Jules Feiffer, the cartoonist, quoted in William Safire's book, "Political Dictionary", says "I used to think I was poor. Then they told me I wasn't poor, I was needy. Then they told me it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy, I was deprived. Then they told me deprived was a bad image, I was underprivileged. Then they told me underprivileged was overused, I was disadvantaged. I still don't have a dime. But I sure have a great vocabulary."

So, what is poverty? In my city of LOS ANGELES, it is STARVATION in the midst of plenty as one in ten people who statistically is starving. YEP! Today's statistics feature that fact.

The American Heritage dictionary defines poverty in four ways. The first is, "The state of being poor; lack of the means of providing material needs or comforts." A sad state that is! To prepare another meal of pasta and tomato sauce while there's steak and lobster out there is a great hardship. I know.

The second definition is, "Deficiency in amount; scantiness: 'the poverty of feeling that reduced her soul' (author Scott Turow writing now...)"This one we have all seen. It has nothing to do with "Means". It is a state of mind."

NOT IN OHIO it isn't.. where a baby tried to sell his teddy bear for food this week. A cop took him home, all the children were starving. Parents were arrested. But the system should have been arrested. OBAMA and BUSH and CLINTON

Definition three says, "Un-productiveness; infertility: the poverty of the soil. This is the definition that our welfare system is there to encourage. Which the Republicans and Art Laffer subscribe to. They think that by handing out regular monthly cash, checks, and vouchers, the system promotes and encourage unproductiveness and infertility. The Welfare Barbara syndrome. Very difficult for even a wealthy society to maintain, hard for a BUY WARS SOCIETY. The people, both as individuals and as corporations, keep wanting more, and threaten to get jobs and be angry and productive if we don't raise the dole. There is something about big government that encourages this sort of thing. Juvenal said it of Rome in about 130 AD: "Here we all live in a state of ambitious poverty."

Finally, there is definition four, which says "Renunciation made by a member of a religious order of the right to own property." The government and the Fransciscan monks encourage this one, but with a difference. Francis of Assisi said in his prayers, "Grant me the treasure of sublime poverty: permit the distinctive sign of our order to be that it does not possess anything of its own beneath the sun, for the glory of your name, and that it have no other patrimony than begging." It is obvious that our federal and state governments take a high view of this. Not for themselves, however -- it for us. Their policies strongly suggest, "Here, let me take the burden of your wealth. You may have the spiritual blessing of begging."

That was not a popular creed in the 18th and 19th centuries. Samuel Johnson said, "Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult."

Even J.S. Mill, who greatly encouraged the economic mess of the 20th century, knew that "as for charity, it s a matter in which the immediate effect on the persons directly concerned, and the ultimate consequence to the general good, are apt to be at complete war with one another." In other words, of the big three, poverty takes care of liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

One more definition (comes from whoever wrote this article, and he believes weirdly enough that --)  is implicit in the first four definitions found in the American Heritage dictionary: (????) "Poverty (n.): what you are left with in a welfare state."  

I think this last sentence tells us readers that this was written by a card carrying Liberterian who believes in no welfare, that every man should go out and get a 5$ an hr job flipping burgers and every woman who has a room full of fatherless tykes should do the same, even if the kids go LATCHKEY and become severely depressed and deprived from rampant, unsupervised, sibling bullying! That world neither reeks of LIBERTY, morality or evolution. So I took this wee article from cyberspace and posted it. LET ME give you my take on JOYOUS POVERTY. It is found at the CONFESSIONS OF A BOTTOMFEEDER page. And at the FRUGAL INDEX.

There you will learn the HIPPIE CREDO. "Consider the lillies of the field...neither do they toil nor spin". Meaning, they just soak up the sun and they are total bliss." And when you're all suntanned, you can CREATE A COTTAGE INDUSTRY and become a CEO! And Learn to L*A*U*N*D*E*R your cash.

And again, to check the current, grisly facts about starving in AMERICA, read latest poverty statistics:

16% of us live in utter poverty, that's when a family of 4 earns less than 23 thousand dollars. Would a little food stamp or EBT help be good for these jobless people? Would a JOB be there if Clinton's NAFTA and GATT hadn't shipped all the jobs to the third world? If abrogation of Steagall Glass NO CASINO BANKING (which Clinton created!) hadn't paved the way for the 2008 crash? Congress did what Wall Street thieves wanted on that one.

Then there's The VIETNAM, PANAMA, NICARAGUA, IRAQ/ AFGHANISTAN, SYRIA, UKRAINE WARS have led Americans to this poverty. JUST the IRAQ effort by Bush and Cheney cost us 3 trillion so far, which could have been used to give every one of us STARTUP MONEY for our own business! Or everyone in INDIA, CHINA, IRAQ, AFRICA start up money for their home business and to buy land to grow food. Instead that cash went to kill a lotta folks in Afghanistan and Iraq. WELL, it went to the prexy's campaign paying pals who make war toys! Billion dollar fighter jets.  Drones, high tech VIDEO GAMES that kill with remote weapons which miss and hit wedding parties, civilian children and women. Our silence is our assent..

So if you know anyone who can't pay the light, heat, food, car registration and who has children, tell them to go to the DPSS and get welfare, right now. Bring Birth certifs for all of you, rent receipts, heat/water bills, proof of car registration and --if you have it ---last year's IRS statement or W-2's.