What percentage of poor people deserve it?

Not addressing any poster specifically but the underlying assumption many of you Americans seem to operate under is that your society is meritocratic and it's easy to move between classes. That idea may have been true in the past but it's quantifiably inaccurate at the moment. Most wealthy European countries (the UK excepted) trump the U.S. in this regard (and in most other measures of quality of life, for that matter. Even Canada has left the U.S. far behind. I can't recall who said it first but it's accurate to say that if you want to experience the classic "American dream", you should move to Denmark.

Kracker wrote:

Three Hand Luke wrote:

You are now officially entered into the finals of the stupidest poster in the history of this place.

Congratulations!

The usual ad hominem I have come to expect from the dimmer letsrun posters

Yours is now officially entered into the finals of the stupidest posts in the history of this place.

Congratulations!

Feel better now?

The guy who wrote the blog appears to be black himself.

Corrado Gini wrote:

Not addressing any poster specifically but the underlying assumption many of you Americans seem to operate under is that your society is meritocratic and it's easy to move between classes. That idea may have been true in the past but it's quantifiably inaccurate at the moment. Most wealthy European countries (the UK excepted) trump the U.S. in this regard (and in most other measures of quality of life, for that matter. Even Canada has left the U.S. far behind. I can't recall who said it first but it's accurate to say that if you want to experience the classic "American dream", you should move to Denmark.

Do you have any evidence to back up your assertion or are you just another 30-hour workweek piece of Eurotrash being fashionable by bashing the US over the American-invented internet, using a device running an American-engineered operating system, on a website you found with an American-built search engine?

Do you have any evidence that your post somehow relates to the primary claim of Corrado Gini that American is not a meritocratic society and that it is not easy to move between classes?

Hats to be axed wrote:

lange wrote:

Do you have any evidence to back up your assertion or are you just another 30-hour workweek piece of Eurotrash being fashionable by bashing the US over the American-invented internet, using a device running an American-engineered operating system, on a website you found with an American-built search engine?

Do you have any evidence that your post somehow relates to the primary claim of Corrado Gini that American is not a meritocratic society and that it is not easy to move between classes?

Do you have any evidence that your post somehow relates to the primary claim that lange made that Corrado Gini is Eurotrash spouding lies that sound cool to his Eurotrash friends?

chain of screaming wrote:

Hats to be axed wrote:

Do you have any evidence that your post somehow relates to the primary claim of Corrado Gini that American is not a meritocratic society and that it is not easy to move between classes?

Do you have any evidence that your post somehow relates to the primary claim that lange made that Corrado Gini is Eurotrash spouding lies that sound cool to his Eurotrash friends?

I see that you have failed.

Hats to be axed wrote:

chain of screaming wrote:

Do you have any evidence that your post somehow relates to the primary claim that lange made that Corrado Gini is Eurotrash spouding lies that sound cool to his Eurotrash friends?

I see that you have failed.

What are you talking about? Your comment was asinine and I successfully mocked it!

Tommy2Nuttz wrote:

I think very few people in America, have a real understanding of how difficult it is to get out of poverty. Generations of poverty leaves one with no role models, no connections to jobs or even interviews, poor schools and a chaotic home life.

Since we are on percents, I'm guessing 98% of the people here have not experienced real poverty ever in their lives. But they sure are experts at breaking it all down, and offering tons of advice.

Mother Teresa's, you're not!

I know a person whose father makes 80K a year, has a HS degree, and his job is something that a trained monkey can do. Their family is poor because they spend all their money on material things and have nothing left after spending it even after 80K gross. The laziness was passed from father to children as the children are also lazy as heck.

amateur economist wrote:

Here is my estimate:

20% genuinely are reaping what they sow. ...

60% have a lot working against them, but they aren't really doing much to help themselves either. ....

20% get genuinely shafted. .... kept down by really crummy circumstances.

There are 1.3 Billion people in China earning an average wage of less than $5000/year.

There are 1.2 Billion people in India earning about the same $5000/year.

There are ~0.24 Billion people in Indonesia earning an average about $8000/year.

Since there are ~7 Billion people on the planet, these three countries alone account for about 40% of the earth's population.

With these countries alone, we are already at 40% of the population being poor and "genuinely shafted" by virtue of not being born in circumstances that allow them to be rich.

Anytime that you start to delude yourself into thinking that you are "hard working" and "deserve your success"-- go visit a rice farmer in rural China and see what a lazy and lucky f___ you truly are.

Did you miss the multiple posts about this being a domestic thread, dipshit?

Tommy2Nuttz wrote:

I think very few people in America, have a real understanding of how difficult it is to get out of poverty. Generations of poverty leaves one with no role models, no connections to jobs or even interviews, poor schools and a chaotic home life.

Since we are on percents, I'm guessing 98% of the people here have not experienced real poverty ever in their lives. But they sure are experts at breaking it all down, and offering tons of advice.

Mother Teresa's, you're not!

Mother Teresa's what?

chain of screaming wrote:

Hats to be axed wrote:

I see that you have failed.

What are you talking about? Your comment was asinine and I successfully mocked it!

Actually, yours was a complete and utter failure.

"lange" apparently had some objection with the post of Corrado but was unable to bring anything of substance to bear regarding the contents of Corrado's post. Instead he pulled a rather stupid, no, make that exceedingly stupid, attack on Corrado himself, which is, of course (sigh) irrelevant.

I pointed out just how lame the post of lange actually was, thus displaying a brilliance far beyond anything your limited intelligence could possibly comprehend.

And you came back with something that you considered to be clever but only showed just how profoundly stupid you really are.

No, sorry, complete and utter failure pretty much sums up your efforts.

4runner wrote:

Anytime that you start to delude yourself into thinking that you are "hard working" and "deserve your success"-- go visit a rice farmer in rural China and see what a lazy and lucky f___ you truly are.

sec wrote:

Did you miss the multiple posts about this being a domestic thread, dipshit?

1) The OP said nothing about domestic only. I didn't know that there was some sort of "limit by implication" on what could be discussed on a thread.

2) If we are going to discuss domestically-- I can tell you that I have never worked anywhere near as hard as my fresh-of-the-boat immigrant grandparents did and yet I make 10 times more per year than they ever did.

Pretending that I somehow "deserve" that pay would dishonor their sacrifice to put me in a position where I could afford to be lazy and only work 50-60 hours a week.

4runner wrote:

1) The OP said nothing about domestic only. I didn't know that there was some sort of "limit by implication" on what could be discussed on a thread.

2) If we are going to discuss domestically-- I can tell you that I have never worked anywhere near as hard as my fresh-of-the-boat immigrant grandparents did and yet I make 10 times more per year than they ever did.

Pretending that I somehow "deserve" that pay would dishonor their sacrifice to put me in a position where I could afford to be lazy and only work 50-60 hours a week.

Nice post!

Recognizer of Brilliance wrote:

4runner wrote:

1) The OP said nothing about domestic only. I didn't know that there was some sort of "limit by implication" on what could be discussed on a thread.

2) If we are going to discuss domestically-- I can tell you that I have never worked anywhere near as hard as my fresh-of-the-boat immigrant grandparents did and yet I make 10 times more per year than they ever did.

Pretending that I somehow "deserve" that pay would dishonor their sacrifice to put me in a position where I could afford to be lazy and only work 50-60 hours a week.

Nice post!

Yeah...this is a really good post.

This was a really informative post. I learned a lot. Thanks! :-)

Oh man, this was really good. Stuff like this is what keeps me coming back to Letsrun.com.

chain of screaming wrote:

Hats to be axed wrote:

I see that you have failed.

What are you talking about? Your comment was asinine and I successfully mocked it!

He asked for evidence, not to be successfully mocked.