Posted on 12/03/2008 11:32:42 AM PST by AngryCapitalist
You need to get out of the house more often. Most “poor” people I know have far nicer TV’s and a much better cable TV package than I have. and a lot more free time! and do a lot more “recreationals”.
That is why, when they ask me for money, I simply say, “do you take plastic”. As more and more of us go cashless, these guys are gonna be forced to do SOMETHING or starve to death.
>>Ironically, I have known people on government assistance that quit work and go back to welfare because the next step up is just to “poor” for them. Why work for less.<<
I’ve seen it too. It is why the welfare needs to be abolished.
I thought of Scrooge, but this thread is missing the key elements of scrooge’s attitude and reasons that made him infamous.
It is not a scrooge thing, from what I am reading. In fact, he well articulated that.
I don’t much care for the poor at CitiGroup, Goldman, AIG, GM, Ford, Chrysler, etc. who come, hat in hand, begging for more money because they made bad gambles, poor decisions and are obviously incompetent.
Rubin comes to mind: collected $115 million from Citi and lays the blame for Citi’s problems to, “conditions that could not have been foreseen.”
Well, I have news for Mr. Rubin: I worked, paid off all my debts including my home; didn’t attempt to double down by taking an equity loan on my home and invest it in the market and today, although my home is valued at less, nothing has changed for me.
It is a truism that even rich people make colossal mistakes but for some reason the public seems willing to put the blame on unforeseen circumstances for them while the poor are catagorized as “just dumb.”
Too easy. “The poor” needs to be parsed, into those deserving and those undeserving, how and why.
While few of us would have any sympathy for Mexicans who come here, live in a Mexican ghetto in LA, and consume public services, they are very different from other groups. The same with those who live by crime, drugs and alcohol, living a hand-to-mouth life for generations, and taking whatever they can get from the government.
The ones that get most of the sympathy, and should, are families who are “temporarily homeless” and out of work. Their breadwinner gets fired, there are no jobs in their area, so they lose their home and have to travel, and have no luck quickly finding new work. Most such people need a little help, and are back to work and providing for themselves in just a few months.
Another group, that are harder to put your finger on, are the voluntary homeless. At the same time they choose not to work, they also abhor the government, refusing to live inside or be “helped”. They might ask for “spare change”, but that is all they want, and they are not upset if none is forthcoming. They do not want ID cards, or to be “part of society”, but just to be left alone.
A lot of people strongly dislike them, and a few live in dread fear that someone will ask them for spare change. Instead of just saying “no”, they develop a deep, burning hatred, and sometimes severe anxiety, of those that would dare to ask them politely.
Most people just ignore them, as they are “blanks”, neither contributing to nor taking away from society. Many other people, however, strongly resent that they abhor being part of “the system”, and should want to emulate the rest of us, living in a house, working in a job, paying taxes and supporting a family, watching television, etc., etc.
Personally, I think it is strange to think that your life is so perfect, that everyone should want to live like you do. I have no problem with them doing their thing, as long as I don’t have to pay for it.
Right now government are doing all they can to RAISE housing costs.
Artificial high food costs have been a Democrat/Republican program since the ‘30’s.
It is illegal to import peanuts at 1/3rd the costs. Matter of fact is illegal to grow and sell peanuts with out a federal permit. No new permits have been issued since the Depression. Anyone with a permit, has had, for 70 years a license to print money. The Carter family, as in Jimmy Carter had and has one of those permits. Very good for the Carters, bad for people that live off peanut butter sandwiches..
Student Aid is first and foremost a reward to the Democrat Professisoriat. Working class are taxed to send the college class to college. I’d say Doctors and engineers and business majors really don’t need subsidise, and I can not see why working class need to pay for Queer Theory, Theater, Black Studies and half, or more, of the degree programs. If you are 18, then sign a debt note and get through school fast. If your occupation does not earn enough to pay you back, than that is called a ‘market signal’, or more commonly, ‘a clue’.
Welfare is a racket, but it is more for the welfare industry providers and the Democrat party. The human slugs are just fluff, chatter for the system.
The problem is these do-nothing scumbags sometimes have children. Now we all know we don’t have a program to sterilize people. We’re not Nazis. However, the newly created child is an innocent born into abject poverty. What do we do about the kid? Immediately force the homeless parent to put the kid up for adoption? I have sympathy for these kids through no fault of their own being born into no-chance situations. Who saves them?
You are right. The honest working class, just above the welfare class have it the worst. They basically work, and have no money, where as the welfare class, don’t work( supposedly ), and have a touch of money.
I have to agree with you on the recreationals. Sobriety lends itself to success. However, I’m still not buying this definition of poor. Most the poor people I’ve known in my life had nothing, or at best next to nothing. They all worked. I’ve yet to actually meet these poor people who don’t work.
As a matter of fact, I’d wager that most poor people work harder than I do. They just happen to work for a fraction of my salary. I have better hours, more time off, and to be honest less work. The only area in which I fare more poorly is that I ultimately have more responsibility to shoulder.
I was thinking of posting the same thing. Very appropriate to the season.
Who greets me but the Salvation Army. Yikes..I dropped a dollar in the kettle. So....I buy from my list , adding up in my head. I stopped when I got to 37 dollars. I told the clerk not to let it go over 47 dollars. He told me, "don't worry...we can take stuff off" I told him that would defeat my project. My total...38 and change.
What does all this mean...kudos to your grandmother. Tell her to round up to the nearest dollar and she shouldn't have to put anything back. Learn from this smart lady. No one probably gave her that nice house.
‘Are there no prisons...And the Union workhouses...are they still in operation?’
Pennyfarmer, very well said, and I agree, there is Poor and there is Broke. Broke I have often been, and may well be again. I was Poor once, but I will never be Poor again. In fact, with God’s blessing I am doing very well — much better, in fact, than I deserve!
Perhaps the same can be said for you. ;-)
In the mid-1980’s I allowed a greeen card mexican woman with her six kids to live in my house while she looked for work. They were there almost two months. We finally found her work, but she quit the second day. She didn’t like being away from her kids.
And why work 40 hour weeks for $1,400 a month when you can get $1,200 welfare?
Let’s ignore the fact that I only had 3 kids because that is all I can afford.
Oh, and my kids got head lice...
Yeah but you know they aren’t going to abolish it. I think weaning them off would be better. Gradually reduce their benefits. Say, you have a mom thats husband walked out and she gets a little training and a 10 dollar an hour job...she may immediately lose housing assistance, food stamps, insurance for the kids and probably WIC, and childcare. Suddenly she can’t make it on what she is bringing in and quits. If the benefits were gradually reduced as her income increased she would probably stay working. I believe if we are going to be in the charity business though that their should be no free anything and only loans that must be paid back after people are back on their feet...whether welfare, hurricane assistance etc.
Democrats, politicians, coatholders, drivers, staff, minions, hacks, Department heads, Assistant Deputy to Under District Chief of Planning and millions of paperpushers, data entry clerks....and on and on. All, eating food they didn't grow, living in houses they didn't build, driving cars they didn't make......to 'help' the poor. After they help themselves firs, of course.
I’m sorry, but I cannot agree with alcoholism being a disease. Far too many of my former family members were addicted to alcohol. They chose to drink; every day. Then they’d go to a hospital to dry out for a couple of weeks telling everyone they were ‘sick’, only to choose to drink again upon release.
Alcohol is a drug and a choice. One doesn’t choose an illness.
No hard feelings. Just a difference of opinion. One I came to after years of living with alcoholics.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.