BBC One tonight: Poor America

pqrdef

elantan wrote: »

two totally different kinds of poverty and although the Gambians had alot less i would rather experience their poverty than U.S poverty

i do however think that the poverty that british citizens will experience would be more similar to the U.S than the Gambians ...

In the Gambia, most people don't have any capital and don't need any.

But the American lifestyle can't be lived on a day to day basis. You need capital assets and money in the bank. If you haven't got them up front, you play the credit card and get into debt. But if you can't even borrow, you can't live the life. Social exclusion is now your lot.

Hence the squalor. That's what happens when people don't have to worry about social acceptability. They won't be inviting the relatives round, so why bother cleaning up.

What's happening in America, and Britain, is that we are reintroducing a caste system. This ensures that the comfortably off can pass on their privileges to their offspring even if their offspring turn out to be talentless.

So we want to have social exclusion and are actively working to create more of it. Well they deserve it, don't they, they must do.

elantan

i think its also the mindset of the differnt people tbh.... just my observations of various things i have noticed/experienced etc ...

although alot of the comfortably off cant always pass things to their offspring here, especially if the older generation require care homes, their assets ( usually their home) goes to pay for their care

pineapple

For me, the strange thing is the view some Americans have of our circumstances in the UK. Yes I know things aren't good but on international forums I have been offered food parcels by concerned Americans - even a home!! One even told me she heard we had been driven to catching squirrels for food :eek::eek::eek:

pqrdef

pineapple wrote: »

One even told me she heard we had been driven to catching squirrels for food

Must have been watching Ray Mears, or maybe Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Wait until she hears about the snail porridge.

The_White_Horse

i think this is time for a White Horse interlude. this may shock some of you but I am a big believer in the NHS. it is extremely important and must never disappear. there must always be free medical care available at the point where it is needed.

HOWEVER.

where I do have big issues is in how the NHS is run, how many employees it has, why it wastes 65m a year on translation services, why it got involved in PFI, why it treats medical tourists, why it offers sex change ops and tattoo removal.

there are many many things wrong with it, but overall it must stay.

as far as hostpitals are concerned, why are they built by private companies for 3bn and then the NHS is expected to pay 20bn over 30 years? hospitals should be built out of govt funds, mortgage free. better they spend 3bn on a new hospital than on public sector pensions and other nonsense.
if they want private companies to get involved - then let them run streamlined clinics that deal with one area only that currently costs hospitals a lot of time and space, and then pay them for each job done.


the NHS needs to change its ways dramatically, but it needs to stay.

Norfolk_Jim

The_White_Horse wrote: »

i think this is time for a White Horse interlude. this may shock some of you but I am a big believer in the NHS. it is extremely important and must never disappear. there must always be free medical care available at the point where it is needed.

HOWEVER.

where I do have big issues is in how the NHS is run, how many employees it has, why it wastes 65m a year on translation services, why it got involved in PFI, why it treats medical tourists, why it offers sex change ops and tattoo removal.

there are many many things wrong with it, but overall it must stay.

as far as hostpitals are concerned, why are they built by private companies for 3bn and then the NHS is expected to pay 20bn over 30 years? hospitals should be built out of govt funds, mortgage free. better they spend 3bn on a new hospital than on public sector pensions and other nonsense.
if they want private companies to get involved - then let them run streamlined clinics that deal with one area only that currently costs hospitals a lot of time and space, and then pay them for each job done.


the NHS needs to change its ways dramatically, but it needs to stay.

Good God, a reasonable and well considered post from the Horse. Again and again I find myself in agreement with you. Now if only you could moderate your hatred of the public sector and the unemployed and the poor I could agree even more with you. Good post Mr Horse

blacksta

USA land of the great. Why are you failing the poor

suburbanwifey

I love America but documentaries like this highlight why I would never want to live there. The consequences to job loss in the USA can be catastrophic, there is no security blanket like in the UK. We pay through the nose for it (taxes and NIC) but I'd rather that and have the NHS than live in the USA and face that if things went pear shaped. The divide between rich and poor is huge in the USA. I have seen such poverty when there, at a level one would not expect in the richest country in the world. The 1% have it made, the other 99%, I wouldn't want to be one of them.

wellused

pineapple wrote: »

For me, the strange thing is the view some Americans have of our circumstances in the UK. Yes I know things aren't good but on international forums I have been offered food parcels by concerned Americans - even a home!! One even told me she heard we had been driven to catching squirrels for food :eek::eek::eek:

In my experience Americans have a very strange view of the outside world I have even heard the opinion expressed that all British people have "bad teeth", the only explanation I can give for that is because the British people they see on tv don't have brilliant white teeth.

blacksta

wellused wrote: »

In my experience Americans have a very strange view of the outside world I have even heard the opinion expressed that all British people have "bad teeth", the only explanation I can give for that is because the British people they see on tv don't have brilliant white teeth.

lol I need to see a dentist