Reality In The U.s.

[Karl Marx's Camel]

I thoguht this might be a chance to show this to those who think the U.S. is such a great place.

Here are some of the pictures, of what is quite common if you just move away from the very major cities:

Reality in the U.S. (http://www.american-pictures.com/roots/chapter-53.htm)


You will see this kind of crap, in for example San Francisco. In the middle of the city,. Where there is just not one line of homeless people begging for money, but several, perhaps three 200 meter long lines of people, one line behind the other. I have been traveling to several countries, but never seen so much poverty as in the U.S., since my trip to South Asia.

There was not long ago, that the U.S. objected to some pictures in a (foreign) geography book, which showed some pictures of poverty in the U.S. That made the govt furious.

The streets of the U.S. is not paved in gold. This is the reality of many people in the U.S. You'll see this reality even on mainstream U.S. shows. Dr. Phil, or Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

There are people in the U.S. who have to donate blood in order to drive their children to school.

[metalero]

The experiences of this guy in U.S, and the analisys of society he mades through pictures is very helpful to understand class divisions.

[Gojo]

glad to see that we're moving our criticism somewhere else, where it should be in the first place.
people have focused so much on criticising communist countries that we have forgoten who are we supposed to "defame".

[Dimentio]

How many people are considered "poor" in the US? I have heard everything between 5% and 40%.

[Karl Marx's Camel]

glad to see that we're moving our criticism somewhere else, where it should be in the first place.
people have focused so much on criticising communist countries that we have forgoten who are we supposed to "defame".

Some people place criticism where they feel it is appropriate, wherever it may be.

Others tend to criticise on ideological grounds and close their eyes and look in another direction when their idol does something negative.

[rebelworker]

Not that I want to ignore the poverty in the US, but those pictures are clearly from the 70's...

[Gojo]

Originally posted by [email protected] 30 2006, 11:23 AM

Others tend to criticise on ideological grounds and close their eyes and look in another direction when their idol does something negative.
And some people tend not to have any authorities and idols and end up criticising everything and everyone.

[Solitary Mind]

5% percent poverty? 40 is alot more likely. becuase not only does ever major city have it's split where thers hundreds or thousands in poverty, but major areas like harlem and south central are filled with people in poverty. and not to mention all the homless who arent even taken into account. and alot of lesser known areas filled with poverty, like trailer park towns that i see whenever i go visit family a few hours up....America has ALOT of poverty, and more people escape poverty by working two jobs, i know a lot of people who have two jobs just to escape the hell holes of poverty....just stating what i see and know, 1 love, peace

[Entrails Konfetti]

There are enough homeless people in L.A. to populate a place like Cocoa Beach, Florida.

[Sense-A]

The 1st time I went to New York city, I think the most surprising thing was all the people sleeping on the street. We got lost driving, and parked in a ghetto neighborhood downtown not too far from time square. There were people lined up both sides of the street sharing boxes and blankets to sleep.

1st time I went to San Diego i got in an argument with my x-gf and got out the car. I walked 50 miles to the airport. While walking to the airport I took shortcuts through small batches of trees all along the highways. Hidden in the trees were dozens of homeless people. You'd drive by them and never know they were there unless you pulled over alongside the highway and walked into the trees to take a piss or something. They hid in shame and lived off trash and litter thrown out car windows.

There IS poverty in the USA but still I do not think it is extreme or any worse than the rest of the world. As long as you have family in the USA you will be okay. Anyone without friends/family is at risk.

[Karl Marx's Camel]

And some people tend not to have any authorities and idols and end up criticising everything and everyone.

Why don't you write a letter to Bob Avakian???? :lol:

Good luck with the sect thing. You'll fit in pretty good.

Second what do you mean by "authorities"?

[Rawthentic]

That Gojo dude really has to get straigth what communism is and isnt. He calls ex-Yugoslavia, "communist" and communism has never existed, then he says that people dont have idols. Of course we dont were communists, not Leninists!

[bunk]

Originally posted by [email protected] 29 2006, 09:25 AM
There are people in the U.S. who have to donate blood in order to drive their children to school.
Terrible - imagine having to walk??

There obviously is poverty though, a lot more than they want anyone to realise or care about. TPTB need the American Dream to still be believed.

[Karl Marx's Camel]

TPTB need the American Dream to still be believed.

TPTB?

[Cult of Reason]

I am guessing TPTB means: "The powers that be".

[Guerrilla22]

Trying to reason with the OI restricted crowd is like trying to reason with a two year old.

[rouchambeau]

Thank you so much for posting this. Because I'm a middle-class white guy I often forget how much poverty exists and how ugly it is.

[Gojo]

Originally posted by [email protected] 3 2006, 03:22 PM

And some people tend not to have any authorities and idols and end up criticising everything and everyone.

Why don't you write a letter to Bob Avakian???? :lol:

Good luck with the sect thing. You'll fit in pretty good.

Second what do you mean by "authorities"?
I mean someone who you can look up to. NK has Kim, Cuba has Castro, Lybia has Gadafi..China has no one and you can see how that affects it's youth.

About that sect thing...why don't you join a socialist-democratic party you'll fit in surely more than you fit here.

[deak]

aside from the fact that that web page and the poem seem to be pretty damn condecending towards poor folk (i&#39;m sorry but poor folk aren&#39;t sad tired little children who drink away the night and dream for mr. white man to come save them), you bring up a great point. I work in a shelter and I promice you, I probably have the BEST job security of anyone in this country. My pool of customers grows daily. <_<

some stats to boot:

"at any given time, between 500,000 and 600,000 people in the United States are homeless"

"up to 20 million people may be hungry at least some period of time each month"

"Of major industrial nations, the US ranks highest in infant mortality and lowest in health coverage"

"Today one in four Americans with a full-time job does not earn enough money to stay above the poverty line"

"It was officially estimated that 35,574,000 human beings in America were desperately poor in 1997."

"One out of five homeless persons is in fact still employed in a full-time or part-time job"

all stats are from Discovering America as it Is by Valdas Anelauskas, a former anti-Soviet dissident who moved to the US to escape Communism only to find out the truth about the US. The stats are all before 1999 when it was written. Sorry I can&#39;t give you all more up to date ones. Wonderful book though if you can find it.

[Gojo]

Originally posted by [email protected] 3 2006, 05:30 PM
That Gojo dude really has to get straigth what communism is and isnt. He calls ex-Yugoslavia, "communist" and communism has never existed, then he says that people dont have idols. Of course we dont were communists, not Leninists&#33;
oh, I have straightened it more than enough. Looks like you need some history lessons before continuing posting here.
Yugoslavia&#39;s wasn&#39;t communist?
Now that&#39;s a good one. it really is. gonna have to share this one with the guys at the bar. :lol: you really made my day :D thank you :P :rolleyes: :)

[deak]

wait, weren&#39;t we talking about poverty not flexing our communist pricks to see who&#39;s is longer..... this shit makes me not want to frequent this board anymore. I kind of thought this discussion was important, but I guess not as important as seeing who&#39;s the biggest commie on the block.

[Gojo]

Originally posted by [email protected] 4 2006, 07:56 AM
wait, weren&#39;t we talking about poverty not flexing our communist pricks to see who&#39;s is longer..... this shit makes me not want to frequent this board anymore. I kind of thought this discussion was important, but I guess not as important as seeing who&#39;s the biggest commie on the block.
Tell that to the others, I&#39;m just fixing errorsj,lies and all the bullshit that is constantly being posted here.

[Rawthentic]

Youre the one posting all the bullshit here. Ask any comrades that have seen your posts, they would agree.

[Gojo]

Originally posted by [email protected] 5 2006, 02:52 PM
Youre the one posting all the bullshit here. Ask any comrades that have seen your posts, they would agree.
oh, I think they wouldn&#39;t. Maybe few, though support of those people would really insult me.

[deak]

The US&#39;s answer to poverty has always been to hide them away. At first the policy was to stuff them into cities, but now the rich have decided that they don&#39;t want to commute to work, so now they are kicking them out of the city. Basically the sollution to poverty in the US is to make it so the rich don&#39;t have to see them while they buy 6 dollar coffees. For instance when the uprising in Cincinnati occured, the police came in like gestapo, but they didn&#39;t actually try and stop anyone. Instead they set up road blocks around the poor areas to make sure that it didn&#39;t spill out into the buisness district and disrupt commerce. It&#39;s insane.

I&#39;ve been to places in the rural areas of Ohio that remind you of third world countries (no disrespect to the third world :blush: -- just using the Euro-centric label) If you go through the Appalacian Mountains there are folks who have never had plumbing or formal medical care. It&#39;s something that the US would rather not have anyone know. In the South, many town&#39;s only employer is Wal Mart and they have never provided a living wage or health care.

And it&#39;s getting worse in my opinion. I think the middle class (which has always been a myth-- The poor pretend their middle class to feel like they are worth more, and the rich pretend to be middleclass to avoid their guilt) is dissapearing at an alarming rate. With all of our University grants being cut, and all of our manufacturing jobs dissapearing, we are quickly turning into a country of a few wealthy, and those that cook and clean up after them.

[Rawthentic]

Well, I guess those conditions show the decay of capitalism dont they? ;) Slowly, but surely

[Sense-A]

Originally posted by [email protected] 6 2006, 05:00 AM
The US&#39;s answer to poverty has always been to hide them away. At first the policy was to stuff them into cities, but now the rich have decided that they don&#39;t want to commute to work, so now they are kicking them out of the city.

And it&#39;s getting worse in my opinion. I think the middle class (which has always been a myth-- The poor pretend their middle class to feel like they are worth more, and the rich pretend to be middleclass to avoid their guilt) is dissapearing at an alarming rate. With all of our University grants being cut, and all of our manufacturing jobs dissapearing, we are quickly turning into a country of a few wealthy, and those that cook and clean up after them.
I think Deak explained it well. Everyone gets crammed into this &#39;middle class&#39; title. I see rich people in &#036;500,000 homes with 2 SUV&#39;s and 2 cars and kids fully paid college funds considering themselves middle class. And I see people living in trailers trying to repair an 80s junk car and kids on welfare considering themselves middle class.

The rich really aren&#39;t paying much higher taxes. The government started appraising everyone&#39;s houses higher so they could collect higher income taxes. Now even junk homes are selling for &#036;200,000 in suburban pitstop cities.

People cannot afford to buy homes in their own towns anymore. they must flea farther into the hills.

[Rawthentic]

Their certainly is some form of a middle class, it is not merely a myth. It is a class in between the poor and rich that many claim to be part of to feel better. Of course, the middle class wont play a significant role when it comes to revolution, they will either choose the side of the revolutionaries, or the side of the capitalists.

[violencia.Proletariat]

Originally posted by [email protected] 7 2006, 02:22 PM
Their certainly is some form of a middle class, it is not merely a myth. It is a class in between the poor and rich that many claim to be part of to feel better. Of course, the middle class wont play a significant role when it comes to revolution, they will either choose the side of the revolutionaries, or the side of the capitalists.
There is no "middle class" as we know it in the Marxian analysis of class society. There is the petty-bourgeois class. This class is made up of professionals and small business owners, etc. However, since class is not determined by income, the majority of those who considered themselves "middle class" are proletarians.

[Rawthentic]

Right, and that is what I refer to when I say middle class. It is the social strata between the proletariat and bourgeioisie.

[MiniOswald]

Originally posted by [email protected] 4 2006, 07:46 AM

I mean someone who you can look up to. NK has Kim, Cuba has Castro, Lybia has Gadafi..China has no one and you can see how that affects it&#39;s youth.

About that sect thing...why don&#39;t you join a socialist-democratic party you&#39;ll fit in surely more than you fit here.
You do realise the youth dont look upto, respect or love those people in those countries?

[renagade]

I strongly agree, i have had to pane handle and eat at soup kitchens a couple times in my youth... and believe me it doesnt make you feel very good about your self so dont give me some bullshit reply because you dont fucking know me. now when ever i go downtown cincy and i see someone ask me for change i always give them whats in my pocket becasue being hungry or withdrawl or what ever they need it for isnt fun... thats pissed me off when the military droped food in Iraq but there is people right here starving and we cant even raise the minium wadge....
-Yoshi

[deak]

Yoshi, So you&#39;re in the Cincinnati? What I was saying about hiding the poor is very much alive in the OTR. I don;t know if you have heard about what 3CDC is planning in the Rhine, but it looks like there is going to be a mass expulsion of all the folks born and raised there. http://www.3cdc.org/ If you start to believe that they actually care about the poor that live there, just look at who makes up their board of directors. All corporate fucks.