so many of you talk about the poor and underpriveledged

[snjmom]

Just for the sake of argument, Gramps, what should the entertainment budget be for a family of 4 whose parents work but earn an income that still qualifies for public assistance?

Tent - $40 and it lasts for years.
Free - Hiking the Sierra Nevada's, the Rockies or Blue Ridge Parkway.
Free - Swimming at a coastal beach or inland lake.

First, you have to have transportation to get there. If two people that work are still qualifying for public assistance, they aren't driving and they don't get vacations.

Second, 3 yr olds really suck at hiking.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

I guess that he doesn't know that 2nd hand stores exist, nor that people get gifts for things like birthdays and Christmas. The toys are a 1 time expenditure, and many people (myself included) use layaway to get some things.

Know what good thing that the rich will NEVER experience? The thrill of making the final payment, and knowing that thing is yours.

I guess what you fail to realize is that it doesn't matter where he buys his toys. If he is going to be eating and feeding his children with my tax dollars he should be using his money to better his own children's future not giving him his nightly online gaming fix.


For fucks sake are any of you responsible parents?

Interesting............did you know that in 1985 and 1986 an E-5 or below in the US Military would qualify for WIC? I took the help while on active duty (I was an E-4 at the time) because WIC provides free formula and fresh veggies and fruit for the mother. Probably one of the best programs I've ever seen.

And yeah.........during that time I still bought a television and VCR, as well as had cable (internet wasn't available yet for where I lived).

As many of you know and some may not when I got out of prison I got sued by the state for aid my wife received for a child that wasn't mine. Simply because Diane put my name on the birth certificate. It was obvious the child wasn't mine but the state didn't care, they wanted their money. I was faced with struggling to pay the money or let them contact the real father for reimbursement.

I paid.


I don't begrudge anyone for receiving assistance. Just the hypocrites.

 

[rightwinger]

I guess what you fail to realize is that it doesn't matter where he buys his toys. If he is going to be eating and feeding his children with my tax dollars he should be using his money to better his own children's future not giving him his nightly online gaming fix.


For fucks sake are any of you responsible parents?

Thanks for demonstrating why we can't have conservatives run this great country. While they bitch about poor children having a stinking video game, they are willing to shut down the country to preserve tax breaks for billionaires

FAIL

PLASMA IS NOT A CHILD and the toys are for him not his children.

Your a fucking sucker. Please pay my way too fool

I'm sure Plasma is living a life of luxury off the Govt tit

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

Thanks for demonstrating why we can't have conservatives run this great country. While they bitch about poor children having a stinking video game, they are willing to shut down the country to preserve tax breaks for billionaires

FAIL

PLASMA IS NOT A CHILD and the toys are for him not his children.

Your a fucking sucker. Please pay my way too fool

I'm sure Plasma is living a life of luxury off the Govt tit

Give it a rest.

 

[Againsheila]

Holding a sign saying will work for food and then me offering that deal is not dictating terms. I don't give cash to non organized charities because it only enables bad behavior and poor priorities.

If they have an actual sign that states they are willing to work for food, then yeah.......if they refuse to work for a meal and are looking for cash only, they blew the deal.

However.......if a person has a sign that says "please help" and I'm in a position to do so, I will give 'em a buck or two, no questions asked. But if you offer to buy them a sandwich in return for raking your leaves, it's up to them if they choose to accept your form of help.

Me? I look at things like that (because I don't often see them) as good karma tests for me, and I always try to choose to be helpful. But I have to know that they need help.

Makes sense.

But here in KC, from downtown to the plaza and beyond is full of street beggers. It gets tiresome. Our on ramps have a lot of beggers also. Usually the signs say something terrible about how hungry they or their families are. I never offer cash but either work for pay or a trip to a store or fast food restaurant and its usually declined. Most of them must be scamming for cash cause refusing food while smoking Marlboros doesn't seem to hungry to me.

I've handed out food to them, and they've always been grateful.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

If they have an actual sign that states they are willing to work for food, then yeah.......if they refuse to work for a meal and are looking for cash only, they blew the deal.

However.......if a person has a sign that says "please help" and I'm in a position to do so, I will give 'em a buck or two, no questions asked. But if you offer to buy them a sandwich in return for raking your leaves, it's up to them if they choose to accept your form of help.

Me? I look at things like that (because I don't often see them) as good karma tests for me, and I always try to choose to be helpful. But I have to know that they need help.

Makes sense.

But here in KC, from downtown to the plaza and beyond is full of street beggers. It gets tiresome. Our on ramps have a lot of beggers also. Usually the signs say something terrible about how hungry they or their families are. I never offer cash but either work for pay or a trip to a store or fast food restaurant and its usually declined. Most of them must be scamming for cash cause refusing food while smoking Marlboros doesn't seem to hungry to me.

I've handed out food to them, and they've always been grateful.

I don't carry food in my truck. It's full of illegal day labor. No room

 

[Cecilie1200]

Holding a sign saying will work for food and then me offering that deal is not dictating terms. I don't give cash to non organized charities because it only enables bad behavior and poor priorities.

I love how the left has taken it upon itself to redefine "charity" as "no-strings-attached cash gifts". What I don't understand is where they got the idea that they are in charge of defining words and setting parameters of discussion.

why you fucktards on the fringe right try to do it all the time, yet you feel the need to start bitching over this now?

You are a grade-a moron

No, dipshit, we don't. The fact that you're unfamiliar with the dictionary definitions of words doesn't make them new inventions.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Makes sense.

But here in KC, from downtown to the plaza and beyond is full of street beggers. It gets tiresome. Our on ramps have a lot of beggers also. Usually the signs say something terrible about how hungry they or their families are. I never offer cash but either work for pay or a trip to a store or fast food restaurant and its usually declined. Most of them must be scamming for cash cause refusing food while smoking Marlboros doesn't seem to hungry to me.

There used to be a guy who held a sign begging for money on the traffic island near my church (this was before Tucson passed a law that no one is allowed to be on the traffic islands in the city limits). My pastor went out and offered him a meal and a little cash if he'd come back to the church and do some chores in exchange for it. The guy said, "Why should I work? I can make a couple hundred a day just sitting here."

My feeling has always been that if you can stand out in Tucson's heat all day long to panhandle, you can certainly get a frigging job. I ignore them entirely.

I call bullshit on the bum/pastor story. That one is on every final exam at nutter stereotype school.

Call anything you like, but it's still the truth. If you can prove that I'm lying about it, other than "they always say that", go ahead. Otherwise, I call bullshit on your entire existence.

 

[Sarah G]

But you seemingly have no perspective on what it means to truly be poor. Or why someone is in that situation.

The terms are thrown around on USMB anytime it serves your personal agenda or ideology without giving any thought to what constitutes their personal circumstances. I've told my story a couple times so I won't go into it again but sufficed to say most of you are clueless.

Most of the time a mere lack of priorities leads a family down the wrong path. How many times have you stopped to help a homeless person to offer help only to have it denied? I have many times. On occasion I've offered to work someone with a "will work for food" sign only to have them put out their cigarette (which cost money) and tell me they really only had time for cash gifts.

Then you have families that can barely afford to put food on the table yet they have cable and xboxes. My brother is one of those people. He is right now as we speak sleeping in my basement despite being told to find a job by this Monday or get out.

I am tired of people always saying we have to do more for the poor when a large portion of them won't even help themselves. I lifted myself from poverty so why do I have to do for others what they can do for themselves? I'm not saying we shouldn't have a safety net but I am saying the able but unwilling can fall through our safety net for all I care.

They just had a segment on 60 minutes where they interviewed a couple of poor kids living in a truck because their carpenter father can't find a job. Pretty sad.

If you're a grandpa, how old is your brother?

 

[alan1]

Why is free entertainment so frowned upon?

 

[Cecilie1200]

Just for the sake of argument, Gramps, what should the entertainment budget be for a family of 4 whose parents work but earn an income that still qualifies for public assistance?

Tent - $40 and it lasts for years.
Free - Hiking the Sierra Nevada's, the Rockies or Blue Ridge Parkway.
Free - Swimming at a coastal beach or inland lake.

Reading - free books at the public library
Playing with kids - public parks are also free

Just ask yourself what families did for entertainment before all those pricey little electronic gizmos existed, and go do that.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

But you seemingly have no perspective on what it means to truly be poor. Or why someone is in that situation.

The terms are thrown around on USMB anytime it serves your personal agenda or ideology without giving any thought to what constitutes their personal circumstances. I've told my story a couple times so I won't go into it again but sufficed to say most of you are clueless.

Most of the time a mere lack of priorities leads a family down the wrong path. How many times have you stopped to help a homeless person to offer help only to have it denied? I have many times. On occasion I've offered to work someone with a "will work for food" sign only to have them put out their cigarette (which cost money) and tell me they really only had time for cash gifts.

Then you have families that can barely afford to put food on the table yet they have cable and xboxes. My brother is one of those people. He is right now as we speak sleeping in my basement despite being told to find a job by this Monday or get out.

I am tired of people always saying we have to do more for the poor when a large portion of them won't even help themselves. I lifted myself from poverty so why do I have to do for others what they can do for themselves? I'm not saying we shouldn't have a safety net but I am saying the able but unwilling can fall through our safety net for all I care.

They just had a segment on 60 minutes where they interviewed a couple of poor kids living in a truck because their carpenter father can't find a job. Pretty sad.

If you're a grandpa, how old is your brother?

38 and still living on your dime as well as mine. But he's my bro so I'm stuck.

 

[Jackson]

I guess what you fail to realize is that it doesn't matter where he buys his toys. If he is going to be eating and feeding his children with my tax dollars he should be using his money to better his own children's future not giving him his nightly online gaming fix.


For fucks sake are any of you responsible parents?

Interesting............did you know that in 1985 and 1986 an E-5 or below in the US Military would qualify for WIC? I took the help while on active duty (I was an E-4 at the time) because WIC provides free formula and fresh veggies and fruit for the mother. Probably one of the best programs I've ever seen.

And yeah.........during that time I still bought a television and VCR, as well as had cable (internet wasn't available yet for where I lived).

As many of you know and some may not when I got out of prison I got sued by the state for aid my wife received for a child that wasn't mine. Simply because Diane put my name on the birth certificate. It was obvious the child wasn't mine but the state didn't care, they wanted their money. I was faced with struggling to pay the money or let them contact the real father for reimbursement.

I paid.


I don't begrudge anyone for receiving assistance. Just the hypocrites.

I have to disagree with you gramps. You stepped up to the plate and paid. There shouldn't have been any assistance because she could have put the real father on the birth certificate. I understand why she didn't, and admire her for it, but that is still no reason for the government to intervene with tax payer dollars.

As my mother once told me after a terrible decision of a husband, "you made your bed, now lie in it." Never got child support after the divorce or help from my parents. We had a lot of spaghetti but not a dime from the government. I lied in my bed and made it fine.

Everyone should do their best to make anyway they can. Pride seems to be a lost art. But I know that is something you have.

 

[LoneLaugher]

But you seemingly have no perspective on what it means to truly be poor. Or why someone is in that situation.

The terms are thrown around on USMB anytime it serves your personal agenda or ideology without giving any thought to what constitutes their personal circumstances. I've told my story a couple times so I won't go into it again but sufficed to say most of you are clueless.

Most of the time a mere lack of priorities leads a family down the wrong path. How many times have you stopped to help a homeless person to offer help only to have it denied? I have many times. On occasion I've offered to work someone with a "will work for food" sign only to have them put out their cigarette (which cost money) and tell me they really only had time for cash gifts.

Then you have families that can barely afford to put food on the table yet they have cable and xboxes. My brother is one of those people. He is right now as we speak sleeping in my basement despite being told to find a job by this Monday or get out.

I am tired of people always saying we have to do more for the poor when a large portion of them won't even help themselves. I lifted myself from poverty so why do I have to do for others what they can do for themselves? I'm not saying we shouldn't have a safety net but I am saying the able but unwilling can fall through our safety net for all I care.

They just had a segment on 60 minutes where they interviewed a couple of poor kids living in a truck because their carpenter father can't find a job. Pretty sad.

If you're a grandpa, how old is your brother?

Those kids are INCREDIBLE.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

Just for the sake of argument, Gramps, what should the entertainment budget be for a family of 4 whose parents work but earn an income that still qualifies for public assistance?

Tent - $40 and it lasts for years.
Free - Hiking the Sierra Nevada's, the Rockies or Blue Ridge Parkway.
Free - Swimming at a coastal beach or inland lake.

Reading - free books at the public library
Playing with kids - public parks are also free

Just ask yourself what families did for entertainment before all those pricey little electronic gizmos existed, and go do that.

It was a daily battle in my house a decade ago. My wife was a letem do whatever parent and I was a do your homework first then chores then play.

It was ugly. Hence the ultimate divorce.

 

[Sarah G]

But you seemingly have no perspective on what it means to truly be poor. Or why someone is in that situation.

The terms are thrown around on USMB anytime it serves your personal agenda or ideology without giving any thought to what constitutes their personal circumstances. I've told my story a couple times so I won't go into it again but sufficed to say most of you are clueless.

Most of the time a mere lack of priorities leads a family down the wrong path. How many times have you stopped to help a homeless person to offer help only to have it denied? I have many times. On occasion I've offered to work someone with a "will work for food" sign only to have them put out their cigarette (which cost money) and tell me they really only had time for cash gifts.

Then you have families that can barely afford to put food on the table yet they have cable and xboxes. My brother is one of those people. He is right now as we speak sleeping in my basement despite being told to find a job by this Monday or get out.

I am tired of people always saying we have to do more for the poor when a large portion of them won't even help themselves. I lifted myself from poverty so why do I have to do for others what they can do for themselves? I'm not saying we shouldn't have a safety net but I am saying the able but unwilling can fall through our safety net for all I care.

They just had a segment on 60 minutes where they interviewed a couple of poor kids living in a truck because their carpenter father can't find a job. Pretty sad.

If you're a grandpa, how old is your brother?

38 and still living on your dime as well as mine. But he's my bro so I'm stuck.

My daughter is a nurse and she just got a second job washing dogs at Pet Smart. She does it becuase she likes dogs but it pays 8.00 an hour. When you're out of work, you have to lower your standards a little and get creative like dog washing just to keep earning.

 

[Full-Auto]

Makes sense.

But here in KC, from downtown to the plaza and beyond is full of street beggers. It gets tiresome. Our on ramps have a lot of beggers also. Usually the signs say something terrible about how hungry they or their families are. I never offer cash but either work for pay or a trip to a store or fast food restaurant and its usually declined. Most of them must be scamming for cash cause refusing food while smoking Marlboros doesn't seem to hungry to me.

I've handed out food to them, and they've always been grateful.

I don't carry food in my truck. It's full of illegal day labor. No room

Dont ya just love the Homie Depot

 

[Flopper]

So our poor didn't exist before the 08 collapse?

Partisan much?

Not as many by a long shot. What you have is more working poor. Men who used to make $20-30 an hour doing construction are now struggling at $10 an hour.

We will always have poor. But America is exceptional, that is what I am told. We should set the example for how our poor are treated...we do not

Plasma claims to be one of the working poor. Yet he has cable, internet, computer, xbox, videogames etc.... None of which is cheap. Seems if he truly is poor he is the one to blame by frivolous spending rather than proper financial planning. So who is representing him wrong? Seems to me he made the decisions to spend rather than save or invest.

Limited cable which includes only local channels is very cheap. In my area it's available for $18/mo. Used Xboxes, video games, and computers can be purchased dirt cheap, however that's not my point. Poor is strictly a relative term. It doesn't mean the same thing today that it meant 50 or 100 years ago. As our standard of living has risen so has our definition of poverty.

Also the government definition of poor, which makes you eligible for various government welfare services can be quite different from what you or I perceive as poor. I know a family of 4 with an income of about $60K. They certainly don't qualify for government aid, but they certainly appear to be very poor, because of choices they make.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Why is free entertainment so frowned upon?

Beats me. I kinda like dragging my teenager away from his electronic shit and making him play board games with his father and me. Family time is loads of fun, and dead-cheap. And my 3-year-old is so easy and inexpensive to spend time with, it's not even funny. Toddlers require little more than your attention to be entertained, and they're endlessly amusing to watch.

 

[LoneLaugher]

There used to be a guy who held a sign begging for money on the traffic island near my church (this was before Tucson passed a law that no one is allowed to be on the traffic islands in the city limits). My pastor went out and offered him a meal and a little cash if he'd come back to the church and do some chores in exchange for it. The guy said, "Why should I work? I can make a couple hundred a day just sitting here."

My feeling has always been that if you can stand out in Tucson's heat all day long to panhandle, you can certainly get a frigging job. I ignore them entirely.

I call bullshit on the bum/pastor story. That one is on every final exam at nutter stereotype school.

Call anything you like, but it's still the truth. If you can prove that I'm lying about it, other than "they always say that", go ahead. Otherwise, I call bullshit on your entire existence.

Gee....I am so glad I have your permission. Maybe you are not lying. Maybe your pastor lied to you and you actually believe it. My existence, huh? Snappy.