Originally posted by: pallavi25
Republicans are trying their best to cut down funding for the schools, cut funds for free lunch programs, for medical care for the poor, they HAVE already cut funds in many states and trying to cut more.
"Working your way up, pulling yourself up by ur bootstraps" are very easy things to say and do when you are young, healthy and able to work...but what abt the disabled? What abt the injured veterans of war?
What abt old impoverished people who have no kids to look after them? I have seen 70 yr old men and women who can barely stand, working minimum wage jobs at Walmart. They live a life of genteel poverty till they die from lack of medical care.
Healthcare is so damn expensive here, poor people cannot even think of it, and even middle class people can barely afford doctors fees and medicines!
At least in India, medical care is much much cheaper than in the West.
Cut down funding for schools...at least there ARE schools for free.
Cut down funding for free lunches. At least there's something CALLED FREE LUNCHES that exist for children who are from underprivileged backgrounds.
Is there free schooling in India and Pakistan PERIOD?
I mean sure, we can get nitty gritty and nit pick the US apart because of conservative republicans, but honestly compared to other countries, its' FAR AHEAD. I mean you're talking about the marginalized groups in the US...well in India and Pakistan, the majority is under poverty line! Allah jaane what is happening to disable in Pakistan and India if we're complaining about war veterans and disabled in the states.
An old man on minimum wage can at least feed himself SOMETHING. A $1 burger from McDonalds may not be the healthiest and they're probably malnutrition, but compare that to the HOARDS for families in the slums of India and Pakistan drinking dirty water and not having eaten for days.
While I understand that every country has its evils, I've lived on both sides of the equation. I've lived in Pakistan and yes I've seen the impoverished parts of the states as well.
Let me tell you. You're more likely to EAT in the US than in Pakistan and India. Where you'll probably die on the streets of hunger and diseases. You say you can afford a meal in Asian countries for less than a dollar...but they don't earn dollars there. That' easy to say for us because we earn in dollars. Do you know what the poor earn compared to the food prices in Pakistan and India? Compared to that, the food is actually quite expensive in those places.
At least in the U.S. from minimum wage, you can eat something. You won't go completely hungry.
For the sake of argument compare able bodied kids, ok? Coz we can start delving into specifics and marginalized groups and yada yada but every country has enough shadows there.
13 year old able bodied poor kid in the US vs Pakistan/India..ok?
Lets take a 13 year old Latino male in the ghettos of LA. Are circumstances hard? yes. Very. He has distractions, probably violence around him. Drug history.
But is it POSSIBLE for him to go to school? Yes. If he wanted, had the will power, could he graduate? Difficult but theoretically possible.
Let's take a 13 year old Pakistani boy from a poor family on the streets.
Can he go to school? NO.
He can't. He physically literally theoretically can't. Coz DECENT education in those countries cost money and families don't have money. That kid is actually stuck in a much more difficult life style than the 13 year old poor kid in the States.
In that case, I'd say the US is better.
I've even seen mentally disabled workers working at one of the fast food joints in the mall. I mean, come on...how amazing is that?
My uncle was jobless for 7 years. But the government support was enough for him to feed his family and keep them under a roof. Mashallah, now he's doing well again.
We came from NOTHING when we moved to the states. My dad found a mattress on the streets and we put sheets on it and slept on that in an empty apartment our first few months as a family.
But my brother and I went to school. Because we could. Because nothing could stop us. Things were hard for my dad, but for his children, the education as equal as the next kid. I think that's pretty amazing.
I agree with your stance on medical care though.
Edited by desigal90 - 10 years ago
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