Suppose you were to take an Indian a Chinese, or a Mexican and drop them in the US. Drop them 2 hours from NYC (Princeton or Long Island?), give them permission to work, and nothing else.

Do you think this person will be stuck in poverty forever, given that he's cut off from opportunity by a 2 hour train ride?

Also, I find your claim that people in New Haven or Poughkeepsie (approx 2 hours away) don't know they could find work in NYC simply implausible. I've had random conversations in broken Hindi with auto drivers; when they ask where I'm from and I tell them "New York", they immediately recognize it. Random people in South America, SE Asia, etc all seem to have a pretty good picture of what NYC is. Yet somehow someone from Allentown, PA doesn't?

As someone from Bangladesh, I think it's utterly ridiculous that you keep talking about how much better poor Americans have it than Indians or Chinese. So what? What does it matter that people from countries were things are desperately bad are willing to trade places with people who are in a pretty bad situation in a great country? It's utterly irrelevant.

It's hardly irrelevant. My claim is that the Indian, Bangladeshi or Chinese will better themselves and move up in the world, while the American refuses to do so.

That implies that it's the American's choices, rather than his circumstances, which cause him to be poor. How is that irrelevant?

The _average_ Indian, Bangladeshi or Chinese will move up in the world? I get the impression that you are comparing the exceptional people from those countries to the lowest performing Americans. Also, if the average person from those countries is so much more industrious than Americans, why do they need to come to America to enjoy a good life?

It's totally relevant, because it demonstrates that there are people in the world more worthy of help than poor Americans.

> I think you'd be surprised to find that many Americans have no realistic way to know where to earn something themselves. 2 Hrs from NYC can be just as cut off from opportunity as 2000 miles.

They have TV, and the internet. It's not like they are cut off from civilization, with no knowledge of life outside of their immediate surroundings. They know that places like NYC are where the rich people live, and where the jobs are. They just can't do those jobs.

I'm sure we would be better off if all of these people were successful and productive, but it's unrealistic to assume that would happen, for the reasons I've enumerated in my comment. The bottom line is that they have had many advantages, and they have failed in a country that was designed to help white people succeed. Every country has people like this. Look at England.

People tend to assume that if someone is poor, they must be a victim of injustice, and that opportunities need to be created for them. That is sometimes true, but not always. This is one of those cases where it isn't.

What solutions do you propose that could turn these people into successful, productive, happy members of society?

> They have TV, and the Internet.

Not often. Regardless, my solutions would start with chipping away at the disdain, indiffernece, and exploitation by privileged Americans. Wealth inequality creates a lot of the problems. Offshoring wealth to Ireland by Apple, FB, etc. to avoid taxes if you want to get even more granular.

> Not often.

Actually, almost everyone in America has TV and internet access, including the very poorest.