After ranting about my daily triteness, Supa feels obligated to post some real shit.Stats to ponder: An America divided
Click here for entire article.
· There are 37 million Americans living below the poverty line. That figure has increased by five million since President George W. Bush came to power.
· The United States has 269 billionaires, the highest number in the world.
· Almost a quarter of all black Americans live below the poverty line; 22 per cent of Hispanics fall below it. But for whites the figure is just 8.6 per cent.
· There are 46 million Americans without health insurance.
· There are 82,000 homeless people in Los Angeles alone.
· In 2004 the poorest community in America was Pine Ridge Indian reservation.
Unemployment is over 80 per cent, 69 per cent of people live in poverty and male life expectancy is 57 years. In the Western hemisphere only Haiti has a lower number.
· The richest town in America is Rancho Santa Fe in California. Average incomes are more than $100,000 a year; the average house price is $1.7m.
7 comments:
269 Billionares and only one of them is a black woman!
We gotta work on that!
As long as political people keep their jobs based on other statistics it will never change!
ain't it a damn shame that we gotta go look uop this stuff? it should be given to us on the regular!
I am afraid to say that there will always be a permanent underclass built into the success of this country
Education is the great equalizer. I cringe when I hear people belittle higher education. One of my economic professors favorite quotes was "The best thing you can do for the poor is not be one of them.", well my philosphy is the best thing you can do for them is educate them.
I agree w/you Shawn, AND on the same note - when you comin' up struggling, going to school hungry n shit, there's poverty ALL around - a college education may seem like just a pipe dream. Kids grow up and realize rents gotta be paid, and the family gots to eat TODAY. Hence the prevalence to turning to dat fast money, which leads to gettin' caught up in the system, the cycle continues, etc.
Shoot I know that story well Supa! I spent half my childhood in severe poverty, Reaganomics you know. My grandmother got my azz up and out to school EVERY morning! She went to food pantries, churches, etc. to keep food on the table. Her pride was in seeing my go to school and do well.
One observation that I had growing up was that poor people have too much damn pride! "I'm not flipping burgers, I'm not cleaning toilets, I'm not catching the bus, I'm not getting up that time of night". When it comes to taking care of my family, I'm like my grandmother, I'll do what I have to do!
I love this post by the way. This is one of my favorite subjects. I debate this issue with my George Bush Republican co-worker on a daily basis!
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