Sarah Palin’s daughter gives birth to son

[Danno 1,228]

Do you really believe one in six people live in poverty?

http://www.nccp.org/

* 18% of children in the U.S. live in families that are considered officially poor.

* Child poverty rates are highest among black, Latino, and American Indian children.

* Across the states, official child poverty rates range from 6% in New Hampshire to 31% in Mississippi.

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives..._in_america.php

I’d like to think that most Americans are just too insular to realize that our child poverty rate is absolutely off the charts in international terms, even when compared to other high-immigration Anglophone countries, to say nothing of the Nordics......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States

Those under the age of 18 were the most likely to be impoverished. In 2006 the poverty rate for minors in the United States was the highest in the industrialized world, with 21.9% of all minors and 30% of African American minors living below the poverty threshold.

First let me say, I don't pretend to have anything more than an observatory opinion but I doubt many of these poverty stats.

The definition of what "Poverty" means in the USA is a lot different than what it means for our next door neighbor Mexico.

With that said, I can relay this direct experience I had last year at Christmas time.

I accompanied some other Do-Gooders to one of the poorest counties in the country, up in the hollows of West Virginia, the town of Gary.

We had a half a dozen box trucks full of food toys and clothes. Each truck went to a different area in that county.

This is something that is done every year and these people have the organization of this down to a science, so advertisements were posted, announcing our arrival.

Now there was no doubt it was a depressed area.

. ... but honest to G-d we could not find takers for all our stuff. (which for my area was only one truck)

We ended up donating the last 20% to a full time mission to the poor up there.

I have been on such "give-a-way" programs outside of the USA as well and I can tell you, there is a world of difference.

I can tell you exactly what "Poor" means in those terms. The problem in other countries is not finding enough poor-folks to take your donation, the problem is to make sure as many people as possible get something.

Maybe the statistics tell us that one in every 6 persons we see on the street is in poverty.... but I am having a hard time believing it.

However... as this economy melts.... those that are in poverty will certainly grow.

[jundp 191]

I don't know, Danno. It may vary depending on where in the country you live, but I run a Catholic charity organization and we see plenty of people in poverty. I think those statistics are pretty close to what I see in the greater Seattle area and we're not exactly a poor area.

[Caladan 19]

Poverty is also something people experience comparatively based on what is in their society; in a very real sense, it doesn't matter emotionally that a hundred years ago there weren't antibiotics (so who cares if you have health care coverage) or that other countries are worse off to someone's experiences and expectations.

[rebeccajo 14]

Do you really believe one in six people live in poverty?

http://www.nccp.org/

* 18% of children in the U.S. live in families that are considered officially poor.

* Child poverty rates are highest among black, Latino, and American Indian children.

* Across the states, official child poverty rates range from 6% in New Hampshire to 31% in Mississippi.

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives..._in_america.php

I’d like to think that most Americans are just too insular to realize that our child poverty rate is absolutely off the charts in international terms, even when compared to other high-immigration Anglophone countries, to say nothing of the Nordics......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States

Those under the age of 18 were the most likely to be impoverished. In 2006 the poverty rate for minors in the United States was the highest in the industrialized world, with 21.9% of all minors and 30% of African American minors living below the poverty threshold.

First let me say, I don't pretend to have anything more than an observatory opinion but I doubt many of these poverty stats.

The definition of what "Poverty" means in the USA is a lot different than what it means for our next door neighbor Mexico.

With that said, I can relay this direct experience I had last year at Christmas time.

I accompanied some other Do-Gooders to one of the poorest counties in the country, up in the hollows of West Virginia, the town of Gary.

We had a half a dozen box trucks full of food toys and clothes. Each truck went to a different area in that county.

This is something that is done every year and these people have the organization of this down to a science, so advertisements were posted, announcing our arrival.

Now there was no doubt it was a depressed area.

. ... but honest to G-d we could not find takers for all our stuff. (which for my area was only one truck)

We ended up donating the last 20% to a full time mission to the poor up there.

I have been on such "give-a-way" programs outside of the USA as well and I can tell you, there is a world of difference.

I can tell you exactly what "Poor" means in those terms. The problem in other countries is not finding enough poor-folks to take your donation, the problem is to make sure as many people as possible get something.

Maybe the statistics tell us that one in every 6 persons we see on the street is in poverty.... but I am having a hard time believing it.

However... as this economy melts.... those that are in poverty will certainly grow.

It's one in six CHILDREN, Danno.

And I gave you three links instead of one so you could see corroboration of the facts. Google "poverty in the US" and you'll find lots of others.

You'll find plenty of links too that tell you the rate of people falling into poverty has rapidly increased since the turn of the century.

Poverty is also something people experience comparatively based on what is in their society; in a very real sense, it doesn't matter emotionally that a hundred years ago there weren't antibiotics (so who cares if you have health care coverage) or that other countries are worse off to someone's experiences and expectations.

Exactly.

As another VJ friend of mine says about the poor in the US...."It's America. They should be better off than the poor in other countries".

[DeadPoolX 9]

Deadpool, one of the things with AIDS, or any sexually transmitted disease, is that it only takes one partner being unfaithful or stupid for you to contract it. There are plenty of women who were infected because their husbands were unfaithful.

But leave that aside. With AIDS, it's not curable and is a pretty nasty way to go. Even if it is someone's fault for being irresponsible, it's not a proportional punishment. It's not like you have to engage in unusually risky behavior to contract AIDS. It's a very strange view of disease to think of it as the justifiable result of a moral failing.

I don't really care all that much about Bristol Palin. I feel bad that what was already a stressful time was made more stressful by the selection of her mom to the vice presidential nomination and the inevitable scrutiny. I don't think she's a saint for choosing not to abort; good for her not being a hypocrite, but I really don't think it's something to be praised particularly. Not being a hypocrite is a fairly low bar. (And if you're pro-life, that goes double if you believe it's murder. We don't usually go around saying 'yay, you didn't murder anyone today! good job!')

I addressed that in one of my previous posts. If one partner cheats and contracts HIV/AIDS and passed it onto their partner, then it's not the same case as I specified before. I'm talking about people who engage in sexual activity (or any other risky behavior) without first considering the consequences. Maybe that'd carry over to the whole "partner cheating" scenario, but in that case, the unfaithful partner was the one who failed to understand the risks.

Just so we're clear, I'm not passing judgment so much as I'm questioning the logic of those who do stupid things when knowing the consequences beforehand.

I think the problem here is that you seem to be suggesting that people behave in a purely logical manner when it comes to risky behaviours. Friends of mine who smoke are not unaware that smoking significantly raises the risk of cancer, heart disease etc - the problem is that hey don't associate their own risky behaviour with those outcomes. If it were simply a case of looking at a picture of a blackened lung and saying "Jesus Christ! That's not for me!" I don't think anyone would have a problem giving up the habit. As it is though - its a chemical addiction which changes people's behaviour to satisfy a daily fix, rather than looking at the possible big picture 10, 20 or 30 years down the line.

As far as unsafe sex goes its also not unheard of for women to find themselves pressured into unprotected sex by pushy boyfriends - and this is certainly a risk during the teenage years when self-esteem takes a beating. Again what you're ignoring here is the emotional dimension - and that a girl who goes through with unprotected sex because it will make her b/f love her more, probably isn't thinking about the possibility of pregnancy or STD as an outcome.

It doesn't justify people making unsafe choices - but wagging a judgemental finger at people after the fact is worse than useless IMO.

We all make mistakes of one kind or another.

I can agree with that.