Poll results: Eliminating poverty should be No. 1 U.S. priority

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/10/27/state/n154107D21.DTL

Poll results: Eliminating poverty should be No. 1 U.S. priority

By PETER PRENGAMAN, Associated Press Writer

Thursday, October 27, 2005. 18:49 PDT Los Angeles (AP)

Eliminating poverty in America is more important than fighting terrorism, especially to blacks, U.S. troops should be pulled out of Iraq, and money saved on war should be used to rebuild hurricane-scarred New Orleans, according to a national poll released Thursday.

When asked, "What do you think should be the most important priority for the U.S.?" a majority of blacks, 58 percent, chose "eliminating poverty" over other answer choices "rebuilding our own cities," "fighting terrorism," and "establishing democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan." Pluralities of other ethnic groups — 43 percent of Hispanics, 40 percent of Asians and 36 percent of whites — also chose eliminating poverty as their top priority.

"I don't remember poverty ever finishing as the No. 1 priority on any kind of list," said Sergio Bendixen, whose firm Bendixen & Associates. "The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the images of poverty have clearly made a large impact on many Americans."

The poll was commissioned by New California Media, a nonprofit San Francisco-based umbrella organization for ethnic media.

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http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/13015518.htm

Poll results: Eliminating poverty should be No. 1 U.S. priority

PETER PRENGAMAN

Associated Press


LOS ANGELES - Eliminating poverty in America is more important than fighting terrorism, especially to blacks, U.S. troops should be pulled out of Iraq, and money saved on war should be used to rebuild hurricane-scarred New Orleans, according to a national poll released Thursday.

When asked, "What do you think should be the most important priority for the U.S.?" a majority of blacks, 58 percent, chose "eliminating poverty" over other answer choices "rebuilding our own cities," "fighting terrorism," and "establishing democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Pluralities of other ethnic groups - 43 percent of Hispanics, 40 percent of Asians and 36 percent of whites - also chose eliminating poverty as their top priority.

if people voted their values, then, he would be in the Oval Office.

http://www.faireconomy.org/

I went to one of their talks and they quite eloquently showed us how increasing the minimum wage, education spending and low income housing directly effected poverty and homelessness.

If you are sick of rich people trying to start poverty movements, here is a great group to hook up with.

http://www.economichumanrights.org/

They have been active since 1991 and have affiliates in almost every state, I am going to one of their meetings next week.:)

Edit; sorry I am not doing this on purpose. I keep replying to the first response by accident, I'm not trying to butt.

this country could, and should, eliminate poverty. As long as we have the magnitude of suffering, the misery of poverty that we now have, we can not afford to preach to other countries. There is no excuse for this...too much wealth is concentrated in too few hands. We need to take care of all of our citizens, not just a pampered few.

The way we treat the least among us of society is the only true judge of our morals, and our worth as a nation. It's easy to cater and pander to the powerful wealthy, but harder and more righteous to take care of the least among us.

/sarcasm

Or so that guy burning a hundred dollar bill to light his cuban cigar told me...

but we can sure as hell can make a crater in it. We can whittle the beast down. We can be the sarcoma eating away at its connective tissues. We can face the obscene beast, and drive it into a corner.

If there are people out there that REALLY want to live in poverty and aren't off their rocker, well sure let them. But if you look at what other countries have done to iradicate poverty,it opens your eyes to how "impossible" it really ISN'T.

you look at it, republicans could care less about the poor in this country. I believe they are making that obvious to all of us right now.

:kick:

...making more of them so that companies can have cheap labor and maximum profits.

If it weren't for credit cards and for no-bid government contracts, however, they'd have nobody to whom they could sell the things they make.

Until (and if, a big if) we can stop or slow down global warming, that should our #1 priority. Until then we will be creating more and more poverty with every natural disaster. Who is it that suffers the most in a natural disaster? Not the rich, unless they just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

really embodied these priorities in the 2004 election.

He certainly got all the votes of the people surveyed in this story, but I think he could have gotten more votes from the white middle class if he had embodied these priorities more clearly.

we won't have fear. We need fear to be able to wake up in the morning. If we didn't have fear, we'd all sleep until 12pm. Can't have that, no way, uh uh.

now, and no more likely than it was decades ago.

I couldn't find it quickly, but this might work, by default:

But it cuts both ways. Endeavor to inform that, for instance, the US health care system stands at the bottom of practically all other industrialized nations while spending two or three times more that these nations; that Cuba has more doctors and nurses, or hospital beds, per capita than the U.S.; that America, with less than 5 percent of the world population consumes in excess of 25 percent of the world's energy, releases 42% of global fossil fuel CO2 and 34% of greenhouse gas emissions; that each American spits out some 20 metric tons of CO2 every year compared to 8 tons for each European or 2 tons for Chinese; that it takes over 12,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per person to support Americans -- less than half in Europe and about 1,000 in China; that US productivity is actually lower than that of France or Germany; that a poor child has more chance to grow out of poverty in Canada or Europe than in the USA (cf. the myth of upward mobility); that the democratic system in the U.S. is a figment of the imagination due to gerrymandering, polling frauds, rigged elections, and a seemingly two-party system that advocates and implements the same policies for the benefit of the very, very, happy few; that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, had no WMDs or nuclear program, was no threat to us...that...that...that... A glazed look avoids the eyes of the informer. It can't be, says the look on the avoiding face. Rugged skepticism reinforced by joyous self-serving beliefs in the immaculate conception of the American way of life refuses the obvious, for it would shatter the belief system. Again, why think when one can believe!
(snip/...)

http://www.swans.com/library/art11/ga200.html

But that's pretty much what it is. Sing an anthem or a chant of some sort and most will march like one toward whatever the Rove of the moment will have set up. For that not to happen, you need 2 things: actual journalists and relentless education, which include critical thinking and not biblebabble. You cannot fight poverty, or anything else for that matter, without these 2 things. And we have none.

Give money to poor people instead of giving it all to rich people.
Voila!!!

It's a little weak, but got my blood going.
When are our leaders going to start pumping up the volume on this?!

I thought perhaps people on this thread would be interested.

http://www.economichumanrights.org/actions/healthcarebrigades.htm