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How poor is the average American?
(lemmy.ml)
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this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
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There's just a lot of inequality in the US that is both socially and politically unacceptable in the rest of the developed world. Extremes are more accepted here.
There are more extremely rich people than you would see in other Western countries and and many, many more extremely poor people than in other Western countries. Alleviating that would mean implementing policies to redistribute wealth that many Americans are not willing to implement, especially conservatives.
The US basically sacrifices the good of the many for the great of the few.
And they manage to get poor people on board by tying their policies to Jesus and Family Values. And it works like a charm and it’s so weird.
Which seems even stranger. In many other countries, Christians vote left of center to promote economic equality, reduce poverty, get green policies to protect God's green earth, make sure that everyone has universal access to healthcare and education, etc.
In the US, they vote oppotite of that.
Because if you're poor, it's because Jesus is punishing you for something. (This is a slight exaggeration of the mindset.)
For showing my point I like the joke that was made of the pastor in Katrina turning down help from the coast guard three times because God will save me, then drowning, getting to the pearly gates and asking why he wasn't saved. The response was "I tried three times. You didn't get on any of the helicopters I sent to save you." There are direct parallels to religious figures claiming God will save them from COVID and not wearing masks or getting vaccines or anything, then dieing of COVID not months later. And those weren't jokes. They were in the news...
Religion is taught very poorly here in a lot of places, and it's very predatory in a lot of the US. Any religious television here is only a scam.
Every American is a rich man who is temporarily down on his luck and making big societal changes would screw them over when they finally get their money.
I forget who said it, "The poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."
"Limitless wealth, hand in hand with limitless poverty"