[quote=CONCHO]Americans love to pretend to care about poor people in other countries while being openly hostile towards poor people in their own country. Poor people in other countries need help via globalization to be “lifted up”. Poor people in our own country are poor because they are stupid, lazy, have made bad decisions, or have joined unions. For the very tiny minority of poor people here in the USA that aren’t stupid or lazy and haven’t made bad decisions or joined a union, well, being poor here in the USA is the price that must be paid so that poor people in other countries can be made less poor via the magic of globalization. Someday the rising tide will lift their boat as well. Perhaps when they are 95.[/quote]

The issue, of course, is that “poor” is a relative term. There are probably 3 billion (or more) folks on this planet that would gladly trade places with a “poor” person here in the U.S. After all, living in “poverty” in the U.S. is a far stretch better than living on $2 a day in some far flung corner of the world. I’m certain that someone transported from 1900 would be (pleasantly) shocked at how well the poor have it in the U.S. in 2010. I certainly wouldn’t want to be poor in any country, but if I had to choose a spot it would be in a developed country.