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"?

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by Backwards Masking

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"?

You can do so much better for yourself by getting better jobs/higher income than you ever could by living off the system. Plus you can have pride and not hate yourself and be embarassed by who and what you are.

Why would you ever consider becoming what you now dislike and disrespect?

[Backwards Masking]

Originally Posted by vailpass

You can do so much better for yourself by getting better jobs/higher income than you ever could by living off the system. Plus you can have pride and not hate yourself and be embarassed by who and what you are.

Why would you ever consider becoming what you now dislike and disrespect?

That's very true, but I'd still be harnessed to a desk 40 hours a week watching all the deadbeats leave early or just not show up like I do now. Granted, I'd have a higher salary, but I'd still get shafted when it comes to Free Time. I have pride now, but sometimes I wonder if it's worth it!

I'd consider it for the Free Time alone, but I'd be piss poor. Not many safety nets for single people 18-60. Believe me I've looked!

[MOhillbilly]

Originally Posted by vailpass

Plus you can have pride and not hate yourself and be embarassed by who and what you are.

im convinced some of these folks dont have souls much less pride.

[Backwards Masking]

Originally Posted by MOhillbilly

im convinced some of these folks dont have souls much less pride.

I had a lady who makes 35k a year and a husband making 65k a year (he works there too) bragging a year ago about she's getting WIC to help pay for grocery bills. Two people making 100k a year getting help paying for their groceries? it used to be the people accepting this stuff were the pathetic dumbasses, now it's the people NOT accepting this stuff that are the dumbasses.

[Kyle DeLexus]

Originally Posted by Backwards Masking

I had a lady who makes 35k a year and a husband making 65k a year (he works there too) bragging a year ago about she's getting WIC to help pay for grocery bills. Two people making 100k a year getting help paying for their groceries? it used to be the people accepting this stuff were the pathetic dumbasses, now it's the people NOT accepting this stuff that are the dumbasses.

When I was a kid, we lived next to a Brazilian family that bragged to my mom that they got a divorce so they could get on all those gov assist programs. My mom was a mid-20's single mother with 3 kids and no car working minimum wage at the time and she had too much pride to accept "government charity". She still holds a grudge against that family because she worked extremely hard to provide for her kids on her own.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Backwards Masking

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"?

Next thing you know, you'll be a hobo in the park, forcing people to find private parks to take their kids to....

[Backwards Masking]

Originally Posted by KC Fish

Next thing you know, you'll be a hobo in the park, forcing people to find private parks to take their kids to....

Nah, I'm not outdoorsy enough for the Full Time Hobo Life, I can ride bikes and take walks and occasionally camp, but fuck living outside permanantly.