I don’t think you are Shieldmaiden. We have several versions of poverty. There is the upper class welfare, section 8 poor… who do way better than their European equivelents, but we also have a deep rural, rustic form of poverty. They are next to no jobs in these areas, not much infrastructure to speak of, some areas have nothing resembling houses. These communities inherited their poverty and ignorance. That’s what our Habitat for Humanity programs try to target… not just your well to do off, Democrat Party dependencies, but those untouched areas.
Why do they exist? A lot of these communities are a few hundred years old, make the Beverly Hillbillies look cosmopolitan. They have no education to speak of, are borderline Moorish (not the Ethnicity, the term we gave to run away slave communities in the western hemisphere), regardless of race. If they come into contact with the educational system, they leave very early on.
I live in West Virginia, in the industrialized Northern Panhandle. We very, very rarely see these people. I’ve seen men in their fourties struggle with filling out their first job applications, shocked so much information is required. They come from who the fuck knows where… good at tanning and hunting and fishing, not much else. I don’t think our postal system is aware of their communities, and our tax agencies don’t even bother (thanks for paying your taxes in deer hides you wretches, but we take cash only).
Think Crocadile Dundee, but completely isolated, illiterate, rustic, literally no clue. So just building a proper house out of wood and nails like everyone else’s ancestors did is out of the question, as their people were not taught this skill set.
Another component are people who dropped out very early in school, and are illiterate. I’ve tried to teach a handyman how to read on his lunch breaks at a old job, kept finding excuses. He was upset they only let him work outside, not inside… if you worked inside, you had to read lists and answer questions involving looking up directories or reading slips. He felt he was too old to learn, stayed outside in the brutal winter. His wife handled the finances… mildly retarded but could read.
We also have a nomadic criminal underclass. Zoots Allure is being inducted into it. They more or less become outcasts in a liberal society. Many have skill sets as Mr. Fix Its after a while, get hired out on odd jobs here or there.
We also have a really fucked up illegal immigrant problem, people in many part of the country are priced out of work wage wise, but required to account for their income and pay taxes. They end up on welfare, or worst, not on it. These people, like Goofy here (Joker) start to evolve into that first group. He might build a wall cabin, but not a real house. He can hunt, but don’t expect him to lash a like to a plow and farm on some hidden feral land. He more than likely lacks this skill set, isn’t well aware if it’s strengths and weaknesses outside a pop culture understanding. So he sits on the periphial of a monued economy.
You, Shieldmaiden, live in the most urbanized country on the planet, and it possesses a lot if economic redundancy for such people who fall. Its harder in the states because of how far flung and hard to unify these groups are, and how quick they are to slink back into the background static of nowhere.
The poor you know of from TV, do a lot better than mist nations poor, including European countries. Default, proven. Long known, acknowledged by most economists… but you gotta get onto that payroll doll in the first place. Many can’t, or don’t care to for whatever reason. In anchorage, there was a whole abandoned overgrown park inhabited by injured people who couldn’t convince their doctors to put them on workmans compensation, serious injuries, written off as frauds and fakers. 10 year life expectancy in Alaska to survive if homeless, good chance most I knew are dead now.
In Australia, you have islands to exile your illigal immigrant problems to, or send your poor off to fuck the ecosystem up somewhere. Your not more enlightened, just much smaller and problems less well known. I thank Jared Diamond for initially thinking the light on your wretched little country, allowed me to research it over the years. Makes for some pleasant retorts to your absurd nationalism.
