Living paycheck to paycheck gets harder *Barf Alert*

AP via Yahoo ^ | 10/19/2007 | ANNE D'INNOCENZIO

[tioga]

I do NOT see it everyday. I spend lots of time with the underprivileged and they are eating just fine. They are fat or skinny, smoke endlessly and find money for alcohol. They drive cars and manage to buy the gas for them. Life is good for most. This is standard democrat election year hooey.

[Oldexpat]

Good news..Walmart is cutting prices and the farmers are getting more illegals to pick lettuce cheap. I’m sure that will help everything work out.

[rodeo-mamma]

I just want to know why is this a barf alert??? It’s true the cost of living has gone through the roof. I have to pay an $800 electric bill, it’s disgusting. Please don’t give conservatives a bad name by sounding arrogant.

[digger48]

I watched a young girl with 2 dirty kids, buy $15 worth of individual snacks, chips, and cookies at a convenience store. Paid for them with a Gubmint card.

I could have fed them well for 2-3 days for that.

[Obie Wan]

“Americans are increasingly unable to stretch their dollars to the next payday as they juggle higher rent, food and energy bills.”

I knew there was something missing from this sentence and I just figured it out. TAXES,TAXES ARE MISSING !!!

[Fairview]

Try cancelling cell phones/cable tv/internet/ and ride the bus for starters.

I'm sure that 85-year-old lady is not paying for a cell phone, cable, and internet service; I'm sure she's not keeping a car in the city either. What else do you suggest she cut?

Why is it so hard for Freepers to believe that even in Bush's America where so many are prosperous, others really do have a hard time? Yes, even if they do work hard all their lives?

Now watch: I'm going to get eviscerated by those who have made every choice in their lives perfectly, have made money, and have no compassion left for the elderly for whom everything didn't go perfectly.

[modican]

-but skip breakfast. Eat less for lunch -

Finally. This should take care of that overweight problem.

[rodeo-mamma]

“I have to say there are a few posts here that makes FR look bad and feed the DU with ammo for compassionate conservative”

I agree, these people sound absolutely disgusting, I pray they lose their jobs, they deserve too. They don’t deserve a damn thing, they sound way too arrogant. And their rotten attitudes are going to help the Republicans lose. They need to knock it off.

[digger48]

Good news..Walmart is cutting prices and the farmers are getting more illegals to pick lettuce cheap. I’m sure that will help everything work out.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the point of my post.

The ones I speak of, make life choices that put them where they are..

Life is a series of choices.....you live with the ones you make.

[durasell]

They are trying to ridicule the story, but end up ridiculing the working poor.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

All I know is this: just did our household budget for next year, and IMO anyone who actually believes that inflation - at least as it affects typical middle-income households - is actually running 2-3% a year belongs in a sheltered care facility for their own protection.

And I'm sure that it's even tougher for a family trying to live on one $30K income.

[MotleyGirl70]

I have to say there are a few posts here that makes FR look bad and feed the DU with ammo for compassionate conservative

FR is the biggest conservative forum on the internet but that doesn't mean it doesn't have its share of arrogant posters.

Let them all paint with the widest brush possible.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

All I know is this: just did our household budget for next year, and IMO anyone who actually believes that inflation - at least as it affects typical middle-income households - is actually running 2-3% a year belongs in a sheltered care facility for their own protection.

And I'm sure that it's even tougher for a family trying to live on one $30K income.

[jpsb]

Bump, dido, everyone here is cutting expences to the bone. Very few spare dollars floating around.

[Nervous Tick]

Y’all, please, get a grip.

I don’t think anyone here is laughing at those truly having a tough time making it through no fault of their own.

Personally, however, I AM laughing at the way the MSM treats the issue of poverty as a political football. Shopping at the 7-11 is a sign of poverty? C’mon.

Realistically, the citizens of this country — at EVERY level, including those below the poverty line — are vastly better off than anywhere else in the world.

[djf]

The stats I’ve seen from those that crunch the numbers are that somewhere between 50-70% of Americans (perhaps it would be better to say “those who live in the Continental US)
are living paycheck to paycheck.

That certainly doesn’t mean they are totally destitute, they may have pension plans or other long term assets.

And while I have a hard time believing a figure that high, there is alot of agreement on it.

I’ve thought about this whole thing quite a bit. I wonder if there was a general civil type breakdown how it would manifest itself.

So buy soap! You can get like a cubic foot of soap for like ten bucks. And as a commodity, it might end up worth it’s weight in gold! Even if a person eats a rat on a stick for dinner, a bar of soap still makes them feel human! You might someday be able to trade a bar of soap for a gallon of gas. Soap was a very, very valuable commodity during the pioneer days and the great western expansions.

Not to mention nobody knows how to make it anymore.

[finnman69]

And it isn’t the obese, food stamp people. That’s a straw man that’s no longer valid.

Up until recently I shopped in a really ghetto NYC cheap supermarket because it was ...cheap. The fresh vegetable quality was horrible, lots of jumbo meat packs. But what always shocked me was when it was the day of the month their food stamp card got credited, these families would be in there buying multiple grocery carts full of the crappiest unhealthiest frozen food. Now and then they would buy a 20lb bag of rice and some chicken, but think frozen waffles, wonderbread, soda, chicken wings, cookies, etc. Really gross. Did I mention the line for the lotto tickets was always busy?

[humblegunner]

Tell that to the ones that are, I’m sure they’ll appreciate your “compassion”.

Name three.

[Graybeard58]

I have to pay an $800 electric bill,

I have 3 bdrms, 2 baths, living room, kitchen, dining and den and utility rm. I think between 14 -1500 sq.ft. total, probably not as large as yours but my highest bill ever was $288, that's for gas and electric combined. (Central Illinois)

[jpsb]

"Shopping at the 7-11 is a sign of poverty?"

It is when the nearest real grocey store in 15-20 miles away and you don't have the money to do real shopping (why waste the gas). yall have no idea what it is like to be working poor in a rural semi rural area.