Follow Up: What's So Bad About Poverty Gets Hilarious

This is poverty.

Yesterday, the Jeub family, purveyors of such fine titles as "Love in the Kitchen*" and "Love Another Child" asked just What's So Bad About Poverty.

Hilariously, a large number of people decided to tell the Jeubs exactly what is so bad about poverty, and call them on the idea that they are living in poverty. The Jeubs claim to live in poverty for one very good reason: they live on the incomes from their books. Their books advocate Quiverfull philosophy- have as many children as possible, regardless of finances, desire, general health, etc. So, in order to answer critics who ask, "What about families that can't feed the children they have, let alone ten more?", the Jeubs say, "Hey, we're poor and we do just fine."

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't consider people who fly all over the country with their debate team to be poor. I don't consider people who buy 7 turkeys at Thanksgiving and freeze 6 of them in their stand alone freezer to be poor. I certainly don't consider not buying a passenger van a sign of poverty.

So what do the Jeubs hang their poverty hat on? The US federal guidelines for poverty. Yup, that's it. Mind you, for a family their size, that's around $80,000, and the federal government is assuming you spend money on child care and traveling to and from work which the Jeubs do not, and is averaged from expensive places like San Francisco to much less expensive places where the Jeubs live.

Several commentors tried to explain this to them, but Mr. Jeub is a master debater [insert joke here], and equally masterful at deleting comments and banning people. You can click here and check it out for yourself, or you can trust my summary of the debate.

Jeub: I understand poverty- I live under the federal poverty line.

People Living in Reality: You buy 7 turkeys at Thanksgiving and freeze of them in your stand alone freezer. You are not poverty stricken.

Jeub: I understand poverty- I live under the federal poverty line.

PLiR: You fly all over the country with your debate team, poverty stricken people do not do that. Poverty stricken people can't pay for a bus ride.

Jeub: I understand poverty- I live under the federal poverty line.

PLiR: We've all seen your blog. You have a home, heat, electricity, running water, an internet connection, plentiful food, cheap health insurance, clothing for your children, the list goes on. You have no idea what poverty is. You are not addressing the issue of preventing pregnancies due to poverty.

Jeub: I understand poverty- I live under the federal poverty line. I am the master! Ai winz teh debatez!

PLiR: Repeating the same discredited statement until the other person gives up in disgust is not debating and you are not winning anything.

Jeub: Ha ha ha! I win, you lose! Looooooser!

PLiR: Oh, fuck you.

Jeub: You said a baaaaad wooooord! Ai winz! Ai winz all ur debatez fur all timez!

PLiR: In about ten seconds, nobody is going to care what I said . . .

You know, I just noticed that post was labeled "part 1". Hee hee!

*Here, I'll save you some money (please skip if you are eating disordered): You probably eat more than you think you do. The portion sizes they base calorie counts on are small. As in, you probably eat 3 times as much cereal as one 120 calorie portion. So keep track of what you eat, and here's some recipes. There, saved you $20.