"If you work hard and play by the rules, you ought to have a decent life and a chance for your children to have a better one," President Bill Clinton once famously declared. Yet America is no longer the best place for those born poor to live out the American Dream. According to some studies, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and much of Western Europe offer their citizens a much higher degree of economic mobility. The impoverished in the U.S., on the other hand, are more likely to stay poor, while rich Americans stay rich — bad news for a country grounded in a much-vaunted "classless" society and one of presidential hopeful Rick Santorum's talking points on the campaign trail. Is economic mobility in the U.S. a myth?
The American nightmare: What happened to economic mobility in the U.S.? - The Week
Gee I notice on thing about all those Countries that have better Economic Mobility than the US, that they all don't do, that we do.
None of them are allowing a Steady and sizable flow of Very poor, Uneducated people immigrants to come into their Countries.
I am not saying we should only Take in the Rich and Educated, Of Course not. However it is simple math really, If you allow a very large Flow of Poor and Uneducated Immigrants to stream into a Country, it is going to increase the % of people in that country who are poor, It's going to adversely effect the so called Economic Mobility of the Country. You can't argue with that.
The Facts are this.
Yes there are more poor than Ever in this Country.
Yes the Rich are getting Richer, as they do in every single Nation on Earth, even the most Communist of them.
However it is also true that several Studies, one I sited just a month ago but am not going to dig up after 14 Hours at work, show that fully 2/3rds of todays poor are "New poor" and nearly 3/4 of those people counted as in Poverty 20 years ago, have risen Above that level, and I believe it said something like 50% of those have moved all the way to Upper Middle Class or Higher. They simply have been replaced by new poor.
It is also a undeniable fact that what passes for Poor in America is a Joke to a good portion of the world. Most of the worlds Poor would think they had died and gone to heaven if they lived as well as Americas poor. Only a very small % of the people counted as poor in America are truly poor by world Standards, or even those of the Countries you Mentioned.
I am sorry it may sound Heartless, But Before you judge know that I have been poor in the Past, and right now my family of 4 with one of our Children being special Needs is just bearly above the "Poor standard in America" so I am not some heartless rich asshole.
That said, I am sorry but poor is not wondering if you can make rent, Or afford Groceries, when you have 4 TVs, Cable TV, Internet, Smart Phones, and spend 10 Bucks a Day on Cigarets, Poor is not Living in poor conditions when you spend a thousand Dollars a Month on your Drug of Choice. Those things are not Being Poor, they are being Selfish, and having Poor Priorities.
You know which group of People tends to do the best at rising from Extremely Poor to Rich? Care to Venture a Guess? You bet you, it's Immigrants. Illegal or not. Why, Because they know what ******* Real Poverty is, and they are not going to sit on the Couch stuffing their Faces with 4 Dollar bags of Chips, Watching their 1500 Dollar TV, and ******* cry about how unfair our Country is, and how the Government should do more to help. **** no, they come from Countries where the Government is the Last ******* place you turn to for Help. They get off their assess and go out and work their ******* figures to the Bone to get out of Poverty. That is how you get the Hell out Of Poverty. Not waiting around for Hand outs.
If you Liberals are not Careful you are going to Break the Whole System, and then we will really see what it's like to be Poor, all of us.
America can not be the Worlds Economic Life Raft. We can't be the Place the World sends the People it can't feed, or Educate, or House. Not with out some sort of Controls, And Balance. Or America Will simply Collapse under the Weight, and sink like any Life Raft that get's over loaded, or in this Case loaded to quickly.