Poor: Living below the poverty line.

Near poor: Living one paycheck above the poverty line.

I'd give her $100 to spend the night with me.

Flatulent_Flea: What is it called when you have to float a check at the grocery store to get cash to buy gas to get to work until payday?

Check fraud.

Ennuipoet: Big hospital bill, they're screwed.

Most people I know have put large hospital bills on credit. It's inconvenient, but hardly "screwed".

Ennuipoet: Someone loses their job, they're screwed

Pretty sure this means the majority of any people anywhere in the world. Almost nobody can lose their primary (only) source of income and keep on going.

He's got a valid point. When you think "low income", you think people working at McDonalds and living in subsidized apartments. When you think "poor", you think "living out on the street".

At least that's how I've always seen it. There's something to be said for not using emotionally charged terms in an objective format.

Flatulent_Flea: What is it called when you have to float a check at the grocery store to get cash to buy gas to get to work until payday?

Creative accounting!

DrippinBalls: Flatulent_Flea: What is it called when you have to float a check at the grocery store to get cash to buy gas to get to work until payday?

Jail?

Jail for a normal person. If you're a big bank, though? It's a bailout!

Stoutpants: Poor: Living below the poverty line.

Near poor: Living one paycheck above the poverty line.

They are calling "near poor" people who are 50% above the poverty line on every paycheck. That adds up to a lot of % over time.

65% of Americans were considered to be "middle class" by the Census Bureau in 1970. 2010, 44% of Americans were considered middle class.

1/3 of all American workers were directly employed in manufacturing in 1970. 2010 about 8% of American workers were directly employed in manufacturing.

So how's that "post-industrialism" working out for you?

Clearly we need to make these nearly poor people poorer and make really wealthy people wealthier.

Flatulent_Flea: What is it called when you have to float a check at the grocery store to get cash to buy gas to get to work until payday?

Is that even possible anymore? I thought a few years back, Check 21 made it so the check was instantly sent to your bank.

I don't write checks, but I thought they stopped that.

MFAWG: Clearly we need to make these nearly poor people poorer and make really wealthy people wealthier.

==============================

So it can trickle down?

Poverty sucks..

During the year 4% of the poor became temporarily homeless. Forty percent live in apartments, less than 10% in mobile homes or trailers and about 50% live in standard one-family homes. In fact, 42% own their own home.

The vast majority are in good repair, with more living space per person than the average non-poor person in Britain, France or Sweden.

Ninety-six percent of poor parents say their children were never hungry during the year due to an inability to afford food.

Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning and 92% have a microwave.

One-third of poor households have a wide-screen plasma or LCD TV, 70% have a VCR and two-thirds have satellite/cable TV, the same proportion as own at least one DVD player.

Half of the povery households have a personal computer and one-in-seven have two or more.

And half of those with children have a video game system like Xbox.

Almost 75% have a car or truck and nearly a third have two.

What poor?

/no, dad blam it

we all know that poor people are not poor because they made dumb decisions in their lives. It's the Repulicans fault. Period.

These are the people conservatives want to tax.

Elephantman: Poverty sucks..

During the year 4% of the poor became temporarily homeless. Forty percent live in apartments, less than 10% in mobile homes or trailers and about 50% live in standard one-family homes. In fact, 42% own their own home.

The vast majority are in good repair, with more living space per person than the average non-poor person in Britain, France or Sweden.

Ninety-six percent of poor parents say their children were never hungry during the year due to an inability to afford food.

Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning and 92% have a microwave.

One-third of poor households have a wide-screen plasma or LCD TV, 70% have a VCR and two-thirds have satellite/cable TV, the same proportion as own at least one DVD player.

Half of the povery households have a personal computer and one-in-seven have two or more.

And half of those with children have a video game system like Xbox.

Almost 75% have a car or truck and nearly a third have two.

===================

You can buy a running hooptie for $1K. I've picked working computers out of the trash. How much do those "home owners" have in equity? How many of them own their own homes outright, or ever will?

In Sweden every citizen is guaranteed world-class health care and education. How about in the USA? Who is really getting the raw deal here?

TsukasaK: When you think "low income", you think people working at McDonalds and living in subsidized apartments. When you think "poor", you think "living out on the street".

Okay, but the way things are now, it doesn't take very much at all for the former to become the latter. Even a minor medical incident could do it: a few days of lost income here, a few thousand dollars of hospital bills there, and suddenly you don't have enough cash to make your rent payment on the 1st of the month.

Fissile: Elephantman: Poverty sucks..

During the year 4% of the poor became temporarily homeless. Forty percent live in apartments, less than 10% in mobile homes or trailers and about 50% live in standard one-family homes. In fact, 42% own their own home.

The vast majority are in good repair, with more living space per person than the average non-poor person in Britain, France or Sweden.

Ninety-six percent of poor parents say their children were never hungry during the year due to an inability to afford food.

Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning and 92% have a microwave.

One-third of poor households have a wide-screen plasma or LCD TV, 70% have a VCR and two-thirds have satellite/cable TV, the same proportion as own at least one DVD player.

Half of the povery households have a personal computer and one-in-seven have two or more.

And half of those with children have a video game system like Xbox.

Almost 75% have a car or truck and nearly a third have two.

===================

You can buy a running hooptie for $1K. I've picked working computers out of the trash. How much do those "home owners" have in equity? How many of them own their own homes outright, or ever will?

In Sweden every citizen is guaranteed world-class health care and education. How about in the USA? Who is really getting the raw deal here?

so move to Sweden.

poot_rootbeer: TsukasaK: When you think "low income", you think people working at McDonalds and living in subsidized apartments. When you think "poor", you think "living out on the street".

Okay, but the way things are now, it doesn't take very much at all for the former to become the latter. Even a minor medical incident could do it: a few days of lost income here, a few thousand dollars of hospital bills there, and suddenly you don't have enough cash to make your rent payment on the 1st of the month.

Because people pay off their medical bills before they pay their rent?

Well sure, their base pay is near poor. But what about their commisions and expense accounts?

Propain_az: Fissile: Elephantman: Poverty sucks..

During the year 4% of the poor became temporarily homeless. Forty percent live in apartments, less than 10% in mobile homes or trailers and about 50% live in standard one-family homes. In fact, 42% own their own home.

The vast majority are in good repair, with more living space per person than the average non-poor person in Britain, France or Sweden.

Ninety-six percent of poor parents say their children were never hungry during the year due to an inability to afford food.

Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning and 92% have a microwave.

One-third of poor households have a wide-screen plasma or LCD TV, 70% have a VCR and two-thirds have satellite/cable TV, the same proportion as own at least one DVD player.

Half of the povery households have a personal computer and one-in-seven have two or more.

And half of those with children have a video game system like Xbox.

Almost 75% have a car or truck and nearly a third have two.

===================

You can buy a running hooptie for $1K. I've picked working computers out of the trash. How much do those "home owners" have in equity? How many of them own their own homes outright, or ever will?

In Sweden every citizen is guaranteed world-class health care and education. How about in the USA? Who is really getting the raw deal here?

so move to Sweden.

How about we just bjork bork bork your sorry ass?

tbyte: poot_rootbeer: TsukasaK: When you think "low income", you think people working at McDonalds and living in subsidized apartments. When you think "poor", you think "living out on the street".

Okay, but the way things are now, it doesn't take very much at all for the former to become the latter. Even a minor medical incident could do it: a few days of lost income here, a few thousand dollars of hospital bills there, and suddenly you don't have enough cash to make your rent payment on the 1st of the month.

Because people pay off their medical bills before they pay their rent?

=================

Because if you ignore those medical bills, the hospital will get a judgement and have your wages garnished.

dervish16108: These are the people conservatives want to tax.

Libertarians want to tax everybody the exact same way. It's called fair play. Republitards and Emocrats should try it one time.

Propain_az: we all know that poor people are not poor because they made dumb decisions in their lives. It's the Repulicans fault. Period.

Yes, sane people all know that. Do you have a point to add?

TsukasaK: Ennuipoet: Big hospital bill, they're screwed.

Most people I know have put large hospital bills on credit. It's inconvenient, but hardly "screwed".

Ennuipoet: Someone loses their job, they're screwed

Pretty sure this means the majority of any people anywhere in the world. Almost nobody can lose their primary (only) source of income and keep on going.

He's got a valid point. When you think "low income", you think people working at McDonalds and living in subsidized apartments. When you think "poor", you think "living out on the street".

At least that's how I've always seen it. There's something to be said for not using emotionally charged terms in an objective format.

Assuming they have enough credit, or can afford the increased minimum payments. Cause if not, those interest payments are going to bury them.

tbyte: poot_rootbeer: TsukasaK: When you think "low income", you think people working at McDonalds and living in subsidized apartments. When you think "poor", you think "living out on the street".

Okay, but the way things are now, it doesn't take very much at all for the former to become the latter. Even a minor medical incident could do it: a few days of lost income here, a few thousand dollars of hospital bills there, and suddenly you don't have enough cash to make your rent payment on the 1st of the month.

Because people pay off their medical bills before they pay their rent?


Exactly. And this is why the health care industry is incredibly farked up and inefficient.

Congress likes to pretend that medical care isn't already universal. It is, de facto. The doctors don't check if you can pay before treating you. There's also that whole hippocratic oath thing too.

If we stopped pretending that health care isn't already universal, and accept it and build a system that manages that fact, rather than this idiotic dance around that we do, there'd be a whole lot less wholesale corruption and inefficiency in the system that the rest of us have to pay for.

Elephantman: Poverty sucks..

During the year 4% of the poor became temporarily homeless. Forty percent live in apartments, less than 10% in mobile homes or trailers and about 50% live in standard one-family homes. In fact, 42% own their own home.

The vast majority are in good repair, with more living space per person than the average non-poor person in Britain, France or Sweden.

Ninety-six percent of poor parents say their children were never hungry during the year due to an inability to afford food.

Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning and 92% have a microwave.

One-third of poor households have a wide-screen plasma or LCD TV, 70% have a VCR and two-thirds have satellite/cable TV, the same proportion as own at least one DVD player.

Half of the povery households have a personal computer and one-in-seven have two or more.

And half of those with children have a video game system like Xbox.

Almost 75% have a car or truck and nearly a third have two.

Yes, those damn poor people claiming to be poor when they own things. Things, I tell you! I bet they've even eaten today. Had they invested the money they spent on things like that silly LCD TV they could be earning entire CENTS every month, perhaps as much as a dollar! Yokels, the lot of them.

By the kind of reasoning that creates pointed lists like this no one is truly poor until everything they've ever owned has been repossessed or sold, they are homeless, have no shoes and haven't eaten in four days.

I mean seriously, what the f*ck people?

Smeggy Smurf:
Libertarians want to tax everybody the exact same way. It's called fair play.


Democrats want a more progressive tax. Because it actually is fair.

TheDirtyNacho: tbyte: poot_rootbeer: TsukasaK: When you think "low income", you think people working at McDonalds and living in subsidized apartments. When you think "poor", you think "living out on the street".

Okay, but the way things are now, it doesn't take very much at all for the former to become the latter. Even a minor medical incident could do it: a few days of lost income here, a few thousand dollars of hospital bills there, and suddenly you don't have enough cash to make your rent payment on the 1st of the month.

Because people pay off their medical bills before they pay their rent?


Exactly. And this is why the health care industry is incredibly farked up and inefficient.

Congress likes to pretend that medical care isn't already universal. It is, de facto. The doctors don't check if you can pay before treating you. There's also that whole hippocratic oath thing too.

If we stopped pretending that health care isn't already universal, and accept it and build a system that manages that fact, rather than this idiotic dance around that we do, there'd be a whole lot less wholesale corruption and inefficiency in the system that the rest of us have to pay for.

=============

You're joking? Right? Have you been to a doctor recently? Unless you have a condition which is "immediately life threatening" doctors most certainly will turn you away if you don't have insurance.

She has one BlackBerry and two cars (both Buicks from the 1990s), and a $230,000 house that she, her husband and two daughters will move into next week.

Combined, she and her husband, a janitor, make about $51,000 a year

It took her three years to save $3,000 for the down payment on her house, which she got with subsidies from a nonprofit group, Capital Area Asset Builders. But even after cutting out meals at Red Lobster, movie nights and new clothes, she had to rely on government aid to get health insurance for her daughters, 11 and 13, and she is already worried about college tuition.

So no one see anything wrong with this?

Propain_az: so move to Sweden.

Or we could fix the problem... instead of the usual herpa herrrr USA USA love it or leave it noise. I understand though... facts don't mesh well with your worldview.

/pat head

I ask this out of curiosity: what would be the poverty line for a large family such as the Duggars?

TsukasaK: Ennuipoet: Big hospital bill, they're screwed.

Most people I know have put large hospital bills on credit. It's inconvenient, but hardly "screwed".


Then those people you know aren't near poor then, as you can't put something on credit when you have no extra income from month to month. What do you do, decide to go with heat or electricity so you can pay your medical bills?


Ennuipoet: Someone loses their job, they're screwed

Pretty sure this means the majority of any people anywhere in the world. Almost nobody can lose their primary (only) source of income and keep on going.

That's not what Ennui is saying. He is talking about people who if they don't get a paycheck or two because they lose their job are out on the street and homeless. Most people who aren't near poor would have some sort of buffer and could survive long enough to find another job.


He's got a valid point. When you think "low income", you think people working at McDonalds and living in subsidized apartments. When you think "poor", you think "living out on the street".

At least that's how I've always seen it. There's something to be said for not using emotionally charged terms in an objective format.

You are confusing poor with homeless. Poor could be anyone having trouble affording the basic necessities to survive. If you can't afford to go to a doctor, you are poor, if you can't afford food, heat, electricity, a phone and so on, you are poor. The homeless are poor, but the poor doesn't necessarily mean homeless. Near poor means you can barely afford the basics of survival but would lose it all if even a mild disaster struck, as you have no buffer.

Fissile: TheDirtyNacho: tbyte: poot_rootbeer: TsukasaK: When you think "low income", you think people working at McDonalds and living in subsidized apartments. When you think "poor", you think "living out on the street".

Okay, but the way things are now, it doesn't take very much at all for the former to become the latter. Even a minor medical incident could do it: a few days of lost income here, a few thousand dollars of hospital bills there, and suddenly you don't have enough cash to make your rent payment on the 1st of the month.

Because people pay off their medical bills before they pay their rent?


Exactly. And this is why the health care industry is incredibly farked up and inefficient.

Congress likes to pretend that medical care isn't already universal. It is, de facto. The doctors don't check if you can pay before treating you. There's also that whole hippocratic oath thing too.

If we stopped pretending that health care isn't already universal, and accept it and build a system that manages that fact, rather than this idiotic dance around that we do, there'd be a whole lot less wholesale corruption and inefficiency in the system that the rest of us have to pay for.

=============

You're joking? Right? Have you been to a doctor recently? Unless you have a condition which is "immediately life threatening" doctors most certainly will turn you away if you don't have insurance.

It's way more complicated than that. If you go to the emergency room, you'll get treated front line. If it's serious and long term, you'll still be accommodated. There's several ways a hospital deals with this and it depends on what's wrong with you. Most have a charity fund of sorts, but if it's an injury as a result of an accident or work, it's very possible a medical lien can be placed on you and attorneys contacted that will attempt to recover money from another party.

Sure, some private practices might not want to bother, which is why a lot of people just go to the emergency room.