamble adopting the so-called “hour glass” strategy…make products for the rich and poor, give up on the middle. Median income down 7-8 % this decade, another million without health insurance.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...rty?CMP=twt_gu

It's just more evidence that they believe the American Middle Class is obsolete. It's convenient that it's in a British paper - because the middle is obsolete there too (if it is here).

Germany may end up the last hold-out for the concept, but it is withering across NATO.

Actually, speaking of NATO, even Brzezinski's sliding down the doomer scale (he uses the word twice).

[brent217]

Re: IRONY: Record Number of Americans Living in Poverty, Census Reports

It's just more evidence that they believe the American Middle Class is obsolete. It's convenient that it's in a British paper - because the middle is obsolete there too (if it is here).

Germany may end up the last hold-out for the concept, but it is withering across NATO.

Actually, speaking of NATO, even Brzezinski's sliding down the doomer scale (he uses the word twice).

Don't forget it was Brzezinski that said "In the past it was always easier to control a million people than kill a million people. Today that has changed, it is now easier to kill a million people than control a million people" In light of that, what do you think will happen to the population that decides the mass media control is false and then decides to stage protests across the USA? My best guess is the average life expectancy of the former middle class is going to drop very far, very fast...