AMERICA- LAND of 371 BILLIONAIRES and 3.5 MILLION HOMELESS

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Homeless in Paradise

America, Land of 371 Billionaires and 3.5 Million Homeless

By Stephen Fleishman

12/06/07 -- In the United States of America, the greatest country in the world, as many as three and a half million people experience homelessness in a given year (1% of the entire US population or 10% of its poor) and of that, 1.37 million (or 39%) are children under the age of 18.

The total number of billionaires in the world is 793 with 371 of them being in the United States of America, that's about 322 more than there were 20 years ago.

If it can be said that people with money and power run the world, then 1% of America's wealthiest and most powerful run America behind a façade of democracy. The façade is coming apart and the true nature of this government is plain to see.

After four years of a useless war, costing Americans their lives and treasury, and enriching the multitude of corporate entities slurping up billions at the Iraqi trough, we have allowed the new robber barons, Bush and his crony capitalist friends to continue conning us out of house and home, our country. Our constitution is in shreds and our economy is about to crash. Don't let any of the Wall Street freaks try to fool you. They're as scared as we are.

....

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18840.htm

[sandnsea]

1. Sacrificing everything so 371 people can be rich

How fucking stupid are we.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Cerridwen]

3. Naw, just a dozen or so. Make them wait in line and think about what's

coming for them.

Yes, I am an evil, vindictive bitch.

:evilgrin:

[Union Thug]

6. But you're the good kind of evil and vindictive... :-)

[Cerridwen]

10. :D

:toast:

[Cerridwen]

17. Looks like we need to line up the overseer class with the billionaires.

/snark

[gasperc]

4. and 2 million foreclosures

you can't buy sick irony like that

[KitchenWitch]

44. Ya figure if each of them gave 1 billion a piece

The foreclosure mess would not happen at all.

[patrice]

5. Her problem is

She has less of nothing than those 371 billionaires:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279

[madeline_con]

7. You may be assuming all she needs is a nice warm home, but

she could be severly mentally ill, and in need of medical treatment in a supervised setting.


How does her plight end up in the laps of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet? Who "freed" all these people in need of help?

[Orwellian_Ghost]

8. Then again

Whose assuming anything? You made that up creating a dialectic from your projections on what you assume one "assumes."

In any case what is being examined here hasn't to do with the individual in the pic but simply the grotesque inequities of a thoroughly corrupt and unjust political and economic system.

You should get to that.

Poverty and wealth are quite connected with one being the cause of the other.

[madeline_con]

13. I said "you may be assuming..."

The individual pic is representative of those who inhabit the streets, many of whom need to be kept in what some might call "captivity" because they are unable to care for themselves.

That's all I'm saying. If blaming the ultra rich for it helps some people feel better, so be it.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

14. You see no connections

between exhorbitant wealth and abject poverty?

Heck that's nothing more than the ABC's of freshman econ class.

[madeline_con]

15. O.K. there should be a mental health tax on anyone who

makes more than a particular amount, so the mentally ill homeless can be scooped up, locked up and cared for properly. Absolutley. I'm all for it. Now, if we could just get the ultra rich to push it through Congress.

spell edit

[bobbolink]

21. Just as long as you go first.

:crazy:

[madeline_con]

24. Do you always resort to personal attacks

when you don't agree with someone?

You'd deny the mentally ill much-needed treatment? Nice.

[bobbolink]

27. You think the "treatment" is so great, you go find out for yourself.

Torture should be anathema to all liberals.

You have posted rightwing talking points, and you better believe I'll go after it.

But, of course.... you don't respond when I point out the NUMBER ONE cause of homelessness.

Because you'd rather stick with your worn out assumptions????

That's from the days of Raygun. Time to update yourself.

As a matter of fact... why don't you try living as a homeless person for a year or so? You might just find out, if you did, that if you weren't crazy before, being on the street will MAKE YOU CRAZY.

Or, you could just keep on spouting the same "misconceptions".

[madeline_con]

30. Thanks for the update.

I'm worn out from having assumptions.

You might be generalizing just a tad about the house of horrors you want to make mental health facilities out to be.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

33. Read entire article

SOCIAL AND HEALTH INEQUALITY IN "THE BEACON TO THE WORLD OF THE WAY LIFE SHOULD BE"

So how do the nation's priorities stand nearly four decades later? More than 36 million residents of the United States, which US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas) calls "the beacon to the world of the way life should be," languish beneath the federal government's notoriously low poverty level ($14,680 for a family of three in 2003). More than 11 million or 17 percent of US children live below that sorry measure, and the US child poverty rate is substantially higher than that of other industrialized nations. More than one in three US children live in or near poverty and more than 8 million Americans live in homes that frequently skip meals or eat too little. Suicide takes the lives of 30,000 Americans each year. It is a high-ranking cause of death for 10-14 year olds, 15-19 year olds, and 20-24 year olds in "the beacon to the world."

More than 42 million Americans lack health coverage. The "beacon" is still the only modern industrialized state without a universal, socially inclusive health insurance plan. Reflecting one part of a broadly shocking disconnect between regressive policy and fairly progressive public opinion in "America, the best democracy money can buy," nearly two-thirds of the homeland's populace actually supports "a universal system that would provide coverage to everyone under a government program" (Will Lester, "Poll: Public supports Health Care for All," Washington Post, 19 October 2003).

Even though it's world the second richest country (after Norway) in terms of per-capita wealth, the US ranks below 24 other nations in life expectancy.

Part of the explanation for this seeming anomaly lay in the astonishing over-concentration of wealth in the US, where the top 1 percent owns more than 40 percent of the wealth.

The top 10 percent owns two-thirds of US wealth, leaving the rest of us --- 90 percent of the population - to fight it out for one third of the nation's assets.

....

http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=7902§ionID=10

Awaken others to these hard facts as well.

[madeline_con]

35. Hold on, here. You just described mental health

care as "torture". You seemed to be implying that people should have freedom to choose.

If someone chooses to live on the street, at what point do we do something "for their own good" like lock them up somewhere so they and society are safe?

Most of the time (I'll stick my neck out and say over half), tragedies like Columbine and the Omaha mall incident are the result of untreated or undertreated mental illness.

Do you want severely impaired individuals left to wander and fend for themselves in the name of "rights" some of them may be too impaired to comprehend, or do you want to help them?

You can't have it both ways.

And you can't blame me for the fact that some of them would be better off instututionalized.

Universal health care will not render Bill Gates, et al homeless!

[Orwellian_Ghost]

36. Could you point to that?

"You just described mental healthcare as "torture"."

Please point to where I said that?

Possibly you are confused.

Again you should re-read your comments as they are bitter and cruel towards the most vulnerable in society. This would be expected from a hardened right-wing ideologue but shouldn't be condoned in any respectable liberal discussion.

Twisted logic.

[madeline_con]

38. I am NOT bitter or cruel

We both want to help, obviouisly.

It's o.k to disagree on how to go about it.

It's not o.k. to allude to the idea that I'm a right-wing ideologue.

Your not so veiled insults aren't fair.

Maybe we'll meet in another thread where we agree. This is going nowhere.

If it helps you feel better thinking I've run off with my tail between my legs, or if my argumant had any merit, I'd post till dawn, that's fine, too.

We should part company respectfully for now.

See you around.

[bobbolink]

50. BWHAHAHAHA!!!

[madeline_con]

39. My apologies, O.G.

I confused your post with bobbolink's (#27), that said:


"You think the "treatment" is so great, you go find out for yourself.


Torture should be anathema to all liberals."

I felt I should say something because I was responding back and forth with both of you, and got the posts confused.

[bobbolink]

45. Generalizing?

YOU research what is available for poor people, then get back to me.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

29. These are reactionary comments

Quite base.

Those words are callous and cruel and it's hard to imagine how that holds for any discussion amongst liberals.

Amazing.

[madeline_con]

31. Sorry we can't all agree about every little thing.

:cry:

The difference is, I'm over it.

[bobbolink]

49. It's not very often we see someone who is PROUD of being hardhearted.

[bobbolink]

46. Callous and cruel, indeed.

Then people who talk like this wonder why poor people try to kill themselves.

Callous and cruel. Perfect description.

Thank you, Orwellian_Ghost!! :hug:

[bobbolink]

19. That's always the first guess of conservatives... it's sad that liberals have followed in their step

FIRST of all, even supposing she's "mentally ill", why the hell should she be in the street and not in her own home????

I have spoken with so many homeless people, and those I've spoken in depth with have ALL said that the most hurtful and insulting thing said to them is the assumption that they are mentally ill.

It's time to educate yourself.

What is the NUMBER ONE cause of homelessness in the US?

Our woeful health care system.

Now, please, update your data.

Thank you.

[madeline_con]

25. Gosh, doesn't mental health care fall under health care?

That's what I thought. :yoiks:

[bobbolink]

26. Well, that's a great disconnect....

:crazy:

[Initech]

9. All of this shit we have to go through is for 371 fucking people?

:grr:

I'm with the other poster who said that we need to bring back the guillotine.

[dysfunctional press]

18. to be fair- it would be 371 families.

they tend to take care of their own.

[lonestarnot]

11. Fuck'n 1%ers have stolen us blind, literally blind.

[A HERETIC I AM]

22. I am curious how it is you think Warren Buffet has "stolen us blind"

or has been any part of such an activity? How is it that Bill Gates or any of the other 371 billionaires are responsible for that person or any other person being homeless? Every one of those 371 people created a product or service that people wanted. Do you ever use Google? Are you reading this with the help of some sort of software, Microsoft or otherwise?

The reason we have homeless people in this country is because budgets for social services have been slashed, not because there are billionaires.

The abject hatred directed at the wealthy and successful by some DU'rs astounds me.

By the way, there are several MULTI millionaires that post on DU but heaven forbid they mention their success, regardless of how charitable they are.

[Truth2Tell]

40. Actually, "every one" of those people

did not create some product or service that people wanted. Many of them inherited their wealth. Many others sold interests in companies they owned by offering securities on public markets in a system that's rigged to the hilt. Others ran companies owned by shareholders whom they bilked for hundreds of millions of dollars in excessive pay and bonuses.

Some on the list of 371 are most certainly good old-fashioned boot-strap American entrepreneurs - but I'd wager you 371 Billion big ones that the vast majority either got their money from daddy or gamed the system in one of the many ways available.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

12. This country was founded on that.....

Republicans make that ugly dream come true.

[dysfunctional press]

16. Gates, Buffet, and the Google guys are using their fortunes for GOOD.

wealth itself isn't necessarily a bad thing.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

20. Not really

the Gates foundation in particular has already been proven to be a dubious front for the "Western Development" as interventionist scam that it is.

Look beyond the hype. Heck even the LA Times has written that up.

What we have been conditioned to think of as 'wealth" causes, quite directly, terrible suffering all across the world. That's why the US paymasters demand never-ending wars for oil, diamonds, uranium and on and on....

It's all connected.

[dantyrant]

28. Allow me to call BULLSHIT.

Give William Engdahl's latest article a read and see if you still believe that.

No project is more interesting at the moment than a curious project in one of the world’s most remote spots, Svalbard. Bill Gates is investing millions in a seed bank on the Barents Sea near the Arctic Ocean, some 1,100 kilometers from the North Pole. Svalbard is a barren piece of rock claimed by Norway and ceded in 1925 by international treaty (see map).

On this God-forsaken island Bill Gates is investing tens of his millions along with the Rockefeller Foundation, Monsanto Corporation, Syngenta Foundation and the Government of Norway, among others, in what is called the ‘doomsday seed bank.’ Officially the project is named the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, part of the Svalbard island group.

Doomsday Seed Vault

The seed bank is being built inside a mountain on Spitsbergen Island near the small village of Longyearbyen. It’s almost ready for ‘business’ according to their releases. The bank will have dual blast-proof doors with motion sensors, two airlocks, and walls of steel-reinforced concrete one meter thick. It will contain up to three million different varieties of seeds from the entire world, ‘so that crop diversity can be conserved for the future,’ according to the Norwegian government. Seeds will be specially wrapped to exclude moisture. There will be no full-time staff, but the vault's relative inaccessibility will facilitate monitoring any possible human activity.

Did we miss something here? Their press release stated, ‘so that crop diversity can be conserved for the future.’ What future do the seed bank’s sponsors foresee, that would threaten the global availability of current seeds, almost all of which are already well protected in designated seed banks around the world?

Anytime Bill Gates, the Rockefeller Foundation, Monsanto and Syngenta get together on a common project, it’s worth digging a bit deeper behind the rocks on Spitsbergen. When we do we find some fascinating things.

The first notable point is who is sponsoring the doomsday seed vault. Here joining the Norwegians are, as noted, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the US agribusiness giant DuPont/Pioneer Hi-Bred, one of the world’s largest owners of patented genetically-modified (GMO) plant seeds and related agrichemicals; Syngenta, the Swiss-based major GMO seed and agrichemicals company through its Syngenta Foundation; the Rockefeller Foundation, the private group who created the “gene revolution with over $100 million of seed money since the 1970’s; CGIAR, the global network created by the Rockefeller Foundation to promote its ideal of genetic purity through agriculture change.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7529

[bobbolink]

23. Thank you for putting a topic very few want to deal with into our awareness!!

:applause:

As Barney Frank said in the intro to his bill supporting a National Housing Trust Fund, there are over 9 million of us who are homeless and need low-income housing.

There are 6 million low-income units.

Even a first grader can figure out that leaves over 3 million of us in need of housing!

Yet, I don't hear a great hue and cry about low-income housing!

Why ISN"T this a HUGE issue in the campaign?

Hmmmm???

[madeline_con]

32. Didn't you say the #1 reason for homelessness is the

woeful health care system?

They're all talking about health care.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

34. Two trends are largely responsible for the rise in homelessness

Two trends are largely responsible for the rise in homelessness over the past 20-25 years: a growing shortage of affordable rental housing and a simultaneous increase in poverty. Below is an overview of current poverty and housing statistics, as well as additional factors contributing to homelessness. A list of resources for further study is also provided.

POVERTY

Homelessness and poverty are inextricably linked. Poor people are frequently unable to pay for housing, food, childcare, health care, and education. Difficult choices must be made when limited resources cover only some of these necessities. Often it is housing, which absorbs a high proportion of income that must be dropped. Being poor means being an illness, an accident, or a paycheck away from living on the streets.

In 2005, 13.3% of the U.S. population, or 38,231,521 million people, lived in poverty. Both the poverty rate and the number of poor people have increased in recent years, up from 12.5% or 1.1 million in 2003 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2005). 36% of persons living in poverty are children; in fact, the 2004 poverty rate of 17.6% for children under 18 years old is significantly higher than the poverty rate for any other age group.

....

http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/facts.html

What does this say for a culture that even HAS homelessness?

[Orwellian_Ghost]

37. Who are the homeless?

VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Battered women who live in poverty are often forced to choose between abusive relationships and homelessness. In a study of 777 homeless parents (the majority of whom were mothers) in ten U.S. cities, 22% said they had left their last place of residence because of domestic violence (Homes for the Homeless, 1998). A 2003 survey of 100 homeless mothers in 10 locations around the country found that 25% of the women had been physically abused in the last year (American Civil Liberties Union, 2004). In addition, 50% of the 24 cities surveyed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors identified domestic violence as a primary cause of homelessness (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2005). Studying the entire country, though, reveals that the problem is even more serious. Nationally, approximately half of all women and children experiencing homelessness are fleeing domestic violence (Zorza, 1991; National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 2001). For more information, see our fact sheet on Domestic Violence and Homelessness.

VETERANS Research indicates that 40% of homeless men have served in the armed forces, as compared to 34% of the general adult male population (Rosenheck et al., 1996). In 2005, the U.S. Conference of Mayors' survey of 24 American cities found that 11% of the homeless population were veterans – however, this does not take gender into account (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2005). The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans estimates that on any given night, 271,000 veterans are homeless (National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, 1994). For more information, see our fact sheet on Homeless Veterans.

PERSONS WITH MENTAL ILLNESS Approximately 16% of the single adult homeless population suffers from some form of severe and persistent mental illness (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2005). According to the Federal Task Force on Homelessness and Severe Mental Illness, only 5-7% of homeless persons with mental illness require institutionalization; most can live in the community with the appropriate supportive housing options (Federal Task Force on Homelessness and Severe Mental Illness, 1992). For more information, see our fact sheet on Mental Illness and Homelessness.

http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/facts.html

[bobbolink]

47. Great facts, Orwellian_Ghost!! Should be REQUIRED reading for all "liberals"!

I'm so very disgusted with the level of ignorance, and so much appreciate you trying so hard to educate people!

Thanks so very much! :yourock:

[bobbolink]

51. You're not even making sense. I guess troublemaking for it's own sake is

enough, eh?

:crazy:

[leftist_not_liberal]

41. and liberalism will never fix it

[Orwellian_Ghost]

42. Ah, the Secluded Life

Ah, the Secluded Life
The superrich are finding new ways to set themselves apart. It's not just clubs, resorts and Gulfstreams. Now there are private concerts, stores—and islands.



Unto Themselves: A new luxury estate on one of Dubai's man-made islands
By Emily Flynn Vencat and Ginanne Brownell | NEWSWEEK
Dec 10, 2007 Issue

At a recent members-only meeting of the California based Institute for Private Investors, some of America's richest were partaking in the ultimate luxury: talking about the problems associated with extreme wealth, such as handling conflicts between multimillionaire heirs and choosing a reliable wealth manager. There was comfort in being among people who could relate; 80 percent of IPI's members have investable assets of $50 million or more. For them, sipping champagne at a paparazzi-covered art opening is as pass? as carrying around the latest Louis Vuitton handbag, and far less important than the exclusivity IPI membership affords them. "What the wealthiest families want is to have a community where they can share questions, resources and experiences," says IPI director Kristi Kuechler.

Hey, everybody needs to fit in somewhere.

The superrich have long had various places—clubs, jets, resorts and communities—where they could temporarily retreat from the rest of the world. But now the members-only phenomenon is exploding into a whole way of life, encompassing everything from private-banking coalitions to invitation-only health clinics. With security concerns growing and Internet gossip capable of trashing global reputations in an instant, those with money are increasingly locking their entire lives behind closed doors. Rather than attend media-heavy events, they arrange concerts, fashion shows and art exhibitions in their own homes. They shop afterhours and have their neighbors (and potential friends) vetted for class and cash. In essence, it's a return to the way the wealthy lived before the hippie ethic of the 1960s made it cool to mingle with other classes. "The very rich don't want to be in restaurants where they might be sitting next to a tourist," says William Cash, editor of Spear's Wealth Management Survey, a European magazine for multimillionaires.


In part, the focus on members only is simply a result of there being more rich people to associate with. According to Merrill Lynch and Capgemini's 2007 World Wealth Report, the number of people with more than $1 million in assets excluding their primary residence grew by more than 8 percent last year, to 9.5 million worldwide. Their ranks are swelling the fastest in the developing world: Latin America saw a whopping 23 percent growth in nouveaux riches last year. The wealthy elite also live more globally nowadays with, say, an Indian passport, a castle in Scotland, a pied-à-terre in Manhattan and a private Caribbean island. Because of their global presence, the ultrarich can no longer count on local word-of-mouth networks to tune them in to whom they can trust.

.....

http://www.newsweek.com/id/72721

[Orwellian_Ghost]

43. It's all connected

[bobbolink]

48. How can people NOT be moved by that picture????

"Who ARE we?" Michael Moore