Guess what... things aren't that bad in the US. _____ The Richest 1% in the World Did you make $34,000 last year? If so, congratulations! You're now part of the richest 1% in the world. Economist Branko Milanovic puts it all in perspective: The true global middle class, falls far short of owning a home, having a car in a driveway, saving for retirement and sending their kids to college. In fact, people at the world's true middle -- as defined by median income -- live on just $1,225 a year. (And, yes, Milanovic's numbers are adjusted to account for different costs of living across the globe.) In the grand scheme of things, even the poorest 5% of Americans are better off financially than two thirds of the entire world. link
Irrelevant. Third world countries distort this comparison since they have way higher rate of natural increase than we do and obviously nearly all of their citizens are going to have lower incomes than we do. I've always hated this type of logic. You're poor, racking up hundreds of thousands in debt, and live off welfare checks but stop feeling sorry for yourself and complaining because you're not a starving person in Africa.
To provide another irrelevant statistic, because we are alive, we are doing better than the 101,000,000,000 humans who have likely died since the origin of the human race. Evey person living on the planet is part of the 6.5%. So, I guess you are right, no one on this planet has anything to complain about. Not the kids who are currently starving, the women who are currently being raped, the orphaned children whose parents died in conflict, or the families who have had their children taken, and sure as hell not the American who is working 12 hours a day just to pay the bills so his kids can eat - it could be worse and they have no reason to complain. http://www.prb.org/articles/2002/howmanypeoplehaveeverlivedonearth.aspx
While I agree with the premise in general, I don't think the specific numbers are useful because they don't account for cost of living. If you make $20,000 here vs $10,000 in Africa, the person in Africa may actually have a better standard of living because housing, food, etc is cheaper.
love the backpedaling from the left don't want to be associated with being in the top 1% of the world? Has Oblamer made you to believe that being in the top 1% is shameful? come on in boys, the water's fine
Perhaps it was just assumed you were poor since you've got 22,000+ posts but haven't found the extra cash to chip in to help Clutch fund the site.
How is this irrelevant?? The fact is most Americans are much better off than the world average. The fact remains that the standard of living between the "poor" americans are not that vastly different than the 1%. (most) poor americans have a good meal everyday. They have entertainment; tvs, radios, internet, ect. They have automobiles. They still take vacations. Face it, poor Americans still live pretty damn good compared to the true poor people of the world and centuries past.
You're right. Let's compare ourselves to third world countries. We're not starving and dying in the (dirt) streets en masse so we should be satisfied with the state of our economy and the massive income gap. This information is presented to guilt trip poor people into being satisfied and is a straw man intended to distract from the rapidly increasing income gap between our country's poor and our rich. Although I did spot this gem, might be what KingCheetah is referencing, but of course it seems like his intent was otherwise: Another one:
No way. Disease is far more prevalent in Africa. That's a place where children die most commonly from diarrhea, malnutrition and HIV/AIDS.
Just because conditions are so messed up in the rest of the world should not be an excuse for the American people to give up fighting hard for what they have earned. Corporations given free reign around the Third World have dumped nuclear waste on Somalia, crippled Third World nations with vulture funds that engage in frivolous debt litigation, and driven their workers to suicide. That shouldn't be an excuse to tell Americans to shut up and take it. It should be a rallying call to fight for themselves, and those who are much more unfortunate.
Wallerstein's World Systems theory is spot on with what is going on right now. 1st world countries can buy resources (human labor) at extremely cheap prices whilst selling goods to 3rd world countries at high prices. It ensures that economic growth and purchasing power will never rise in these third world countries (known as periphery countries).
and should not be an excuse for Americans to give up fighting hard for what someone else have earned.
I agree. Those who own capital will never give up their claims on those who do things with it. It is foolhardy to think otherwise---which is why labour protection retrenchment must be fought tooth and nail.
So what's stopping the US from subsidizing human labor to compete with outsourced labor and/or slapping tariffs on outsourced goods/labor? I have not taken a formal class on macroeconomics yet so threads like this interest me, I just don't know enough to contribute as much as I would like to.
