American poverty/Carlos Pueblo

American poverty/Carlos Pueblo

It is very difficult to imagine the American poverty in existence and

yet it is very true. I thought that I would write about a Tibetan woman’s

daily life as a story to break the bragging of the richness of China, the

second largest GDP nation next to the U.S. Now, there are so many stories

on You Tube documentaries about the American poor and I feel very humble

and almost feel guilty of my unnecessary trips in my life nowadays.

I was brought up in a humble background of my childhood, as a matter of

fact, our family didn’t have a television set or a telephone in the house when

I left for the U.S. That was in the summer of 1975. I accepted an arrangement

of a bunker bed on the back of a storage room for P.E. equipment next to an

office while I was a teacher in Taipei. My parents held the family up very well

to provide us the opportunity to study, of course, our elder siblings stepped in

to help when they were employed.

There is an You Tube piece about the native Indian in South Dakota with a very

stressful condition. I have visited several Indian Nations in the west of the U.S.

and I haven’t noticed so desperate condition. There is another piece involving a

poor county in Alabama without sewer lines in the residential area. It is not just

loss face of the U.S. and also in violation of the human right. It is all because of

poverty. In comparison to the Tibetan, I feel very sorry for them. That Tibetan lady

works from daybreak to sunset every day. I don’t see any help from Chinese

government at all.

My understanding is that there is a certain welfare program provided to the poor

in the society to get started such as welfare subsidy, food stamp, and Medicaid, etc.

Parents or parent should at least to provide an environment for their children to

get school education. No matter what the minimum wage, we must get a job first

of all and manage the income wisely. I only have free drink and I don’t smoke. I

consider that is a virtue. Of course, I don’t get involve drugs.

There is no way that a governmental help will get you out of poverty, in other words,

welfare won’t make you rich. When I travel in Europe, I always chat with the European

youngsters about the subsidy from the government, the common number is 500 Euros

a month. Some of them can take advantage of it to travel around the world and that is

how I meet them in the cheap hostel.