Arrangement in Black and Grey (Whistler's Mother)
James Whistler (1871) Musee' d'Orsay Paris
Let's Sit This One Out
By Richard Girard
" Poverty in itself does not make men into a rabble; a rabble is created only when there is joined to poverty a disposition of mind, an inner indignation against the rich, against society, against the government."
Georg Hegel (1770--1831), German philosopher. The Philosophy of Right, "The State," Addition 149 (1821; translated 1942).
" Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets"The rich and the poor."
Benjamin Disraeli (1804--81), English statesman, author. Stephen Morley, in Sybil, book 2, chapter 5 (1845).
Welcome to the Banana Republic of America.
According to a recent AP article, the U.S. Census Bureau stated that 49.1 million Americans live beneath the poverty level; an additional 97.3 million Americans live between 100 and 199 percent of the poverty level, and are considered to be "low income." That is a total of 146.4 million, or 48 percent of the American people, who are considered impoverished or low income under the government's new standards for estimating categories of wealth in the United States. This is up from the figure of 104 million that was released in September. This new, and in my opinion far more realistic, means of measuring poverty, "takes into account medical, commuting and other living costs as well as taxes."
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