Six Simple Methods To Help Americans Living In Poverty

Gimundo:

One in seven Americans live under the poverty line, according to the latest census data. That doesn't mean they have to live in poverty.

Never in the history of the United States have so many Americans struggled to make ends meet.

Read the whole story: Gimundo

Comments

[kocean1]

09:19 PM on 06/03/2011

Not good news.

[ZENNEPHI]

08:19 PM on 05/30/2011

A Zen Contemplative once uttered; "Learn the Art of Creative Selfishness"
That is not exceeding the cash, labor and utility of personal means and ways.
One dosn't have to be a Bachelour to know what Benedictine Hermit Monk

[Mia Nodecker]

10:04 AM on 05/30/2011

Who's cousin or brother wrote this article...?

[plebian3]

09:38 AM on 05/30/2011

Three ideas the article left out, stop wasting our treasury on unending proxy wars, stop issuing employment related visas and hire Americans, send employers who hire illegals to prison.

[AndyWright68]

09:29 AM on 05/30/2011

End welfare, minimum wage, child labor laws, licensing of businesses, regulations, professional licenses and all other government preventions on employment and poverty will most likely go down as it was right before the government took over and created a permanent dependent underclass.

Living below the poverty line is a choice for many but those in power throw them into the numbers so they can gain more power.

Charities have also been victims of government involvement. They heavily regulate them so most people who want to help cannot. The government steals our money at gunpoint. Money we could use to give to charities or give directly to those who need it.

[frank day]

10:12 AM on 05/30/2011

Is that you Ayn Rand ?

[Exfl]

10:21 AM on 05/30/2011

Fact free history. Maybe you should get in the wayback machine and try to live for a few weeks as an immigrant worker in New York in the 1880s.

[MeinNH]

04:14 PM on 05/30/2011

"Fact free history"...I have to F&F you for that.

[realitytrumpsbull]

09:24 AM on 05/30/2011

Govablogicals likes to tell us that people that don't have X dollars per year coming in, are living a 'bad' life, and that to achieve whatever designated standard of living the bureaucrats have drummed up this week, they must either earn or live within federal poverty guidelines bla bla bla. I say it's like this: We live in a country where we're right up on the phenomenon of having nationwide averaged rent prices, and real estate prices, meaning: Anywhere you live anymore, you have to have that X dollar amount coming in, or you become 'homeless' because the real estate/property management people will throw you out on your butt. They really don't care if you don't have the job skills to get hired, or if you lost your job, or the government ran out of money to keep paying you your subsidy or benefit, they just see that $0.00 at the end of the month, terminate whatever agreement you had, and you, and your stuff, have to leave now, by court order with the sheriff in attendance if need be, meanwhile their drug dealer/real estate speculator friends clean up the place to rent/sell it to someone else. It's called 'charging what the market will bear', and when it comes right down to it, the people on the receiving end of the money don't care where the money came from. Our cost of living has been artificially inflated, life is not fair, and to my knowledge there's not a county in a state in the union that's doing what would seem common-sense: Developing high-occupancy, low-cost residences for those of little or no means. Everybody wants you to dance the happy Wall St. dance or something, living according to national averages or some other statistical garbage, instead of being able to rent cheap, live cheap, and at least be halfway happy in life. Nope, your job is to be an income producer, and when you fail in that role, you become 'not economically viable', and due for replacement, and whatever happens to you after that, well, the banks don't care either. Welcome to America! Land of the fee, home of the slave...

[Lauren The Deep Thinker]

02:28 AM on 05/31/2011

I refuse to do the Wall Street dance and do not live like this. There are options. Just not many of them. I agree with you that we need low-cost solutions for people. This only comes when people unite and lobby congress just like the wealthy greedy do. If every poor person pooled in a dollar towards lobbying congress and also went to vote everytime a they had an opportunity (city councilman, mayor, state senator, US senator, US President, etc), then things would change in this country.

[suzc]

08:45 AM on 05/30/2011

This has got to be one of the most idiotic, stupid, uninformed, articles on poverty and charity I have ever read! HuffPost is hitting a new low these days!

Yeah, Brita filters! That's the answer! Sheesh!

[aFtersootdamP]

07:12 AM on 05/30/2011

Thanks osbama. The osbama regime's marxist agenda is responsible for America's troubles. We have so many p[eople unemployed because osbama wants to create a crisis that allows him to declare martial law and take over. It's humorous that liberals need to be told how to donate to charities. They rarely do it.

[frank day]

08:43 AM on 05/30/2011

Are you aiming for comedy? You missed it.

You sound extremely foolish and somewhat deranged.

[dresdengirl]

08:52 AM on 05/30/2011

Thanks, Frank, you beat me to it.
F

[Trepasky]

04:41 PM on 05/30/2011

Lack of respect and name calling indicate a person who is weak and powerless and may suffer from cognitive distortions.

Labeling and mislabeling: This is an extreme form of overgeneralization. When someone else's behavior rubs you the wrong way, you attach a negative label to him, "He's a damn louse." Mislabeling involves describing an event with language that is highly colored and emotionally loaded.
http://www.healthymind.com/s-distortions.html

[ConservativeAlways]

10:15 PM on 05/31/2011

blah blah blah blah - you sound like a child thinking he sounds smart.

[whutch1]

06:13 AM on 05/30/2011

This list is toxic. Poverty is a necessary condition in capitalism, and petty reforms will never, never take this fact away. Usually what these articles put forth are some such petty reforms, but this one barely even rises to that level. Education: take a kid to a free museum? Are you serious? Did the ridiculousness of this statement not strike the editor, or the author even, the second it was put to print? I suppose this is a symptom of the times, as neoliberalism's grip on what is considered normal human behavior tightens.

[frank day]

08:44 AM on 05/30/2011

strange little rant

[whutch1]

10:02 AM on 05/30/2011

I'm curious what you find strange about it...could you elaborate a bit more?

I think it is a pretty serious problem when news reports encourage thinking about poverty as a problem separate from the economic realities of capitalism. Poverty is part of the program, the design.

It is similar to encouraging people to recycle while ignoring the fact that without a drastic systemic change human life on earth is doomed, and in fairly short order. Again, capitalism, and its ever increasing industrial needs, is the culprit. These things - global warming, poverty, even war, they don't exist outside of the system that produces them. So, if someone cares about these issues, as I do, then they should speak about the source, and "rant:" as you call it.

[Mia Nodecker]

10:04 AM on 05/30/2011

Not strange... people who are dealing with real problems in their lives get pretty pissed off at these type of useless garbage articles

[Lauren The Deep Thinker]

01:52 AM on 05/31/2011

Why is it that weathly American businesses and corporations cannot seem to survive in capitalism but the rest of us are expected to endure this bogus notion of "free market capitalism". If capitalism is what America really wants, then lets have it. In reality, we have never had pure capitalism and the current system does not work at all. The wealthy need and count on socialism to keep their businesses afloat and work hard to privatize their profits when the money comes in. It is funny how these same hypocrite "so called" capitalists pay politicians to get rid of medicare, medicaid, and social security all while they are receiving tax cuts - what hogs. And then there is the Tea Party fruitcakes who get behind these hogs. How disgusting! It makes me tempted to emmigrate from this disgusting country.

[TheBear]

05:25 AM on 05/30/2011

Seems to me the goal is to make everyone "comfortably poor"......how is that a solution?

We need good paying jobs, this has to be cheaper in the long run than having almost half the population dependent on some form of gov't aid.

[ramal]

05:06 AM on 05/30/2011

If you are poor one of the simplest things you can do to help your pocketbook in the short run and your health in the long run is to become a vegetarian. (This will also help the planet but when you are poor such notions must usually take the back burner.)

When I was a very poor student back in the 1970's I gave up meat and have never gone back. Breakfast was usually oatmeal laced with dried fruit. Supper ( I seldom ate lunch) was usually home-made vegetable soup or stew. (Crockpots has just come out back then and it seemed that mine was never turned off.) A treat was a fresh avocado and a slice of cheese.

[Lauren The Deep Thinker]

01:55 AM on 05/31/2011

Very good advice!

[SolarArray]

02:04 AM on 05/30/2011

Never let the Republicans pass anything from their "brain trusts". Well, ok, don't let them pass anything, period.

[smahl]

08:13 AM on 05/30/2011

So you were against many of the civil rights laws that they proposed and passed in the 60's?

[SolarArray]

11:38 AM on 05/30/2011

Today's Republicans are no way near the same as the ones 50 years ago. Today's Republicans are an embarassment to Americans.

[OneTop]

01:35 AM on 05/30/2011

Jingoism for all !

Welcome to America.

Third world neighbourhoods, cities, education, health care and poverty in the wealthiest nation in history.

Don't stop to consider that American priorities might just be misaligned. Don't ever consider admitting there is a problem, addressing the root causes and doing something in the Public's interest.

Livin the dream is the answer

" ... it's plain that the rich and powerful have restructured society toward ever-greater inequality"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/27/economics-useconomy

[Lauren The Deep Thinker]

02:01 AM on 05/31/2011

The rich and powerful can continue to restructure society toward greater inequality but what will they do when very few can afford their products and services. Ask a few wealthy and powerful individuals how their businesses will survive in a two class system. Some of these individuals I happen to know do not have a clue. They simply respond by saying that an american can survive on $10,000/year salary. These same people will not start a business venture without tax incentives or government grants (corporate welfare).

[KMFIX]

12:44 AM on 05/30/2011

Step 1. Deport illegal aliens. Step 2. Hire US citizens.

[PierreLeClerke]

01:02 AM on 05/30/2011

Step 3. Tax millionaires @ 50% and capital gains @ 50% Billionaires @ 75%

America, it is way past midnight, the dream is all but over.

No one is entitled to take from the economy like the barons of wealth and power in our corpocracy do.

Oh the arrogance of entitlement !!!

[PierreLeClerke]

01:08 AM on 05/30/2011

Sorry, missed a big one : Inheritance tax @ 75% for anything over 2 million $$$

As our nations infrastructure crumbles and millions more citizens fall through the cracks, the barons strain the systems to the breaking point reaping the harvest and not replenishing the very earth that they take from daily with blind arrogant greed.

Milk the cow dry and don't feed her, she will surely perish.

[mxytsplyk]

12:33 AM on 05/30/2011

ʻNever in the history of the United States have so many Americans struggled to make ends meet.ʻ

And by no coincidence, there have never been as many millionaires in the US, either.

[osofar]

04:16 AM on 05/30/2011

Coincidence?!??

[MeinNH]

04:22 PM on 05/30/2011

I think not!

[Lauren The Deep Thinker]

02:21 AM on 05/31/2011

I completely agree. So, what are we going to do about this? As Americans, we need to balance our trade and place restrictions on certain imports. We also need to raise taxes considerably on corporations that offshore labor, hire H1B or other visa workers, and/or those corporations who underpay US labor. No free lunch for corporations any longer because it is bad for the stability of our country. Increase the number of business loans to startup businesses - better yet, government funded business loans to displaced or unemployed workers to enable them to eventually own their own companies that will compete with the companies that laid them off. How is that?

[mxytsplyk]

02:35 AM on 05/31/2011

Excellent analysis. The irony is, if everything on your list were implemented, the US would be doing nothing more or less than any of our senior trading partners already do, for their own citizens.

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