Does True Poverty Really A Large Problem in America?

Question

Of course there are poor people. But true poverty, as the world would define it, is it really a problem here?

Answer 1

People living in cardboard boxes in the U.S. are better off than people who live in houses in Cuba, or The Republic of Georgia, or Iraq.  They just don't know it because they have nothing to compare their plight to.

Answer 2

What is the measure. I would not want to eat out of a dumpster & there are not nearly enough shelters to fill the need. In the winter there are those that die from the cold, it is just not made public. Poverty is poverty, degree matters little when you just don't have money for food or even die in your home in the winter because you are elderly, sick, & there is no money to pay the heat bill, & it does happen. Yes, there are agencies to help, but the standards are such than many do not qualify & are turned away. I just don't think that when you just don't have food, heat, or shelter it can be quantified.

Answer 3

No it's not. What our government considers poverty, the rest of the world would consider upper class...

Our poor have per household on average: 2 televisions, internet access, DVD players, a video game console, a computer, running water, sanitation, easily accessible food, and shelter, amongst many other amenities real impoverished people do not enjoy.

And as others have already said, the homeless have plenty of shelters to go to for food and a place to sleep, yet many choose not to.

Answer 4

Have a look at this

http://www.american-pictures.com/gallery...

Answer 5

Get your flash light out and look under a bridge.

Answer 6

We have the fattest poor people in the world.

True poverty does not exist as compared to Africa and Asia.

Most of our homeless are there because of drugs, insane or professional like my brother. the true down on your luck families are rare and only temporarily homeless.

My brother was homeless by choice and he and his friends would travel the west coast from San Diego to Frisco to Seattle with the seasons. These were cities that provided the best and made it possible to live that life style. He died in a parking lot in Seattle at the age of 46, killed by a crazy.

No one in this country has starved to death due to lack of food  in over 100 years.

Answer 7

Absolutely not. You can tell by the way our so-called poor people behave. For example, real poor people in foreign countries do everything they can not to have a baby until they are married. They know that they cannot afford to behave this way. (This is the real reason the world is so obsessed with female virginity.)

In this country it is so profitable to have a baby out of wedlock that our poor communities have 90% illegitimacy rates. Baby making in America is a lucrative career by world standards.

When was the last time you saw a poor American breaking into Mexico in order to find a job?

Answer 8

Not as large scale poverty as countries in Africa or some parts of Asia. But alot more than countries in scandinavia and Australia/New Zealand. Mal nutrition, un-education and homelessness are prominent in major cities of the USA.  

Answer 9

Have you ever been homeless in America? I have . I lived with my 3 children, now all grown, under a via duct in Seattle. Do you know what a via duct is? It's the worse of the worse. Wet, nasty, rat infested, p**s filled swamp of h**l. Homeless shelters? HA. Because I had a job, no such luck Missy. Today, I now own my own business, have 2 kids in the military, and 1 off to College. So, poverty does exist. It's a ***** to overcome.

Answer 10

Our poor have housing. plenty of food, clean water, television, radios and many even have cars.  What we call homeless, have access to shelter (many choose to refuse).  I'd say most of our poor would be middle class in Africa.

Answer 11

Yes it is. There are still homeless people, people on starvation, people that have homes with no electric or running water. People with diseases or illnesses that can't afford to be treated because they have no medical insurance and no money, some of those people even hold down full time low paying jobs. For those people it's even harder at times, they make to much according to the government to get assistance but they don't make enough to pay all of their living expenses so there is no way they can afford to receive medical care. We see all sorts of tv commercials and infomercials to help people in other countries which is fine but I think people in America need to help people in America too. I know several families that live in rural areas that have had to quit their jobs due to the rising gas prices. They couldn't afford to go to work anymore, they didn't make enough money to cover gas and their household bills and food. So now they get foodstamps, they might not have electric or water in their house but atleast they have something to eat. I see children everyday that has gone days at a time with no food. Some kids only eat at school because their parents can't afford to buy anything. Some of those kids take food home from school with them so their parents will get something to eat. Yes true poverty is here and will remain here until everybody starts doing something about it. I mean do we really need to pay movie stars, rock stars and sports stars, etc. millions of dollars for what they do? Yes we also have lazy people that won't get off their butt to try to work those people only want handouts. But there are so many people that I know of aren't lazy they just didn't have the chances in life that the rich people had. College wasn't an option for some.  These days even with a college education some people are still finding it hard to make ends meet. So the next time you see a homeless person think about how they feel. Go outside at night when it's cold and imagine how they must feel. When you eat your next meal think how they must feel. When you see the homeless children think of how they must feel then do something about it whether it's here in America or anywhere else.  Yes this country has homeless shelters and other countries might not but not every homeless person gets in because there isn't enough room. Doesn't that tell you something?

Answer 12

Interesting you would ask this question (adjusts soap box). OKay, so here's the thing. I grew up in mexico. 3rd world country, right? I used to really scream about how America was the only country with poor people who were fat. I ranted and raved that because of government funding, there was no way that any person in the U.S. could know the kind of poverty I had seen people experience in other countries.

That was until I met my husband. He is an american who grew up in texas, and experienced what I can only call the American version of real poverty. I'm talking being hungry, but there's nothing you can do about it because there is no food and no money with which to buy it. Never having any new clothes, and the clothing you do have is stained and torn and ragged. Pushing all your belongings around in a shopping cart because you have no other way to move them. Living for 8 years in a a condemend house. The man had nothing.

I don't have time to go into all the details, because believe me, it's a long story, but yes, I can say that at least in one instance, there was poverty like I have seen in other countries. It's a h**l of a lot more rare, but it does exist. The biggest difference is, there are so many more ways to escape it here than there are any where else in the world.