If the poor in America are to blame for their condition, why is the rest of the world following suit ?

Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.

Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV.

Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they're what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there's not an $800 car in America that's worth a damn.

Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.

Being poor is knowing your kid goes to friends' houses but never has friends over to yours.

Being poor is living next to the freeway.

Being poor is coming back to the car with your children in the back seat, clutching that box of Raisin Bran you just bought and trying to think of a way to make the kids understand that the box has to last.

Being poor is wondering if your well-off sibling is lying when he says he doesn't mind when you ask for help.

Being poor is off-brand toys.

Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house.

Being poor is knowing you can't leave $5 on the coffee table when your friends are around.

Being poor is hoping your kids don't have a growth spurt.

Being poor is stealing meat from the store, frying it up before your mom gets home and then telling her she doesn't have make dinner tonight because you're not hungry anyway.

Being poor is Goodwill underwear.

Being poor is not enough space for everyone who lives with you.

Being poor is feeling the glued soles tear off your supermarket shoes when you run around the playground.

Being poor is your kid's school being the one with the 15-year-old textbooks and no air conditioning.

Being poor is thinking $8 an hour is a really good deal.

Being poor is relying on people who don't give a damn about you.

Being poor is an overnight shift under florescent lights.

Being poor is finding the letter your mom wrote to your dad, begging him for the child support.

Being poor is a bathtub you have to empty into the toilet.

Being poor is stopping the car to take a lamp from a stranger's trash.

Being poor is making lunch for your kid when a cockroach skitters over the bread, and you looking over to see if your kid saw.

Being poor is believing a GED actually makes a goddamned difference.

Being poor is people angry at you just for walking around in the mall.

Being poor is not taking the job because you can't find someone you trust to watch your kids.

Being poor is the police busting into the apartment right next to yours.

Being poor is not talking to that girl because she'll probably just laugh at your clothes.

Being poor is hoping you'll be invited for dinner.

Being poor is a sidewalk with lots of brown glass on it.

Being poor is needing that 35-cent raise.

Being poor is your kid's teacher assuming you don't have any books in your home.

Being poor is six dollars short on the utility bill and no way to close the gap.

Being poor is knowing you work as hard as anyone, anywhere.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you're not actually stupid.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you're not actually lazy.

Being poor is a six-hour wait in an emergency room with a sick child asleep on your lap.

Being poor is never buying anything someone else hasn't bought first.

Being poor is picking the 10 cent ramen instead of the 12 cent ramen because that's two extra packages for every dollar.

Being poor is having to live with choices you didn't know you made when you were 14 years old.

Being poor is getting tired of people wanting you to be grateful.

Being poor is a box of crayons and a $1 coloring book from a community center Santa.

Being poor is checking the coin return slot of every soda machine you go by.

Being poor is knowing you really shouldn't spend that buck on a Lotto ticket.

Being poor is feeling helpless when your child makes the same mistakes you did, and won't listen to you beg them against doing so.

Being poor is a cough that doesn't go away.

Being poor is making sure you don't spill on the couch, just in case you have to give it back before the lease is up.

Being poor is a $200 paycheck advance from a company that takes $250 when the paycheck comes in.

Being poor is four years of night classes for an Associates of Art degree.

Being poor is knowing where the shelter is.

Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.

Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.

Being poor is seeing how few options you have.

Being poor is running in place.

Being poor is people wondering why you didn't leave.

Anonymous

I was thinking about that just yesterday! It is a fact that the average American dog lives better than the average person in a third world country. In many countries, children die at such a high rate from disease, and starvation that many of them aren't even given a decent burial. When was the last time you heard of babies being left out for the garbage man to throw away, and no one even cared? America doesn't have to give up all their comfort to help their fellow man; but everyone should take a good hard look around and DO SOMETHING!

The reason is to even the playing field across the world to make a more even playing field economically for a one world governemt. In one of games i that i play for recreation , (cuz my *** is too poor to actually have a real life)I am talking other individules who are experienceing what America is.That is the main manufacturing jobs leaving country and killing the so called middle class of the world .Poorer the person easier to control .This poor person is extremely stubborn and proud im not easliy controlled .

Needless to say ALL governements are working hard together to create a one world government !! Hmmmmm I wonder what historical religeous book prophisied that ?? anyone??anyone??

First the U.S. I personally know sucessful Business people who have profited enormously from "Free Trade" pacts and deregulation. They like, Thomas Friedman, still continue to say: "A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats."

I, being apart of the bottom 80% of wage earners, would beg to differ. Corporate-managed and negotiated in secret "Free Trade" pacts are designed in the interest of Corporate profit at the expense of: workers in both the U.S. and in the exploited "cheap labor" countries, as well as any democratic laws in sovereign states.

After 10 Years of NAFTA the net result was a net loss of 900,000 U.S. jobs. At the same time subsidised U.S. Corporate Agriculture put farmers in third world countries out of work creating an increase in illegal immigrants coming into the United States and increased suicides elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere.

The good news is in South America.

Noam Chomsky: "What's happening is something completely new in the history of the hemisphere. Since the Spanish conquest the countries of Latin America have been pretty much separated from one another and oriented toward the imperial power. There are also very sharp splits between the tiny wealthy elite and the huge suffering population. The elites sent their capital, took their trips, had their second homes, sent their children to study in whatever European country their country was closely connected with. I mean, even their transportation systems were oriented toward the outside for export of resources and so on.

For the first time, they are beginning to integrate and in quite a few different ways. Venezuela and Cuba is one case. MERCOSUR, [the trading association now including many Latin American countries] which is still not functioning very much, is another case. Venezuela, of course, just joined MERCOSUR, which is a big step forward for it and it was greatly welcomed by the presidents of Argentina, Brazil.

For the first time the Indian population is becoming politically quite active. They just won an election in Bolivia which is pretty remarkable. There is a huge Indian population in Ecuador, even in Peru, and some of them are calling for an Indian nation. Now they want to control their own resources. In fact, many don't even want their resources developed. Many don't see any particular point in having their culture and lifestyle destroyed so that people can sit in traffic jams in New York.

Furthermore, they are beginning to throw out the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In the past, the US could prevent unwelcome developments such as independence in Latin America, by violence; supporting military coups, subversion, invasion and so on. That doesn't work so well any more. The last time they tried in 2002 in Venezuela, the US had to back down because of enormous protests from Latin America, and of course the coup was overthrown from within. That's very new."

Lots of interesting concepts for debate in your question, but I believe I can narrow the range of my answer by telling you what I know about commercial enterprise. Any MBA will tell you that the raison d'etre for a business is profit. That is really all there is to it. Whether you make & sell toothpicks or software, the only concerns are costs, sales, profits, loss, and competitive advantage.

We may be entering an age in business management schools when considerations such as the importance of talent (human resources) and ethical trading are coming to the fore, but the vast majority of all businesses are still in the world of killing the competition, buying cheap & selling dear. These global giants control the market, and everything that affects it, including political power as an extension of their business. It is simply a logical strategy for them. You didn't mention the bio-technology and pharmaceutical companies, but they have a much more pernicious hold on the societies in which they operate, even going as far as inventing diseases ("diseasemongering") to boost sales, and their profits are astronomical.

If it sounds just too fantastic, then I would suggest that people take a good look at the directorships politicians hold in corporations.

So, yes, it is a ruthless consequence of corporate fascism - I would hesitate to put anything more than the fact that it is simply the nature of business to profit - whether from misery or happiness of individuals is of no consequence - and the canyon that now separates the populations by wealth which sees millions in hunger (The staple foods speculators on Wall Street will put 100 million people globally on the verge of starvation) or destitute without health or social care is just "collateral damage", as the favourite euphemism of uncaring selfish pricks.

Corporatism - the unholy marriage between politics and businesses must be curbed. Corporations sometimes need to be helped or guided with legislation, but they should never wield power for their own selfish benefits.

Edit: I don't espouse shelving the whole capitalist system - just be wary of large corporations wielding too much power in our lives through politics.

This shows that capitalism works...for all the huge companies

that amass grand fortunes do it by employing willing workers

who take paychecks home to support their families...without these big corporations, the jobs would not have been there

and these families would go without. This mentality is what made America the powerhouse it was and still is...however with outsourcing and downsizing, our economy is showing

signs of weakening....or failing from the inside out...as the economy weakens, the people's standard of living drops. To get our dollar back to where we are used to having it,

we must straighten up our act and be the industrious people

we always have been until here recently...remember, government cannot fix every problem we encounter...if it could, we would not live in a Democracy!

Let me tell you something. I have been poor.

I know what it's like to have to replace the plastic on the back window of the car since you cna't afford to fix the window.

I know what shopping at Aldi's is.

I used to be envious of the section 8 apartments that were nicer than mine next door.

I know what it means to only have ketchup in the refrigerator.

I know that a buying loaf of bread is about three times more expensive than making it.

I know that you can use a towel to keep it from getting too cold in your girls' room in the winter.

But I also know that if you work your butt off you can get scholarships.

I know if you have an idea for a business and you work hard at it for a prolonged period, you can make it.

I know that if you're poor you can get all kinds of programs that will help you get out of poverty if you just USE them!

The poor are responsible for their own conditions for these reasons:

-parents not being rich causing them to be born without silver spoons in their mouths

-growing stress has caused them mental illness

-medical bills drained their savings

-Jobs exported to oversea locations and they don't have the necessary to find a job in a shrinking job market, because they have been faithful employees working the same job for 10-20 years.

-They were born American and ineligible for H1B visas.

-are married and have a family, and can't just ditch town to go to another evertime their employer moves overseas.

That is just an excuse for people who have a little wealth or didn't have to struggle as much as most people to get it, to ignore their fellow countrymen and set them on a lower level so they also do not have to value their political opinion or value them as a human being, and still look themselves in the mirror each and every day.

The poor in America are offered food and shelter at no cost or obligation from them. They are free to pursue their interests, travel, etc.

At no time in the history of the world has any non productive group been offered this level of support.

As far as the corporations if they are in such iron gripped control as you say.. Why are so many going under and why hasnt government stepped in to enforce anti trust laws?

You can foist your ideals on us and blame Capitalism.. But the sad fact is that world overpopulation can be blamed for just about anything that you can blame on corporations.. as a matter of fact the corporate efficiency may be to blame for overpopulation by producing enough food to feed those worldwide who could not locally produce enough to sustain those levels on their own..

Cold? Yes maybe a little..But until we realize the consequences of trying to overpopulated the planet we have lost. I dont have the answer.. But until you call the underlying cause out for what it is you wont either.

Consolidation of wealth into as few hands as possible is the goal of trans national corporations. They want unregulated capitalism, but instead of calling it what it is (corporate fascism) they have coined the word "globalism" to make it appear as though it is something that benefits the entire world.