Typical conservative talking points: "If you aren't currently and immediately dying like the poor wretches in sub-Saharan Africa, then you aren't poor." "If you have a refrigerator -- a common piece of technology that has existed since 1918 and is available for free on Craigslist -- then you aren't poor." "If you have a cell phone -- a common piece of technology that costs a few dollars at Walmart and is necessary to be able to get work -- then you aren't poor." "If you subsist on dollar store snack foods devoid of nutrition because you are addicted to fats, sugar, and salt that make you obese even though you are malnourished, then you aren't poor." "If you have a television set -- a common piece of technology that has existed since 1923 and can easily be obtained for free on Craigslist -- then you aren't poor." "Poor people have it easy with food stamps and housing assistance that are really difficult to obtain (especially in Red States) and lead to constant public humiliation." Etc., etc., etc.
Sorry, but it has all gotten really old. We get that you think you are pretty fucking awesome, but there are a lot of people who don't live an easy life like you.
Really? And the poor in America have it so hard because they can't have a new Rolls Royce or what?
Oh, I see, you are buying into that "relative poverty" argument. Someone with a nice house, car, appliances, cell phone, and 40 pounds of excess body fat is "poor and disadvantaged" because they FEEL BAD because their neighbor has a nicer house, car, appliances, etc.
And by the way, what relevance is it what year the refrigerator or telephone was invented? These are appliances that the REAL POOR in the world don't own. Your thinking is clouded if you think that sort of data is relevant in determining what poverty is or isn't.
Please, be real. No one is starving in America. Our poor are some of the richest poor in the world. If you are living on welfare in America or earning the minimum wage, you are in the top 90% of income for the planet.
If your NUMBER ONE HEALTH PROBLEM is being GROSSLY OVERWEIGHT you cannot be "poor" by any sane definition.
If your standard of living is in the top 90% for the Planet, you cannot be poor by definition.
Sorry, but no sale. I was "poor" once. I don't "have it easy" because someone gave me a bunch of money. I worked those shitty minimum-wage jobs. You really have no idea about what I went through and are in no position to make such idiotic blanket statements about my life. I presume you worked your way through 14 years of college too? Or did Mommy and Daddy pay for it all? Who had the "easy life" here?
It took a lot of hard work, years of savings, and yes, realizing that a lot of my financial habits were "poor" - in every sense of the world, to get ahead. What makes the "poor" really "poor" is POOR CHOICES - in nearly everything.
And that is why these payday loan places, title pawn loan places and other rip-off deals are always in poor neighborhoods.
Stop feeling sorry for others, particularly when they don't need feeling sorry for.
Think about your own poor choices. The middle class plays this "victim" game too - saying they are living "paycheck to paycheck" when they are racking up credit card debt to get "miles" and making other dumb financial moves like serial refinancing.
The "Poverty Line" is a number created by the GOVERNMENT that represent an artificial cutoff arbitrarily set, that does not reflect real poverty (indeed, it is not even indexed for local cost of living!).
Just as the government now counts children living in trailer parks as "homeless"....