Do you know how lucky you are?

[Swede]

Do you? I do. No hunger,no war. Sometimes I forget how rotten they have it. They don't hate us because of our freedom,they hate us because we arn't sharing. That's my fault,I live in a democracy.

[JuniperLea]

1. we have plenty of war and hunger here in the USA

our sons and daughters, husbands and wives, friends and lovers are dying in a useless and uncalled for war right now. there are starving people all over the US. over 10,000 children will go to bed hungry in Los Angeles county alone tonight. greed at the top of the food chain has caused us to not even be able to take care of our own, let alone anyone else.

i do feel lucky that i can say such things... for now.

[Ladyhawk]

46. Gangland in LA is something of a war zone.

Things may not be as bad here as they are in third world countries, but I think that America's self-justification of taking anything we want might have a little something to do with that. How did our oil get under the sand in Iraq???

[JuniperLea]

49. same mentality, ladyhawk

"i choose to steal what you choose to show"

seems our government has a lot in common with LA gangs.

[Ladyhawk]

51. That is an excellent point.

I've heard, "As Los Angeles goes, so goes the nation." Maybe there's something to that.

[Fovea]

2. Back in the US, back in the US,

back in the USSR...

Man, we must live in really different parts of the country.
Unemployment in my city is kicking our asses.

[Bassic]

32. You think poverty in North American is comparable

to the midle east, Africa, and most of South America?

At least here there's always a way to get clean water once in a while.

[Fovea]

50. You are using the wrong scale

If you buy the assertion that the US is a developing nation, no, we are the envy of the rest of the third world.

If you compare us to any of the 'first world' we are a wreck.

[Name removed]

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[Dora]

5. Actually

You're wrong. Children do go hungry in this country, as do a frightening percentage of our elderly.

It's one thing to be grateful for what we have. It's another thing to blind ourselves to the suffering that exists in front of us.

[Name removed]

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[JuniperLea]

13. oh come now

there is plenty for the world. this earth provides plenty. greed, my friend, is our enemy. greed is what is causing the bellies of LA's street kids to grumble and distend. i can show you dirty and hungry parts of town that would make you think you were in a third world country.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

6. Yes it could be worse but children go hungry in America

WHEN THEY SHOULDN'T.

Here are some older statistics. I'm sure it's worse now under Bush:

http://www.foodfirst.org/node/184

[magnolia]

There's the difference...

...any unemployment, suffering, hungry children, dying in Iraq...for US...it is totally unnecessary! Any suffering in this country is due to the incredible greed and corruption in the highest places.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Ladyhawk]

43. How come freepers can't spell?

Maybe I'm just being snarky, but it certainly seems like freepers can't spell or put together a cohesive sentence. Is that an unfair generalization...or are they hiding their identities behind massive spelling and grammar mistakes?

Also, I'd like to point out that anyone working in a third world country shouldn't have the time (or the Internet access) to come troll DU.

[magnolia]

12. I will blame Bush!

Bush is quickly turning us into a two class system. The lower class barely having enough to take care of their own families. So if you want to lay guilt, get on the heads-of-corporations websites!

[JuniperLea]

15. hear hear, magnolia!

you speak the truth.

[JuniperLea]

14. oh please!

my kitchen is NOT fully stocked and i DO blame bush and many other politians!

[Kathy in Cambridge]

20. Obviously, you don't understand basic economics

the tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% has resulted in severe cutbacks for state and federal programs. Because of Bush's economic policies, the gap between rich and poor has widened, and more people have fallen below the poverty line than any time in history, aside from the Depression.

So IT IS Bush's fault.

[Terran]

23. Hold on:

Hunger in America was a problem before Bush ever got elected. You are totally ignoring the fact that this is a problem that has gone unaddressed by both parties for many years.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

26. But the policies of the Bush admin has made it far worse

I certainly know that hunger has been a problem since long before Clinton as well.

[Terran]

31. Agreed

And it's been shown that US homelessness declined slightly during the late 90's, for which we might thank Bill Clinton. But basically, the guy you're arguing with is right--you can't blame Bush for the problem of hunger as a whole, even if you can blame him for not making it better.

[Misunderestimator]

27. He said "Do not blame bush or any other politician in DC"

I blame them all.

[Swede]

37. 4 BILLION dollars a week would feed a lot of people.

This is for an unnecessary war,can't you see that.

[Hidden Stillness]

8. Just Because You Don't See Them, Doesn't Mean They Aren't There

"No one in the USA is starving and how many childern wait outside your house to go through you garbage at night."

That was a very strange, and heartless, statement, when one of the most outrageous discoveries made by those who work with the poor and homeless, is exactly that they regularly go hungry unless they can find food by digging through garbage dumpsters outside restaurants, etc. People dig through other people's trash to try to find anything to sell. Although I, unlike neo-cons, love the democracy of this country, this Godless minimizing of the suffering of poverty is disgusting.

[JuniperLea]

11. well i'm an american living in america

and i see people going through my trash every day. and i give my aluminum cans and uneaten lunches and office bagels to various homeless people on my way home each day. every time i go to the grocery store, i see homeless hungry people going through the trash dumpsters and i get asked for money for food from people with small children. i am a paycheck away from being homeless, as are most people at my income level. if my car should break down, i'll go into debt for repairs. i'm wearing clothes i've had for over four years. i'm going without much needed dental and medical attention because i can't afford it. i don't go to the movies and i don't read books unless i can borrow them from the local library. i moved to a cheaper (and scarier)part of town; i had to stop contributing to my 401k and i no longer go to the beauty salon. and i'm doing a lot better than many!

there are a lot of us on the brink. its getting to the point where if we don't do something soon to prop up our own financial structure, we will be in absolutely no position to help anyone else.

[Name removed]

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[Hidden Stillness]

24. Hi, Plant!

All the individual acts of "charity" in the world will never make up for the Republicans slashing to oblivion every organized Federal and State program that might have helped the interrelated problems of poverty, homelessness, lack of nutrition, mental health and drug/alcohol abuse (most mental health deterioration occurs after the person has become homeless, and has lost the ties to society and structured life, not before). The old Republican game of turning the charge around whenever anyone criticizes your merciless cuts to social programs--"You are not solving the whole problem yourself, and 'therefore' you are a hypocrite, and you and the neo-con are 'the same' "--doesn't work the way it used to; people are getting sick of the sound of it. What is needed is for rich people to pay enough taxes, as the people want, that we can have programs, run by professionals, who might help the poor and homeless, with all of their problems. One-fourth of the homeless, 25%, work 40 hours a week, full-time, at minimum wage jobs. The only thing that will help this societal problem is a Government that wants to solve it.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

28. You hit the nail on the head

:toast:

[Name removed]

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[Ladyhawk]

45. "Help the poor and homeless with all of their problems."

Excellent point!!!

When a person is going hungry in America, there is rarely only one problem involved. Sometimes the person has physical or mental illnesses that need to be addressed. There are other problems as well. Perhaps he / she has trouble holding down a job. Why? (Sorry, I won't fall into the right-wing trap that everybody who can't hold down a job is lazy.) Simply feeding that person won't fix the situation.

[JuniperLea]

41. what am i doing? making more $ and cutting back expenses

my income has more than doubled over the past five years and i am able to afford less. i'm living cheaper, not having as much fun and pinching every penny. yes, there are opportunities and i have taken advantage of them. mostly, my job situation has grown due to my proving my worth and working very hard to keep that reputation. still, everything costs so much now! i'm living in a slum compared to where i lived five years ago, my stock portfolio is gone, my 401k is in the gutter and i have less and less to show for my hard work. my taxes have increased, my insurance (because of the god-awful neighborhood i'm forced to live in)... not to mention gasoline and food. i'm seriously considering getting a big bag of beans and another of rice! i'm not joking!! and i don't waste money! it is getting rediculous!!!

i will keep up with helping the hungry and homeless; i never give money (i barely have enough for myself, seriously!), but i give a lot of food.

[bloom]

16. "still the best country on this plante"

I don't know what your rating scale is - but most Scandinavian countries beat us on a lot of indicators. So I don't agree.

There may be a lot of super-rich people living here - but that doesn't make it the greatest. There is more disparity rich and poor - more gender disparity, etc. Some people may like that.

From what I hear there are 30,000-50,000 people dying of poverty related causes a day around the world. Part of which our gov't as well as other G8 type gov'ts are responsible for. Policies that get as much as they can for our businesses, etc.

[raccoon]

34. 'most Scandinavian countries beat us on a lot of indicators.'

Yes, and the US had no national health plan, which all these other industrialized countries do have.

[SammyWinstonJack]

17. Oh brother.

:eyes: "Be thankful God blessed you by letting you be born in our great country....." Who's feeling sorry for themselves? :shrug:

[mirandapriestly]

22. We just have more resources

if it were up to Bushco we wouldn't be much different than what you describe

[Misunderestimator]

25. LOL... WTF? You think there is no starvation here?

This is no longer the "best country on this plante"... maybe once it had a chance to be that... but your president has destroyed any hope of that ideal. :hi:

Welcome to DU...

[Terran]

30. I think you'd be hard-pressed

to come up with even one news story about an American starving to death. The point here is that we don't have people, children, dying in the streets for lack of food and water, the way some countries do. America has a lot of people who don't get enough to eat, it's true, but even the most hard-core unsheltered homeless person can always get a free meal, somewhere in the city where they live.

A place to sleep is another matter; I can come up with stories about Americans freezing to death because they didn't have shelter.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

35. We don't deny other countries are worse; we deny the BS that there

are no hungry people in 'Murika.

"even the most hard-core unsheltered homeless person can always get a free meal, somewhere in the city where they live."

that's not true-many homeless shelters do not receive adequate funds because of state and federal budget cuts under Bush. One of my friends is an assistant director at a large Boston area homeless shelter, and it's becoming tougher to feed the increasing number of people knocking at their door. Many of the homeless are mothers with children.

[Terran]

38. If you read his original post,

globe_watcher referred specifically to "starvation", not "hunger".

I think the point being missed here, over and over, is that the problems of America's poor are not nearly so critical as the those of poor in other parts of the world. I'm not trying to minimize our problems, but there are millions and millions of people living in shacks without running water all over the world. We have a comparatively small number of citizens living in such conditions here.

[Individualist]

29. Time for a reality check, Gomer

"best country on this plante". Read and learn - http://207.44.245.159/article8191.htm

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. I hear you.

While I am not living high on the hog myself, and I am maybe two paychecks away from the street, I have it so much better than millions who are on the street.

And overall our society and our government is far richer than others. If I lived in a mud-brick hovel in south Asia, I might be jealous of me, too.

[foreigncorrespondent]

18. Yes I do!

I just lost my job. A job I happened to love. I am currently living in a different country from my partner. My bills are mounting up. I am currently being tested for lymphoma. However, no matter how hard life seems to be, I know just how lucky I am to have a woman who absolutely loves me unconditionally. Not everyone in this world has that.

[seabeyond]

21. i know ....how.....damn lucky i am. yes i do.

and i say thank you all over hte place. and i do a lot ot spread my luck. at every opportunity. a lot of pass it forward. and.....i know how lucky i am that i ma in a position to do pass it forwards. we are a spoiled people.

[Terran]

33. Yes, I do, actually.

My personal luck is my daily internal mantra. I almost hate to say this, but, having been born a white male in mid-20th century USA, grown up middle class, parent not divorced...yes, I've been very very lucky. Especially when you view my demographic as a percentage of the whole world's population--hell, what were the odds I'd be born this way and grow up this way? That IS luck.

[bloom]

36. Is it luck

to live in a country that spends as much on it's military as the rest of the world?

Is it luck to live in a country that invades other countries and steals their resources?

Is it luck to live in a country that overthrows the governments of other countries because they don't cooperate with our countries companies?

Is it luck to live in a country that causes other countries to go into debt so that our countries companies can privatize their resources?

Is it luck to live in a country that subsidizes other countries companies out of business?

Is it luck to live in a country that supports corporations and industries that pollute our own resources (and the rest of the world's) - air and water and food and land?

I am not hungry. I don't have a war on my doorstep. But no - I don't feel lucky.

[Name removed]

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[Gormy Cuss]

44. What are you doing?

That's not an accusation, it's an honest question.

Too frequently I hear people say they don't know how to help. I think it's they are insulated in homogeneous communities where they don't see people in need and they live lifestyles that are insular --driving everywhere rather than walking or taking mass transit, shopping at anonymous mall stores rather than supporting the local mom & pops, not participating in civic or cultural events where the public mingles, etc.

If we aren't part of the community, we don't see the problem.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

47. I don't think he can answer you

[Gormy Cuss]

48. ..

;)

[Dervill Crow]

42. I do feel lucky, but I don't feel guilty.