Poverty rising in the US: Where's the outrage?

[dajoki]

Poverty rising in the US: Where's the outrage?
Published 19 September, 2011 10:40:00

Poverty in the United States is reaching record numbers, but don't expect Americans to take to the streets in protest like those in Greece or the Middle East.
http://www.pri.org/stories/politics-society/poverty-rising-wheres-the-outrage5979.html

The United States is currently facing its worst poverty levels since 1983. Some 15 percent of Americans currently live below the poverty line --for an individual that's $11,100 per year for a family of four that's $22,000 per year. Much of the outrage over poverty, however, has been concentrated in places like Greece, England and the Middle East.

"I myself have been quite astonished that there hasn't been any movement of people into the streets, because we have seen it in other places," Barry Schwartz, professor of social theory and social action at Swarthmore College, told PRI's The Takeaway.

Schwartz believes the individualistic nature of Americans may be the reason there aren't public protests. He says when issues emerge, Americans often look to themselves to get at the cause, "the default, the automatic place we look for an explanation, is us. It's something I did or something I didn't do."

<<snip>>

In the United States, the poor have become invisible, according to David Shipler, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Working Poor: Invisible in America." And he says their invisibility "depends in part on the fact that many of them do have jobs. They're very low paying jobs. But they're in work that we see every day."

People tend to think that if someone has a job, they'll be just fine. But in today's economy, that's not always the case.

The problems of poverty also tend to feed off of each other, according to Schipler. "There's a high correlation, according to studies, between the lack of housing subsidies and underweight, malnourished children," he says. "If you connect the dots among the problems of poverty, you see the interactions and you see the problems magnifying one and other."

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Since 2000 M$M is a commercial for the 400 wealthiest families. period

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. K&R!

[opihimoimoi]

3. Vote them Baggers & GOP...... OUT...They are losing JOBs just to make Big O look bad? Fuck The Bagrs

[ChandlerJr]

4. Probably on the Twitter like every other outrage and protest

That's how it's done now, on your corporate supplied smart phone using your corporate supplied data plan and your corporate supplied social media.

And nobody sees the irony.

[sabrina 1]

5. The outrage HAS taken to the streets, namely Wall St.

If you are in NY or nearby you can join them. They are planning to be there for the long haul. This is the third day they have been there.

Anyone who is too far away, can help in other ways, by calling friends and family and other organizations, eg, Unions etc, to let them know about it, since the MSM so far, is not covering it much.

People from around the world have been ordering food for them already. As far as I know they are find as far as food goes, but will need things like batteries and sleeping bags etc as the crowds grow. Today the crowd was bigger and hopefully as word gets out, it will continue to grow.

It is a bit late I know, there should have more outrage long ago, but we can thank our media for that, most Americans know they should be angry, but don't have enough information to know what they should be angry about, yet.

[Speck Tater]

6. The ones affected are too busy trying to survive. The ones not affected don't care. nt

[shireen]

7. outrage here, over here ...

i HATE it with a passion.

:mad:

[Atypical Liberal]

8. No outrage, just temporary embarrassment.

The poor see themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.

[Yavin4]

9. In the American Pop Culture, It's Easy To Get Distracted into Other Worlds

Cell phones, Ipads, fantasy sports, movies, TV shows, books, the internet, social media, etc. People can just escape into these worlds and never have to deal with the reality of life.

[Hardrada]

11. Real sports too and you forgot Shopping.

[truedelphi]

10. Uh, some of the outrage is now sitting outside the dens of inequity

Found along the sidewalk bordering the big brass bull.

You can read about it here:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/19/us-wall-street-protests-idUSTRE78I51D20110919

And of course, very sadly, if this "movement" had been concocted by fifty TeaBaggers, we would see endless footage of it on every one of our networks, with emergency bulletins flashed periodically.