I'm sick and tired of hearing all this BULLSHIT about how the poor shouldn't have cellphones, air conditioning and should only eat oatmeal and elbow macaroni!!!!!! Everybody in this country would like to live the good life and if they can't they'll fake it. Of course, if they are poor and they look like they are living large, other people who don't consider themselves poor will give the poor suckers a ration of SHIT. Even those that don't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of will be down on those they think are on the government dole even if they are on it themselves!!
What the hell has happened to this country? People take great sadistic pleasure in the misfortune of others, but only if the others look and act suitably poor and downtrodden (and they'll gladly step on them when they are down!!) The Germans have a word for taking pleasure in other's mishaps or misfortunes. Schadenfreude!! But here in 'Murika it's more than taking simple pleasure in the misfortune of others, now it's "How dare they look and act like the rest of us when they are poor"?????
Cellphones are one of the things some bitch about. If a poor person or one they think is poor and they have a cellphone, it's automatically assumed to be a high dollar smartphone or an IPhone. Here are 10 Best Cheap Prepaid Plans. Nowadays it is cheaper to have a cellphone than it is to have a landline. Besides, if you are looking for work and don't have a phone, how is an employer going to get a hold of you to offer you a job?????
Another bitch is about people on food stamps buying the wrong foods!!! Like steaks, crablegs, even soda and TV dinners, how dare they?? (And they are all driving down to the welfare office in their Cadillac to pick up their checks and food stamps!!) I think of food stamps the same as I do a gift card, once I give the gift card to someone, I have no control over what they buy with it. The same with food stamps, the person receiving the food stamps has the right to decide how to spend them within the guidelines for food stamps. You don't know the circumstances of the person with the food stamps. They may be buying TV dinners and other prepared foods that just need to be heated before eating because they are working shit jobs and don't have time to do real cooking or don't know how to cook from scratch. Or they may be buying steaks to celebrate something and will run out of money before the end of the month and be lucky if they have ramen noodles to eat.
And what about Faux and Friends (really, are they friends, whose friends, not mine???) bitching about poor people having air conditioning????? THAT'S JUST TOO FUCKING RIDICULOUS TO EVEN COMMENT ON!!!!!!!!
Addendum: When I was growing up I used to hear, "There but for the grace of god go I". Now, I'm willing to bet just about everyone of those bitching about the poor not acting poor enough are christians!!!!!!!
Excellent post and I have been thinking along the same lines, as well. I am not sure at what point it happened, but we have become a nation of hard asses. We have lost our ability to empathize and it is disgusting.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for you giving them everything they want, including crab legs, as long as you are willing to pay for it.
ReplyDeleteAs for their cell phones, I personally know a number of them that have smart phones they use while drinking in the bar, maybe you should get out a little more.
I'm okay with you being liberal, just don't ask me to help pay for it.
Empathy, I enjoyed that before I spent a lot of time around bottom feeders that feel entitled to all the things working folks have.
ReplyDeleteWe have a township over in the next ciunty that piss tests folks on welfare - Hey, if you want to put the money up your nose instead of buying food - have at it.
ReplyDeleteRon
BBC, I mentioned the crablegs because ass-Wholes on the right have been spreading that rumor, just like the "Welfare Cadillacs"!! And probably has as much truth to it!!
ReplyDeleteSarge, I'm against all drug testing until they piss test the suits. Start with the fucking politicians that make the fucking drug test rules. (They can afford the really good drugs!!) The only ones that benefit from drug testing are those that make the tests and process them. Government spends a ton of money for little or no return. Look at what happened in Florida, they spent millions on drug testing (welfare applicants had to pay for the test and if it was clean the state reimbursed them the cost of the test) and saved $60K or so!! Only 2% tested positive, fuck more than that are false positives!!
There are folks on welfare that need it and are responsible about it, and thankful for what they get.
ReplyDeleteIt's those that abuse it and think they should have more that erk me. Like a lady in the bar the other day complaining that they only get 1700 a month along with 200 bucks of food stamps, as she bought an 1/8th of pot.
Billy, you can get smart phones through TracFone. That isn't the point. The point the S.O. was trying to make is that as a country we've turned mean and nasty and spend way too much time hating on other people because they don't look sufficiently needy to meet our stereotypes of what or who the deserving poor should be. There are probably people who'd look at some geezer on Social Security and bitch that Social Security benefits are too high and need to be cut because, shit, look at that old fucker -- he's got a camper and a boat and he's got enough money to go out and enjoy a beer at the bar. Obviously he's living the high life.
ReplyDeleteAnd before you jump on me for mentioning Social Security, there are a whole lot of young people who think it's a form of welfare and they resent like hell having it deducted from their paychecks because they think they're subsidizing your beers. They truly do not understand that when we all pay into Social Security, we're investing in an annuity, old age insurance. IMHO, the government screwed up big time when they stopped calling it Old Age Insurance but that's a topic for a post on my own blog.
Sarge, the township next to you is wasting money. Be glad you don't live in it.
BBC if you are so damned worried about welfare recipients spending "your" tax dollars, where is your outrage regards corporate welfare fraud in the form of obscene tax deductions...tax dollars wasted on useless wars which benefit only munition manufacturers and outrageous retirement benefits for U.S. Senators and Representatives...and not least of all, tax breaks for "religious" organizations. These wasted monies are far more serious than welfare fraud committed by a few.
ReplyDeleteAs for the thread of this post, your comments and attitude are a prime example of Kulkuri's point.
BBC if you are so damned worried about welfare recipients spending "your" tax dollars,
ReplyDeleteI'm just stating facts as I see them. Of the regulars in a bar I go into at least four of them are on welfare or disability.
As for my SS I worked until retirement and paid into it all those years. Yes, I own boats and other stuff, but none of it is high dollar stuff and I'm not expecting others to give me more so I can have better.
I know two regulars in the bar in their 40's that are on full disability but they recently built a shed for a lady, and got paid for it. And one of them bartends also.
ReplyDeleteI've said it before, I believe in workfare. Few are so disabled that they can do nothing at all, help make your own way is all I'm saying.
You know, it likely doesn't matter what any of us think, the way things are going I dare say that the poor are going to have to figure out how to do more for themselves. Just like the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteThere are people here on welfare and disability that do a fair amount of volunteer work as a way to repay humanity for the help they get, that's cool.
ReplyDeleteA few people gaming the system doesn't bother me, a bunch of huge corporations like Walmart and others that pay such shit wages that the employees have be on food stamps and Medicaid does. Walmart even has managers give employees instructions on how to get on Medicaid and how to get food stamps. That pisses me off. Just think about how much better off we'd all be if our tax dollars weren't going to support these corporations that are some of the most profitable in the world. Hell the government even gives them rebates even tho they don't pay any taxes. If they don't pay taxes or pay their employees enough to survive, we get hit with the fucking bill.
ReplyDeleteI was talking to a lady yesterday that has worked at our Walmart for eleven years and she said that she gets at least forty hours a week and has decent medical. Scott's wife also works there and gets good hours and medical and has him on it. Maybe this store is different, I don't know other than everyone I know that works there is happy with their jobs.
ReplyDeleteEveryone feels they have the right to live as best they can. Judging others is hypocrisy. I have drawn more Social Security and Medicare than I ever paid in - and so has everybody else my age. We are all on the dole - just some are more self-righteous about it than others.
ReplyDeletethe Ol'Buzzard
How many years did it take for the person you know to get to be full time at Walmart. Only those that are more than 30 hours a week are eligible for medical coverage and then they are lucky if they can afford it. Most of Walmart employees are part-time. K-Mart started that policy because then they wouldn't have to pay benefits. Walmart perfected it. The thing that pisses me off about Walmart is the way they fuck over local governments on taxes. The get tax abatements for X number of years, don't pay property and even sales taxes and then when X number of years is about up, they build a new store in the next local jurisdiction with a new set of tax abatements. They even did that where Walmart started in Arkansas!!
ReplyDeleteShe said she has worked fun time since day one. And said that most employees there are full time, or near it, of course all I can do is report what she told me.
ReplyDelete