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Example of What's Wrong with America

I agree with Nova C...Crime isn't something you can just yell at and make it go away. Every person on earth is subject to circumstance and most people have no alternative except to live on the bottom. People are proud to claim self-sufficiency and deservedly so, but take away your family, your education, your money, health, intelligence, skills, status, etc. and what do you have?. It's not like people who dwell on the welfare system start out on top and yet choose to devote themselves to scraping for a living. It's not the poor who create these systems and it's not the poor who control the culture...It's bought into by people who can spin it and bring in the millions.
 
About the food stamps thing. A few weeks ago, my wife and I were thinking about going down and getting on food stamps. I made less than 8,000$ last year from work, I have more from the GI bill that pays for most of my bills, we are both full time college students, we did not know how to set up a budget, and therefore did not know where our money went. We started to take a financial class that is done by Financial Peace University. So far we have learned how to budget effectively, and have learned that the money I get from the GI bill and disability will cover every bill we have, and that the small amount of money I get from my job can actually allow us to budget for things that we want to do, like go to the movies from time to time, and that I can save for snake tongs, hooks, and other things that fit in with my wide variety of hobbies.

The main point of my story, before I got sidetracked, was that I was totally against going to get food stamps at first. Everyone I know on the things, does not deserve to be on them, but somehow stays there... Then I spoke to my father and learned that I paid into this program, so that it would be there in case I needed it. It is a type of insurance... Yes, there is insurance fraud also... So my proposal is to treat those who abuse it, like you would someone committing insurance fraud...
 
I've had to be on food stamps before. Unemployment also. I gladly gave them up when I got a job. It took a long time it is HARD to find work in this economy. Not impossible but it took a lot of time.
Now meanwhile I am not going to be ashamed about having to take assistance. And for crying out loud what does it matter if I once in a while used my food stamps to get a nice steak or something? I guess some people would have been more satisfied to see me only use them for bread and gruel? Seriously there are abusers of the system but I have a lot more empathy for those who are forced to take assistance because I have walked in their shoes. If you have worked and paid taxes your whole life there is NO shame in taking assistance if you fall upon hard times. Many folks don't want to be there and try not to stay there.
 
ghosthousecorns said:
I've had to be on food stamps before. Unemployment also. I gladly gave them up when I got a job.
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I don't know about the food stamps, but my neighbor gladly does the opposite of what you do in regards to unemployment. Whenever he does get a job he figures out someway to be let go so that he can go off to collecting unemployment again. He's darn proud of it too, his last job lasted two months and he's bragging about getting both unemployment and work mans comp at the same time.
 
I don't have a solution
I guess my point is that not everyone who is getting a 'government handout' wants to be in that place or is there to milk the system. It's easy to look at that person next to you in line at the grocery store and judge them because they are using food stamps. I try to give them the benefit of the doubt, though.
There are people like your neighbor that abuse the system and it does absolutely need to be enforced or policed a little better. But I always hear about the abusers of the system and just wanted to point out there are also a lot of people that have used the "handout" as a crutch to help them get back on their feet and get back to being a contributing member of the work force. You can't pull the blanket out from under people like that even if the cost is that some lazy people are going to scam. if you take away the welfare programs in place you are going to have a lot more poor people turning to crime because they need to feed their families. Welfare reform does need to take place but in a way that doesn't make matters worse.
 
Gosh Jen, I know a safety net HAS to be in place for people like you, hardworking tax paying people who are in a rough spot.
It's the lifers I bristle at.
 
Unapologetically, there are people out there with permanent and difficult conditions...Some people are so used to being able to take deep breaths or grow old that they forget the luxury of a normal life. People are too quick to be judgmental and to slow to be thankful...When you really boil it down it's barbaric. I mean, why not deny medication to old people?. Why not deny education to the inevitable plumbers and factory workers of the world?. It's about conserving the quality of life for the privileged. It's about providing fair and equal treatment to those less fortunate with the knowledge that they too are people *regardless* of what categories people fit them in.
 
Ricky87 said:
Unapologetically, there are people out there with permanent and difficult conditions...Some people are so used to being able to take deep breaths or grow old that they forget the luxury of a normal life. People are too quick to be judgmental and to slow to be thankful...When you really boil it down it's barbaric. I mean, why not deny medication to old people?. Why not deny education to the inevitable plumbers and factory workers of the world?. It's about conserving the quality of life for the privileged. It's about providing fair and equal treatment to those less fortunate with the knowledge that they too are people *regardless* of what categories people fit them in.
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I meant "It's *not* about conserving the quality of life for the privileged". Crime is just a byproduct of this rank-and-file culture that denies the less fortunate of a respectable identity.
 
Ricky, I know many people who started out in horrible conditions and worked to get their way to the top. Sure, at points they had to use gov. aid, but when they were able to do so, they gave it right back. Crime has nothing to do with this rank-and-file, it mostly has to do with the individual.

(Not directed at anyone in particular) You can not blame the poor circumstances from which you came, for your stupid choices.

My grandparents came from a very poor family, and worked their butts off to get a comfortable life.
Personally, if you want to make those people who are breaking the law feel like they are normal people, then treat them the exact same way that normal people get treated when they commit a crime... Punish them. Simple as that.

Though, I do agree to a point, the high ranking people (billionaires, movie stars, etc.) tend to get off with a slight slap on the wrist.

Please correct me if I have misread your post.
 
I didn't want to start a new thread. :grin01:


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Michael823 said:
No cartoon could beat Palin seeing Russia from her house, though.
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10. "I can see Russia from my house!" – Sarah Palin

It was actually comedian Tina Fey, who was impersonating Ms. Palin on Saturday Night Live, who uttered the line that is now widely attributed to the former Alaska governor.

The basis for this line comes from a September 2008 interview with ABC News's Charles Gibson, who asked Palin what insights she had from her state being so close to Russia. She responded: "They're our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."

This is true. As Slate has pointed out, on a clear day, those on the Alaskan island of Little Diomede can see the Russian island of Big Diomede, located across the International Date Line some two and a half miles away. Given that Big Diomede has no permanent population, the amount of foreign policy experience one can gain from staring at it is debatable. But you can see Russian soil while standing in Alaska.
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http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politi...d/I-can-see-Russia-from-my-house!-Sarah-Palin
 
I love that the exact manor in which Palin's statement were said needs to be pointed out, as though the caricature of America leaning over the edge is not also a dramatic interpretation.
 
So she states a fact, because you can in fact see Russia from an island in Alaska, she should be criticized for it? Criticized because most of the general population isn't aware that we can in fact see Russia from American soil?
 
Carinata said:
So she states a fact, because you can in fact see Russia from an island in Alaska, she should be criticized for it? Criticized because most of the general population isn't aware that we can in fact see Russia from American soil?
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And as for her take on Paul Revere?...lol.
 
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