10 Poverty Myths, Busted

MOMof3
reply to post by WarminIndy

 

"Because for those in power who still want to eat but not plant, someone is going to have to be forced to be the farmer."


Most excellent point. Since the bottom already know how to live in a deprived state, they have adapted to not needing non essentials. All we really need is shelter and food. The bottom are always prepared to die, medical care if they get it is a plus. It would be a much better system for the bottom, no matter where they are, to group together and grow their own food. Then one of many low paying jobs could cover shelter. That would be a low stress good life.

Then the top could have the rest to themselves and grow their own food, if they know how. And the top could keep passing the same old money around and around and around and cooking the books with their tax accountants. That sounds sane.

We could go back to the barter system.

But my economics professor called that "the underground economy".

I don't have cable because I can't afford it, but why should I have someone else working for me to watch tv all day? I made a deal with one of my neighbors, I watch TV with her and all I have to do is be her friend. It's a good trade off. I offered to help her pay for cable, but she won't take the money. But we could do something like that...instead of paying exorbitant prices for tickets to see movies, we could just have a group of people who give money to the person with the cable so they can pay the cable bill and everyone could go watch tv with them?

That sounds fair to me. I would be willing to do that.

Right now, my WIFI is free because the building I live in has provided that for residents. I don't have an internet bill.

We can't cheat the cable company by hooking lines up, that would be stealing, but we could simply give a few dollars to the person who does have legal cable and then watch tv with them. That seems fair.

I'm all for bartering, it seems to be something fair.

reply to post by WarminIndy


We do things like that all the time in our family. We hired a friend to roof our house. Before he could finish it, he got hurt on another job. My son-in-law, who was laid off at the time, finished our roof for him. The man paid him with some tools then my son in law did another roof. I don't know why it could not be extended in communities, if shown how. Anywhere there is sun, water, and some soil, food will grow. But people mock me too about the trade/barter system. I guess because you cannot get all that you want that way. But that is where a low paying job that the bottom have to settle for anyway, can help.

I am pretty sure on number two many of the fathers are dishonest

soficrow
Great article and compilation with valid sources.

10 Poverty Myths, Busted

1. Single moms are the problem. Only 9 percent of low-income, urban moms have been single throughout their child's first five years. Thirty-five percent were married to, or in a relationship with, the child's father for that entire time.*

2. Absent dads are the problem. Sixty percent of low-income dads see at least one of their children daily. Another 16 percent see their children weekly.*

3. Black dads are the problem. Among men who don't live with their children, black fathers are more likely than white or Hispanic dads to have a daily presence in their kids' lives.

4. Poor people are lazy. In 2004, there was at least one adult with a job in 60 percent of families on food stamps that had both kids and a nondisabled, working-age adult.

5. If you're not officially poor, you're doing okay. The federal poverty line for a family of two parents and two children in 2012 was $23,283. Basic needs cost at least twice that in 615 of America's cities and regions.

6. Go to college, get out of poverty. In 2012, about 1.1 million people who made less than $25,000 a year, worked full time, and were heads of household had a bachelor's degree.**

7. We're winning the war on poverty. The number of households with children living on less than $2 a day per person has grown 160 percent since 1996, to 1.65 million families in 2011.

8. The days of old ladies eating cat food are over. The share of elderly single women living in extreme poverty jumped 31 percent from 2011 to 2012.
9. The homeless are drunk street people. One in 45 kids in the United States experiences homelessness each year. In New York City alone, 22,000 children are homeless.

10. Handouts are bankrupting us. In 2012, total welfare funding was 0.47 percent of the federal budget.

*Source: Analysis by Dr. Laura Tach at Cornell University.

**Source: Census

soficrow
Great article and compilation with valid sources.

10 Poverty Myths, Busted

1. Single moms are the problem. Only 9 percent of low-income, urban moms have been single throughout their child's first five years. Thirty-five percent were married to, or in a relationship with, the child's father for that entire time.*

2. Absent dads are the problem. Sixty percent of low-income dads see at least one of their children daily. Another 16 percent see their children weekly.*

3. Black dads are the problem. Among men who don't live with their children, black fathers are more likely than white or Hispanic dads to have a daily presence in their kids' lives.

4. Poor people are lazy. In 2004, there was at least one adult with a job in 60 percent of families on food stamps that had both kids and a nondisabled, working-age adult.

5. If you're not officially poor, you're doing okay. The federal poverty line for a family of two parents and two children in 2012 was $23,283. Basic needs cost at least twice that in 615 of America's cities and regions.

6. Go to college, get out of poverty. In 2012, about 1.1 million people who made less than $25,000 a year, worked full time, and were heads of household had a bachelor's degree.**

7. We're winning the war on poverty. The number of households with children living on less than $2 a day per person has grown 160 percent since 1996, to 1.65 million families in 2011.

8. The days of old ladies eating cat food are over. The share of elderly single women living in extreme poverty jumped 31 percent from 2011 to 2012.
9. The homeless are drunk street people. One in 45 kids in the United States experiences homelessness each year. In New York City alone, 22,000 children are homeless.

10. Handouts are bankrupting us. In 2012, total welfare funding was 0.47 percent of the federal budget.

*Source: Analysis by Dr. Laura Tach at Cornell University.

**Source: Census

MOMof3
reply to post by WarminIndy

 

We do things like that all the time in our family. We hired a friend to roof our house. Before he could finish it, he got hurt on another job. My son-in-law, who was laid off at the time, finished our roof for him. The man paid him with some tools then my son in law did another roof. I don't know why it could not be extended in communities, if shown how. Anywhere there is sun, water, and some soil, food will grow. But people mock me too about the trade/barter system. I guess because you cannot get all that you want that way. But that is where a low paying job that the bottom have to settle for anyway, can help.

edit on 30-3-2014 by MOMof3 because: (no reason given)

I guess when we go back to bartering, it means we become a community again. That's what has been lost, the sense of community and helping each other out.

reply to post by nwtrucker


Hit the wrong keys. This is pure spin, nothing more. If "35%" are still in the relationship or married during the first five years, they're NOT SINGLE. Hello??

Anyone who buys into absent fathers not being a problem is out of touch with reality. I certainly don't buy the percentage of fathers who have access, never mind the ability/time to "visit" daily. Even if the weekly stat is true and I doubt it, it isn't daily/live in or with. That is a problem.

The statistics are clear, way lower high-school graduation rates. Higher drug use. Higher criminal record rates.

Black fathers is more racial spin. Low income father, of any ethnicity, being unemployed or on welfare has more time. The working father, again any ethnicity, has serious child support issues and is working his ass off trying to support two households. His visitation is either restricted by decree and/or can't get to them, either by location differences or work schedules.

So it can't even be logically argued that father time isn't a problem. There is no way he spends the time equal to being married and living with them.

Just more garbage in demeaning traditional values and the continued destruction of our society.

Are there exceptions? Heck, yes! Buying into a "lessening" of the downsides is a huge mistake.

andy1972

buster2010

andy1972

onequestion
reply to post by andy1972

 

You can want all you want! The fact is wanting things cant make impossibilities probable outcomes.

You lack fundamental understanding of the universe that elude to how we experience it. As above so below.

In order for 2 you must first 1. Its really simple.

edit on 3/28/2014 by onequestion because: (no reason given)

And your fundemental lack of understanding of the human race leaves you to believe we are all the same. We are not.

"We are all born in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" - Oscar Wilde.

Just as thousands of kids are born orphans and dont spend the rest of their lives blaming their lack of parents for every bad thing that happens to them, thousands are born poor, yet through will and determination get to live the better life they want. Their children grow to be the same.

Oscar Wilde was an idiot. The man obviously knew nothing about the real world. Does he think members from families like the Rothschild's or the Rockefellers and the like is born in the gutter?

Yes, he clearly knew nothing of the real world, especially after spending 2 years in jail. Wilde was gay when it still carried a jail sentance, he knew exactly how the real world was and he payed for it.

"After the first glass you see things as you wish they were. After the second glass you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world"

Any man who can call Wilde an idiot is a man who uses his book's to prop up table legs.

So he spent two years in jail big deal. And if you have to hit the booze to see the real world then you were blind to begin with and will never be able to understand the world. Also a smart man can figure out how to level a table without using books to prop it up.

StormyStars
reply to post by MasterOfTheDamned

 

Actually it's still that way now. I have seen it several times in the last 10 years, and you are making this an F VS M thing with every post i've read from you.

why are you butting in on a comment NOT even remotely directed to you or because of you? Couldn't find anyone else you thought stupid enough to pick on or for all your bssssss?

Just calling you out on a lie, obviously you can't handle being told the truth though. Your ignorance truly has astounded me.

reply to post by diggindirt


There will always be those people who live above their means, who spend all of the money they make, and then borrow money on future income.

While these people should be held responsible for what they do, the people who lend them money they can't afford to pay back are as equally guilty of abuse.

The bankers know that the more they lend, the higher prices go, and the more they make, and the more they gain.

The whole housing bubble was an excellent example of that, and this type of economic crisis has been created many times.

These people, these bankers willing to say and do anything to make lots of money screw things up far, far more than the poor.

The poor are not people who have inheritances, and dig themselves into debt spending money they do not have.

buster2010

andy1972

buster2010

andy1972

onequestion
reply to post by andy1972

 

You can want all you want! The fact is wanting things cant make impossibilities probable outcomes.

You lack fundamental understanding of the universe that elude to how we experience it. As above so below.

In order for 2 you must first 1. Its really simple.

edit on 3/28/2014 by onequestion because: (no reason given)

And your fundemental lack of understanding of the human race leaves you to believe we are all the same. We are not.

"We are all born in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" - Oscar Wilde.

Just as thousands of kids are born orphans and dont spend the rest of their lives blaming their lack of parents for every bad thing that happens to them, thousands are born poor, yet through will and determination get to live the better life they want. Their children grow to be the same.

Oscar Wilde was an idiot. The man obviously knew nothing about the real world. Does he think members from families like the Rothschild's or the Rockefellers and the like is born in the gutter?

Yes, he clearly knew nothing of the real world, especially after spending 2 years in jail. Wilde was gay when it still carried a jail sentance, he knew exactly how the real world was and he payed for it.

"After the first glass you see things as you wish they were. After the second glass you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world"

Any man who can call Wilde an idiot is a man who uses his book's to prop up table legs.

So he spent two years in jail big deal. And if you have to hit the booze to see the real world then you were blind to begin with and will never be able to understand the world. Also a smart man can figure out how to level a table without using books to prop it up.

Wow, we here at ATS bow to your superior knowledge of the 'real world'. If you know whats really happening, why don't you run for government and cure all the social ill's of North America.

Wilde is considered a wit and literary genius. Obviously if you don't see it, it's because you don't understand it.
He didn't have to 'hit the bottle' to see society as it was in his time, he was a victim of it.

Any one who has ever read a classic such as The picture of Dorian Gray or The importance of being Ernest would label Wilde an idiot, quite the contrary.

Its funny how here on ATS people have all the answers to all the questions, yet Americas still up crap creek without a paddle.

reply to post by nwtrucker

The working father, again any ethnicity, has serious child support issues and is working his ass off trying to support two households. His visitation is either restricted by decree and/or can't get to them, either by location differences or work schedules.

Good to see someone else pointed this out.

When you are working two jobs and barely getting by, you don't have a lot of time to spend with your children. This is also one of the big problems for people living in poverty, who spend all their time working to make ends meet. They don't have the time to spend with their children. Children grow up being raised by other children, and that doesn't always work to well. This is how the high drop out rates and high crime rates occur.

The real cause of divorce is gender biased family court systems who encourage women to divorce their husbands, take the house and his money, get full control of the household.

If women didn't have a court system telling them they get rid of the loser and get everything they want, then the divorce rates would be much much lower.

Divorce courts are nothing but a scam, another way to take other peoples money.

poet1b
reply to post by nwtrucker

 

The working father, again any ethnicity, has serious child support issues and is working his ass off trying to support two households. His visitation is either restricted by decree and/or can't get to them, either by location differences or work schedules.

Good to see someone else pointed this out.

When you are working two jobs and barely getting by, you don't have a lot of time to spend with your children. This is also one of the big problems for people living in poverty, who spend all their time working to make ends meet. They don't have the time to spend with their children. Children grow up being raised by other children, and that doesn't always work to well. This is how the high drop out rates and high crime rates occur.

The real cause of divorce is gender biased family court systems who encourage women to divorce their husbands, take the house and his money, get full control of the household.

If women didn't have a court system telling them they get rid of the loser and get everything they want, then the divorce rates would be much much lower.

Divorce courts are nothing but a scam, another way to take other peoples money.

Let me get this right....divorce is always the woman's fault?

reply to post by WarminIndy


I left out how we get our rent reduced, by doing the maintenance on the house, like roofing. The landlords pay us time and material and take it off the rent. They know we will be here til we are very old, helps me think of it as "my house".

reply to post by WarminIndy


No, divorce is not always the woman's fault, or mostly the woman's fault, and that is not what I meant, or what I implied.

My point is basic, divorce courts encourage divorce because it is a profitable industry for the courts.

reply to post by neo96

I had to pay unemployment insurance to a former worker who found ANOTHER better job, which they got laid off from. Tell me how that is any of my problem or fault?

these arguments about poverty and laziness are not new, many years ago I came across the people of the abyss, jack London decided to attempt to make it in London as a poor person. This is a century ago and some things are of course different now, but in the main, I think little has changed,

read it yourself, see what you think

www.gutenberg.org...

reply to post by eccentriclady


Care to elaborate so i dont have to sit down and read a book to understand your post?

reply to post by onequestion


I haven't read this in ten years and am too tired to take it in, so will just give you a quick run down of what I remember,

Jack London discovered that wanting to work and take care of himself as a poor person didn't work for him, he would not be able to sleep at night outside as the police kept watch and moved the homeless on, so without sleep he would then go to a soup kitchen type place for breakfast, so he had enough energy to walk miles to apply for a job, but he ate his donated breakfast, then was expected to accept a religious lecture from the provider before he could leave to walk to where he had heard there were jobs available, this caused him to be late so all the work had been given out.

jack londons words are much more interesting than mine, its a short essay and very easy to read, as i said, many of the problems of poverty he experiences can be related easily to today.

reply to post by eccentriclady


Thanks.