Food for Thought-Poverty and the Spoiled Kids

I recently watched a lot of videos about poverty and here is whats really shocking.

First off all look at this link:

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/27/Mozambique.trash.city/index.html?&hpt=hp_c2

Okay now a couple days back i found out about this documentary called 30 Days from Morgan Spurlock (Supersize me guy) In the first episode he and his girlfriend start out with 200 dollars and both work at minimum wage.

They have horrible lives, they barely make it because of taxes, they have no furniture and one gets a urinary tract infection. But with such a low pay YOU CANT AFFORD TO GO TO THE DOCTORS. I mean Hospital bills are fucking ridiculous. A man gets charged 1500Dollars for walking to the emergency room and coming out with an arm brace. Our system is seriously messed up.

Secondly a lot of people in the world worry about things like Oh no i cant get that new limited xbox 360 for my birthday or i cant get anew iphone!.

I mean do you hear yourself speaking? Your worried about luxury products when other people are so poor that there resulted in eating a dogs head that is raw and decomposing.

You guys have to realize what poverty is doing and the fact that your not living in a cardboard box is PURE LUCK our parents just happen to not live in poverty and happen to be able to afford the good things in life. Most of you are kids/teens you dont work most kids these days are fucking LAZY PRICKS. They live life where there parents make there food, bed and do there laundry while the kid is to fucking busy playing runescape or some other fucking game like wow.

And when your in college you will have realized you got fucked. Your living alone and you cant even do your own laundry or even cook for yourself. Dont be a lazy asshole.


You people have to realize the world. And that it is FUCKED UP. So the next time you worry about an iphone think about the kids who are dying, starving slowly to death and your worried about a fucking luxury item?

Be happy for what you have, dont be one those assholes who are sad because of some item they dont have.

When you see a homeless man dont be an asshole and say get a job. WAT THE FUCK you really think a company would HIRE A HOBO? Hes dirty and is in ragged clothes and if your one those people I hope you fucking feel good about yourselves yelling at a person who is struggling to eat. Help him out. Even a single dollar can make a man smile. If you can donate 100 dollars to sythe.org, Buy a 400 dollar iphone, cant you just give that extra 1 or 5 dollars so a man can have a dinner?

As Ferreira Said "The life we waste everyday because we want a better one or because we are never satisfied with it, is the life that many wish and yearn to have and would give everything to have it."

Count your Blessings. Because most people who are struggling to eat still try to find hope.

 

For starters, I can understand where you're coming from. The fact that some people can't afford healthcare, and that there are instances where people will throw themselves into jail to escape the poverty that they have. [1] and [2]

I don't want to get into the concept of privilege, because I already write a blog and have to deal with this sort of thing all the time. But you have to understand that the origins are because of the Baby Boomer generation. The "me, me, me" generation. The "take what you want and have all the fun in the world" generation.

That generation is the generation that now promotes abstinence and saying no to drugs. It went from "Sex, Drugs, and Rock'n'Roll" to the people trying to put the most limits on their children. We're set up so that a lot of us are born into "middle class" households where there's just enough to live in luxury. It's almost systematic, where the poor stay poor and the rich stay rich.

I know this isn't debates, but you fail to support this other than personal judgement. You say we're lazy, but if you look at the UK and the US, both of which are full of unemployment, you have to think of it this way. Here's a chart. The horizontal line is the year. The vertical is the amount of people searching for every job in the job market.



So I think it's a combination. Those that try hard to present themselves, score a job because they stand out. Those that fall into a bit of laziness either get sacked quickly, or give up and become a statistic that shows (in the UK) that 15.6% [almost 1 million] of 16-24 year-olds aren't in education, employment, or training.

You use a similar paradox to the Paradox of Africa, in which undermining people's problems becomes common place to try to make them understand and enjoy life more. But the thing is, you cannot come to appreciate life, if you don't have the things stripped away from you. Even if you show it to them, they can understand only temporarily.

What you're trying to say is the same thing Republicans in the US are trying to push. "We need the poor people to support the poor by taking some of their money to spend on helping the poor get jobs."

Why don't you blame the trillion dollar defense budget, the unnecessary war on drugs, or the war on terror for the fact that people are so poor? You try to appeal to emotion and it's really just a failure. You don't seem to understand the gravity of the situation in most first world countries. In a given year, there are 3.5 million homeless (they aren't homeless all the time, just occasionally kicked out or on the street before finding something to bring them up). Go to any major city, and walk down the street. Find every homeless person on a single street and give them 5$, I can guarantee you by the time you're done you'll either be broke or in debt writing IOU's.

When I was in California, there were about 30 people begging for money in one section that I was staying. That's scary. I actually gave 40$ to a group that I (after double checking) helps with homeless children. It wasn't much, but it was the most that I could give.

 

I get what you are trying to say about the budget on the "war on terror" but as a canadian i dont really get into all those budgets but I do believe that the US (no offense to any us citizens) Has an extremely corrupt government. I mean if a country is able to spend a trillion dollars on killing people but cant spare 5 percent of that budget on homelessness, the people who have nothing to eat.

A lot of governments simply dont care about there citizens. Its all about image. All the rich people are becoming more and more evil. My parents are a prime example. When i was around 15 i started realizing all the worlds injustices.

When I lived in China a place where poverty is extreme

My parents owned a lamborghini, many houses summing up over 10 million Us dollars. But whenever a homeless man comes to the car and asking for money my parents simply wave there hands which is another way of saying Fuck Off. When i saw this i yelled at them for being horribly intolerent.

Our School which was basically as big as a college had a small rural village close to it and the school usually sends kids out there for trips to learn about china.

And when i saw how they lived it was not good at all. A whole bun filled with meat cost .5 Jiao which is about 6 cents. But ignorant people like my parents who are wealthy just laugh they dont care.

Just like the government they just dont care about the small guys because they dont have a say they cant tell the government to give them more money because most of these guys dont even know how a government works. The only way to help them is if your living a a good life and speak up for them.

Our governments are once again very corrupt. where i live taxes are about 13 percent. And in China the government uses a lot of money for internet censorship. And we ALL KNOW that they dont give a dam about porn. They just censor out the bad sites like youtube because it contains "harmful" material.

And where i grew up you dont see homelessness so i never thought about it until i went to college decided instead of living in a 200,000 condo it would be better if i lived in a normal apartment with a monthly rent like 500$. Thats when i saw the real problem of homelesness and poverty. I even went to a free store where people who already struggle to make ends meat still find it in there hearts to give other free stuff.

Anyways thanks for all who have read this.

 

Well I read it, I agree most of us are pretty well off compared to others.

What I don't agree with is the fact you say a homeless person can't get a job. A lot of them ended up homeless for their own reasons. We can't change their life just by giving them money for dinner; let alone know if their actually gonna buy dinner with it. Yes it is a nice gesture but in the long run the only person that can change someones life is themselves.

Our economy's are bad because we allowed it to get that way by putting other people in power that abused it otherwise people wouldn't be starving. No one should be starving if shit was done right; but like you said the world is a pretty fucked up place.

Anyway I like some of your points of views and just by reading it I realized I need to focus a little more. By the way I am not one someone who wants everything new. I have paid for my own stuff since I was about 14 years old; well most of it anyways. So I buy used items most of the time and even that is still a little more than I "need".

Nice little eye opener though... I enjoyed the opinions.

 

Nice topic, was a nice read as well.

 

Ah Canada. I don't know much about politics over there. They're not as bad off as the UK or the US if I remember correctly. But you have to realize this. The whole reason our defense budget went so high was because of 9/11. That's the only reason. We needed a reason to invade the middle east to further our imperialism (which is something that we've been doing for decades, and is NOT something that's uncommon in the world. Imperialism has happened for millenia).

Because a lot of people don't understand poverty. As I said, you don't truly understand poverty until you've lost it all. You don't understand true happiness until you've been completely lost and hopeless. It's good to educate people, but yelling at your parents doesn't get you anywhere. Neither does approaching them randomly. You need to find a conversation where they're talking about money, and try to get them into a small debate about it. You have to show it to them that poverty is a big deal.

Well there's that, and there's the riots going on. Greece, UK (not really, but it has its roots elsewhere the true intentions are actually malicious), Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Morocco. When the poverty becomes overwhelming, and you're breaking into other people's lives and fucking them over, the people get mad. And starting a revolution is something entirely off topic. But again, my first point of how they don't understand still stands.

13% taxes doesn't mean your government corrupt. In China, their country has for millenia been conquered by a new ruler. They care about an uprising because of the fact that they whipped their people into handing over their land under the guise of Communism. They didn't even truly become Communists. Mao became the central authoritarian and forced his people to give up the land just to make one specific thing. Their government was horribly run and it killed thousands. The reason China is so absolutely strict about everything (like North Korea) is because they don't want their government to be overthrown. So they do whatever they can at all costs. The government in China has so much power that an uprising could be crushed easily.

But that's just one step. You can't just say "oh, to help combat being spoiled, I'll try to live modestly", it's obvious that if you can afford to live in a 200,000$ condo, that you get a fairly generous allowance or something. Why don't you start taking and donating that money to a charity? Start doing activist work in your community to make a difference.

That's what it takes to solve the problems of homelessness. If the government doesn't want to help you, then you help your neighbor as your brother.

 

Intrestingly enough i just watched a very touching episode of The Vicar of Dibley. I know, its a comedy show, but the main theme of the show was about how the town wanted to help Poverty within Africa.
At the end, the town members dont want to wear white arm bands to support the cause for poverty, The vicar opens up her computer and they watch a very upsetting video of 2 african children talking about their mothers death of aids, and crying their eyes out.
She closes her laptop and turns around slowly to see that everybody has there white arm bands on, it was really touching.

So about half an hour ago i put the link to Make poverty history in my signature, Across the diffrent sites, you can buy a White arm band to support the cause from $2-6 each.
I quickly purchased 2 and plan to buy a T-shirt soon.

 

I appreciate what your doing with the white band is good and that showing you care is good.

I also encourage people to put this thread in there signature because people to know about this, to many times a day where people think life sucks maybe if they see this it will change there perspective and how people would kill just to live your life.

But the thing is if you REALLY want to support poverty then as said by quagmire "I always here you talking about how homelesness is the biggest tragedy in america. Well what have you done to help brian? I work at a soup kitchen!" The quote is real an even though its from a show like family guy it does hold meaning.

If you truly care than you should just take it a step further. Since my community dosnt have any things such as soup kitchens, i volunteer in habitat for humanity, a group that travels around the world building homes. There is no reward for this except the feeling that you know that a family wont have to live in the cold because you built a home for them.

Commitment is key. Most of us are committed for a few minutes we get inspired by all these speeches but after the "adrenaline of feeling" most of us throw it aside. Thats not a good thing even posting a link about poverty can make a difference and give someone an eye opener.

Make a change. Spread the word.

 

You seem to miss an important point in your argument. You claim that it is pure luck that we are not living in a cardboard box. You forget the ingenious idea of business. A rich man is rich because they found a gap in the market, and took advantage of it.

Those people who had to pay the hospital bill are eligible for welfare and other government services designed to make it possible to live in relative comfort compared to third world countries. In fact, a smart poor man could go to China and become alot richer without doing all that much.

Oh, and raging isn't very nice.

 

Yes, but welfare isn't enough to sustain living. Welfare doesn't make ends meet. You fall in between me and Owen's point of view. Minimum wage/welfare doesn't do any good. It doesn't help that we're allowed to outsource all our jobs.

I counter your point about the "ingenious idea of business" because big business make local businesses fail. Without local businesses, you lose competition. It becomes a monopoly in your town/city. But not only that, but when these stores take goods from bigger businesses that outsource to India or China or elsewhere, it means that places like the US or the UK or Canada, we end up losing even more. What does the US export that makes us profitable?

We have guns. Lots of guns. Too many guns. And we give these guns to drug lords (Mexico), to oppressive governments (Yemen), to governments we will raid later (Iraq). We don't make cars, we barely make video games, we

I also challenge you to explain what you mean by "going to China and making more". Do you really think you're going to be able to compete with the Chinese? Or do you mean you want to go take advantage of child and/or sweatshop labor?

And finally, what do you mean "raging"?

 

I do admit that there are some swears but in order to make an important argument you have to assert yourself and make people know your serious and are taking this matter seriously.

 

I work hard for what I have. I've seen hundreds of homeless people work their way out of poverty.

I've been working 30 hours a week since I was 15, going to college full time, playing hockey and maintaining a 4.0 all throughout. The only thing my parents have helped with was my car, and that was generous. They have a lot of money but raised me well and taught me to work hard. Survival of the fittest, if laziness is in your genes to the point where it makes you homeless, those genes are better off not passed on.

 

But you gotta understand that sometimes a good education dosnt guarantee a job because you gotta take a lot of things into account. Some people need money to go to college and although something like a couple thousand bucks dosnt seem much to some people its basically like a coulple months work.

I also to strongly think about what you said about the genes in homelesness. You can just say its better on if its passed on because some of them really want to have a education and wll do anything to not have that kind of live like this: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/27/Mozambique.trash.city/index.html?&hpt=hp_c2

Read that and youl see how some people have utterly no choice I mean if a lazy person had a choice between picking garbage to eat everyday or working hard for a job which woudl they choose? Not everybody in the world has the same benefits as us. Having work alone is lucky enough.

 

I saw a homeless guy in the street yesterday, he was sitting on a bench near to a main road with an empty pot on the floor (for donations, one would assume). I was tempted to drop some change into it, but as I walked past he took out a cigarette and lit it. I thought to myself, if he can afford to smoke, he can afford to eat/get shelter. I'm not going to give money to someone who is only going to waste it on shortening their life span.

 

I get what you mean when you say that. But I can relate to smoking and before i start talking about it I know that it was stupid but it was one of those mistakes you do in high school.

Anyways I was under a lot of stress in high school from things that are to personal to talk about but I smoked and just to clear a myth is that NOT ALL PEOPLE SMOKE BECAUSE THEY THINK ITS "COOL" OR WANT TO FEEL LIKE GROWNUPS. Those people annoy me lots. I smoked because it helped relieve stress when I smoked I felt my problems going away just like when someone drinks. But I quit eventually of course.

The homeless man you saw was probably under a lot of stress and was trying to get his mind off things and cigarettes and lighters are pretty cheap and I assume they buy probably the worst quality ones. You cant really judge someone based on some of there actions, I mean I use to smoke and I knew what it can do to you but I didnt care because I was under to much stress.

Something to watch about: This is not a homeless person, Someone who's young and jumpy and washes cars in the middle of the street. Ive seen those people and wanted to knock them out because in the 20 seconds I was at the red light they made about 15 dollars. My parents who never give money still did so he would finish the job because if you dint pay him hed leave your car half washed. Anywways great post though.

 

I didn't say a good education garauntees a good job, in fact, I didn't even hint at it. An education can increase your chances, yes, but not as much as working hard and persevering. I went to see Final Destination 5 on Sunday, as I'm leaving there's not many people outside, because it was late and a Sunday night. However, a woman asks to use my phone, of course, I let her. She calls someone but they don't pick up the phone. She then explains her story to me, she doesn't have enough gas to get home, she needs some money, $10 should do, blah blah blah. So I begin to take out my wallet to give her some money because she seems like a very reasonable person and I would appreciate it if someone helped me out when I was in need. As I'm doing so, she pulls out a pack of cigarettes and lights it up and starts smoking. Immediately, I put away my wallet and told her, right to her face, that the $10 she spent on a pack of cigarettes could have gotten her home, and I walked away.

Now if you think I should have given her money, you're crazy. That's the case with plenty of homeless and poor people. I currently work at a convience store, and I couldn't count the number of people that use EBT and Food Stamps and WIC checks to buy their food and groceries, than in a separate transaction get GAME cigars (usually used to smoke marijuana) and cigarettes. I do not feel bad for those people, not even a little bit. They've made poor choices, spent their money on bad decisions and on things they didn't need, at times when they couldn't afford it.

You should read the story of Chris Gardner, the man that The Pursuit of Happyness was about, he wrote the book about his own struggles. It shows that even when you have nothing, hard work and determination (not sitting on the side of the road begging, because I'm sure you've read the articles that show how much money those people actually make [enough to afford a cheap apartment]) can get you out of that situation. I respect people that do work up from that, but you have to understand, they made decisions that led to them ending up there.

 

I get why he was smoking, but if his situation was life or death, or he needed help that desperately, I'm sure he could put the 3-4 euros (I'm in spain on holiday at the moment) he spent on that pack of cigarettes to better use, for example towards a night at a local hostel, or even food for the night.