America has terrible inequality and horrible poverty rates, yet American poor is different than poor in other parts of the world. I'm taking a sociology class on poverty and Americans that are poor still own cars, microwaves, televisions, cell phones, etc. Even when you drive through "poorer" parts of town people are driving escalades and wearing nice clothes, it's because no matter how you get it or even if it's a fake being seen with nice stuff is one of the most important things to people today. People feel better about themselves when they have nice things, and no matter how much you have you will continue to buy. People are conditioned to never be happy with what they have anymore. Apple comes out with a new iphone all the time, so much so that people just can't keep up with the newest thing. Everyone wants an iPad now, which is just a mix between an iphone and a laptop. What a waste of money, but people don't care. They want it all, a phone, a laptop, an iPad, and a computer how many ways do you need to get on the internet? I noticed the other day that in my boyfriends room he has a tv, blue ray, computer, and xbox and all of them have internet access, yeah even the tv has it's own internet. It's out of control, people need to get rid of all this stuff and just be happy with what they have.