WHEN IS A ROSE NOT A ROSE

Apparently there is a site that promises more money earned by a woman on her back than most professions offer. Nicole McClelland writes in Mother Jones: "Sites like SugarDaddy.com lure young women by offering them far more money than they could get in most professions. What's wrong with this picture?" Read the article, for it raises issues rarely mentioned in US economy reports.

The government uses cold monetary facts to determine poverty. It includes money income, non-cash benefits (though food stamps and housing subsidies don't count), looks at income before taxes, excludes capital gains or losses, and all family members are counted; most telling is a statement among other criteria, that

• Although the thresholds in some sense reflect families needs,
• they are intended for use as a statistical yardstick, not as a complete description of what people and families need to live

It does not really take into account what happens to people who cannot afford to pay for medications, who have lost housing due to improper calculations of mortgages or loss of job , and whatever drives people to take desperate measures to survive.

Articles are beginning to appear about what pushes people to Revolutions. In Haiti poverty is being driven by people cutting too many trees. In India, poverty has driven people to sell organs. Poverty drives immigration. Lack of education is a major factor in driving people to poverty even in better economic times. Illness, especially cancer, AIDS, and illnesses of the body and mind which require large expenditures for cure or even for palliative measures creates poverty. Wars create poverty. The number of orphans in war torn countries create poverty not only through lack of education but through the destruction of family bread-winners by death or maiming and loss of physical ability to work.

Poverty has been most noticed by the poor; the wealthy seem to be sheltered. More studies should be done and articles written. The media deserves tp be be censured for the lack of attention to these real issues we face. Our leaders should learn that "So?" is a disgraceful response to questions about what is facing our troops and so many others in our world today.