Don't sick and/or get accident if you don't have money

[desertdarlene]

Quote:
Gee, I didn't know that you could get all that on 10K a year. 10K a year, by the way, is considered the poverty level for a single person in the United States. I make more than that, but I can't afford even a 1 bedroom apartment and barely can afford a car, either.

 

[welsummerchicks]

Sounds like someone is reading census data again...it's misleading.

Three bedroom house? A car? Food on the table every day?

Um...I don't even live in a 3 bedroom house, LOL.

The poor Americans I've met, don't own cars and 3 bedroom houses and food every day, much less an air conditioner.

I DO know people who have multiple cars, large houses and eat every day and REFER to themselves as poor...I know people who make close to six figures and complain about how hard it is to raise a large family on that.

But the poor people I've met in the USA, they don't live like that.

Poverty isn't that plush in America, I've done volunteer work with some really poor people in the US and it is a pretty serious eye opener.

The health issues, as well as the general problems of poverty in the USA and other countries really are not that easy to characterize, summarize....or solve. People are not poor due to a single reason or cause, and there is not just one thing that keeps people poor, and there is no one miracle answer that will erase it.

If it were that simple, it would have been wiped out hundreds of years ago.

 

[Dunkopf]

You're spot on there. Everyone (myself included) tends to want to put everyone in a box. People living in poverty end up in the "They are too lazy to work and would rather collect welfare box". Some belong in that box. A lot don't belong in that box. It's human nature. I wish the solutions were easy. Some countries just don't worry about it. Most people wouldn't want to live in those countries. I hope this country doesn't end up being one of those countries. Right now we have a lot of people that would like to see that happen.

 

[welsummerchicks]

When I was working in Hillsdale County, Michigan, I was pretty shocked at what I saw. There really are very poor people in America. It's really the kids that broke my heart the most.

I think the idea that 'people' who are poor deserve to be poor and it's their fault, it just is a more comfortable idea to have. It manages a lot of otherwise uncomfortable feelings.

 

[mulia24]

Quote:
in here, a "plain" visit to "general doctor" would cost about $6 and trust me $6 is VERY VALUABLE for most people in my country. since that's about 1 day salary of common worker. by the way, salary here is not based on hours of work, but based on day. while work hour per day is defined off course by the boss, but it's about 8-12 hours. (just FYI)

hmm, because they did business.

Quote:
Gee, I didn't know that you could get all that on 10K a year. 10K a year, by the way, is considered the poverty level for a single person in the United States. I make more than that, but I can't afford even a 1 bedroom apartment and barely can afford a car, either.

most of us even got salary under $3000/year

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Just to give a little prespectave...

I make just over $6K a year, own a 3 bedroom on about 3 acres and own a car. I have never had to go without food but you wont find many name brands in my kitchen. I have Medicaid an know I could not do without it. Other than dental I have never had any issue with getting any treatment I needed.

Could I live on what I make in the city? No.
Could I afford a house or car payment? No.

So I see my self as very well off, cause I am in a place that makes what I make enough.

 

[PineappleMama]

Not here, but elsewhere, I've heard a Canadian complain (ended up dying actually) and several Brits say they were perfectly okay with their system... so just based on those opinions I'd be leaning more towards the UK's way, but I don't live there so I can't know what it's truly like to be a patient there OR to be a citizen paying for that service. And it's hard to calculate exactly (so as to compare it to what we here in the US pay) because their system takes money in taxes for medical and retirement together... from what I gathered we could pull off a similar system here... basically the bill just gets sent to the gov't but anyone can pay for private insurance, private hospitals, private doctors if they wish to.. and do it for not much more (if more at all) than we're already paying for health care in it's various forms... Medicare, Medicaid, Tax breaks for doctors, practices, and hospitals who write off bad debts, insurance breaks, breaks for insurance payments/savings, and so on... it's REALLY complicated so it's hard to get concrete numbers.

But then, I rather think the politicians like it that way so they can keep us in the dark and thinking we NEED them...

Paranoid Pineapple.

Quote:
Rebel... didn't you get the memo? Nowadays 'living within your means' is blasphemy in the US...
Everyone, even an unemployed (by choice cuz sittin' on your arse drinking beer is more fun) moron is OWED a nice house in whatever school district they want, Tivo, DSL, a cell phone in every pocket, flat screen plasmas and a beemer...

 

[ChicksterJo]

Quote:
I have family in the Philippines and an aunt who makes perhaps $5 a day as a security guard at a Costco-like store. I visited there after 16 years of not seeing them, and it was a real eye opener, just like it was a real eye opener when I went to visit Memphis. I also lived in the south side of Chicago (albeit the "nicer" side even though the boundaries are fluid) and have seen poverty there as well.

 

[PineappleMama]

A day's pay to go to the doctor... well for DH that'd be 85.00 or so (after taxes)... and the local Care Now charges $95 so... yeah that's about what it is here too. The numbers are bigger, but the ratio is the same.

 

[Matthew3590]

Quote:
never looked at it that way. Like how price of milk is higher now than 50 years ago, but so is minimum wage.