There ARE NO POOR AMERICANS (or poor Britons) except those who seek destitution. Our welfare system provides a sound home, heat, electricity, hot and cold running water, food, medical treatment, education, and spending money. Go to any place in the U. S. or Britain where the "poor" go to receive benefits- there are more fat than thin and they ALL have cellular telephones, and colour televisions at home.
Poor people die young of starvation and disease. Our "poor" die old of diabetes and cancer. Poor people live in dirt floored huts or shantytowns. They get their water from a creek or street tap.
Genuinely poor people- in huts in Madagascar or slums in Lima- DREAM of the Lucullan luxury of a New Orleans housing project.
What we DO have in the U. S. and the rest of the west is a group of people in our society who have been for 3 generations treated like zoo animals. As long as they stay in their zones and vote correctly, their masters provide them with the basics of life without work. They are encouraged to breed by being paid more when they do so, and discouraged from competing by generous guaranteed benefits. If I got my pay check without having to show up, do you think I'd go to work? Do you think I'd keep myself skilled and trained?
The trash in New Orleans know that soon people with degrees and skills will drain the water, turn the power on, clean the streets, and replace the houses provided for them.
So why not tear things up? Why shouldn't the zoo animals run wild when the fence breaks?
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4 comments:
There are poor in America, many of those that you termed as "(more)Fat than thin" are fat from eating unhealthy foods (I personally believe that foods like hot dogs and kraft mac and cheese contribute to learning disabilities in children because of heavy amounts of chemicals)because they can not afford the recommended diet percentage of fresh foods, whereas the "thin" can, as well as nutritionist and hired chiefs.
Personally, my husband and I were in two disasters in two years, the first was a fire in which we lost everything. Neither of us have relatives that we could rely on for temporary assistance and our freinds all suffer from rent burdens and overcrowdedness of their own.
Please read this and learn. After the fire we filed for injunctive relief for enforcement of "relocation payments" which are mandatory in Massachusetts. MGL c. 175 s. 12A; See, 760 CMR 27.00 et seq. Persons displaced by the order of a public agency to vacate real property acquired by a public agency for the enforcement of Article II of the State Sanitary Code shall be eligible for relocation payments for actual, reasonable, documented expenses in moving personal property in accordance with M.G.L. c. 79A, § 13; See Sanitary Code MGL c. 111 s. 127 A-O.
I could continue the legally required law under several venues, however, we were denied statutory protections under the mandate by the court, the politicians and the entire jurisdictional realm.
You are missing the point that the working poor do not qualify for these life sustaining entitlements such as sec.8, food stamps and medicaid. Thus the outcome creates a reversed impoverishment by design. I will slightly elaborate.
SSI is welfare and SSDI is a benefit that is paid for through the payroll deductions of FICA. I am disabled, however, I am fully insured according to the Social Security Administration because of my lengthy work history, but due to low wages, even though I worked double shifts or multiple job(the SSA does not consider the amount of hours worked), I receive less than a SSI recipient who has no work history, nor do I receive subsidy benefits.
MGL c. 121B s. 38 provides for disability housing yet we were forced to live on the street and were reduced to taking a subhuman apartment that was condemned resulting in the same judge constructively evicting us again. I must add that we were good tenants and always paid our rent.
My main reason for responding was not to preach, besides it is too lengthy to do so, I just wanted to tell you that the government lies to you by withholding certain elements that allow for a fully formed opinion.
Please don't believe that there is no poor in America because most are too busy working to be noticed.
KNB
Oh Christ! What was that??? I work with people like her. If she can spend time writing crazy comments she can do telemarketing from home, or phone sex or something.
There are poor people in this country - you just don't see them.
Granted I got this here computer from when I had a job, but now I have no job. My clothes are turning into rags. My shoes have very large holes or are almost entirely holes. I am very nearly out of savings. I receive no benefits (I could easily, but I won't as a matter of principle). I take no charity. I'm about to start working for my mother to repair her severely dilapidated house (everything needs fixing, literally everything, starting with the septic, and I will have to do it all by hand). I'm hoping she'll be able to pay me 25 bucks a week for sixty to eighty hours of work. That's 3.57 a day in a state with a high cost of living. I'm hoping that's enough to sustain my diet of rice&beans (won't be able to afford spices or cheese anymore though). In order to reduce my already minimal use of utilities I'm planning on building a lean-to and living in it, even in the winter.
I could easily get benefits, or a job that pays less than my first job many years ago paid if you account for inflation...but I'd rather be poor than working poor or living high on the hog thanks to "benefits". There are poor people other than me who arrive in the same boat without intending to. You just don't see them because they hide in the woods, in abandoned buildings, or are heaped together in small rooms, apartments, and ramshackle houses.
You make my point- "I could easily get benefits, or a job that pays less than my first job many years ago paid if you account for inflation..."
I didn't say there weren't any self denying people, and I salute you.
Your lack of goods is a choice, not a predicament. If Bill Gates decides he wants to live in a lean to, is he "poor"?
Is Kate Moss "hungry"?
If I cover my eyes am I "blind"?
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