Originally Posted by hairymarx

The simple truth is that relative poverty is the internationally accepted measurement of poverty and inequality - its just a fact pal

Originally Posted by sunnyside

Poverty: the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions

A fair bit of the rest of the world is destitute, which is something else.

Again most of the people on poverty are $*&@ing employed. They work. It's just with minimum wage jobs and kids you can't clear the poverty threshold.

Now Libertarianism basically advocates economic feudalism, so it probably doesn't bother you having some serfs.

Originally Posted by BuckNaked

Yep and now they use that money to start companies in 3rd world nations. They are using tax dollars to set themselves up in business, take advantage of slave labor, and they are doing it with money that is available to them under the pretence of creating work here! That should be fraud!

Stop rewarding companies for sending jobs overseas (no tax breaks period), and levy import taxes on them as the foreign businesses they are, and that crap will stop!

Originally Posted by hairymarx

What you fail to grasp is the fact that RELATIVE poverty is increasing. It is widely accepted that RELATIVE POVERTY is the true measurement of poverty in society. In other words, it is the widening gap between rich and poor that is the key indicator of of how socially cohesive and therefore happy we are, NOT whether we have the latest I Pod or flat screen TV.

Originally Posted by Raharu Haruha

This is a very valid point. Obviously given them tax breaks to be incorporated here and building infrastructure here will not ship jobs over seas, but they are definitely shipping jobs over seas. What obviously needs to happen is for the wages here to fall so that it is efficient to produce here again. As wages fall, more people should be hired.

That doesn't solve the problem of poverty though. How ever, as wages fall, more should be produced, thus more should be demanded, thus wages should raise again (eventually). I think this kills three birds with one stone. More people are employed, we are brought out of recession, and since people are earning less there will be less fat poor people (joking).

I think most people knew that a wage decrease was coming.

Originally Posted by beachbum

the economy is fueled by spending. our unemployment rate is at 5%... its not like unemployment is a problem. besides, if we take away money from people, there will be less fuel for the economy thus slowing it down even more. thats the last thing we need right now.

Originally Posted by Raharu Haruha

Then why is poverty a problem?

Originally Posted by BillyBob

The only able bodied adult US citizens living in 'poverty' do so by choice.

Originally Posted by BillyBob

Forty-six percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.

Seventy-six percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.

Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.

The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)

Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.

Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.

Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.

Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a third have an automatic dishwasher.