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Originally Posted by daswig
Who knows...maybe they should have studied in school instead of spending their time smoking pot and reading "Teen Beat".
If you're stupid, no matter how much you make, you can indeed live below the poverty line. And the poverty line, BTW, is generally a statistical critter.
If you're born poor and WANT to get out of poverty, you can do it. It may not be fun, it may entail a lot of hard work, but it certainly can be done. Even in Ohio.
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Daswig unwittingly brings up another major myth about those living around or below the poverty line--that they're stupid, so that is their place in life.
Often the working poor work more than one job, and even if there was a job that paid slightly more than they make available, they wouldn't want to risk missing work to go apply for it.
My initial reaction to this post was--don't look at me, the people have spoken in the last election, they don't want a "society" where everyone can at least have "luxurys" like food and basic health care. I truely amazes me that some of the "red" states were convinced to vote clearly against their economic interests. I feel that it is the second biggest ruse that the Republicans purpetrated (after convincing much of the public that they are moderate). Most of the "red" states are not economic powerhouses, they probably have the highest percentage of people living below the "poverty line" and yet they vote for someone who has never truely spoken to their needs (a tiny bit of campaign lip service for a sound bite doesn't really count).
I wish I had some solutions. I continue to see our country turning into a "service nation" where the majority of people work at jobs where they make little (because you don't really need a special talent to work at Wal Mart, or the grocery store) and sell products that were made cheaply overseas. The problem is, anytime someone makes a suggestion to solve the problem someone in the Neo-Con party labels it as "Communist" and it dies a quick death. i would like to see the government place tariffs or taxes on companies who use cheap overseas labor to make products that are sold over here. Take Nike, for instance, I've read estimates that it costs anywhere from a few cents to a couple of dollars to make shoes in indonesia that retail over here for a hundred dollars and are sold by someone making 8 dollars an hour. They would say that they couldn't afford to make a profit if they produced the shoes here, but New Balance seems to be doing OK. It's a crime that the fat cats like Knight and the Waltons are making millions riding on the working poor.