Media Spin and the Hidden Poverty in America

Re: # 4

Dear HamidM,

How about bringing back debtor`s prison and 3 strikes you are out for these people. Seriously low lifes like these need a good old caning on the back side to set them straight.

Thanks and Regards
Sanatani

Re: # 24

mohar

.... wait till bubba moves back to the trailer park when gm files for bankruptcy - you should be able to pick up his 4000 sq ft house for abut 350 ........ i am sure somone will berate you for profiting from bubba`s misery, but don`t worry about it because bubba had a good time while it lasted and as long as they don`t take away his big screen tv and his lazy boy he will be okay - the price of chips and beer is not expected to go up significantly ..........

Re: # 4

May be I should move in next to hamidm`s plumber - Everybody seems to have a big house up there.... in norther VA - they ask you for an arm and a leg for a 2000 sq ft townhouse.....

Re: # 1

hp ......

....... the guy who mows my lawn lives in a house bigger than mine and has two kids in college .......... fifteen years ago he lived in a trailer park .........

....... the guy who does my sprinklers is a paki with no education who also lived in a trailer park for many years before he too moved into a house bigger than mine ................. his son graduated from college last year with an engineering degree and works for a japanese auto maker ...... his daughter is aspiring to get into med school ............

....... on a cold blustry day this january my bulgarian roofer showed up with his crew of 12 mexicans and worked late into the night with floodlights - the temperature was in the low thirties ........... he lives in a more upscale neighborhood than mine and drives a better car - fifteen years ago he shared a one bedroom apartment with four other bulgarians ..........

........ when i first got my house painted about ten years ago the bulgarian painter (the roofer`s cousin) worked for fred, a cranky old white man who paid him minimum age .and was always yelling at him ........ fred retired to florida and the bulgarian took over the business .......... last year he netted over 300K and sent me a nice basket for christmas .........

.................. so i drove around down to detroit to see if i could find some ``poor`` people ......... i saw a lot of drunkards, crack addicts, single mothers, dope peddlars and street people who looked as if they might be down and out ...... but i didn`t see any poor people ............. sorry

p.s urstruly - if you want i can introduce to all three .........

“even in the official figures of 12.7%, a failure of a social system that spends $2.2 trillion dollars a year,”

What is wrong with 12.7% or even 15% poor? Imo, 10% population in every country is crazy (higher in India) anyway.

Who is gonna mow my lawn if there are no poor left?
You are against my liberties and good life. I want more poor in the US so that the Landscapers charges less.

Ps. don’t expect serious comments on Saturdays!

is this another AIDS type rant?.... AIDS = America Is Doomed Syndrome..

I saw on Oprah couple of weeks ago, that the poverty in Mid West is no different than the Katrina struck areas, even though no natural clamity has struck this region.

oh boy...another rant from the AIDS(America is doomed syndrome) afflicted usual suspect...

#4 mian

Do you realize that ALL those example individuals own houses bigger than yours? Do you? No wonder you did not see any ``poor`` people - you did not look in the mirror!

I remember similar articles being churned out by the Communists during the hay day of communist expansion...........on the merits of the issue itself , the problem of poor is not only an issue about some elites on the top wanting these poor to exist...............most of the middle class and even the poor themselves want some section to remain at the bottom so that they can get cheap labour (which is why immigration is tolerated and they comprise a part of this pool of cheap labour)..............while the issue certainly needs more attention but that should not detract US from its commitment to the war on terror.............which is what many of the Islamists want....................

#4 hamidm, time 4 a career change?

masadi, when can we expect an article on the increase in poverty levels in the middle-east that can directly be attibuted to Islamic fundamentalism?

Re: # 9

``This gradation of society is not designed by the rapidly disappearing middle class or the poor, it is designed by the elite at the very top, which Mr. ballukhan effortlessly absolves of all crime and why? So that their official mythology of `protecting the American people` by fighting a `war on terror` can be pursued. ``

I have hit the right nerve of Asadi saheb.............He sometimes acts like an apologist for the Islamists despite his Hadith bashing stance against the mullahs............because he started making too many assumptions in reading on what I hold and what I do not............I obviously pointed about the need to turn monolithic categories of `poor` or `Elites` into infinitely stratified layers of relations of power.............I pointed towards the fact that there are layers of power `Elites` within the the category of `poor`..........that is why Asadi`s theories are turning into an attempt at propaganda based upon stereotyping and name calling of the US society.................it is time to deconstruct these polarities of `Elites` versus `Poor` in order to see the disbalances within the relation of power tend to be contextual in a social relations.........I doubt Asadi would understand any of this I am trying to tell him..........

....and Let me repeat again for his benefit- America needs to look carefully and devote more energies on its poor, the discrimination aginst black and other minorities, racism etc. , but it also needs to kick the butt of these theocratic thugs like OBL and his clones who have illusions of theocratic grandeaur ..........to think that middle class does not use cheap labour is a patently false statement because every small enterprise run by the `non elite` middle class entrepreneur is based upon exploitation of the cheap labour of those below them in the ladder................and these enterprises make up almost half of the service sector...

I hope Asadi is also joining issues with the anti arms lobby for all the defence spendings of countries like including those of the likes of Pakistan, Iran and others which spend money for their poor in pursuing the theocratic aims of their government like the ``coming of the mahdi`` or ``making a strong Islamic nation....................

hamidm2 writes

<<< the guy who mows my lawn ...(one person)....the guy who does my sprinklers (two people)...my bulgarian roofer (three people, picked out of 300 million non randomly)....so I drove around downtown detrot (fantastic methodology of research)....but I didn`t see any poor people (read the title of the article again, hint ``hidden`` >>>

Poverty is very real in this country, and people who study it find out about it without using the ``witch doctor`` methodology that hamidm2 is using. The poor die at three times the rate of the average American, and they are a significant percentage of the population, showing that it is not personal character that has caused this poverty but it is system wide, the system and its structure is causing it. As for illiterates who have no clue, keep on living your meaningless latte infested lives but spare us your BS.

Ballukhan does one better than hamidm, and states explicitly that the poor want to remain poor, they want to suffer from hunger, lack of shelter, early death, much higher infant mortality, greater victims of crime etc. And what reason does this genius give us, here, from his own blessed mouth

<<< ...........most of the middle class and even the poor themselves want some section to remain at the bottom so that they can get cheap labour (which is why immigration is tolerated and they comprise a part of this pool of cheap labour)..............while the issue certainly needs more attention but that should not detract US from its commitment to the war on terror............. >>>

Nevermind the fact that most of the middle class and the poor don`t USE cheap labor, that ``cheap labor`` is mostly used by those at the top. This gradation of society is not designed by the rapidly disappearing middle class or the poor, it is designed by the elite at the very top, which Mr. ballukhan effortlessly absolves of all crime and why? So that their official mythology of `protecting the American people` by fighting a `war on terror` can be pursued. More people die every year and are at risk of death every year in the US due to want than several 9/11`s put together. A fraction of what is stolen from these people to fund the military, if that was diverted for basic need provision, poverty in America would be non existant but profits would be much lower for the leeches that suck the blood of these very people. It is for this very reason that it does not happen.

Why should the rich care about how much poverty is hidden or masquarding as the homeless? Shouldn`t they go on living and investing offshore or whatever their lil`l hearts desire?

Why should the poor care about how much poverty is around the corner and in other states? Shouldn`t they be working to get out of it or something?

Is the point of this article that this kaafir system is not working and the answer lies in the quran? Even if this is true, why should anyone who is benifitting from this system, seek to change it?

#9 by masadi on April 1, 2006 7:17pm PT


The poor die at three times the rate of the average American,


comrade masadi...if you make 150K$ and the CEO makes 15 million $, you`re still making a 100th of the CEO...but that doesn`t mean you`re doing badly at all..


Nevermind the fact that most of the middle class and the poor don`t USE cheap labor,


Umm..the middle class uses cheal labor to get their houses built...and who do you think serves up the bigmac meals that poor people buy? everyone uses cheap labor..people at the top use more of it..


ore people die every year and are at risk of death every year in the US due to want than several 9/11`s put together.


The number of people dying in muggings in NYC is probably a 100th of the number of people dying by natural causes...so you should have no trouble taking a walk in the good at night, right?