Political & Elections

one of the banner ads on NB said that there are one major impediment to a mediocrum amount of financial stability--Don't have babies before you are capable of caring for them. Which is another thread.

But the most effective birth control, population control is having a good chance in attaining wealth. Japan has a declining population and a educated society that favors dogs and cats over children (NPR, June 8). 

BTW, We still have a DS, 27, accomplished, money in bank, Seattle. Cares for his mother (last week took mommy and grandmother (92) to LV for 5 days because he was going to attend a convention just after their visit. His dime.  

He's now camping somewhere in Utah. Me, while he's out exploring, I am going to visit his city. No women to worry about for a few days.  

-- Edited by longprime on Sunday 10th of June 2012 10:34:02 AM

I was telling my biking partner what I have been doing this past week-figuring out how much money we get to live on in retirement. His comment was that he didn't get a raise last year (he's a retired municipal fireman and his works for the state). He's complaining on how much people get on welfare. 

I got a bit upset, and told him that we are on fixed income from here on out. That's FIXED income. The only way that we will get a retirement "raise" will be in the investment choices I make in the next few weeks. 

I do feel fortunate that we have the options of selection but with the risk of having some money vs more money. Tiffany's choices are fairly simple and with a different kind of risk. The choice is between having no money vs having some money. Her risk is that her chances for getting some money (enough $) are not good. Could she succeed, Absolutely. BUT, the Radio host, I hope, is not so stupid enough to believe that Tiffany's chances are good. 

Nothing scary. Just not my intent...

Hope you feel better soon, Longprime. Migraines are the pits.

I work in a shelter and I know first that it is very, very difficult to break the cycle of dependency. The reason that it's so hard to break dependency is multifold. First off, when you first get a job, you don't get a paycheck for x weeks but you can lose your assistance very quickly after getting a new job. For those weeks, you often can't eat, can't pay rent, can't pay gas, etc. For those reasons, it's sometimes easier to just stay on welfare when the alternative is to let you and your children go hungry for weeks, lose your apartment, etc. Furthermore, to even get an apartment, you need a deposit, first and last month's rent, etc. That's just not possible many times to accumulate that amount of money while on welfare without losing said welfare.

Yes, I have been on food stamps. Yes, I have broken that cycle. But I'm very fortunate. I wasn't raised on welfare and when I was able to pull together the funds by working three jobs, I got off said food stamps. If I had children or something, then that wouldn't be possible.

I have many, many women in my shelter who WANT to get off welfare. They are working to get off welfare. But it's hard, especially when the system is stacked against you. These are generally women who went to the worst schools in the state, came from broken homes, and often have children as the result of being coerced into sex at a very young age. Plus, when you're unemployed and have a history of unemployment, it's that much harder to get a job. These are also women who live in cities with some of the worst unemployment rates and cannot leave because they have no where to go.

OTOH, I also know plenty of welfare queens. I want to punch them in the face. It just really sucks that those who want to get off welfare are lumped in to the "welfare king/queen" status. My own boss, who lives in a very, very nice house, has food stamps for her 5 children and her children are on MIChild (insurance for the lower-income). She lives in a nice area that has fairly high taxes. They take nice month-long vacations. I have absolutely no idea how she gets away with it but my stomach absolutely felt sick when I found out. She is white, her husband is white, and both of her parents are extremely well off as well.

I am just sharing my observations. I will probably not be returning to this thread. I'm trying to stay out of politics as much as possible.

People should take the time to listen to others before jumping to conclusions. If we listened a little more, maybe there wouldn't be as many snap judgments and compromise could happen. But that's just me living in a fantasy land.

I listened to link - it didn't hit the same nerve as you, churchmusicmom.  Then again, I had literally a dozen things on the to-do list in advance of a trip that I am taking this morning!  

We all comment or don't in our own time.  It's why this discussion board doesn't have nearly the dynamics of CC - fewer posters, many of whom have been together a long time and gone back and forth on just about every issue under the sun.  

I am glad you posted, though. 

Breaking the cycle of dependency is a tough one. If you have never been a victim or dependent on the system, it's hard to understand, and frankly I admit I don't always understand it.  I can't imagine generations of families on welfare and public assistance programs.  To those caught up in it, it's what they know.  I know a different reality.  

Glad Tiffany is figuring it out.  

churchmusicmom:

It's easier for people to view if you post a link.

put:  bracket, url, bracket, link, bracket, slash, url, bracket

that is, type the letters "url" between brackets in the beginning of the link and type slash and "url" between brackets at the end of the link

 

actually about 16 views. I had to come back to your post to get the site. 

fundamentally, I don't disagree. But how to get there?

In a way, I pay taxes inorder to keep the riff-raff out of my space.

But how do you break the cycles of dependency? 

Is putting the father of Tiffany's kid in prison going to help or hinder this family? Is Law & Order for punishment, warehousing, retribution, or something else. 

How much misery is acceptable? If the breadwinner loses the job, how much do the innocent suffer? 

Questions where answers are always hard to discover. Maybe the questions are incorrect?

Obama said, "business is doing OK." to which the R's came back with their retort that business stinks. And if business stinks, what do business want from the Government? Do we want business to be dependent on government? Doesn't a business have the same responsibility of the individual?

We have a lot of issues. One of which it is 1:30am. I've had 4 cups of coffee from the local watering hole. Mom played the state's machine. I tried to review some possible personal retirement ideas. 

I got a lot of questions too. Does anyone know the answers. How bout doing, Jeopardy, and give the answers first so we can then give the questions. 

Personally, I voted for RON PAUL in the primary. 

 

 

 

Oh, well. 19 folks at least clicked on the thread and either did not listen (too bad) or did not care to comment.

Sad face.