Air Conditioning, Cable TV, and an Xbox: What is Poverty in the United States Today?

[Backwards Masking]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

I'm not even telling the entire story again about the family who lived in a rental we managed, for over 17 years, on full ride welfare, HUD paying rent, utility assistance, food stamps.....and the grown ass man who watched me build a deck on that house in mist,sleet and snow while he sat inside for 3 days......and my friends we somewhere warm getting drunk.......and then came out and had the nerve to bitch about the way I was building the railings, because he wanted the uprights closer together "In case him n the lady wanted to romance out there he he he he".....

...and then after I finish college, get a career, start paying my loans and working up the ladder.....

A farm adjacent to my parents, That I'd had sights on owning since I was a boy, and the nice old man who lived there had said wanted one of us to have it......dies. His son gets greedy, raises the price and I can't afford it.

Guess who owns it now? Thats' right.....Mr On welfare for 20 years, deck construction watching Futhermucker. That's who.


ooops...guess I did.

I'm single with no kids and I work 40 plus hours a week just to pay my bills and if I don't show to work i'm fired and then shortly after out on the street. I work around people with 3-5 kids who get FMLA for minor back problems, depression, and being over weight, who can call in or go home early anytime they want cause they "don't feel well". They're guaranteed to keep their jobs, get to keep all their Vacation Time and buy their kids any and everything they want.

I don't want to be a deadbeat, but damn am I jealous. Doing things the honest way just doesn't seem to be working when I compare myself to people proud of playing the sytem. And as the years go by it just seems like more and more "safety nets" for the "poor families" pop up, and the total numbers on my paychecks go down to help fund these safety nets. If it gets to the point where I'm better off living off the system, when is it OK to say "can't beat 'em, join em"?