find the data and show how utterly nonsensicall the following conservative fantasy is
Quote:
...as if the poor are stuck in that lifestyle. This is a country where all things economic are possible. Your percentages of those that you consider poor don't take into account the salaries of seasonal work from, retirees, teens, and those that chose to only work seasonally.
This is the only country on the planet where consideration of being poor is only having 2 color TV's and 1 car, but everyone seems to have a cell phone don't they, an absolute necessity by any standard.
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But having done so in the past I know its a waste of time. I will simply point out that both of these are in fact entirely incorrect. Poor poeple on average do not have 2 color tv's and a car. If you think they do you should look at the data set I posted on poverty or find a data set that shows this is correct.
Its equally silly to say that people in the modern economy, which requires high skill and education generally to do well, who are born into poverty can easily leave it. The jobs that they can realistically find, in the real world not the conservative fantasy one, dont pay enough and dont generate the skill set for them to work their way up regardless of how hard they work. Some people with great ability can do anything, and invariably its that small handful that conservatives stress in asserting this point but it proves nothing about the actual system than that a small handful can do anythig in any system. The vast majority can not.
One thing that is truly hilarious about conservatisim is they make quotes like poor people have two tv sets and a car, and then when asked to provide proof of that, they can't. Heritage made this claim, they failed to provide a single document to support it. Having been poor, I can say (even beyond the data) its one of the sillier conservative fantasies.
If you start a flat tax at a certain rate, say exempt the first twentythousand dollars, its not a flat tax anymore. Its a different form of graduated tax.
Since 1980 disparity in the US increased at the highest rate in US history. During that period, and particularly in recent years, real income growth for lower and middle income growth individuals was very slow and poverty signficantly far higher than previous decades on average. Homeless and hunger rates were higher as well. Meanwhile upper income groups litterally never had it so good. Since Bush's latest round of tax cuts, there have been essentially no real income gains (last year most Americans lost real income) and povety has grown every year.
Which reflects that the problem in America is not one of elites paying taxes and solving those problems wont be done with the type of elite based tax cuts conservatives favor.