American poor don't know what poor really looks like, amirite?

Poor westerners have it better than poor "others". But being in poverty or homeless just sucks no matter who you are. A good friend of mine was homeless for about 20 years and the cold British winters when he was starving made him want to be homeless literally anywhere warmer.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

I'm from the balkan, once i saw an american tv show about families in poverty. The family had a complete house, a car, a fridge, microvawe, fully functioning kitchen, kids had iphones, own bedroom etc and their mother cried how poor they are. I mean.. lmao?? Poor families here live in rammed floor without heating, 5 person in 1 bed type of sht.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Lol I watched tiny house shows from the USA and their "tiny" houses are twice the size of a regular (starters) house here. Tf do you mean you can't live without a second bathroom?

by Gerardherzog 2 weeks ago

Tiny houses is not about being poor. It's about people who want to downsize. That's not the same thing. Tiny house cost a lot of money.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

I love the van living ones that have a setup larger than my entire flat.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

I'd be happier if my fridge was relatively empty than if it was absolutely empty.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

regarding your point 2) Being able to speak a language doesn't automatically qualify you to teach it. Not by a long shot.

by Delicious_Heron9445 2 weeks ago

Yes especially since most teacher jobs you can get as an expat will be business English, not simple conversational English.

by Veronashanahan 2 weeks ago

Exactly. And also just because you've passed a few licensing tests doesn't mean you're a good teacher.

by Treutelrasheed 2 weeks ago

Ideally yes. in reality, unqualified english speakers teach get jobs teaching english overseas all the time, at least in Asian countries.

by EveningOriginal4002 2 weeks ago

Me looking at this as a McGill graduate struggling to find a job

by Constant-Debate5332 2 weeks ago

Despite of that, native speakers are treated as first class citizens when applying for teaching jobs

by CivilLingonberry6159 2 weeks ago

To be able to teach a language, you usually have to know the native language also. Like I know maybe 4 words in French but am fluent in English. I couldn't teach English to a French person efficiently because I would have no idea of what they are saying or where they are struggling.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

That's not true, but you do need to know how to teach English. It's not just a matter of speaking it, you need to know all the correct terms for groups of words, be able to explain how sentence structure works, etc etc. Teaching English as a foreign language (tefl or celta) is a qualification that most decent places will require you have.

by Vegetable_Ask 2 weeks ago

Doesn't matter. Literally go anywhere in Latin America and as a native speaker you can be quickly hired by an English school for like twice the local minimum wage.

by Best-Pickle-3559 2 weeks ago

People who can travel across the oceans from America are not poor. That costs money. You're getting caught up in TV poor. TV isn't reality. There are people here who are homeless - literally living on the streets with nothing more than a tarp for cover. People are going hungry. Welfare doesn't always cover everything, neither do charities. Just because everyone in America isn't poor doesn't mean we have all the problems solved for our people. We try. A lot of countries try. No one has all the answers.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

People who disagree with this simply haven't witnessed true poverty. That said, I don't find these sorts of suffering contests to be helpful or productive.

by Funkgiovanni 2 weeks ago

I mean the USA is in terms of live expectancy and so on in regards to the poor more of second than a first world country. So poor in USA suffer a lot more than in parts of Europe or Japan or something

by ChallengeMiserable72 2 weeks ago

Being aloud to travel everywhere doesn't mean you can work everywhere. The German passport is more powerful than the American one, doesn't mean i can simply work wherever one the world

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Can confirm, when I was poor in America I was too poor to go see how other poor look like.

by Nearby-Stop-6715 2 weeks ago

What? You have to have a degree in education to teach English. You can't just teach people languages because you know them. That doesn't qualify you to educate others.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Ok so what changes for the American poor if they "realise" there are people far more poor. Do they get food, shelter or a good life? They don't. So being grateful for not being as worse off as others is no help.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

We need all kinds of documents though That not how teaching ESL works Charities still have limits. They can't magically solve problems. There's quite a few charities that have strict rules to be able to get help from them. You also still need to be able to get somewhere to access that help. A booming economy doesn't mean good jobs, affordable housing, affordable necessities, and tons of resources. There is a different between poor and being in poverty. Sure other places have it worse but that doesn't mean it's not bad here.

by Cadendavis 2 weeks ago

Who cares? Being poor sucks no matter where you are. It's not a competition.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

go and visit skid row sometime

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Go visit Lagos, Niamey or Port au Prince sometime. As the richest country in the world we can do a hell of a lot better but the poorest, bleakest areas of the US ain't even close.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

It's an uninformed and misdirected opinion

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

I'm South African and I think OP is right. American poverty is mostly living out of your car, eating ramen from a dollar store … South African poverty is laying on the side of the road and dying of starvation. There simply is no comparison

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

I have seen people in western countries eating their own leg out of starvation. No, it is not just "eating ramen from a dollar store"

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Who said "just" ..?

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

As someone that's travelled in the US and fairly extensively worldwide , it's got one of the worst mental health and homeless problems I've ever seen. Streets of homeless and mentally ill people. Theres very real poverty, much much more than in places with socialised health care and safety nets such as in Europe.

by Runolfssonisabe 2 weeks ago

You haven't traveled to that many countries outside of first world countries then. Or are you saying it's worst than Venezuela, Cambodia, Ethiopia, etc.?

by Mannkendall 2 weeks ago

I don't mean to undermine those countries' suffering but South Africa has the highest unemployment rate in the world(well that has accurate data at least). I've been to dumping sites where i saw people pick up animal organs that the butcheries threw away at the dump site, because they had literally nothing else to eat. I've seen people literally so starved at public hospitals that they looked like the photos you'd see that comes from Belgium controlled Congo... There are huge townships made of houses created from old corrugated sinks at literally every town and city. We also have the 3rd highest crime rate in the world and a massive drug problem. Poverty in South Africa is brutal. Source: Was homeless as a teenager, got out of it with luck most people don't have.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

1st world. But I have been to Cambodia funnily enough.

by Runolfssonisabe 2 weeks ago

The homeless are eligible for 100% funding of their health care, which includes mental health coverage, through Medicaid. Believe it or not, there are social safety nets -- many, in fact -- but there are also many homeless people who refuse to avail themselves of them.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

No they're not? I tried to help an old man at one point, housed him for over a year until he passed and went to hospitals, social security buildings, every social service we can think of. Nobody could help him get the documents for his ID so he couldn't get healthcare. Homeless people are homeless a lot of the time because they can't procure and ID and don't have family or friends kind enough to take them in and help them.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Hmm do you think that refusal might be part of untreated mental illness? Nah they just want to suffer. /s

by paucekwayne 2 weeks ago

Well, how do you treat mental illness if the person doesn't seek help for it? The only way to do that would be to arrest the person and force them into psychiatric treatment. Same for people who abuse drugs. You can't help them if they don't seek the help themselves.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Yes, if there was a humane mental health system you would, after professional observation, force some people into treatment

by paucekwayne 2 weeks ago

Okay? lol Thanks for your questment?

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

So the mentally ill in the US don't want treatment whereas in Europe for example, they do?!

by Runolfssonisabe 2 weeks ago

Europe has a large population of panhandlers who choose not to engage with government services.

by Funkgiovanni 2 weeks ago

You did, you talked about Medicare which includes mental health coverage and my original point talked about mentally ill homeless people which you replied to.

by Runolfssonisabe 2 weeks ago

That's right. I mentioned it in a general manner to show what it covers. You should work on your reading skills.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Thanks for your questment.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

I found the poverty to be much worse in many South/Central American countries. Even worse in much of Africa. For example, the US has some street homeless but few are children.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Its not a competition, plenty of people in US is homeless without a car

by epfeffer 2 weeks ago

Yes but American poverty is easy by comparison, which is at the heart of what OP is getting at

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

Yup

by murrayjose 2 weeks ago

A lot do. Theres pockets of poverty in the U.S. that are absolutely 3rd world.

by Micaela07 2 weeks ago

This made me sad for everyone. But this is in no way how it is. Are you a troll

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

I don't get your first point. Traveling and relocating are very different things. The only realistic "upgrade" is Canada and US citizens can't just chose to live there. There is a process for that and a lot of poor people aren't eligable to that.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

U need a bachelor's degree to teach and while ur right about the other stuff, being American poor is still pretty bad. It's too close for comfort to the other countries poor. And our economy sucks sooo poor ppl are everywhere

by agneswatsica 2 weeks ago

Poverty sucks no matter what form it takes. Is it worse in some places? Yeah. But it's still poverty. Poverty isn't just being homeless, it's not having enough ressources to take care of your basic needs. Some people claim they're poor just because they don't have enough savings to travel, but that's besides the point. Making it a competition of who has it the worst is useless and only benefits the rich.

by Alphonsoquitzon 2 weeks ago

Tell me about health issues while poor in America.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

I'm glad we have our priorities straight. Let's make sure we divide and divide poor people amongst themselves. How original

by Rdicki 2 weeks ago

I think being poor in the US may actually be worst than being poor in most other countries. Almost no social security and government projects, and almost no social net, considering people are expected to fend out for themselves at 18. Here in Brazil people live in big families and the government provides free health services and some government funds. The diference is that in Brazil its much harder to leave poverty, so we have many more people living in such conditions.

by myleneconn 2 weeks ago

I know very few Americans that should teach anyone English.

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

How the hell do you manage to gatekeep knowing what being poor is like

by deangelo60 2 weeks ago

Like they are the woman with a Virginia ham under their arms, crying the blues because they got no bread. Although…it's not a competition mate

by Anonymous 2 weeks ago

How is this unpopular? This should be obvious. I've heard of poor children in my country scrounging on the road near trash heaps so they could find grains of rice to eat. Poverty means not knowing if you can feed yourself and your family. It means living in a slum made from stolen stuff and hoping your begging gets you enough to eat. It means putting your child to manual labour because you know you can't feed them anymore. Western poverty is not as bad compared to less developed countries, that's literally an objective fact.

by Aggressive-Share-643 2 weeks ago