>Having read a book from a dutch reporter who has lived in the US for about two decades, the poverty *IS* caused by your political system. It is quite the opposite to the american dream (commming to america with nothing and get rich eventually).
For anyone who didn't see Eddie Izzard's "Dressed to kill"... "the American dream is to get all the money in the world, stuff it in your ears and go pfzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!"
>...Also, as discussed in an other thread, abortion was not legalized before 1970 (only three states, 1973 others followed), making the financial future for single mothers and their children almost inmediately impossible.
Becoming impossible again, if the current nomenclature gets to see it wishes come true.
>...making it impossible to do something about the situation: There is no public nor political support for doing something about poverty.
There are some deeply ingrained prejudices here (coming from "everyone for himself" as Tom described), one of which is that the poor have nobody else but themselves to blame. If you're poor or sick, it's your bad karma. It's god's punishment. You've done something to deserve it.
Of course, nobody wants to dig into what goodly deeds have the rich done to deserve their riches. Most of the initial accumulation of capital was done by robbery, tricking people (including, first, American Americans) out of their wealth etc. See the "robber barons" era.
>The other side is that you'll see a lot of charity in the US for those people who are in a difficult situation.
The nice thing about charity is that it helps a day or two (these being Thanksgiving and Christmas), but rarely does something to change the status of the recipients. I haven't heard the expression "charity industry" anywhere else.
While charity surely helps to an extent, it doesn't solve anything. Worse, it gives the state the excuse to do nothing about most of the poverty issues, but rather pour some money into charities.
> America is the only western country where the churches are filled. In all other countries the churches get emptier and emptier.
Nobody told them that they don't have to do this anymore... communism is forgotten :).
Another reason why there are still so many people in the churches is the lack of streets and squares for pedestrians. Anywhere in Europe, you walk to this or that and you meet people. In the States, there's nothing in walkable distance (except in NY city) from your home, so your walk is from the door to the car. You don't meet people anywhere. So you go to church just to see other people. And while you're at it, listen to the priestperson.
