yes, i'm gonna trust a 14 year old from the UK telling us how things are in the US.  

EBT is now what food stamps have become. its a debit card that is only used to by food and the money is put on there by the government. It has led to much more abuse of the system though. When I was poor we had to use food stamps. it motivatived my mom to work even harder because who wants to be seen like that. I grew up in a similar situation as the op. Single mom, immigrant with no high school education or equivelant, 4 kids, absentee dad(which is the real problem in america, single parents). When we needed help it was always there either from the government, the church, or our community, we were always able to go to the doctor, dentist, had toys and electronics. My mom didn't drink or smoke or do drugs, but she had horrible spending habits. She still does. But she raised three boys and girl all who are succeful on their own now. We lived in southern ca, probably very different from peensylvania. Inner city poor have it different, but that  is more a cultuarl thing of expecting the government to solve all their problems as they have been told all their lives that their problems aren't their fault and the governmetn will fix them.

If you havent lived here and don't how it works don't commment. Everyone in the US has access to health care and can go when sick.

I'm glad I don't live there because I know that their system doesn't work as well as the system that every other 1st World country has.  You think America's is great?  Give Canada's a spin. Or England's.  America doesn't have the worst or even one of the worst systems but it is an abomination compared to compared to the rest of the 1st World and you don't have to live with it to know it.  But at least you have the ACA now; that is a huge improvement from before.  "HUUUUUUUGE!^TM" -- Trademark, Donald Trump.

The dangourous areas of the US all have one thing in common, gang violence, and massive amounts of black on black crime. They have a culture that has to integrate into american society. everyone else is fine. 

Gang violence is a problem in the poor areas, right?  Not so much of a problem in the utopian Middle Class?  The question of this thread is What Makes Being Poor in the US Suck?  Being closer to all that gang violence or living in the crosshairs would certainly suck.  That makes America different from every other 1st World country--their poor areas aren't even close to being as militarized as the US's.

The worst off, most dangorous, poorest areas of the US all one thing in common, they are run by democrats.

Thank God.  They have a prayer, after all.  No wonder you go on to say that the "poor here have more chance for upward mobility"; the GOP certainly wouldn't have allowed that statement to even be conceptually possible.

I doubt it. The poor here have more chance for upward mobility than in almost any other country (i believe the netherlands and dutch countrries may have better, but lets face it, they always seem to be at the top of every chart, damm those dutch, but they also dont seal with a lot of the issues the size of a country like the US would, and the US is still one of the only countries with an open immigration policy)

The poor have a much better shot in every other 1st World country.  Wages have not kept up with the cost of living/inflation and income inequality has been steadily making the Middle Class more poor.  This hasn't occurred to the same extent in other 1st World countries as it has in the US.  The chance for upward mobility is much better elsewhere and it continues to worsen and worsen faster in the US. 

Don't get me wrong--it's much better to be poor in the US than Mexico (there pretty much isn't any upward mobility there) but looking at developed nations exclusively, the US is the worst country to be poor in.  The worst.  Well.  Okay.  Russia is the worst (if you consider it to be a developed country or a 1st World nation, but that's the subject of debate right now).

At least the US isn't as bad as Russia.  Way to set the bar high.

Foods stamps is split between cash and actual EBT. EBT is essentially a check card btw... not actual stamps. 

Do you know what my ex used her cash portion for? Getting her hair and fucking nails done.

Fuck your concern about embarrassment.... the real concern is me working my ass off in order to pay for someone else's bad spending habits.

Sure, but not all poor live in impoverished areas, and the point made was that it is due to the associated cultures (trailer trash, gang culture, etc) that make those places undesirable. Not the poverty. I am sure you have the same thing in Canada by the way. ;)

China is a socialist country in name only. The structures for the mode of production are all capitalist structures, there is a large inequality (much larger than in the U.S or free market capitalist Hong Kong) in the population, and materialism runs just as rampant as it does in the West. While there is strong government influence and ownership, one can just call that corporatism or a mixed-economy at best. China was socialist and that didn't work out. Now it is a state capitalist economy.

I have never experienced anyone feeling better or worse than another because of their income here, except the caricatures like Donald Trump (essentially not real people you meet on the street.) In most cultural analyses the U.S is noted as not having much social stratification between economic classes, but more between ethnicity and race as it had no history of feudalism, but had a strong racial history, when compared with Europe. Much of what you are seeing is cultural/ethnic conflict, not class conflict.

I am taking a class on Anarchism at my school and have had heated discussions with my Professor who’s from the far left. While I lean more towards the libertarian side. The response he would say toward your points is 1) You provide anecdotal evidence “I never knew a single starving child in my life who lived in the U.S” just because you don’t see poverty doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist 2) You are White, therefore, your experience is very different from minorities (especially blacks) who would have a institutional racism working against them 3) You are an exception not the norm, as you said you had a “3.9 GPA” I doubt most poor people are that motivation or talented enough to accomplish that. 4) You are pursuing a STEM related degree which is hard and in an area that most people can’t succeed. Others who major in non-STEAM related fields probably work at Starbucks.

Your social mobility is more a reflection of your ability to have external factors working for you(race and neighborhood) and having great talents in areas were most people would fail( academics especially in STEAM fields that are in high demand.)  Therefore, despite your poverty you are able to succeed not that most people can succeed within the system.

In Sweden we have more and more workplaces flirting with the idea of 6 hour work days. And, even though I'm not a big fan of the idea, it is the sign of a rich country when you can reduce work hours and still keep up the business. Further more, it will enable more people to get jobs, coming out of poverty.

We do. I didn't say or even suggest we didn't. It's mostly just in the bigger city centers, or some small towns. They are actually pretty rare for the most part, but with that said we do only have about 1/10 of the population that the US does. You don't need to be getting so defensive about this. It is what it is, what I'm saying is not meant to be a shot towards the US. 

There are always going to be those that have more wealth than others, even if they were all given the exact same. It's due to a persons ability utilize what they have. 

Yeah, much of the distinction between the poor and not so poor and the distinction between them shared a lot of racial differences. I don't give a shit about that though. The fact is that the poor were being treated like shit. Practically swept away. LA, Hollywood and much of California, Houston, Miami (although to a lesser extent). It was certainly more rampant in the southern states. Racism is ridiculous. 

I should make myself a bit more clear on this I think. It's quite possible that since I'm not used to seeing it I took more notice of it. 

The only countries I have been to where I haven't noticed a large difference between the rich and poor were Dominican Republic, I haven't seen all of the country and everyone was poor. They all seemed quite equally poor for the most part. I'm not saying they weren't happy or not doing well or anything like that, but compared to what I'm used to seeing in Canada, and the US, they were certainly poor. Another is Cuba. Almost everyone there are the same. But it kind of makes sense since a Doctor only makes 4 dollars more an hour than a bus driver. I met someone that worked as both, two jobs. I can't remember why she said she was doing it, saving up for something I think. However, due to the embargo, I wouldn't consider them "first world" because of the lack of ATM's, debit, interac and certain things I take for granted with everyday use. 

I haven't been to China so I am just going by what I know of the country. It has come a long way in the last decade. But it's still closed off from much of the world. They tend to produce for themselves. But realistically I think almost every country in the world uses more of a mixed economy. Plus things change over time. Some of the Baltics come close to socialism and they are some of the happiest countries in the world, but with that said they are mixed. 

My response to him:

1.) The burden of proof is on the one who claims existence. There is no empirical evidence that starvation is a real thing in the United States. There are no children dieing of malnutrition, nor any hospitalized for malnutrition due to a lack of resources to purchase food on their parents part. Since my experience is in the subset of the population whom would have these issues and I posit that I have known more persons with incomes less than the poverty line than you will ever record or meet in your life, I think my experential knowledge trumps your presumed assumptions of whom comprises the American poor.

2.) Again, that is very presumptous of you, professor. While I am racially caucasian, my half-brothers are all multiracial, and my mother has dated black men since I was a child. The majority of her friends were not white. Furthermore, I am not ethnically WASP, as my father qualifies as hispanic, and I don't look ethnically WASP or what an American would call as "White." My surname is also a spanish surname. So I am subjected to these same institutional racisms that you are attributing to non-caucasian hispanics.

3.) Then you underestimate the poor, and must get to know the people you are defending. They are not helpless and without ability. They have plenty of talents and motivation. Their parents might have not had talent nor motivation, arguably, but the children are not the parents. Isn't it a common theme on the political left that the poor would succeed if they had resources, and it isn't necessarily that they are dumber or less-motivated than other groups? I agree. I might disagree on how we (poor persons) should obtain those resources, but I do agree that the lack of good resources is a limiting factor.

4.) That isn't an excuse. STEM degress are in demand for a reason, and that demand is being filled by foreign persons from much rougher situations and fewer resources than the impoverished Americans have: people whose families recently rose from poverty in China, India, and other Asian countries. If somebody chose to go into a humanity, knowing very well that this will affect their chances of finding a job because of oversaturation, then that is a choice they were responsible for and they must feel the consequences. If they just applied a little bit more work then they could achieve in a STEM field or a technical humanity (economics, statistics, experimental psychology, etc.)

So professor, I ask you, why do you underestimate the natural ability of human beings to achieve, learn, and create? It seems to me that you have a very insulting and classist view on who comprises the American poor. I am not that pessimistic. I believe while there are more obstacles for the poor (if we are to generalize), they can achieve quite a bit if they wish to. In this whole discussion you seem to mention things that only these individuals can change, such as being capable or motivated of achieving STEM degrees. You never mentioned that the poor can't succeed because they are too hungry, or they don't have enough resources to take the prerequisite exams. if the issue is a cultural one, and not an economic one (as I noted the poorer Chinese, Koreans, and Indians succeed in STEM field), then how would you propose we motivate these cultures to pursue STEM degrees? 

Additionally professor, what is the American system missing that can help the poor? Was that not my original inquiry? Other than food, shelter, health care, education funding, and so on what else can be done for the poor?