Nice People Thread Number 11 - A Treasury of Nice People

Generali

purch wrote: »

Go to bed then

I've got the kids to feed first!

PasturesNew

Generali wrote: »

I've got the kids to feed first!

Beans on toast or a fish finger sandwich. Then bark a warning at them ... and send them to bed.

vivatifosi

Do you remember the post (I think it may have been Spirit who posted) a few pages back about the child workers in the USA in the tobacco fields?

I'm doing an online course at the moment on globalisation and this morning have been learning how many people in the world live in extreme poverty.

What shocked me was this statistic:
In the USA 4m people live in extreme poverty, defined as on less than $2 per day.

I think at times our safety net is abused, but I'm glad it exists when I read things like that about a developed country. I hope that can't happen here.

Generali

PasturesNew wrote: »

Beans on toast or a fish finger sandwich. Then bark a warning at them ... and send them to bed.

It'll be bacon and pea risotto. Its doesn't take much longer and the kids can have a bath, and thus leave me alone, whilst it cooks.

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

In the USA 4m people live in extreme poverty, defined as on less than $2 per day.

I think at times our safety net is abused, but I'm glad it exists when I read things like that about a developed country. I hope that can't happen here.

Some years back one of my online friends, in NY, lost his job. He then qualified for X weeks of benefits.... at the end of that time he'd have got nothing. At the end of that time he'd have been evicted from his flat, lost everything he owned, and been living on the streets. He got down to his last payment ..... and was about to commit suicide when he landed another job, at the very last minute..... (and yes, he'd have done it).

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

Do you remember the post (I think it may have been Spirit who posted) a few pages back about the child workers in the USA in the tobacco fields?

I'm doing an online course at the moment on globalisation and this morning have been learning how many people in the world live in extreme poverty.

What shocked me was this statistic:
In the USA 4m people live in extreme poverty, defined as on less than $2 per day.

I think at times our safety net is abused, but I'm glad it exists when I read things like that about a developed country. I hope that can't happen here.

I'd be very interested to see how that is calculated. There are a lot of very dodgy statistics regarding poverty.


For example, last week the number of Indians living in absolute poverty (<$1.25/day) fell from about 400,000,000 to about 100,000, 000.

http://www.cgdev.org/blog/global-absolute-poverty-fell-almost-half-tuesday

Most poverty stats measure income distribution rather than poverty as such.

I'm incredibly dubious about that number. In most of the US you'd be dead next winter if you were genuinely living on so little.

Generali

PasturesNew wrote: »

I believe it. There are some very poverty-stricken regions and pockets throughout every area. We don't see them on the telly ....

True but 4000000 living on $700/year or less?

CKhalvashi

vivatifosi wrote: »

Do you remember the post (I think it may have been Spirit who posted) a few pages back about the child workers in the USA in the tobacco fields?

I'm doing an online course at the moment on globalisation and this morning have been learning how many people in the world live in extreme poverty.

What shocked me was this statistic:
In the USA 4m people live in extreme poverty, defined as on less than $2 per day.

I think at times our safety net is abused, but I'm glad it exists when I read things like that about a developed country. I hope that can't happen here.

In fairness, this looks the case here until about 2001/2 (click the second link (it says 1998-2012 at the end).

Then consider that only 45% of the country is in the workforce, and you're looking at maybe 2006-2007 (the Lari has stayed relatively consistent at 1.5-1.75 to the US$)

Also bear in mind that in such countries, there is money being send inwards from elsewhere, with family members working abroad.

Around €250 (the current 'average' monthly salary after tax) doesn't sound a lot, but when you've taken into account that most things are very cheap, people are having money sent in from Russia/Europe/USA and that maybe 50% of the work done in-country wasn't declared (although this figure is going down since 2005, with the new simple tax rules), there's a lot more than that floating around.

Generali wrote: »

True but 4000000 living on $700/year or less?

In the USA? I don't believe that either, as presumably those completely dependent on benefits would have that included?!

Generali

CKhalvashi wrote: »

In fairness, this looks the case here until about 2001/2 (click the second link (it says 1998-2012 at the end).

Then consider that only 45% of the country is in the workforce, and you're looking at maybe 2006-2007 (the Lari has stayed relatively consistent at 1.5-1.75 to the US$)

Also bear in mind that in such countries, there is money being send inwards from elsewhere, with family members working abroad.

Around €250 (the current 'average' monthly salary after tax) doesn't sound a lot, but when you've taken into account that most things are very cheap, people are having money sent in from Russia/Europe/USA and that maybe 50% of the work done in-country wasn't declared (although this figure is going down since 2005, with the new simple tax rules), there's a lot more than that floating around.



In the USA? I don't believe that either, as presumably those completely dependent on benefits would have that included?!

For a start if you were living in the north you'd die in the first winter as you couldn't afford fuel on that income.

purch

PasturesNew wrote: »

Some years back one of my online friends, in NY, lost his job. He then qualified for X weeks of benefits.... at the end of that time he'd have got nothing. At the end of that time he'd have been evicted from his flat, lost everything he owned, and been living on the streets. He got down to his last payment ..... and was about to commit suicide when he landed another job, at the very last minute..... (and yes, he'd have done it).

I used to know this bloke who once worked on large construction projects, often on a seasonable basis, and he told me that the best place to lose your job and "sign on" was Connecticut as they paid the most out in State benefits over and above the Federal benefits.

He also said that you could claim in a State that was not the state you were employed in, although I am not sure if that is correct.

As an Employer I had to pay in FUTA at 3% plus the additional State levy on payroll, but this then reduced if after 12 months no ex employees made a claim against my account, it reduced further over time if the same claim free status persisted, but could increase if claim(s) were made.

AFAIK employees can make a claim that can include up to their last 3 employers, prior to them losing their job, so it is possible for an employers "account" to be reduced by payments made for an employee who left of their own free will, and then took a job which they subsequently lost.

It's a wierd system, compared to what we are used to.