Posted on 03/17/2008 9:07:39 PM PDT by Orange1998
Or people with no skill sets, or people who have some skills, but refuse to use them. These two groups of people, by my estimation, account for about 10% of the population, IOW, about the same percentage of "poor" that is constantly cited. The Democrat's decades long plans have given these folks the idea that all they have to do is be born and breathe and they are "owed" a living. This is nothing more than Democrat plans coming "home to roost", as the "Reverend" Wright loudly proclaims.
By contrast, yesterday, I flew my motorglider over to meet with a Civil Air Patrol squadron at a nearby airfield for a show and tell. I want to tell you I was thoroughly impressed with these kids. They were polite, asked intelligent questions and generally gave me a brighter outlook for our future. One kid, probably about 14 years old or so, came up to me after my little dog and pony show and asked (very politely) "So, what did you do, education wise, that has afforded you this lifestyle?" After I gave my answer (electrical engineer), I asked him if he was home schooled and his face lit up and said "yes, how did you know?" "It shows", I said......
I’ve seen the same quality of kids here in the Big Apple — though most are immigrant. Some are prep school kids.
The thing is — a lot of the people with the wrong skill sets grew up in towns thinking their lives were charted for them — work in the factory/mill/plant, get married, buy a house and retire at 65. Well, the factory/mill/plant shut down and they’re left high and dry. Even worse, many of the jobs that require minimal training/skill sets have been taken by illegals.
How does one "know" what Truth is unless he/she "judges" it.
Example: "I need one million dollars, that is the "truth" I assure you!
Please make the check to Mad Dawgg.
OK so when can I expect my money? ;-)
Exactly. Nothing keeping them in CA but lack of imagination. It's very hard for people to "up and leave." There are towns in America where you can still buy a lot of house for under $20k. The hardest part is understanding it's possible to live well without your $800k mortgage and your $10k property taxes (and the two incomes and the kids in govt indoctrination camp/daycare).
Good idea! We could call it something like, oh I don’t know... Maybe the Civilian Conservation Corps. Yeah, the CCC, that’s the ticket!
I thought you meant a moral judgement and not an analysis.
Apologies.
Yeah, well, life is like that sometimes.
With my engineering background, primarily telecommunications, but I also founded and ran a company that catered to the biomedical industry, specifically servicing things like ventilators and other respiratory therapy equipment, along with some solo stuff in the aerospace biz, I was constantly having to train and retrain on new stuff as it came out. You don't learn this stuff in school and I spent a lot of my free time and my own money staying on top of it. As fast as the technology is and has been changing over the past 25 years or so, you either adapt and learn new skills and equipment, or you get left behind. I was also open to going wherever I had to go to get the work and that included a lot of third world countries. These are some of the reasons why I was able to retire before 40.
A lot of folks think they should never, ever have to move to chase work or take on training for something new. This sort of thinking was fine in the 1950's, but it just doesn't work now. More often than not, folks who find themselves in the position you describe are there by their own actions, or lack of action.....
Apologies.
No Prob, but wow you are taunting the Dragon, basing charity or helping on moral judgments? I would think the PC police are on their way to your house as we speak, ready to drag you off to the reeducation camps.
You have hit on the exact problem with governments doing charity and handouts, they have no moral judgment and thus they end up making the problem much worse.
But of course liberals will make the sign of the "evil eye" if you would mention such an idea.
Thus Government "handout" programs (to the rich and the poor mind you) just continue to grow and get worse.
Laters all I am heading out to Philly now to visit Ben and walk the Miracle Mile!
I can only blame them so much. They were told one thing growing up and now the game’s changed. Many times the game has changed when they’re 35 or 40 years old. Plus, people don’t like to pack up and leave a town that has seen three or four generations of their family lived and buried there.
Governments rarely give charity for anything other than to keep machinery of either government or private industry humming along. In that respect, it isn’t charity. Sometimes it’s hush money and sometimes it supplements low-paying private industry jobs.
These are secondary excuses and not particularly good ones when the other choice is living in a tent.
When I was in grad school in the mid 80's, there were folks in their 50's going to class and it worked for them. I don't put much stock in the notion that just because you and your family have always lived in Bugtussle that you can't leave for greener pastures. Sure, it's tough, but not nearly as tough as it would be living in a tent. It's been a thing within our culture for over two centuries. There have been lots and lots of migrations of people chasing work, examples include the California gold rush, the Klondike gold rush, the Panama Canal, the space industry in Huntsville, AL, pre-Apollo, and there are many more examples. There will be one coming up shortly when EADS opens their new facility in Mobile, AL, to build the new fleet of Air Force tankers.
The work is there, but you've got to be willing to meet the employers at least half way, if not 3/4ths of the way IF your desire is to prosper and grow wealthy is strong enough. One thing is for sure, nobody is going to drop it in your lap. I seriously doubt those family members planted in the Bugtussle cemetery would blame you one iota if you left them behind for greener pastures to better you and your family's future.....
I’m in agreement with you. However, I do see how it’s a tough deal.
Look at many of the posts on FR — a lot of people are waiting/wishing/hoping for things “to go back to normal.” Well, things don’t ever go back, they keeping moving ahead.
I moved to the country 24 years ago and have decided feeding stray dogs and cats is not a good idea. ;0)
"The owner begged for more time -- just 11 days. "That's when my husband gets out of prison," she said."
But where are the truly needy? The only people I see are the "Will (not) work for beer money" scam artist lowlifes, and spare change guys. I'm all for helping someone who is at least TRYING. Not some bum who just doesn't "feel like" having a job.
Yes, I do have MPS (multiple posting syndrome). You know how you say, “If I say it once, I’ll say it a thousand times...”??
“She is no housewife.” Too true! Honestly ... oh, words escape me. Thanks for posting the LATimes article. They were INVITED ....
The fact remains that housing, especially in California, is a terribly inflated economic bubble. Until the price of housing or even rentals drops to anything approaching reasonable levels, they are going to have what approaches a crisis.
On top of that, lots of people have been wiped out and their credit ruined by subprime mortgages. Those who are living in the tent cities may be either on small fixed incomes or too poor to even migrate out of the State—with no place in particular to migrate to.
That is why I suggest the State quickly create some fairly inexpensive camps where these people, especially families, can gather for a short term basis, say six months to a year.
Not just slacking off, however. This would be where the State would put an employment office, and that is where the adults would be during the day, while their children were at school; unless they had work. Then they would be shuttled on buses to work and back.
All money earned by workers goes into savings and to repair their credit. The families eat government food from a government store in the camp, perhaps even cooked for them in a mess hall to save costs. And a clinic to keep them healthy enough to work or go to school.
The costs of doing this are minimal compared the long term damage done by having a large number of homeless.
Importantly as well, this is a camp for citizens, not illegals.
LA is expensive. The outlying districts are less so, as with any large city, and the houses are bigger too and more land. On the other hand, we have many poor people here in Los Angeles who somehow make it. There is always the option of upgrading your skill set so you can make it through life. life is TOUGH, no promises. It is not heaven down here.
But God gives us chocolate and wine ....
“The poor will always be with you.”
Yes, compassion and individuals/ groups/ churches helping — always important. I ran a food program at church for a long time, and we gave food gladly and helped many people. These programs are tremendously important.
What gets me are the underlying assumptions — that somehow life should not be like this, that they should be able to live here in squallor, even tho civilization (order from chaos) ensures that disease doesn’t run rampant through cities, that they are not responsible, somehow, for their own situations or for getting OUT of their own situations.
Those assumptions include the unspoken one — SOMEONE ELSE will take care of me, and someone else is responsible for my plight.
That will do our country in.
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