apple strudel

Let me come at this another way. Say you're running a business and your CTO points out how you can save $80 million a year consolidating your data center, or $2 million a year replacing more experienced workers with college grads. Which initiative do you get started on first? Or do you draw an ideological line in the sand because those experienced workers are just not hungry enough?

IcyPatriot

As someone who has known, knows and witnessed this for many years I'll say a few more things.

As i have posted this before I am always giving money to street people. some i know by name and them me, some I don't know. they see my car and they head over. They don't ask for a dime ... they know I'm going to give them a 5 of 10 anyways. They ask how business is, how are my kids and all the rest .. it's small talk but it's a relationship here.

I never say stupid things like make sure you eat with this or spend it wisely ... i just give it to them. I've seen some of them go right to the package store and when they come out they give a wave and i wave back. Other times they go in a small food joint and grab the $5 or $7 box of food and they go buy a beer or 2 with the rest.

the bottom line is they are poor and they know better than most of us how to survive. They know what they need, when they need it and how to get it. If that Uncle Sam money, my money, anyone's money makes them happy momentarily then so be it because that's all it does anyways. the only thing that welfare or handout money does is provide temporary comfort.

It is not enough money to live comfortably on ... it's not enough to save and it's barely enough to get proper nutrition. Proper nutrition can be found at stores like Whole Foods and these people cannot afford it. They want their stomach and brain happy ... even briefly.

That money is in addition to what they make working on the side, getting a handout, getting free at a pantry, food kitchen or a friendly restaurant who likes them.


Verification ... sorry for my disgust ... how much lower would you like them to stoop?

yes perhaps they could have made more of their lives, not gotten pregnant, not become an alchoholic or fill in your own. But they either did, or they were born with lower intelligence, had bad breaks in their life, or physical handicaps ... whatever it is. the stories of these people turning their lives around are slim and none. They are in this position and anyone in this forum could be in the same position next week ... don't kid yourself about it. Your comfortable surroundings are temporary ... always temporary and are renewable each day you wake up. when you wake up screwed like some of these people you realize how false the comfort was.

They are what they are and I'll tell you what many of them are actually happy and content. They don't worry about the mortgage, the car payment, how their lawn looks or what their neighbor thinks about them. I've met many who are highly intelligent ... intelligent enough that they would have flown through college ... but they couldn't or wouldn't and it does not matter because they have accepted their lives in many cases.

Why do we worry about such small things when we have much bigger problems. these people would get more money if we weren't in Afghanistan, if we weren't bribing Pakistan or the Georgia Republic or Israel. We give away more money to ruthless countries than we give away to our own disadvantaged.

it's backwards ... and my rant is over.

Mrs.PatsFanInVa

And a very eloquent and insightful rant it was, IP.

Thank you.

apple strudel

Excellent point.

Yes, yes, and yes.

The Brandon Five

I am all for cutting foreign aid as well as the eliminating the even bigger pile of corporate welfare, but I think that this is not correct even if you are only looking at federal assistance. On top of that, you also have to take into account state and local government assistance, and that there are groups of people besides you who give to the poor. They're called charities.

IcyPatriot

Charities are all hurting in this current economy ... unfortunately.

I don't think it's fair to depend on charities ...

It's nice to think IMO that a charity is in addition to.

As to corporate welfare I still believe we should aid companies who produce in this country. Some of the welfare people would work if there were more jobs. I see this first hand. The economy in Boston Mass is better than it is in Worcester, Lowell, Lawrence, Springfield and Worcester because there are more producing type companies there.

Just as stimulus money has a mushroom effect I believe helping manufacturing has the same effect because you get more revenue in from payroll taxes and you spend less in welfare. the dollar you don't pay out in addition to the dollar you take in is a $2 swing. Also more workers equals less strain in finding money for welfare recipients.

apple strudel

Charity is an excuse to cut government aid, not a reason. Charities will never have the problem solving scope of a government, and the people who came up with the charity excuse know this. So if you don't want to solve widespread social problems and let charities constantly play catch-up, well go ahead. But don't even start to pretend that charities are broad solutions. They are not. Rather, they are band-aids.

Real World

Look who's in here appologizing for deadbeats who are defrauding the taxpayer, by loading up on booze with their EBT card. IIRC, someone in here predicted this would happen.


Can I pick'em or what?

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

apple strudel

Geez, I'm a genius because I predict RW is going to go all Ayn Rand on people in some other thread. Don't hurt yourself patting your back for knowing somebody's political leanings in the PF cause, you know, it's kind of obvious and sh1t. Sign.

Real World

BJ's Wholesale Club in Revere has a sign when you walk in: "Now accepting EBT Cards"

A couple of years ago I was in court evicting a section 8 tenant. The guy was 40, personable, but a legit deadbeat. He didn't work because he ws claiming some kind of health problem. Meanwhile, he'd been working under the table the whole time he was on the public dole. At any rate, this guy was a gambler & pot head. Had a kid somewhere, no wife, but a gf. I got along with him for the most part, cuz aside from his issues, he was a likable guy. To make a long story short, we evicted him because he was 6 or 7 months behind on his rent. Around a grand on his end, since his unit was subsidized. After we evicted him, a new database HUD implemented allowed us to check his financials out. The guy worked for years and years at a restaurant, and never reported didly. What a deadbeat.

When I was at court evicting another guy one time, I sat through a case where the Revere Housing was evicting this deadbeat woman. She owed over a grand, and hadn't paid her portion of the rent in over a year. A year! When I did the math, her portion was something like $80-120 a month. $10 give or take anyway. So during the case, I notice the woman has a pack of smokes in her pocket. Not for nothing, but smokes are $5 a pack for the no names. She's got money for a pack of smokes, but can't pay $80 lousy dollars a month for what is basically a free apartment? She was another 40 year old. Seriously, after hearing the case, seeing the woman in persona, and noticing the pack of smokes in her pocket, I was glad they kicked her arse out. That unit should go to someone who truly needs it. For every deadbeat like the two I mentioned (you can add in Auntie Zucchini too), there is a truly needy person, living in some shelter, or out on the street. I have zero pity for deadbeats.

I'm in Market Basket in Chelsea about 4 months ago, and some foreignor in front of me rings up 3 separate orders in the 12 items or less lane, with 3 separate WIC's. How the **** is that possible? I never say a word to anyone in public, and usually just let things go, but there were 6 people in line behind her. The WIC's weren't the issue of our frustration either. It was the fact that this scumbag leach had the nerve to ring up 3 separate orders in the 12 items or less line, with people behind her. When I said something to her about it, she gave me an attitude. That didn't sit well with the dude behind me. Man he ripped her a hard one. What people in this country. What do people care when everything their getting is pretty much free?

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To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897