RE: [Leica] Re: calling on the LUG to do a good deed: leica scholarship

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

Joe - I am not for a moment forgetting, excusing, or dismissing the plight
of the down and out in our midst. I am simply saying, once again, that MOST
Americans live extremely well by the world's standards. That is NOT saying
that anything you, or anyone else has said about the inexcusable level of
poverty in this country, is untrue.

We really are talking about two different things here:

1. The level at which the majority of Americans live;

2. The state of the poor in America.

B. D.

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Joseph
Codispoti
Sent: Monday, April 29, 2002 1:43 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: calling on the LUG to do a good deed: leica
scholarship



From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>


> No, Karina, it is not equally correct to say that as many Americans live
in
> poverty as live well...If by "well" you mean those at the top of the
> economic heap, then in fact far more live in poverty than live well....But
> if by living well you mean own their own home or renting a nice place,
going
> on a vacation every year, eating the foods they want to eat, wearing the
> clothes they want to wear, owning many of the things they want to own,
etc.
> etc....then no, those in poverty do not equal those living well...


B.D.,

While I agree with you that there are more well off people than poor ones in
the US, I believe that you are not taking into consideration that in the
richest country in the world there are thousands of run-down tenements and
slums. Millions of people live in trailers, and countless others in literal
shacks. You do not see that in other industrialized countries, you see it
only in third and fourth world countries.

Visitors from Europe marvel at the size of roads, skyscrapers, cars, etc.
but cannot understand the forces that compel some people to live in such
squalid conditions.



Don't forget too that many families are on the brink of bankruptcy or
homelessness, if nothing else for their lack of sound economic judgment.

Joe Codispoti



- --
To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html

- --
To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html