She swears, she smokes, she whines, and she thinks she is the only person in the whole wide world who ever had to work, study, and struggle.
I bet I can guess who she voted for.
Posted on 11/24/2013 12:09:12 PM PST by dynachrome
She swears, she smokes, she whines, and she thinks she is the only person in the whole wide world who ever had to work, study, and struggle.
I bet I can guess who she voted for.
PP needs to be shut down, it is a criminal enterprise
Maybe. Also, perhaps not everybody thinks just like you do.
I’ve been broke, cold, completely exhausted in body and mind, and without much to eat. It does depress one’s spirits and rob one of energy and initiative. It’s nice to hear that you and your family don’t feel those things, but clearly you’re stronger and wiser than I was.
Yes. I’m surprised at all the vitriol on this thread too. I know they’re a lot of Freepers who’ve hit really hard times in the past ten years. Lots of folks have worked for years at a firm just to see it go under. I know a very nice woman who was a legal secretary most of her life. There’s very little need for her skills. She just told me she got a job in a pizza shop taking the to go orders. She tells me the owners are harsh and yell at employees lots. She is on feet all night. They keep her hours at 28 because of Obamacare. She’s 58 and told me she is greatful for her harsh minimum wage job
When someone’s born into it, raised in it, knows nothing else, you don’t think this way this woman does.
You don’t bitch about staying in motels, then bitch that no motel will take you without a credit card. You know the damn system and you know damn well where to get birth control. Working two jobs while going to school? Boo-hoo. Did that through high school for food. Ate out of garbage cans on the weekends. No sleep? Sure. But I’ve found out that sleep deprivation happens to anyone. Quick, easy junk food? Yes. But we never thought of that as a ‘poor decision making’. That was what we did to get the best bang for our buck and it was considered smart. We never doubted that choice. She bitches about not having the incentive to ‘improve herself’ but she’s in college!
SHE IS LYING.
Don’t tell me that ‘people don’t think like you do’. I grew up in this socioeconomic class. Poor decision making skills? Yup! Lots of that. Living in the moment? Yes.
But these are the biggest ‘dreamers’ you’ve ever met. That’s how they survive!
Suicidal depression? Turning to alcohol and drugs for relief from the despair? Always.
But that was when you just couldn’t ‘hope’ yourself out of reality for another minute. Then you either survived or you died. If you lived, you kept on dreaming until the next crash.
As someone who knew NOTHING but poverty for two straight decades, I am telling you that THIS person has no idea what she’s talking about.
There are way too many holes in her story.
I'm sorry to say, you are correct, to a point. There are many FReepers who don't comment negatively on these type threads and do reach out to help fellow FReepers who fall on hard times.
But based on many comments on threads like this, is it any wonder people wonder why "conservatives" are given such a bad name about not caring about the poor?
Grateful, not greatful.
My experience is that most people don’t fall on hard times. They leap onto them.
There is not a PP within any of the surrounding counties where I live. It's a minimum of a 75 mile drive to find one.
I KNOW. I USED THEM WHEN I WAS POOR. It cost me nothing and they wouldn’t dream of performing an abortion where I went.
I wasn't even able to get beyond the intercom system 16 years ago when I just wanted a pregnancy test and info about pre-natal care. Through the intercom they told me to go to the state clinic and this facility did not perform abortions.
I dunno, fellas.
Sure, there is an ample amount of guff delivered toward the sorry, shiftless welfare sort.
But I simply don't recall seeing much static directed at the so-called "working poor" -- aside from those who argue that the minimum wage should be a "living wage".
Fact is, a lot of folks on this board probably qualify as "working poor" -- though they may not think of themselves that way.
I find the criticism about conservatives “not caring about the poor” to be duplicitous, at best. It reminds me of the crack-smoking, criminal former mayor barry of WDC playing the “You’re meanspirited” card anytime anyone criticized him. I call BS on this writer.
My, you are working yourself into quite a passion over this, aren’t you? All caps, accusations that the writer is lying, misquoting some very simple words from me...
I did not write, as you maintain, that ‘people don’t think like you do’. I wrote, “perhaps not everybody thinks just like you do.” (I just cut and pasted those phrases to insure accuracy.) And of course, people don’t all think and react in just the same way. You can’t seriously believe that everyone in the world thinks the same way you do. I certainly do not.
If you read what she wrote, she had a middle-class upbringing. She was not raised in poverty. Neither was I. Of course, when hard times came our perceptions and reactions were different from yours.
It might be helpful if you were to ask yourself just what you are so angry about.
Most may not - but many do. I know, because I'm one of them. We picked ourselves back up, but we fell we didn't seek it out.
I remember the Christmas when the Pastor called me to tell me the Vestry had decided they were not going to Social Services to find an Angel Tree family because they wanted to keep it in the church family and had chosen us. I thanked her and said no thanks. My father had sent us money for me, my husband and our daughter to drive from VA to FL. I was going to see him for the 1st time in 17 years and he was going to meet his only grandchild for the first time, and she was 11 at the time.
I know abut falling on hard times, it does happen to the best intentioned people.
I suspect she’s angry about boutique homeless trust-fundies slumming for a week and then regaling their peers back on campus with tales of poverty derring-do and exquisitely heightened empathy.
I make a lot of poor financial decisions. None of them matter, in the long term. I will never not be poor, so what does it matter if I don’t pay a thing and a half this week instead of just one thing? It’s not like the sacrifice will result in improved circumstances; the thing holding me back isn’t that I blow five bucks at Wendy’s. It’s that now that I have proven that I am a Poor Person that is all that I am or ever will be. It is not worth it to me to live a bleak life devoid of small pleasures so that one day I can make a single large purchase. I will never have large pleasures to hold on to. There’s a certain pull to live what bits of life you can while there’s money in your pocket, because no matter how responsible you are you will be broke in three days anyway. When you never have enough money it ceases to have meaning. I imagine having a lot of it is the same thing.
My mother bought a farm but NOT buying 10 cent ice cream cones. She denied herself many small pleasures to have the one pleasure of being financially secure in old age.
The title also reminds me of our observations regarding working with men out of prison. “they can’t make two good decisions in a row.”
I am not asking for sympathy. I am just trying to explain, on a human level, how it is that people make what look from the outside like awful decisions. This is what our lives are like, and here are our defense mechanisms, and here is why we think differently. It’s certainly self-defeating, but it’s safer. That’s all. I hope it helps make sense of it.
And I don't really have much of a problem with that.
But I simply don't recall seeing much static directed at the so-called "working poor" -- aside from those who argue that the minimum wage should be a "living wage".
I've never seen much supporting of a "living wage" around here, but I have seen much attacks against the "working poor." Even FReepers who admit using government assistance temporarily have been brutally attacked as leeches.
First off, I'm not a fella. I'm a lady. A mare is a female, yes? And my tagline says I'm the mom of a Marine. :-)
Second, Gabz and I were both unemployed during the darkest period of the recession, and for me, at least, things are still pretty rocky even though I eventually found two part-time jobs. You would not believe the ugliness that was directed at us by our fellow FReepers when we were out of work. I was not on public assistance and did not get food stamps, help with utilities, or any aid, but nonetheless many FReepers insisted that we were lazy bums who just weren't trying to find work and it was all our fault and we had made every possible mistake in life and were probably selfish socialists who were collecting welfare until we were offered fancy executive jobs. Only one Freeper, 2ndDivisionVet, offered to help with constructive advice, for which I am lastingly grateful.
I've concluded that there are some FReepers who want to believe that if anyone who is down on his luck in the US, it's his fault. Because if you can point to a definite mistake someone made that got him into trouble, then you can say to yourself, "I'm safe. I'm never going to become poor because I'll never make that mistake." It makes them feel more secure.
But no one should feel secure in life. Everything can go away in the blink of an eye, no matter how carefully we plan and how intently we focus on making the right decisions.
She is married.
Did you read the author’s page? It doesn’t sound at all as though she is a “boutique homeless trust-fundie slumming for a week.” She says she had a middle-class upbringing. She says she is married. She had her children in wedlock. She is working very hard and is studying to get herself out of her economic bracket.
Is this woman a scammer? I don’t know. If you read more of her writings and read between the lines, it sounds as though she might have some mental health problems.
I don’t understand the vitriol. Sometimes even decent, hard-working middle-income people who make good decisions—like me, like my friends who shovel horse manure for a living—fall on hard times. Despite integrity, despite determination, despite prayer, initiative, and making choices informed by consultation and reading. Sometimes bad stuff happens and it takes years to work yourself out of it.
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.