American Poverty.

There is poverty of the soul. There is poverty of the heart. There is poverty of desire. Poverty of love. In some countries like Norway there is poverty of poverty.

I once traced all of Earth’s troubles not to Evil per se, but to Greed. They say Greed is a Green Eyed Monster. Although, I am not entirely certain where that originates from, possibly from the desires of cows to mulch fresh green grass. Tender buds if you catch my drift. Then again Earth calls the first year of school as Kindergarten which in German means a ‘garden of children’. Kinder and Garten.

I took all of the seven vices and mapped them to Greed. Sloth? Greed of not working. That type of stuff. Ain’t difficult. Everything is just a sort of greediness. The inertia of not changing the planet even with very clear signs from possibly God? Sloth. Sloth = Greediness. How do you explain cannibalism? Greediness of meat. How do you explain Evil? Greediness of Evil Deeds. How do you explain Pride? Greediness of non-humility. Envy? Greediness of eyes. I have already confessed. I suffer from jealousy. A slightly less virulent form of Envy.

I won’t continue in this vein and insult your intelligence. Or your stupidity. What I will say is that America is filled with rich people at the top. And they have no idea what it is like to experience poverty. They don’t know what it feels like to not be able to withdraw money from an ATM or to see a negative balance in there. 16 million people is a big number - I think we can all agree to that.

I have seen these people as I drive around San Diego. Suddenly a lonely person, often better dressed than me, trying to catch a bus to go to work. Just standing there by themselves or sitting at the bus stop.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/03/bus-public-transport-cuts-groceries-snap

25 million Americans live in a transit desert.

When I was a student at Rutgers University doing my Masters in Industrial Engineering, I lived in a part of New Brunswick that was considered to be “the wrong side of the tracks”. The house I lived in was going through urban renewal. That was where I smoked pot for the first time. It was laced with something bad. My head started spinning really fast and I felt I was dying. I was on my knees like a dog and asked the roommates to call 911. They did not I am guessing because they were probably worried about being arrested.

I rode everywhere in a transit bus. Mostly it was to the engineering campus and back. I often did not have money for food. Sometimes, I would eat my roommates noodles. Other times a $1 Wendy’s chili at the college cafeteria. I never visited the supermarket. I didn’t know of any sources of food. Even paying a dollar for the transit each time was expensive. And this wasn’t a transit desert. New Brunswick is the head quarters of many major pharmaceutical companies like Johnson & Johnson who I eventually interned for.

Meanwhile, in other news of the rabidity of the institution known as The United States of America’s 119th Congress:

You want roof mounted solar son? No problemo. Ground mounted? No can do.
Purported Reason: We don’t want to encourage Chinese solar panels being spread out on the ground like a Playboy or Maxim cover.
Solution: Subsidize American Solar Manufacturing.
No can do son. We don’t have a manufacturing policy.
What about tariffs?
We are refunding those too.
So what are we doing to bring back manufacturing?
Nothing son, we’re encouraging marijuana stores and gambling instead.
But…
No buts son, this is America. Land of the free. Home of the brave.
Yes Sir. Thank you Sir.