Over emphasize social justice? With all do respect, if anything this society UNDER emphasizes social justice. .
I think you misunderstand me. I am one of the American poor. You can read my profile I think that could be necessarily inferred from my source of income (which I think is listed in my profile).
Bear in mind I had zero income before then and lived with my parents (although, I still spend most my time over my parents house, and in my “hood” or childhood neighborhood). This being due to substance addiction. Which makes one’s life largely unmanageable. But that is a kind of poverty quite different than what the “American poor” know. I like to say I moved up into American poverty
. Before then I did not exist - accept for a potential number and statistic for U.S. incarceration and possibly free labor.
The irony is that I stopped voting when I realized voting essentially is meaningless in determining my own future. Only two things affect my future: serendipitous blessings and myself.
If I wish - if I do - rise out of poverty to make more of myself it will be by my choices and actions and have absolutely zero to do with any political party.
Mostly abject poverty does not exist in the United States. Otherwise I would agree with you. Abject poverty does exist in the U.S. among a few segments though. The homeless sleep on streets or under viaducts. Some of the elderly rural poor in Southern states like Virginia that live shotgun shacks on stilts, with no running water, no electricity, and outhouses. Some of the Amerindians on reservations like Pine Ridge, South Dakota where life rivals anything in the “Third World.” And these are a disgrace to the richest nation (in terms of GDP) in the world - and give it its Satanic face.
But the vast majority of poverty in 21st Century United States is what economists would term relative poverty. Personally, I think as Americans in general we suffer from a different kind of interior poverty too. We think happiness and goodness is only had in material things. Hence, we tend to focus on acquiring material things rather than developing good character traits. I think many are envious of the American poor on cash transfer programs. Which to me tells me they really want to live in a similar fashion to the American poor on these programs but fear the loss of social standing among their peers and crave much more material comforts and toys. Those two things is what stops them from giving up the rat race. But their hearts burn with envy and anger and not charity or virtue. In general I think all the economic classes poor, middle-class, and rich are greedy.
And understand… the Western European poor in particular don’t understand me. To them I’m evil. They come from world’s - like in Britain - where crack addicted males in their 20’s or 30’s getting free government housing because their addictions make them unemployable. Not in the United States. The only ones given birth right into welfare in the United States are females - if they’re poor and get pregnant they automatically qualify. So, poor American women and poor Brits of both sexes believe and support burning down buikldings in London because the poor Brits demand the British Government improve their lives,
give them jobs, or hold their hands and walk them through medical school. But they never not had
nothing. That’s a combination of being male, crackhead, and American. That’s whole nother kind of poor.
If you’ve been that kind of poor then you fall on your knees and thank God for the kind of “poor” I’ve got. You’ll want to cry tears of joy and sorrow. And you’ll not want to repay the tax payers by burning down buildings and looting the stores of hardworking businessmen and businesswomen.
So, no, I feel no need in helping get some 25 year old woman a bigger flat screen TV just because she keeps making poor choices in men, stuck on welfare, and has very limited disposable income. I’m not her Jesus or God. Both her and I are to rely on the same Jesus and God and to try and better ourselves. Try to better ourselves through what the Muslim calls an interior jihad of fighting one’s demons.
One of the biggest problems with the U.S. system is that it’s not really democratically run. I’ve seen with my own eyes small communities of elderly, rural blacks in Virginia living like they’re in the 19th Century. The poor in New York City, Chicago, and Milwaukee don’t know anything about that kind of poor. But the U.S. system is predicated on extensive indoctrination (brain washing), lies, and interest groups. My own vote is meaningless. But the political interest groups of military veteran organizations counts for a lot. That’s what I benefit from. Feminist make sure American women never get too poor - as long as they can birth children. But the United Kingdom does a more egalitarian job of taking care of all its most vulnerable citizens. Not the United States. And you better not be born “black” and male because it’s an early grave or periods of incarceration for you. The Brits don’t know anything about that. They like to rap the music or be “politically conscious” but they never lived it what they think they’re complaining about. So, they don’t understand me when I say I’m grateful for my small pension and I’m not burning down no buildings in a riot, getting a felony, and going to prison shank fighting Mexicans, white racists, or getting gang raped by blacks.
Basically what I’m saying is that before I moved up into becoming one of the American poor I didn’t even exist. I wasn’t even on the radar (excepted for heavy police patrols that could stop, search, and arrest you at any moment).
