- Capitalism and Alternatives -

some changing goalposts

Posted by: Gee ( si ) on August 02, 1999 at 14:51:50:

In Reply to: Some notes on poverty posted by Krzysztof on August 02, 1999 at 12:30:36:

: Q: How many people live below the poverty level and what is the poverty rate for the most current year?

: A: The poverty rate decreased in 1997 to 13.3%, down from 13.7% in 1996. The number of poor people remained statistically significant at 35.6 million people.

The number will stay at whatever level the current fashion for 'poverty levels' happens to be. As the line changes every year in a way that seems unconnected to actual impoverisation and more to loose income and 'cost of living' expenditures as well as a handful of relativism its fairly meaningless.

Any definition of poverty, of course, is somewhat arbitrary, depending on what types of income are included. The government estimates national poverty rates for 15 different aggregations of income, taxes, and transfers, with a range from 10.4 percent based on all after-tax income and transfers to a high of 22.6 percent based only on pre-tax money income.

That is why you here statistics about people below the poverty line owning more videos per 1000 than in European countries etc.

I am sure poeple are in poverty - poverty cannot be meaningfull where a person has a roof and food. lacking a car, radio, TV etc is not poverty. Look to the statistics on homeless people as a starting point on who is genuinely impoverished. poverty is very different from being poor.

: K: What like the activity of young children whop are forced to work in Nike factories? Or maybe the slave labour they employ in Burma, or maybe the child slave labour in Haiti that makes baseballs? (ironic isn't it, the baseball that went for the record # of homeruns in a season worth what, 1 million dollars and it was probably made by a child slave)...etc

It is amazing. Its also amazing that all you see is Nike, not any of the thousands of things you utterly rely upon every day built be the activity of your neighbours and other adults. As comparison check the life of a child in pre-history, middle ages, industrial revolution and 20th century. getting better all the time doesnt mean its immaculate right now. How do you accelarate the process? - dont interfere (which slows it down) or utterly arrest it all and try something else.

: : : Capatilism doesn't work!!!!

: : By whose standard?

: K: By the standard of humanity.

Who is representing humanity today?


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