Another RW-talkshow gem: "Poverty doesn't exist in this country"

[BushOut06]

Whoever is filling in for Rush Slimeball spouted off this great insight earlier today.

Either these people are just completely and utterly clueless, or they're buying riverfront property in Egypt.

[Marrah_G]

1. Poverty exists

The very extreme types of poverty that you see in third world countries does not exist here in any noticable numbers.

With the resources we have there should not be any poverty at all. We can do better as a people.

[Iris]

2. "in any noticable numbers"

I'd like to see some statistics on that. But I'll still go out on a limb and say that kind of poverty shouldn't exist here AT ALL. We throw away so much crap every day there is no reason why anyone should go without the essentials.

[Marrah_G]

14. I agree

I am talking about the horrific kind of poverty that kills millions of children every year. The kind of poverty where children never go to school, never see a doctor and literally die in their parents arms due solely to lack of food. No electricity,no plumbing or running water, no cars, cities of shacks, orphans roaming the streets picking through garbage to find food. No welfare,no food stamps, no soup kitchens or food pantries. No place to turn for help.

We don't see the sort of extreme poverty that encompasses all of that here in the US.

Yes we have poverty, but not in the huge percentages and extreme conditions as found in other countries.

We have to acknowledge that to help change it.

[melody]

11. Third world poverty is present and pervasive in some areas of Appalachia

And other regions of rural America.

Central Appalachia especially.

[Marrah_G]

21. Yes but even there they have places to turn for at least minimal help

The extreme poverty I was talking about is the kind where there is no food (let alone anything else), from famine or war, and hundreds starve to death daily.

Still there is far too much poverty in our country also. I know what it is like. I have been there.

[RaleighNCDUer]

22. Just wait.

Give the repukes a couple more decades, we'll get there.

[Marrah_G]

24. No arguements from me on that

It's disgusting how badly they want to get rid of every safety net we have, when they should be trying to improve them.

[Warpy]

17. Really? I can show you some of it within 3 miles of my home

If you're willing to travel ten miles, I'll show you some colonias that rival the worst slums in Juarez. I can show you where some marginal workers who earn enough for a weekly skid row motel room live within a 15 minute walk from my front door. I can also show you where people who don't earn enough for weekly rents live, it's four miles away.

The reason suburbanites don't think poverty exists is because it's invisible to them. I live in the inner city. I travel out to the outskirts frequently, and I know people who live in the rural areas.

Poverty does exist in suburbs, but it's carefully hidden behind neatly painted front doors and curtained windows.

Poverty exists where people have any combination of not being able to obtain adequate nutrition, safe housing, adequate clothing, safe transportation, medical care when they get sick, and an ability to save for emergencies. Seeming affluence supported by debt is poverty because that bill is about to come due.

There is a tremendous amount of poverty in this country. All you have to do is leave your comfortable and protected surroundings and walk around with your eyes open.

[Marrah_G]

23. I know what it is like to have almost nothing

I've been poor, I've lived on welfare. I am not even close to comfortable yet. But even at the worst there were places to turn for help.

You are mistaking my meaning when I talk about extreme poverty. Think Ethiopia in the 70's, Sudan in the 90's, Somalia, the Horn of Africa,parts of Asia, where children are literally starving to death with no food.

[Warpy]

26. You're equating famine with poverty. That is one mistake

Another mistake people make is equating poverty with destitution, thinking only street people who have only the clothes they're wearing plus whatever they can beg for the day are poor. They're not, they are destitute.

Poverty has an unsafe place to sleep, often bad food to eat and often not enough of it, no way to save for the future, and constant fear of getting sick or having something important break down because there is no way to afford getting well or replacing something like a fifteen year old jalopy on its last legs.

That's the difference here. Please learn it. We've allowed the stingy right to co opt the terminology long enough. We have to take it back.

[JANdad]

28. Oustanding Point!

I work as a Regional Manager for a Day Labor company and I see poverty on a daily basis. I try very hard to find work for the men and women who show up at my doorstep eery day at 5:30 in the AM. Thier stories are heartbreaking!

[Marrah_G]

29. That's why I qualified it as extreme poverty and explained what I meant by that

I've also agreed that there is far to much poverty in this country and that the GOP has been eating away at the safeguards we have in place for the poor rather then strengthening them. I am not quite sure where the argument is here.

[sakabatou]

3. Were his eyes gouged out at birth?

[Rue]

4. Wow, they're deluded.

I'm firmly in the ivory tower right now, but even I know about the poor Appalachian communities and the withering factory towns in the Midwest and the Plains. It's this kind of attitude that has convinced people to vote Republican, and it's this kind of attitude that has contributed to the loss of compassion in our society.

[WinkyDink]

5. That boy needs to be re-located. Maybe John Edwards can help him out.

[China_cat]

6. Just a rehash of the Reagan statement

that nobody in this country goes hungry.

[NewJeffCT]

20. or they're homeless by choice

I stopped somebody spouting that line back in the 1980s with a simple, "Do you really think somebody would choose to be homeless?"

They had no response to that.

[Zavulon]

7. I just tuned in: it's Walter Williams.

He was just saying "find some way to please your fellow man, and poverty is impossible." Wow.

[long_green]

18. you sure it isn't David Vitter?

nm

[Zavulon]

19. Not 100%, no, LOL, but this guy was calling himself Walter Williams.

I've heard some strange theories from righties, but this guy is beyond belief.

[mitchum]

30. That's "Uncle" Walter Williams (n/t)

[Canuckistanian]

25. Ah, yes, Walter Williams

The "professor of economics" who doesn't have a clue how the economic world works.

Today, he was spouting off about "the elites" who want to force everyone to buy domestically produced goods.

And the same "elites" are who are advocating for the minimum wage are bankrupting the country.

He then proceeded to dismiss several studies that show minimum wages are good for the country.
He said they contained "major statistical errors", but failed to mention what they were.

[NMMNG]

27. I can only imagine what he had in mind with that quote

"find some way to please your fellow man, and poverty is impossible."

It gives me the willies.

[Initech]

8. Sounds like corporate tool Neil Cavuto is at it again.

[coco77]

9. They can't see it because...

they are hidden in their gated communities and they ride by so out os sight is out of mind,besides if the stock market is good then it is good for everyone. By the way, have you noticed all of the bank robberies and the snatch and grab crimes that have been occuring more frequently.

[EVDebs]

10. Wall Street versus Main Street and Wall Street owns the media...nt

[churchofreality]

12. Kinda contradicts their "welfare" rants

[CottonBear]

13. Good point. I wish someone would mention that to them.

However, it wouldn't make them change their minds.

[jobycom]

15. Not to mention their excuses for Katrina. nt

[Karenina]

16. The WAVE is comin' your way!

:hi::hi::hi:

[NuttyFluffers]

31. RWers are either megalomaniacal sociopaths or straight up psychopaths. what's new?

it's been like this since time immemorial, through all cultures, through all ages... and they easily sway the weak minded because of their charisma of violence and power. this is all old news. fascist/conservativism is a mental disorder. i thought it would have been obvious by now to all thinking peoples.

but the real question is why are you wasting your time listening to "psycho-killers.. qu'est-ce que c'est"? nothing good on the 'SPAN?