Chinese Discuss Pictures of American Poverty

A black man in a white shirt living in a dark house.

The house he lives in has no door, only a very small window, the interior is completely dark.

From Sina:

Revealing Prosperous and Powerful America’s Impoverished Other Side

America, the world’s premier economic, political, and military superpower. Upon mentioning the US, I think that the most people would give it a great deal of reverence. The towering skyscrapers and an economy that is even higher, everything there appears to be perfect, and the living conditions there are what many developing and undeveloped countries dream of.

I remember that in the past I heard this story, a Chinese study-abroad student went to America to study, midway he got a part time job, and the money he earned from washing dishes and wiping tables would allow him to return to China and become a little rich man. One can imagine just how prosperous and superior America’s economy is. Before our eyes, everything we see is America’s glorious and magnificent side, but apparently we never hear about America’s impoverished and suffering side. The feeling is that living in America means living in utopia.

But, everything is not as it appears so perfect and flawless. America is also not perfect in every way. It is an economically strong country, but in terms of wealth, it also cannot provide equal conditions for everyone, and also has many people living impoverished and backwards lives. No matter how strong and powerful the United States is or how prosperous, we cannot ignore these facts and truths hidden behind the prosperity.

In America, I don’t know what the percentage of poverty is, the purpose of writing this article today is also not to expose America’s scandal, the main thing is I want to let everyone know that poverty is not something only developing and undeveloped countries have. Even economically powerful countries like America also have impoverished and backwards people living there. There are impoverished people in every country, and poverty is a problem that every country faces. In America, poverty also continuously troubles and affects America’s economy.

The following pictures come from a website for Spanish-Americans, completely revealing a superpower’s unknown side. Actually, America is equally inhabited by a group of destitute people needing everyone’s protection and attention.

A black mother with her two young children.

The younger child in the picture died not long after because of malnutrition, while the slightly older child in the picture was strangled to death by Helen's husband. Her other daughter is currently in jail. Since then, Helen has been dedicated to her religion.

An old, skinny, black woman sitting on a chair next to a brick wall covered with graffitti.

A dispirited Philadephia woman.

A small black girl looks ino an old refrigerator looking for food in a poor house.

A starving child looking for food.

A small black child looks into an old refrigerator filled with leftover food and trash.

A child opens a refrigerator, hoping to find food.

A man sits on his bed thinking in a shack.

Living in a house full of rotten stench.

A lonely black woman living by herself in a broken-down building.

She is the most lonely, those living around her--the people living at the front of the road leading out of the dense forests of Alabama have completely forgotten her, living by herself in this broken-down building.

A black woman in a messy room.

An emotionless woman living in North Carolina.

Two small black children living in a shack.

Suffering children living in Georgia.

A poor, sick black man sitting on a bed in a messy, dirty room.

Living in a rotten, dirty, messy building.

Comments from Sina:

Relates a real America.

^_^ Every place has poor people.

There’s nowhere without poor people…

How old are these pictures?

Have you been to Americas backcountry? It just resembles China’s impoverished areas…

They are all black people.

After looking at these my heart is very uncomfortable, so sad/pitiful.

Black people, still living at the lowest level of society!

No way.
So pitiful.
Before I saw this I thought America was so good.
Those people are truly tragic.
God,
so tragic.

Some of these pictures don’t exactly fit with the concept of America…does Africa also have a place called America…

When can humanity break free from this kind of situation?

Comments from NetEase:

Really funny, come check out Guangzhou, there are even more.

1960s photos.

When these pictures were taken, lou zhu‘s kid had not yet been born, now who knows where he found these to trick people!

Have you seen that broadcast ten years ago of the Beijing people in New York?
Do you still remember that bit of dialogue?
If you love her, take her to New York, because there it is heaven. If you hate her, take her to New York, because there it is hell!

You should say what is the percentage of poor people in America, and what is the percentage of poor people in China.
Then take pictures of poor people in America and pictures of poor people in China and compare them.
Then do a comparison of the living conditions of the common citizen that make up 60% of the population. This way it would actually be more objective!

I bet these were taken in Africa. America’s black people, no matter how poor, still could not be like this. As long as they have official American citizenship, each month they can get one about 7000RMB in US money, which is completely enough for daily expenses, and what more it is calculated per head. ~This I bet can fool the Chinese people who have never been to America. Chinese people are often fooled, tricked, and do not have much discernment ability.

I think that America and China are basically the same, only the geographical environment and cultural accomplishments are different, everyone wants to be big and strong, but unexpectedly everyone has something in common, which is that poor people exist, and what more, this is a key element that pulls down economic development. But, it cannot be helped. Who wants to be a poor person? It is a result forced out by the country. Now that China has become big and strong, America will also envy/be worried a little, but it cannot be denied that America is still a superpower, despite experiencing many unforeseen events. However, China is not weak either, what with an economic disaster, stock market disaster, natural disaster, man-made disaster, an earthquake, the 2008 Olympics, have you seen how much money China has spent?? Banks tightening money, the stock market falling and falling, business is difficult, a lot of job competition, and what more, increasing prices, low wage levels, tell me: who does not want to be a rich person? Being able to endure it all is pretty good already.

Hahah, ~~I see that America’s problem is very grave, not only is there a gap between rich and poor, there is also severe racial discrimination!!!

Lou zhu, are you mentally handicapped, using this kind of fake news to fool everyone? One look and you know it is not real! And you though you were wise. Such trash…

There are poor people everywhere! It is unavoidable and unquestionable! In terms of proportions, America should be considered to not have a lot [of poverty], it is no big deal! Also, it does not prove there is a problem! If there were also “city management” attacking poor people~~, then there would really be no way out~~ lamentable~

THIS IS NOT AMERICA.

Long-suffering black people. Everywhere they are the most miserable ethnic group. I wish them safety and peace!

If you don’t understand, don’t make irresponsible remarks! A bunch of trashy people! Running to America or some Europe country to be gluttonous and lazy! Not engaging in honest work, not willing to do anything! You all have no clue how high America and Europe’s labour expenditures are! I operate a restaurant in Europe! For one dishwasher, I have to pay more than 1000 Euros a month! And what more, this is the price even after evading and cheating on taxes! Blacks, Arabs, heh, they chose this! Especially Arabs, brothers, it is not that I am racist, go out and get some experience. do not know why America wants to extinguish this kind of trash race [this sentence is unclear]! This shouldn’t be called “Prosperous and Powerful America’s Impoverished Other Side!”

Haha, with regards to the lou zhu, I am speechless. America’s welfare and charity system are “as numerous as the hairs on an ox” [Chinese idiom to mean, "a lot"], with community, church, national, fund, chamber of commerce, as well as individual donor associations for charity. These organizations are “as numerous as the hairs on an ox”, when you’re hungry go to a church or an organization, their doors are wide open. For food and every day life stuff, there is no problem. Except for this essay by the lou zhu and television dramas, have you seen any news about Americans starving to death?

I doubt the authenticity of this article. In Canada, every child 18-years-old and under can get 500 dollars a month from the government. In addition, every low-income family all has enough living subsidies. Also, generally speaking 300 dollars is enough for a family to not worry about food. With America so close to Canada, the government subsidy should be about the same. Unless they all entered the country illegally [illegal immigrants], or drug addicts.

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  1. Every country has poverty and US is not the exception, but how can we know this pics are from U.S.?

  2. I think poor people in the US in bad neighborhoods worry more about drugs, violence and lack of educational and economic opportunities than about starving to death. Different degree of being poor.

  3. I have been in the US from China for 20 years. It is hard for me to believe these people are from the US. I work in a hospital. We have many poor people receive medical care for free. From major surgeries to a simple ER visit. All are given necessary care regardless financial situation. The treatment and care are the same whether you are homeless or city mayor. A philippino nurse once told me that her mother broken her hip while visiting in the US. After the surgery she told hospital that her mother had no insurance, our hospital did not charge her at all.
    There are many assistance available there in the US. From free food asistance to several hundred dollars /month from the government. Even the woman’s shelter has clean room, shower and food for woman and her children all free of charge. I personally see it before.
    Someone would try very very hard in order to find the people in these pictures. These are really misleading images to show people the dark side of America.

  4. Doesn’t mean they don’t exist Nanjinger. And it would be irresponsible to dismiss it as impossible. The Class divide is much larger than most people think, and as hard as it is to believe, poverty IS prevalent in America. If you don’t want to think about it keep watching your TMZ and thinking that everyone lives like Branjelina. That being said, I wouldn’t doubt that drugs were involved because these look like extreme cases…

  5. I find it interesting that this is made out to be some kind of scandal or secret shame of America. It is not the image you see on TV, but nobody is hiding poverty hits people hard, and often. It is just not very often highlighted.

    Come to Glasgow, and I will show you as much poverty as you care for. Despite government assistance (which you have to be eligible for to start off with) does not help prevent neglect, ignorance, and drug use. You might think drug abuse is a separate problem, but in reality a family suffers when any assistance you get is injected into the bread-winner’s veins.

  6. I just showed these pictures to my black co-worker and ask her what she thought about these pictures. She said to me that she never personally see any one in these kind of living condition and she said the pictures might be from other contries. (She is a African American woman in her 40′s working as a nurse assistance or CNA.)

  7. I am not saying that these pictures/ conditions not exist. It would be very very hard to find the similar conditions which showing on these pictures!!Please ask yourself how many times you saw the living conditions like the ones showed on these pictures in America!

  8. severely hurts the feeling of americans.

    • Severely makes American’s laugh their fucking asses off at how gullible and naive some Chinese netizens are. Sure, you can live this bad in America… IF YOU WANT TO!! Anyone living in this kind of extreme poverty in America has made a long, long trail of bad decisions. Contributing factors would be: zero education, lack of birth control, ignorance of government programs, complete fucking laziness and last(and certainly foremost) HEAVY DRUG USE. And if ANYONE was living like this in the U.S. charities and church groups would be up there ass every other day trying to GIVE them the necessities of life. Not to mention the fact that if despite all these things in place to help them they CHOSE to live this way, their neighbors would report them to Social Services who would have those kids out of there so fucking fast it would make your head spin. On the other hand I’ve seen a lot fucking worse in the countryside of China… And not one proud nationalist Chinese stepping up to help the poor people. Class dismissed :P

  9. Chinese knows nothing about America if they don’t live there, all they know is what they hear on the news, so this article is a shocker to them. I used to work a short time with a “mission” which serves the poor and homeless of America, I don’t claim to know everything, but I’ve seen my share of the poor and homeless.

    In my opinion, the poor in China is much poorer than the poor in America.

    • I agree.

      I’m from America and there are definetly poor people there but it seems like the poor people in China (I’ve spent 3.5 years in China) do seem worse off.

  10. every country has both prosperous and backward sides,it is a normal phenomenon.

  11. I’m amused that so many people are incredulous that this exists in America. I don’t know for certain where or when these pictures were taken but I have absolutely no doubts whatsoever that such conditions do indeed exist in the United States. However, I imagine it is oddly flattering for Americans that so many Chinese doubt America has such cases of poverty or destitution.

    I also agree that the abject poverty in the United States is still probably better than the abject poverty in less developed countries like China.

    LoL, I like the one random Chinese rant against Arabs in Europe. Not that I agree with the random stereotyping but I find it amusing how he bitches about people not working honestly and then implies he’s bitter about how much he has to pay even after cheating on his taxes. What a riot.

  12. Chinese knows nothing about America if they don’t live there, all they know is what they hear on the news, so this article is a shocker to them
    ———-

    applies to everyone who never been to the place they talk about.

    many people find these photos shocking because they think military might is proportional to wealth so america ought to be a poverty-free state.

    america ranks only the 7th in term of GDP per capita and does worse in social justice and equality, besides those mideast countries where citizens exploit oil in their backyard, most of world’s richest and [b]happiest[/b] nations lie in north europe.

    SOCIALIST DEMOCRACY FTW.

  13. AGain…just showing black people…there are also whites and mexicans living like this as well…and NOT that many. I can throw a stone out my window in CHINA and hit migrants living in similar conditions.
    These kind of pictures are often posted by KKK types who are seeking to turn Chinese who don’t even know any black people into ridiculously uninformed racists.

  14. i don’t believe the pictures. i do think they were taken in africa.

  15. My colleague took his fiance to the States and Canada to meet his folks before they were married. His fiance wanted to check out New York and Vancouver and see all the places she had seen on TV. Anyway, when they got back, he said that she didn’t want to ever go to Vancouver or NY again, because they were full of homeless and ‘uncouth’ people…not at all like she had seen on shows like Desperate Housewives.

    Aiya, so many people here still believe all the shite they see on movies and TV about the rest of the world.

    Btw, those pics don’t look like too modern though – maybe from the 1970s?

  16. i think it was a cuban communist who commented that

    “cubans starve to death from starvation, americans starve to death because they take so much heroin they forget to eat.”

    Europeans, or dare i say it, the Soviet union, didnt have this severe poverty…….

    anyhow thank god for reaganomics and thatcherism that is giving us all the great opportunity ( social mobility halved since they took power)

    economic sucess ( uve read the papers right)

    “to get rich is glorious”
    China will mass-privitise the peoples assets under the direction of the “party of public assets” so we can rest assured greedy selfish scumbags will ensure this country suffers the same folly as the UK. hooray.

    American capitalism depends on poverty, hence the violence and subversion of all trade unions and communists, illegal immigration …………..insecurity with all its catashtrophic associated evils are necessary for the good of the privileged few

  17. A little propaganda goes a long way in China! I am a Chinese living in the US and I can assure you that you will not find fridges like the ones in the pictures anywhere because they were the product of the 60s or so. 笑人齿缺曰狗窦大开!

  18. This was one of my favorite China Smack pieces; seeing those reactions was fascinating. I think many Chinese glorify the US too much and feel too insecure about their own country. Seeing another side of the US will help them realize that not everything is wonderful in the US (though hopefully they won’t start thinking that everything is terrible, either).

  19. {'randomname': 'blah'}

    I can attest that some of these pics are real. Hmm, have you guys been to central Alabama? Someone I knew used to go down there to build houses from the poor peeps down in central Alabama and believe me it’s 3rd world down there.

    Also, some of these pics are pics of crackhouses. Crackhouses can get destitute like that.

    It’s just a face of America that one doesn’t see on t.v. often. A lot of places are not bad as the above pics; the pics above truly represent the worst, but they exist!

    • No doubt some of the pictures are real. Just from the 50′s and 60′s. Poverty very much is alive in America as is in other countries. Some people will not help their selves and others know nothing else. What we call “welfare families”. Some are CRACK HEADS, some do other drugs, and so lack skills or education to better their selves. The picture where the youngest died shortly afterwards, next killed by father and other is in jail is a little hard to swallow. America is a good country but it has it’s problems like the horse’s ass in the White House and the Moron who is his Vice President

  20. Hey, this reminds me of something I saw a few month earlier, downtown in a city in Western U.S.

    I saw some Chinese homeless. It’s was two guys and a woman. How do I know they’re Chinese? Because they wear those damn suits that Chinese people (some. The ‘nongmins’ who travel abroad. Maybe they’re North Korean?) likes to wear. You know what I’m talking about.

    Anyway, these dudes looked like they didn’t shower for a couple of month. I was parked in traffic, and I just stared them, and they stared at me. It was like whoa… that’s weird.

    Then a few weeks later I think I saw one of the guys again, sleeping (or trying) under some lamp post.

  21. Mind you, I’m not saying Chinese people can’t become homeless, since I’ve seen Chinese homeless people in S.F china town.

    No, this is different, because it seems like these three homeless are “tou du de” (illegals) and they somehow became homeless.

  22. “I can attest that some of these pics are real. Hmm, have you guys been to central Alabama? Someone I knew used to go down there to build houses from the poor peeps down in central Alabama and believe me it’s 3rd world down there.”

    I went down to help with Katrina relief last year and I saw many impoverished places in Alabama and there’s probably even more in Mississippi. There’s definitely people living like this here however the pictures look like those 60s or 70s photos from Harlem or the back country in the south when poverty flourished among AAs. It’s also interesting to note that impoverished Americans are usually more concerned about drugs and gangs than starving to death when compared to the poor in China. If any of you have been to the south side of Chicago (where Obama worked) you’d see an interesting social difference in poverty b/w the US and China.

  23. I find it interesting that they don’t seem to realize that $300/month is NOT enough to live on in America, even if it would probably be plenty in China.

    It’s also interesting to compare the reactions to the Obama story with the ideas of racial discrimination here.

    And yeah, those are real enough, though you can live your whole life without ever seeing this just by staying away from poor areas. The pictures may be old, but the poverty is still around, especially in the Appalachian region, though every large city seems to have at least one ghetto area.

  24. Like a lot of people here, I’m slightly amused by the commenters that refuse to believe that these pictures are from the US. I’m from West Virginia — which is AFAIK the poorest state in the US, and while I’ve never seen any conditions like these, I’ve known people whose lives weren’t so great as some of these netizens seem to think they’d be. The commenter that thinks the US has similar social policies to Canada is especially amusing.

    And again, I do suspect that being poor in the US is not quite so bad as being poor in China — at least from my impressions. But still, people should realize that even the richest nations in the world still have poverty.

  25. “A starving child looking for food”

    He probably was in 1979, the “Dingle” milk company went bust and ceased trading in 1978, my parents ran a store that stocked it. Stuff used to give me the runs!

  26. I can say for a fact that in WV there are people that poor, and many of them are white. I know people personally that literally don’t have a dime and live off the land refusing to accept government help.

  27. For the record, I recall coming across one of these pictures (one of the fridge ones) about ten years ago when I was looking for stock images for an album cover. It is most definitely from AFRICA, not America.

    The rest of them I have no idea.

  28. u guys mean this was a hateful bitter and jealous post by a xenophobic chinese?

    we all know china is great and america ( where evil, racist white men come from) is the devil

  29. OCUMON,

    WHERE THE FUCK DO YOU GET THAT?

    The point of the post is to show that poverty exists even in first world nations. Because it does! Are you trying to argue that poverty does not exist in the States? So you are admitting that poverty are caused by evil, racist white men? Okay.

    You do realize most Chinese people think America IS FUCKING PAVED IN GOLD, right? They think America is paradise. LOL. How do you connect evil, racist white men with FUCKING roads paved in GOLD? Fucking paradise? Fuck, if evil, racist white men can create paradise I can’t imagine what good, non-racist white men can create… Hell? Good-non-racist-white-men creates HELL, extra, extra. Get real you fucking troll ass evil, racist, white dood.

    Compared to yesteryears less and less Chinese people want to come to States, due to improved economic conditions. It’s just not that ‘trendy’ anymore.

  30. A quick googling lead me to this page:

    http://www.american-pictures.com/gallery/index.html

    Where at least some of the pictures are found. And apparently they are from the 70′s.

    But from what I heard from friends that conditions today are not much improved. We’re talking about poor farmers in South.

  31. You see the hypocritical apathetic attitudes of fuckers like ocumon.

    THIS IS WHY I have to fucking defend China sometimes, from fucks like this. Who goes around with their fucking ignorance and cast their stupid stones.

    Assholes.

    So IGNORANT, man.

    They think they know; they fail to see their OWN UGLY ass in the mirror, they own racist, apathetic projections on the world.

    It’s egotistic superciliousness that drives me mad. Maybe if you weren’t such a ignorant imbecile I wouldn’t have to sit here to defend the WORLD from you fucks!!!

  32. You can find more info on Mr.Jacob Holdt who took these pictures on Wikipedia. He is a interesting person.

  33. As a sidenote, it’s also possible that these photos are somewhat misleading. For example, my family has an old toolshed with a shitty old fridge in it, you could take a picture of a young kid in front of that and it would look pretty similar to these photos, but in fact, our living conditions are very good.

    Not that poverty like this doesn’t exist in the US, I’m just saying, photographic evidence alone is rarely evidence of anything…to easy to mislead (even if the photos aren’t doctored) by choosing how your frame your shot. And someone who took all these photos obvious had a goal in mind when they set out…

  34. TahwYOJ
    Easy there big fella. Settle down now. It’s honestly not even worth getting that angry about it. Some people just love saying obnoxious sh** on the internet especially to get a rise out of someone like you. If I had a 1RMB coin for every ignorant imbelicile asshole comment I’ve read on the net, I’d be dead.

  35. Any country will have poor people. There will always be poor people by luck, by circumstance, by natural disasters, by wars, by whatever.

    The question is “has the economic divide is increasing”. Most countries undergoing economic industrialisation will at some stage pull back economic reforms and try to bridge the have and have nots. This has to be a progressive tax system and whereby the burden falls on the rich and big business.

    I once read somewhere from a major US newspaper online. In Los Angeles, you have Hollywood and the mega rich indulging in Cuban cigars, vintage wine, dinning in expensive restaurants and drivers waiting outside in European marques. They have never been to the other side of L.A. where the poor people live and trying to survive. This is like about 100 metres away. Just across the street, high crime, high drug abuse, family breakdown and just like a warzone.

    Its like a Berlin Wall effect. Some people chose not to care, others don’t even realize in a city or a country, there could be start contrast in living standards or social-economic life to the very rich and well off to the poor and weak.

    • Dude, that’s soooo true of Hollywood!

      I grew up in the LA area and spent a lot of weekends in Hollywood and would encounter incredibly wealthy people AND a lot of bums and crackheads.

  36. ThawYoj!

    dude my point is that this post like thousands of similar posts is intended to show america in a negative light. look at the comments by the chinese posters he got exactly what he wanted, all poor black people, america isnt rich, how racist poor, i was wrong to love america. I WILL NOT CONTINUE HUNTING FOR A WHITE AMERICAN BF.

    that is the purpose of this post, along with thousands of others where a chinese guy pretends to be a girl raped and infected with aids by a foreigner . the chinese guy who saw a chinese beggar in london and she told him the story of how she thought uk was great but evil honkie dumped her and child and now shes homeless etc etc etc. there r millions of these posts out there.

  37. If this site is to have any credibility it can’t publish such misleading articles. Not once was it mentioned what century these pictures were from, and they were discussed as if it was a reflection on present day America. Poverty is still widespread here from all the major cities to rural areas in every state, but if someone needs food all they have to do is ask and it’s a guarantee they’ll get it. If someone needs clothes, shelter, water, or any essential needs of life they’ll get it if they ask. The poverty divide here has more to do with some kids getting better schooling than others, health care, and everything else that comes with class division. I enjoy this site and love China, but deception is an ugly practice. Please be more responsible next time.

  38. It matters little whether or not the photos were taken in America. It is a fact, however, that such conditions do exist and in far greater numbers than we would like to admit. One has only to be reminded of the Great American Ghettos; Detroit, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles; not to mention the Mississippi Delta where, perhaps, thousands live in such squalid conditions. This is the ugly side of America.

    Plus, we are dealing with journalistic license, sensationalism meant to arouse fears and hatred that might well be better left alone.

    Suffice it to say, yes, America, as well as every other nation on earth has its poor, and, the conditions are not better for one poor person than for the other. When I see the poor, whether they be American or Chinese, I feel pity.

    I think that it is wrong to compare the poor of one country to the poor of another country. Simply – Help the Poor!

  39. @ ocumen:

    Uh, what? That’s some pretty selective reading you have there. Did you happen to miss all the comments by Chinese people who were utterly unsurprised that, yes, poverty also exists in America as it does elsewhere? Or how about the comments that further suggest that a more accurate and objective comparison would’ve been to compare the prevalence of poverty between the two countries? Wow, that’s some reverse-persecution complex you’ve got there. I’m more used to laughing at my fellow Chinese for always whining about “the West” always maligning them…

    @ Johnny Yang:

    Uh, what? Dude, you need to reacquaint yourself with what this website does: translate Chinese BBS forum posts and related comments into English so English-readers can get a glimpse into what Chinese people are talking about. chinaSMACK did not create this post, they just translated it, so you’re misdirecting your indignation.

    Next, you too failed to read the translated Chinese comments. Had you done so, you probably would’ve realized that quite a few Chinese commenters who responded to the original Chinese post also criticized the original Chinese poster for what they presumed the poster was trying to do. What chinaSMACK aims to do is reveal that dynamic on the Chinese BBS forums, showing that there is a multitude and variety of opinion and beliefs, as well as the friction and confrontations that stem from it.

    If you are to have any credibility as a person, you cannot skim over something, utterly fail to understand it, and then climb up on a soapbox of self-righteousness. Hold your horses and read for a moment to figure out just what exactly is happening before you get all offended.

    Deception IS an ugly practice, but inexcusable idiocy is an ugly condition.

  40. Yes, I also believe this is propaganda. The images are all very old and dated, however I am not saying there aren’t poor people in the USA. Just the pics are only showing the old/poor side of things.

  41. Hmm… dudes. Have you guys visited the link I provided?

    http://www.american-pictures.com/gallery/index.html

    Are you saying it’s Chinese propaganda, as in the Chinese made it?

    Are you guys on crack?

    There are propagandas on both sides, lol.

    Kai said it right, there seem to be lots of reverse-persecution complex going on here.

    Funny as f*** if you ask me.

  42. DUUUUUUUUDDDDDDDDDd

    WTF???

    Some of these pics dates to 1998.

    BTW I’m not mad. You peeps take this too seriously. LOL FAGS.

    Some of you cannot seem to handle the fact that America has really poverty stricken parts… Just like the pics above. Why? Does it jitters your world-view that much? Does the fact that with you residing in China, in a cruel twist of fate that all your pejoratives is being applied to the West. Of course, this is NOT TRUE, it’s merely your OWN delusions. Your own racist little projections. Your own little – reverse-persecution complexes – HAHA assholes.

  43. isn’t the salvation army alway say something like 50,000 american family will go hungry tonight…please donate etc. I hope they are not lying and pocket the money themselves, cause I donated. I once worked in west oakland, it was bad…

  44. They are all black people.

    The pictures only show black people, but there are at least as many poor white people in the US.

    You should say what is the percentage of poor people in America, and what is the percentage of poor people in China.

    The 2004 Census Bureau’s figures for people living below the poverty line was 12.5 percent of the US population, or 35.9 million. The threshold for that year was $12,714/yr for a two-person household.

    It’s much more difficult to measure poverty in China by the same sort of benchmarks. Farmers who subsist on less than $1 (US) a day are considered below the poverty line by the World Bank, but city dwellers obviously have different definitions.

    I bet these were taken in Africa.

    I can’t say for sure where these pictures where taken. It seems unlikely that they were taken in America, not because poverty doesn’t exist here but because most buildings in such a condition would be condemned.

    But I do concede that poverty exists in America, and is rather endemic.

    have you seen any news about Americans starving to death?

    This is the difference between being poor in the Western nations versus being poor in the developing world. It is very rare for someone to starve to death, since they have access to soup kitchens, church pantries, and dozens of other programs to help with food, not least of which is public welfare.

    Mostly when homeless people die here it is because of exposure to the elements, not starving. The life of the poor may not be comfortable, but they will probably survive.

    Europeans, or dare i say it, the Soviet union, didnt have this severe poverty…….

    As for the European Union, poverty is almost non-existent there, however that’s largely due to the socialist support network in place for those who need it. But if you look at all of Europe as a whole, 1 in 5 Europeans live below the poverty line.

    But Eastern Europe? Surely you’re joking. The poverty line in the former Soviet Union is $2 a day, to reflect the increased cost of holding the elements at bay due to the extreme climate. As of 2003, 61 million people still fell below this threshold.

    Remember bread lines?

    There isn’t a nation or a region on the Earth that is free from poverty’s grasp.

    American capitalism depends on poverty

    American capitalism depends on cheap credit even more than cheap labor.

    I’m from West Virginia — which is AFAIK the poorest state in the US

    As of 2007, West Virginia is 49th with a median household income of $37,060. Mississippi is 50th with $36,338. Puerto Rico (technically a US protectorate rather than a state) is dead last with $17,741.

  45. Jayman, did you goto the links I posted? These are taken in America although in the 70′s. With a few pictures that was taken in 1998.

    I agree that there are white people in very destitute conditions. I’m not trying to make this a black-white thing. I used to know this dood (a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away), that I hang out with sometimes that lived in a house that was in such a poor condition. The whole house reeked and looked like it was about to fall down. And this guy lived in this crammed ‘basement’ room with walls that was adorned with a rebel and a swastika flag (okay, this guy was full of contradictions). Hey, I had some great time there, some chick showed me her nipple ringS which was the shit to me back then. The main point was this guy had pounds of weed, although they were schwag but he had pounds of it… LOL..

  46. The sad thing is you don’t have to go to rural Alabama, Mississippi or the like to find the poor and the destitute they are all over United States of America. To make comparisons about who is the poorest among the poor makes little sense. Where ever you live in this universe you should want justice and peace. A universe where no person is mistreated and a universe where those people that neeed the most help recieve it. Without justice nothing has value.

  47. Of course there are places like this in the US – go watch Bumfights videos, Bum Hunter FTW. Criiiikey, it’s a big one ova tha’ya! These photos do look a little old and hobo-ish, though.

    That being said, there’s much more poverty in the US than say, average northern european countries or Canada. :)

  48. @ Joywhat:

    Relax, ignore those people. The only people you really need to yell at are those who actually try to argue back with you.

  49. @Jayman
    RE: “Mostly when homeless people die here it is because of exposure to the elements, not starving. ”
    Actually, I would guess that most homeless people die from ODing. I’m going to research that and get back to you!

  50. @Jayman
    “Overdoses, disease cause of half the deaths of B.C. homeless people
    18 Apr 2008 … Other causes of death included being hit by blunt objects (which includes … like many studies done of homeless deaths in North America and …”

    Some reports about US homeless seem to indicate most cities homeless are dying mostly because of murder, but it seems the top 3 consistently are: Disease, Murder, and ODing.

    Of course there is poverty in every country, but the significance is in the difference between China countryside, Nairobi slums (I’ve been, and quite frankly, it’s like an urbanized version of the Chinese countryside in terms of being similar in poverty level but highly condensed and not as much farming going on), and European/US/Canada/Australia homeless with foodstamps and public services. It’s all sad.

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