Grover Norquist is literally retarded.

[loinburger]

The poor people I've met fall into a few broad categories:
1. Alcoholics / drug users. They're the ones selling their food stamps, because you can't buy booze/drugs with food stamps.
2. Sick people without adequate insurance. One dude had bipolar disorder, and had the option of either buying food or buying medication. (He applied for social security benefits, but the agency is backlogged by more than a year.)
3. Spouses / children of the above two. I know for a fact that two kids I tutored didn't always eat (their father was in prison, their mother was an alcoholic)

All of which is hilarious.

[Hauldren Collider]

No a homeless street person who cannot feed themselves regularly and has no access to healthcare would not be 'practically a king' in any country. Your problem is that you don't actually know any poor people.

Now this is just false. You don't know me, and you have no way of knowing that I don't know poor people. As a matter of fact, I have known several people that by your definition would be in grinding poverty. They're doing alright. Alby knows better than me, but don't presume to know my life experiences. You don't even live in this country.

[Al B. Sure!]

Seriously? They're the people with fifty bathrooms.

Yeah. That's the problem I'm scared of when I have talked about my relative disregard for poverty in urban America. The ant thinks the ant-hill is colossal, so to speak.

[loinburger]

I think it's safe to say that poverty in the US is not as severe as poverty in, say, Darfur; however, only a complete misanthrope would conclude that poverty in the US must therefore be hilarious.

"Some kids in the US are only half starving? The Ethiopians should have it so good!!!"

[kentonio]

Now this is just false. You don't know me, and you have no way of knowing that I don't know poor people. As a matter of fact, I have known several people that by your definition would be in grinding poverty. They're doing alright. Alby knows better than me, but don't presume to know my life experiences. You don't even live in this country.

No seriously, if the 'poor' people you know are doing alright, then they aren't the poor people we're talking about here.

[Hauldren Collider]

People here seem to confuse my dismissal of fake problems as a sign that I am simply unsympathetic to poverty, which is not the case. I'm unsympathetic to invented problems and their equally-retarded "solutions". Starvation is not a problem in the US, full stop. Loin pointed out that the people who are going hungry actually get food stamps, but get rid of them for drugs. How can you help people like that with government assistance?

Obviously their kids are another story, but the real problem there is the fact that our social services have failed them. No child belongs with a parent like that.

The medical issue is another story as well. But again, the failing there was not the unavailability of government assistance, but the implementation.

[Dinner]

I can not fathom making $40+K without any dependents. What would I even do with that money?

Seriously? It's not hard as that's a below average wage. Yes, we still have loads of people who are dirt poor because of lack of education or because of lack of health care (they have untreated mental illness or addiction problems which aren't being properly treated so they end up on the streets) but if you've had access to education, if you're healthy, and if you're willing to work hard (a lot of ifs I agree) than it's not all that hard to make $50k, $80k, or even $100k. I mean, if I can do it then it must not be that hard because I'm hardly the most talented or most productive (I spend half my time here). I assure you finding things to spend money on isn't all that difficult once you have a decent salary.

[kentonio]

People here seem to confuse my dismissal of fake problems as a sign that I am simply unsympathetic to poverty, which is not the case. I'm unsympathetic to invented problems and their equally-retarded "solutions". Starvation is not a problem in the US, full stop. Loin pointed out that the people who are going hungry actually get food stamps, but get rid of them for drugs. How can you help people like that with government assistance?

Obviously their kids are another story, but the real problem there is the fact that our social services have failed them. No child belongs with a parent like that.

The medical issue is another story as well. But again, the failing there was not the unavailability of government assistance, but the implementation.

What you fail to see is that calling poverty and food security issues 'fake' problems makes you a terrible, terrible person. I'm only continuing to talk about this, because I don't think you are a terrible person, just horribly misinformed on this stuff.

[Lorizael]

CDC says 2,644 Americans died of malnutrition in 2007.

[giblets]

WTF is food security? What a concept.

[a.kitman]

its not a fake problem. look i wouldnt even say sweden is whitout starving people and by almost any standard we have way less then you.

iam pretty well of myself and i cant understand why some rich people dont like helping the poor. less poor means less problems its that simple. you dont want people fighting for there survival cus you never know what the **** they are gona do.

[Hauldren Collider]

CDC says 2,644 Americans died of malnutrition in 2007.

That's miniscule.

its not a fake problem. look i wouldnt even say sweden is whitout starving people and by almost any standard we have way less then you.

iam pretty well of myself and i cant understand why some rich people dont like helping the poor. less poor means less problems its that simple. you dont want people fighting for there survival cus you never know what the **** they are gona do.

I am in favor of helping the poor and have never said otherwise. I question the methods we use currently.

[Lorizael]

That's miniscule.

We went to war for only a few hundred more.

Additionally, you said:

I don't think there is any starvation anywhere in the United States.

[a.kitman]

I am in favor of helping the poor and have never said otherwise. I question the methods we use currently.

iam gona give you sometime to reflect on that.

[Al B. Sure!]

Seriously? It's not hard as that's a below average wage. Yes, we still have loads of people who are dirt poor because of lack of education or because of lack of health care (they have untreated mental illness or addiction problems which aren't being properly treated so they end up on the streets) but if you've had access to education, if you're healthy, and if you're willing to work hard (a lot of ifs I agree) than it's not all that hard to make $50k, $80k, or even $100k. I mean, if I can do it then it must not be that hard because I'm hardly the most talented or most productive (I spend half my time here). I assure you finding things to spend money on isn't all that difficult once you have a decent salary.

I imagine housing is the main thing people spend money on. I spend $320/month on rent. If I were to earn more and lived in better housing, I would be spending several times that, possibly a relatively higher portion of my income, as well.