do you think what america needs is for everyone to know what it is like to be poor for ten years?

Answer 1

Its all in one’s perspective. I was born before World War II and during my life I spent my early years on a farm that had no running water except for a hand-pump at the kitchen sink that drew from a cistern. There was no bathroom in the house and bed pots were under every bed with an outhouse. Baths were once a week with in a galvanized metal tub on the floor of the kitchen. In my early years heat was from wood. The sheets on the beds were sewn together from flour sacks. Cloths were mostly hand me downs. We raised and grew stored and canned all of our food except for staples such as sugar. Although we had a tractor, horses we used to farm every day. We “watched” the radio and during warm months went to the nearest small town a couple of times a month and watched movies on the outside wall of a large building. We entertained ourselves and attended the county fair. I remember when the telephone was first installed and it was a party-line.

We never considered ourselves poor. My generation and those older knew all of this from personal experience and we still know it. It was a self sufficient culture. While many modern advances have been made, in the rural areas of the United States such attitudes yet exist.

It is less a matter of understanding what it is to be poor than it is to know that one must be responsible for their acts and to be self sufficient.

Answer 2

Been there, worked my way out of being poor. Being poor sucks and I don't wish it on anyone. Making other people poor seems rather vendictive.

Answer 3

No. What the world needs to see is what hard work and prosperity could mean for their country. That and ridding themselves of their corrupt governments and stopping their senseless civil wars.

Answer 4

What kinda poor are you talking?

You talking american poverty (richest po' in the world) or 3rd world po'? (where you have flies crawling in your eyeballs)

I have been poor. (american poor, though) and I wouldn't want to be poor again, but American poor still have it better than a lot of people in the world!!!!

Answer 5

"I used to think I was poor. Then they told me I wasn't poor, I was needy. Then they told me it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy, I was deprived. Then they told me deprived was a bad image, I was underprivileged. Then they told me underprivileged was overused, I was disadvantaged. I still don't have a dime. But I sure have a great vocabulary."
Jules Feiffer B.1929

Answer 6

yeah so people can kno da true america