Poverty Will Always Be With Us Until We Do Something About It

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Charles Krauthammer scoffs at the idea of spending money on ensuring that poor people have health care with the observation that "Poverty and disease and social ills will always be with us" so we might as well spend our money on space exploration. Ezra Klein says "That's true. But the degree to which they're with us is directly dependent on where we spend those billions."

I think even that concedes too much. I wish this chart actually started at zero, but the point should be clear either way. It shows the poverty rate in the United States:

What happened? Well, public policy happened. In the 1960s, federal domestic programs got more ambitious, especially with regard to senior citizens. And the poverty rate went down, with the declines concentrated among the seniors who were the main targets of the spending. The extent of poverty is very much subject to our control. Disease, presumably, really will always be with us. But still, polio isn't with us anymore. Nor is smallpox.

Albert Hirschman wrote a book called The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy. Of the three, I think "futility" is the most pernicious and in some ways the easiest to knock down. It sounds very wise to observe that problems are unsolvable. But even though change is hard, it's very much possible.

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives...ng-about-it.php

Edited August 9, 2009 by Col. 'Bat' Guano

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

No worries. Soon we will all be poor, and out of work.

Edited August 9, 2009 by Mister_Bill

[one...two...tree 2,762]

No worries. Soon we will all be poor, and out of work.

FDR had an answer for it and Obama is following along the same lines. I don't know any Democrat that doesn't think of FDR as one of the greatest presidents we ever had.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

No worries. Soon we will all be poor, and out of work.

FDR had an answer for it and Obama is following along the same lines. I don't know any Democrat that doesn't think of FDR as one of the greatest presidents we ever had.

You mean Obama is going to allow North Korea to nuke Hawaii and Iran to invade her neighbors?

Edited August 9, 2009 by Mister_Bill

[Wei&Shu(Joe) 2]

No worries. Soon we will all be poor, and out of work.

FDR had an answer for it and Obama is following along the same lines. I don't know any Democrat that doesn't think of FDR as one of the greatest presidents we ever had.

You mean Obama is going to allow North Korea to nuke Hawaii and Iran to invade her neighbors?

Ah yes, many people forget about that part of history when japan asked FDR if it would be OK to attack Pearl Harbor and he cabled back giving his permission. And of course his many letters to Hitler inviting him to invade his neighbors. (Reference: American History for Wingnuts by The Grand Council of Wizards of Wingnuttia)

Then again, there are those non-wingnuts who have some sense of the actual historical record and note the grave domestic situation leading up to America's entrance into the war, the deep isolationism that was not concentrated in one man (FDR) and they come away from that with a sense of, well, reality.

But reality, as we all know, has a decidedly liberal bias and is of little use to people who are prone to believe things on "faith" rather than reason. So, your wingnut fantasies aside, how about commenting on the actual topic? Do you have any reality based comments on the graph presented?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

No worries. Soon we will all be poor, and out of work.

FDR had an answer for it and Obama is following along the same lines. I don't know any Democrat that doesn't think of FDR as one of the greatest presidents we ever had.

You mean Obama is going to allow North Korea to nuke Hawaii and Iran to invade her neighbors?

Ah yes, many people forget about that part of history when japan asked FDR if it would be OK to attack Pearl Harbor and he cabled back giving his permission. And of course his many letters to Hitler inviting him to invade his neighbors. (Reference: American History for Wingnuts by The Grand Council of Wizards of Wingnuttia)

Then again, there are those non-wingnuts who have some sense of the actual historical record and note the grave domestic situation leading up to America's entrance into the war, the deep isolationism that was not concentrated in one man (FDR) and they come away from that with a sense of, well, reality.

But reality, as we all know, has a decidedly liberal bias and is of little use to people who are prone to believe things on "faith" rather than reason. So, your wingnut fantasies aside, how about commenting on the actual topic? Do you have any reality based comments on the graph presented?

And where did you go to college, sweetheart?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

FDR had an answer for it and Obama is following along the same lines. I don't know any Democrat that doesn't think of FDR as one of the greatest presidents we ever had.

You mean Obama is going to allow North Korea to nuke Hawaii and Iran to invade her neighbors?

You see, Bill. This is why you are a dye-in-the-wool Right Winger. You can call yourself a bluedog Democrat all you want, but no Democrat would demonize FDR. He is to Democrats what Reagan has been to Republicans.

So, your wingnut fantasies aside, how about commenting on the actual topic? Do you have any reality based comments on the graph presented?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

FDR had an answer for it and Obama is following along the same lines. I don't know any Democrat that doesn't think of FDR as one of the greatest presidents we ever had.

You mean Obama is going to allow North Korea to nuke Hawaii and Iran to invade her neighbors?

You see, Bill. This is why you are a dye-in-the-wool Right Winger. You can call yourself a bluedog Democrat all you want, but no Democrat would demonize FDR. He is to Democrats what Reagan has been to Republicans.

But, comrade, it was those yellow dog liberal instructors at Frisbie U (Sonoma State University) that gave me all the dirt on FDR and the WWII conspiracy against the peace loving communists.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

FDR had an answer for it and Obama is following along the same lines. I don't know any Democrat that doesn't think of FDR as one of the greatest presidents we ever had.

You mean Obama is going to allow North Korea to nuke Hawaii and Iran to invade her neighbors?

You see, Bill. This is why you are a dye-in-the-wool Right Winger. You can call yourself a bluedog Democrat all you want, but no Democrat would demonize FDR. He is to Democrats what Reagan has been to Republicans.

But, comrade, it was those yellow dog liberal instructors at Frisbie U (Sonoma State University) that gave me all the dirt on FDR and the WWII conspiracy against the peace loving communists.

Extremism on either side of the political spectrum isn't something to aspire to, Bill. You ought to know that by now.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

FDR had an answer for it and Obama is following along the same lines. I don't know any Democrat that doesn't think of FDR as one of the greatest presidents we ever had.

You mean Obama is going to allow North Korea to nuke Hawaii and Iran to invade her neighbors?

You see, Bill. This is why you are a dye-in-the-wool Right Winger. You can call yourself a bluedog Democrat all you want, but no Democrat would demonize FDR. He is to Democrats what Reagan has been to Republicans.

But, comrade, it was those yellow dog liberal instructors at Frisbie U (Sonoma State University) that gave me all the dirt on FDR and the WWII conspiracy against the peace loving communists.

Extremism on either side of the political spectrum isn't something to aspire to, Bill. You ought to know that by now.

How is a rigorous study on the issues and events leading up to a major conflagration extremism?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

FDR had an answer for it and Obama is following along the same lines. I don't know any Democrat that doesn't think of FDR as one of the greatest presidents we ever had.

You mean Obama is going to allow North Korea to nuke Hawaii and Iran to invade her neighbors?

You see, Bill. This is why you are a dye-in-the-wool Right Winger. You can call yourself a bluedog Democrat all you want, but no Democrat would demonize FDR. He is to Democrats what Reagan has been to Republicans.

But, comrade, it was those yellow dog liberal instructors at Frisbie U (Sonoma State University) that gave me all the dirt on FDR and the WWII conspiracy against the peace loving communists.

Extremism on either side of the political spectrum isn't something to aspire to, Bill. You ought to know that by now.

How is a rigorous study on the issues and events leading up to a major conflagration extremism?

Conspiracy theories is not rigorous study...it's lunacy. That was the lesson you missed in your studies.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

California has been helping the impoverished for years! now the whole fvckin state is impoverished. On top of that Obama wants to use cali as a model.

[luckytxn 2,264]

California has been helping the impoverished for years! now the whole fvckin state is impoverished. On top of that Obama wants to use cali as a model.

What? On how to go bankrupt?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

FDR had an answer for it and Obama is following along the same lines. I don't know any Democrat that doesn't think of FDR as one of the greatest presidents we ever had.

You mean Obama is going to allow North Korea to nuke Hawaii and Iran to invade her neighbors?

You see, Bill. This is why you are a dye-in-the-wool Right Winger. You can call yourself a bluedog Democrat all you want, but no Democrat would demonize FDR. He is to Democrats what Reagan has been to Republicans.

But, comrade, it was those yellow dog liberal instructors at Frisbie U (Sonoma State University) that gave me all the dirt on FDR and the WWII conspiracy against the peace loving communists.

Extremism on either side of the political spectrum isn't something to aspire to, Bill. You ought to know that by now.

How is a rigorous study on the issues and events leading up to a major conflagration extremism?

Conspiracy theories is not rigorous study...it's lunacy. That was the lesson you missed in your studies.

What makes them conspiracy theories? There is more to heaven and earth than what you can see from your big comfy couch.

[mRx 16]

No worries. Soon we will all be poor, and out of work.

FDR had an answer for it and Obama is following along the same lines. I don't know any Democrat that doesn't think of FDR as one of the greatest presidents we ever had.

I especially liked the Japanese concentration camps he authorized. I'm sure it made Hitler proud.