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Comment count is 8
joelkazoo - 2011-08-08

Not working for you?:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/393168/ july-26-2011/-poor--in-america

Get rid of spaces, etc.


takewithfood - 2011-08-08

Canadian?

http://tinyurl.com/3eqtxmn


John Holmes Motherfucker - 2011-08-08

So this study covers people who are getting assistance? I didn't pick up on this before. It bypasses the working poor. In America, the working poor are the REAL poor. Actually, the people in this study probably DO have health insurance.


Void 71 - 2011-08-08

I'm going to go off on a semi-dramatic tangent.

This demographic has always been ignored. I grew up in eastern Tennessee and their dilapidated trailers line the Appalachian mountains from Alabama to West Virginia. Scottish, Irish, German: these are my people. Some of them fit the lazy meth-addled white trash stereotype, but the bulk of them are blue collar working class people who barely make ends meet because of the grim job prospects in that area of the country.

Growing up, I was told stories of the Appalachian mine wars of the 19th and early 20th century. These people still remember the Pinkertons. They still remember how their ancestors got into shooting wars with the mine owners. They rightly feel marginalized and forgotten, and I really believe that if anything is going to touch off in this country, it's going to start in the mountains. I can feel it in the air whenever I go back home to visit.

Uh, viva la revolucion or something.


Old_Zircon - 2011-08-08

Also, there's the issue of relative poverty. Hell, I make about 11k a year (and receive no state or federal aid of any kind, other than basic health insurance) and one of my best friends makes close to 40k, but because he needs a car to get to work and lives alone (in a much smaller apartment in a much poorer neighborhood) the percentage of his income that goes to bare necessities (food, transport, housing and utilities) is actually HIGHER than mine most of the time. It's interesting how that works.


CrimsonHyperSloth - 2011-08-08

Dear God, I wish I could like off 11K. Even living in Canada my diabetes costs too much.


baleen - 2011-08-08

Void 71, I agree with you there.


Toenails - 2011-08-09

Mr. Motherfucker, please know that I think you are a swell guy, but saying that a certain group of people are the real poor makes you look like the same kind of asshole that Colbert is mocking.

That said, I know where you are coming from with that statement as I am a working poor person myself (around 14k a year and that's with two jobs), but I do work with people who's only source of income is either SSI or Welfare and there but for the grace of God go I.


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