[smudgie]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

And there are "starving kids in Africa" who would kill for a deep fried battered potato or a bit of bread soaked in gravy.

Comparing ye-olde-timey poverty to modern poverty in an attempt to make it seem like poor people today "have it easy" is both arrogant, and completely pointless. The social and economic contexts are completely different. You're right in that it "doesn't compare" but only because it flat out can't be compared. It wasn't "as bad as" or "easier" OR "harder" - it was an entirely different situation.

Our going back in time comparing our lives then to now has nothing to do with arrogance TS, it is no different to your little tale of your hard times
We have all bad them, or at least fear that we will at some point in life.
The gist of the thread has been the difference in poverty in the 40s and modern day, so hearing people's actual experiences in the years in between is more real to me than reading some statistics written down by somebody I don't know a thing about.

[user104658]

Originally Posted by smudgie

Our going back in time comparing our lives then to now has nothing to do with arrogance TS, it is no different to your little tale of your hard times
We have all bad them, or at least fear that we will at some point in life.
The gist of the thread has been the difference in poverty in the 40s and modern day, so hearing people's actual experiences in the years in between is more real to me than reading some statistics written down by somebody I don't know a thing about.

No,what is being said (quite explicitly) is that poverty "in those days" was real poverty and that the idea of poverty today is somehow laughable in comparison. A sort of "they wouldn't know hardship if it smacked them in the face, we knew REAL hard times" sort of thing. It's dismissive, disrespectful, arrogant, and shows a huge misunderstanding of how different the issues faced by people in poverty today are compared to yesteryear. Neither has it easier, it's completely different.

Incase you're going to suggest that's not what was being implied:

Originally Posted by kirklancaster

What is regarded as 'poverty' today is NOWHERE near the REAL poverty of the 40's, 50's, AND 60's.

I KNOW - I lived through part of the 50's in REAL POVERTY.

It wasn't just implied it was stated outright.