As I recall, the last time this was discussed here was because of a UN report which said the US has third-world poverty.  You seem to not believe that.

I believe it's true and I believed it before the report.  I believe it because I've seen it.  You say people (like me I'm assuming) "seem to take offense." That's probably because people make arguments like yours to deny the reality of what we've seen and experienced.

What is the point of your argument?  It seems to me you're trying to "prove" that the US poor really are better off but just don't know it because they haven't experienced real poverty as it exists elsewhere.  I believe that you are absolutely wrong and you've said nothing here to convince me.

If you're making these same arguments with other people, that is why they are taking offense -- people who have experienced poverty are probably not going to react well when you tell them that, statistically, they are well off.

Further, statements along the lines of "in absolute terms things are much worse in most other countries." are, in my experience which is now backed up by UN studies, both wrong and offensive.  Why is it so important for you to believe this?  Who are you trying to help or what are you trying to accomplish with this argument?

Last time you and I went a couple of rounds on this, you conceded that dire poverty existed, but then argued that it was not on the scale of other countries.  That may be somewhat correct, statistically, but not merely the bottom 1% you stated.  Again, I'll ask what you're trying to accomplish?

Because here's the thing -- this subject comes up often when politics are being discussed.  I'll usually speak up because I'm trying to promote understanding about the political situation in the US.  Why are we so afraid?  Why have so many turned to religion?  Why do we have such a huge prison population?  Why the anger and disillusion?  

And it seems to me that our economic condition has direct bearing on the answers -- we're a country that tolerates extreme poverty and this can only be accepted by good people by promoting lies and prejudice, by saying there's some reason for letting our neighbors suffer.  So by allowing it to continue, we foster a dysfunctional political climate.  We breed fear and superstition.  These correlations have been shown to exist historically, across all cultures and time periods.

So I believe it's important to address this.  I believe that we're in the political situation we're in -- which affects the whole world -- because we've allowed cruel and intolerable poverty to exist in our society.  We've allowed others to gain great power in this way.  In my view, this can be corrected only by taking some of the power from the top and dispersing it to the bottom, equalizing things, restoring some balance, and asking the politicians who represent the people to actually work for the people, give a voice to the people, and understand the conditions the people are living in.

So I believe this to be extremely important, maybe the most important political fact in this country.  But when I'm trying to bring attention to the issue, to promote understanding, I keep running into arguments like this one whose sole purpose seems to be denying these conditions even exist.  How are we supposed to correct them then?  If we don't like the symptoms of a rigid, fearful, irrational society, shouldn't we work to change the condition that breeds those symptoms?  If that condition is poverty, is it helpful to keep denying it exists here?

Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes

But it seems as if the poor in Poland eat and house better or as well as the poor in the US, even if a good trailor might be "more advanced" than a rural old house in Poland. We will say what kind of story it will become to heat your house or mobile home in the US winters to come. I guess Polish people might be more energy independent, as they might have more old fashionen coal- or wood burning stoves?

Nobody imposed its fascist, communist or otherwise authoritarian ideology with military force upon the US, still they have a substantial underclass and for the time being a middle class who is spiraling downwards in the last years.

Whereas many people expect from a former comunist country that its population is poor compared to a democratic Western European county or vis a vis the US, most people don't expect to find pretty constant and mostly overlooked poverty and usually denied by the media and all of the people, who don't count themselves as poor in the US. The US poverty is self-made, self-inflicted by its specific political system of a federal democracy and its history, I think, whereas Poland was overun and exploited by outside ideological forces that were imposed on them for several decades.

You think I am about right in this?

Seriously, while it's fascinating to learn all of this about conditions in Poland (and I do mean that honestly) again, there's no real reason to keep making these statements about it being "worse" than in the US.  Your statements about the US aren't accurate.

First, what you say about education is also true here -- for all intents and purposes, higher education is simply out of reach for a big chunk of people here.  I've noticed the same things you speak of in Poland -- the really exceptional kids can make it sometimes.  Also, especially in the inner-cities, it's difficult for kids to even remain in high school.  I read recently that New Orleans had about a 40% illiteracy rate.  As you say, think about that.

Healthcare here is non-existent for a lot of people as well.  We have 45 million uninsured.  That means not on Medicare or Medicaid either.  Although those technically cover "the poor," it is difficult to qualify for them.  More and more frequently, even on one of those you can't find doctors who accept the coverage.  Healthcare is probably our most egregious failure.

I don't know how widespread the housing problem is and how it would compare.  In my county in the Pacific Northwest, we estimate over 8000 homeless on any given night.  I haven't kept up on the situations with HUD and public housing, but I do know that some of the drug laws are disqualifying more and more people from the little asisstance available.

Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes