Hacker News Reader

Comment by tomp | Hacker News Reader

You're conflating two issues: poverty and inequality.

US is one of the richest countries, has less poor people than other rich countries, the "poor" in the US are richer than the "poor" in e.g. UK or Italy, and "average" (mean and median) incomes in UK or Italy would be considered "poor" in the US.

see: https://twitter.com/CPopeHC/status/1469070902813995014

So, inequality is irrelevant, only absolute poverty is relevant.

EDIT: NOTE: the graph in the link above is disposable income (a.k.a. above cost of living)

Personally, I don't think that poverty is the issue here. People aren't looting Apple stores because they're poor. But the lack of social safety net (income, health, mental health) for the poorest probably doesn't help.

View on HN

> only absolute poverty is relevant.

No it isn't. Cost of living matters.

Impoverished people in richer countries have, to a limited extent, some advantage from increased capital investment in their vicinity (e.g. in theory, on average, better local infrastructure than in absolutely poorer countries). They are still crushed by living expenses.

It takes a very specially cultivated state of mental confusion to genuinely believe people driving in in multiple high-end cars, smash-and-grab robbing a jewelry store and departing in the same cars are doing it because they're so poor they can't find any alternative to feed themselves. And this state of mental confusion seems to be carefully cultivated among Californians.

Of course an conservative think tank will say that! That graph does show why you should move to the US to earn big bucks, it says nothing about being poor in those countries. It is a complex subject. Just going aroudn on gapminders site about how much people spend around the world it's easy to understand how complex it is.

https://www.gapminder.org/dollar-street/

The numbers on the US states I've seen puts them in the lower brackets of the EU countries if you count precentage of the population that are poor, not bad by any means but not good. These numbers are meaningless though, especially on the subject discussed here.

Okay then let’s hear why they are looting Apple stores.

This doesn’t seem hard to figure out.

A person doesn’t steal 10 iPhones to use them personally.

If you steal 10 iPhones you might end up with thousands of dollars and that keeps the lights on and feeds you for awhile. If you steal a loaf of bread and a pack of lunch meat you eat for a week.

> US is one of the richest countries, has less poor people than other rich countries, the "poor" in the US are richer than the "poor" in e.g. UK or Italy,

Certain structural factors matter a lot:

How affordable is it to get decent healthcare?

How affordable is it to get decent food?

Is drug use criminalized?

Is there a high rate of violent crime?

Do people own their own homes?

Are there informal social relations that act as social safety nets?

A relatively poor country that nevertheless answers those questions correctly will likely provide a better life even to its poor.

Not many Barnes and Nobles were looted in the summer of 2020.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com