The Poor Keep Getting Poorer

Sierra Vista Herald/Review ^ | 19 February 2004 | Jim Behnke

[freedox]

"When I was a kid, we only had one parent working - my dad - and we always seemed to have enough. Not plenty, but enough. This is particularly amazing in view of the fact that my dad was a preacher - you know how they overpay those guys - and had five children."

I know it's not really the point of the article, but just an observation......

In my experience, churches typically see to it that the needs of the preacher and his family are met, even if they are not covered by his actual salary. This author might not have been aware of "charity" that the family was receiving from church members who were observant of their needs.

[Chi-townChief]

"When I was a kid, we only had one parent working - my dad - and we always seemed to have enough. Not plenty, but enough. This is particularly amazing in view of the fact that my dad was a preacher - you know how they overpay those guys - and had five children. Today it seems both parents have to work full time, and even then lots of families barely scrape by."

I don't know how old this bozo is but, if he's around my age (50), he had about 1/2 the standard of living as today - two-family house, party lines, no basement, one car, one toilet, coal that you shoveled for heat, one TV, etc.

[Conspiracy Guy]

We were poor but we had standards.

CG

[Conspiracy Guy]

Are you laughing at my poor childhood? ; )

CG

[dirtboy]

We were so poor we ate lint.

You got to eat your lint? My mom knitted ours into sweaters for us to wear.

[SamAdams76]

Being that I do not have a 40 inch plasma TV, a shiny new SUV and a membership to Gold's Gym like some welfare bums that I know, I humbly assign myself among the growing ranks of the poor. Maybe if I stayed home and collected a crazy check from SSI, I could have some of the aforementioned things for myself.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Your family must have had molecular structure, we would have called you, uppity. Without molecular structure a sweater is useless.

CG

[gubamyster]

I haven't read the book, nor Time's review. However, Laura Ingraham said that Shipler mentions that many of the "working poor" were single mothers. However he completely failed to connect the dots between teen pregnancy, single parenthood and these resulting in becoming "working poor." Apparently he drew the conclusion that failed gov't policies were the cause. (What a surprise!) </sarcasm>

[dirtboy]

Your family must have had molecular structure, we would have called you, uppity.

We were a classic nuclear family until my brother underwent decay and we fissioned.

[Spiff]

I don't know how old this bozo is but, if he's around my age (50), he had about 1/2 the standard of living as today - two-family house, party lines, no basement, one car, one toilet, coal that you shoveled for heat, one TV, etc.

Jim Behnke is no bozo. Not even close.

[Conspiracy Guy]

How sad. Being sub atomic like my family opens a world of opportunity that you higher life forms just don't have.

CG

[Blood of Tyrants]

He is right, it is illegal aliens driving wages lower than they ought to be that is causing more problems in America.

[dirtboy]

Being sub atomic like my family opens a world of opportunity that you higher life forms just don't have.

I tried the subatomic lifestyle briefly, but a charmed existence is too strange, with all the ups and downs and not being able to tell if your at the top or the bottom.

[Conspiracy Guy]

You adapt after a while and realize that life is a journey not a destination. Top and bottom don't matter just as left and right don't matter. In or out is relevant.

CG

[AmusedBystander]

He is right, it is illegal aliens driving wages lower than they ought to be that is causing more problems in America.

No, the problem is US companies illegally hiring.

[RnMomof7]

Yes O Reilly is right..

The Administration promises 2.5 million jobs. Even if that is true (they missed last year by a mile) , the influx of even 2 million Mexicans washes out any "benefit".
It just means the one that is willing to work for less wins the job. So the depression of wages continues.

[Pharmer]

My family was dirt poor...why if I hadn't been born a boy I'd had nothin' to play with.

[Conspiracy Guy]

I know, for Christmas you'd get a new pair of overalls with the bottom of the front pockets cut out. That way you had something to wear and a toy.

CG

[camle]

key phrase - "over time" it takes time for the trickle up effect.

BTW: ever wonder why we pump our own gas nowadays?

[xp38]

The We Were So Poor Sketch

Four well-dressed men sitting together at a vacation resort. "Farewell to Thee" being played in the background on Hawaiian guitar.

Michael: Ahh.. Very passable, this, very passable.

Graham: Nothing like a good glass of Chateau de Chassilier wine, ay Gessiah?

Terry: You're right there Obediah.

Eric: Who'd a thought thirty years ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Chateau de Chassilier wine?

Michael: Aye. In them days, we'd a' been glad to have the price of a cup o' tea.

Graham: A cup ' COLD tea.

Eric: Without milk or sugar.

Terry: OR tea!

Michael: In a filthy, cracked cup.

Eric: We never used to have a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper.

Graham: The best WE could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.

Terry: But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.

Michael: Aye. BECAUSE we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money doesn't buy you happiness."

Eric: 'E was right. I was happier then and I had NOTHIN'. We used to live in this tiiiny old house, with greaaaaat big holes in the roof.

Graham: House? You were lucky to have a HOUSE! We used to live in one room, all hundred and twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the floor was missing; we were all huddled together in one corner for fear of FALLING!

Terry: You were lucky to have a ROOM! *We* used to have to live in a corridor!

Michael: Ohhhh we used to DREAM of livin' in a corridor! Woulda' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woken up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House!? Hmph.

Eric: Well when I say "house" it was only a hole in the ground covered by a piece of tarpolin, but it was a house to US

. Graham: We were evicted from *our* hole in the ground; we had to go and live in a lake!

Terry: You were lucky to have a LAKE! There were a hundred and sixty of us living in a small shoebox in the middle of the road.

Michael: Cardboard box?

Terry: Aye.

Michael: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home, out Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!

Graham: Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at three o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, go to work at the mill every day for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would beat us around the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we were LUCKY!

Terry: Well we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.

Eric: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, (pause for laughter), eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah."

Michael: But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'.

ALL: Nope, nope.