Almost half of US families can't afford basics like rent and food

I know a guy that was in India a few months ago.
Quit bitching

a reply to: BlueJacket

not really, because, that "generosity" as you put it would be still there presumably, of which the people could use that imaginary money they think they will be saving on taxes to help the poor....
so I mean what I said, the government programs...

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: CB328

When was the last time all Americans could afford rent and food?

In my experience people can afford a lot of things.

Can people budget and manage their money wisely to make rent and food paid?

There is a difference, and I see priorities are usually really effed up sometimes.

originally posted by: DBCowboy

originally posted by: network dude
so you can show me where this is a new problem and just stared with Trump? If this was an issue before Trump, then you may have stuck your foot so far down your throat, it will come out your backside.

People will tweet about how they can't pay rent and food on their cell phones waiting for their Netflix movie to load on their flat screen.

Well if they only have mere Cell Phones then they are most frugal.

As they are if they've ditched Cable TV opting for far cheaper video services like Netflix, while CRT's havent been manufactured at all this decade; only "flat screens" are even made anymore.

originally posted by: SpeakerofTruth
Well, here's the deal. Income hasn't kept pace with inflation.

Everyone talks about increasing minimum wage, which I am all for people making more money. However, the problem is that everytime minimum wage is increased, the cost of everything else is increased 15-20 cents effectively negating any minimum wage increase.

Until corporate price gouging to maintain and even, in some cases, increasing profits is eliminated, raising minimum wage isn't going to accomplish anything.

Actually, if you look at standard of livign, you can argue that wages have in fact kept pace with inflation. What you have to consider is that goods are cheaper and in some cases, far higher quality than anything you could have purchased in the 60s/70s. For example, i remember when the only people who had cell phones were executives, doctors, and drug dealers. Now 12 year olds have them.

I remember when a house may have had one black and white television. Now you have HD TVs in car headrests.

While I am not arguing there aren't "poor" people in the US, if you look at the actual standard of living as to what qualifies as poor in the US vs the rest of the world, our poor are in fact part of the global 1%.

You can go into any housing project /ghetto where people are objectively considered poor by American standards. You will find they actually live better lives than much of the upper class in the rest of the world. You will find cable TV. Flat screen TVs. Xboxes & Playstations. Jordan tennis shoes. Brand name jeans. Bicycles. Skateboards. Refrigerators. Air conditioning. Beds.

Except only in the most extreme examples, ain't no kid in the ghetto walking around with no shoes or clothes and a distended belly. Nor are they living in houses with dirt floors or constructed out of galvanized sheet metal and cardboard.

America's Poor Still Live Better than Most of Humanity

the typical person in the bottom 5 percent of the American income distribution is still richer than 68 percent of the world’s inhabitants

originally posted by: MiddleInsite
a reply to: IAMTAT

Oh, you'll have to go back a bit farther than that. Reagan era, GREED IS GOOD.

And Trump is resting on the laurels of Obama fixing Bush's disastrous economy.

And even further to Jimmy Carter and FDR.

It was the democrats disastrous economy. Why does no one remember Republicans wanting more oversight and regulation on Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, and Bwaney Frank basically saying to hell with that?

originally posted by: SocratesJohnson
Yet somehow Americans can afford cell phones, beer, cigarettes, candy, liquor, cable, Netflix, and yet...food and rent is an issue....

things that make you say ummm....

Largely because they think theyre entitled to receive food and shelter for free at whatever cost to whomever besides themselves.

I see a TON of medicaid patients at my work and the STANDARD is Nikes on the feet, NorthFace on the back and iPhone on the ear.

Like its a uniform.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: CB328

When was the last time all Americans could afford rent and food?

Then that makes his point all the truer.


But the fact is before Reagan cut taxes for the rich in 1980-1 from about 70 percent to about 30 the economy boomed for decades

Republican always do that in some form to turn the economy backward


The fact is Trump will ONLY make things better for the rich and not for the poor and middle class.

He’s already trying to cut programs for the poor and requiring poor Medicaid recipients to work for their health care.

a reply to: CB328


Half of Americans can't afford food? They eat at the soup kitchens?

a reply to: Edumakated

everyone gripes about the poor and their cellphones...
I have a cellphone... it cost me around 20 bucks to purchase the phone and around $15 a month to by the minutes and such.
I'd prefer a landline but kind of think this is cheaper this way..

and, like I said, social security insist they have a phone number so they can reach you, so I need something.
as it is, for the most part, my cell phone kind of just sits at the place where a landline would sit, I find it obnoxious for people to think I should be on call 24/7...

of course, I probably could go apply for a free landline if my cellphone is bothering you so much??? ya know, those obama phones give you that option.

really I think landlines as well as tvs are gonna be going out of style someday soon. I mean, who wants to gather around the tv together to watch the same movie when they can all scuttle off to their own rooms and watch what they want to watch on netflix or hulu, right?

a reply to: carewemust

That's the sad reality. I had to when I was 17 I know all about it. Poverty breeds compassion and kicks your ass into gear when you're young, all at the same time.

The richest country in the world or the richest country ever Americans like to brag.

Yet thousands die each year because of no health insurance.

news.harvard.edu...

New study finds 45,000 deaths annually linked to lack of health coverage

And thousands die due to poverty

www.mailman.columbia.edu...

…in the richest country in the world.

a reply to: NarcolepticBuddha

In the old days, one man working a job was enough to pay all the bills and buy his own home. No credit necessary except the mortgage which was usually paid off in full after 25-30 years. Now we have interest-only mortgages (meaning only the interest is paid, not the principal, the house is the property of the bank at the end), investment-mortgages (stocks and shares investments with all the risks associated with it) and various other mortgage "constructions" that often work out badly for the consumer.

In the Netherlands, the norm is that a couple, i.e. 2 earners, buy property. It's almost impossible to buy on one wage, even if it is only a flat/apartment.

This is more of a social issue than anything, there are groups of people who want us all as surfs and they want us totally dependent on the government for survival. This is not a new tactic, it goes way back to Roman times. Having two classes of people, the elite and the surfs is what they are striving for, five percent max are elites, the rest of us are barely making it and begging for enough to feed our families and keep the lights on

I do not remember the name of this concept, but I know it is one of the major ways to control people, control access to basics and you control the masses.

The idea is to destroy the middle class, more Democrats are leaning this way than Republicans but both parties do utilize this philosophy to some extent. It will not work well in a country this big, a small country like England or France is feasible. It is also used in communism. It is not socialism, that forms a big lower middle class usually with some with more money at the top but the top people in socialism are not usually filthy rich.

originally posted by: dawnstar
a reply to: Edumakated

everyone gripes about the poor and their cellphones...
I have a cellphone... it cost me around 20 bucks to purchase the phone and around $15 a month to by the minutes and such.
I'd prefer a landline but kind of think this is cheaper this way..

I don’t think anyone is bitching about the poor having a cell phone in general. It’s those complaining they can’t afford to live, but have the latest iPhone that costs over a $1000 and updates to the newer iPhone every 2 years.

originally posted by: Willtell
The richest country in the world or the richest country ever Americans like to brag.

Yet thousands die each year because of no health insurance.

news.harvard.edu...

New study finds 45,000 deaths annually linked to lack of health coverage

And thousands die due to poverty

www.mailman.columbia.edu...

…in the richest country in the world.

Didn't even have to read those studies to know they are full of sh*t...

From one of your links:

The investigators found that approximately 245,000 deaths in the United States in the year 2000 were attributable to low levels of education, 176,000 to racial segregation, 162,000 to low social support, 133,000 to individual-level poverty, 119,000 to income inequality, and 39,000 to area-level poverty.

So 176,000 people died from racial segregation? Another 119,000 from income inequality? Seriously?

I can see it now, just like on Sanford & Son. Oh, my income inequality is acting up... clutching chest. oh no, I'm dead.

originally posted by: Middleoftheroad

originally posted by: dawnstar
a reply to: Edumakated

everyone gripes about the poor and their cellphones...
I have a cellphone... it cost me around 20 bucks to purchase the phone and around $15 a month to by the minutes and such.
I'd prefer a landline but kind of think this is cheaper this way..

I don’t think anyone is bitching about the poor having a cell phone in general. It’s those complaining they can’t afford to live, but have the latest iPhone that costs over a $1000 and updates to the newer iPhone every 2 years.

Quit perpetuating this illogical ubsupported by data stereo type its tiresome like the anti Trump post

originally posted by: CB328
Almost half of US families can't afford basics like rent and food, in spite of Trump's tax cuts, tarrifs and other policies. Directing policy at the elites has not and will not help regular people in this country. Only going back to our roots of a non-corporate, non-commoditized society with lots of union and government jobs will be able to fix the disaster that is the US. The average income has barely increased for decades while the cost of housing has tripled and the number of good jobs available for non-phd's has shrunk drastically. No amount of trickle down hoaxing can fix it.


money.cnn.com...

MAGA

I see prices rising.

There have always been poor people. There have always been people below the poverty line.

It is only "our" business when we choose to help those with less.


But the key thing about individuality is you have the opportunity to make it or break it all on your own.