On 2/7/2012 7:35 PM, Schweik wrote:

The problem is that when you say POOR PEOPLE you are really saying
that they are in the lowest 15% of the population. However that
doesn't really mean anything if you have a hand phone, TV, computer,
housing, enough to eat, does it really mean that he is poor?.

Or are you simply saying that they are poor in relation to the posh
American life style. I remember considerable discussion on this group
about "My dishwasher stinks". Is a dish washer really an important
accessory to life. Does it mean that the lack there of is an
indication that you are poor?

The fact that someone else has a yacht, houses in Bermuda and Aspen
and two cars in the garage simply means that they are better off then
the poor people but isn't really meaningful when you talk about the
"Poor People".

Is it really meaningful to bitch because, although one has all the
amenities to live comfortably, that he is somehow deprived because he
doesn't have the house in Aspen?

Or is that simply jealousy?

The fact that someone else has more or less then I do is immaterial to
a discussion of whether I am rich or poor.


If someone having more or less than you is immaterial to whether you are
rich or poor then what is? Because having a lot of material things or
the means to buy them is what means a person is rich and an absence of
material things is what makes one poor. If that's not the case then what
is it that distinguishes rich and poor?

Hawke