Thanks for What?

[georgephillip]

The New York Times editorial that reveals "(o)ne in three Americans--100 million people--is either poor or perilously close to it"?

Well-known lefty Robert Sheer writes of his childhood and the illusion of abundance provided by Thanksgiving "when the food on my family's table was not the leftover produce that my Uncle Leon could no longer sell in his stall, or the nearly spoiled organ meats that our local butcher offered at a steep discount."

"Then came the economic miracle of World War II..."

"Every time I need to be reminded of what was done for my generation in the way of generous government-funded programs, I reread the part of Colin Powell’s inspiring autobiography where he writes about the educational opportunities and vigorous community support programs that postwar kids in the Bronx were afforded.

"Powell and I were engineering students in the same class at the City College of New York, though I didn’t get to know him until he was famous and I spoke with him as a journalist.

"But the great opportunities available to us, as compared to what is available to the poor today, is a recognition we share."

Robert Scheer: Thanks for What? - Robert Scheer's Columns - Truthdig

 

[California Girl]

Americans have no concept of what real poverty is. Because not one of us lives in real poverty. Not one. And Thank (insert deity of choice here) for that.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

The New York Times editorial that reveals "(o)ne in three Americans--100 million people--is either poor or perilously close to it"?

Well-known lefty Robert Sheer writes of his childhood and the illusion of abundance provided by Thanksgiving "when the food on my family's table was not the leftover produce that my Uncle Leon could no longer sell in his stall, or the nearly spoiled organ meats that our local butcher offered at a steep discount."

"Then came the economic miracle of World War II..."

"Every time I need to be reminded of what was done for my generation in the way of generous government-funded programs, I reread the part of Colin Powell’s inspiring autobiography where he writes about the educational opportunities and vigorous community support programs that postwar kids in the Bronx were afforded.

"Powell and I were engineering students in the same class at the City College of New York, though I didn’t get to know him until he was famous and I spoke with him as a journalist.

"But the great opportunities available to us, as compared to what is available to the poor today, is a recognition we share."

Robert Scheer: Thanks for What? - Robert Scheer's Columns - Truthdig

So now to make it seem like more the left is lumping in anyone they want in poor " or well almost poor" section as they demand more money, more debt, more Government control?

Powell I am sure paid for his education just like everyone else does. Or rather did until Obama told the OWS people he understands why they want to be forgiven the loans they willingly took out for Higher education.

 

[Foxfyre]

The leftists in government, both in Congress and in the bureaucracy, have a vested interest in being sure that sufficient people are 'poor' to keep them in their lucrative positions. So the threshhold for poverty continues to be raised. Never mind that more than a few of the 'poor' probably drive a better car than you do, could have a bigger and newer refrigerator and big screen TV, a cell phone, and reasonably nice furniture in their government subsidized housing.

There are also many, made dependent on government entitlements, who are condemned to the rat infested inner city projects where they eat sitting on the floor lest a stray bullet hit somebody and where their kids are afraid to go out unless they have a gang to go to, and whole generations are angry, often violent, and essentially unemployable. There is something wrong with a society in which there is an interest both in government and among the people to keep people in that kind of situation despite more than $10 trillion now expended on the so-called war on poverty.

We need to do it much differently.

 

[georgephillip]

Americans have no concept of what real poverty is. Because not one of us lives in real poverty. Not one. And Thank (insert deity of choice here) for that.

Are Mexicans Americans?

If the 1% in this country continue to grow richer with each passing year, "real poverty" however you are defining it will become as familiar to US citizens as it is to citizens of Mexico.

Which deity will you thank for that?

 

[Seawytch]

We are supposed to be the richest nation in the world, but conservatives will turn a blind eye to or "poo poo" the income inequality here because poor people in this country have microwaves.

 

[Sky Dancer]

We are supposed to be the richest nation in the world, but conservatives will turn a blind eye to or "poo poo" the income inequality here because poor people in this country have microwaves.

The poor in America are certainly better off than the poor in Third World countries. That's something that I'm proud of as an American.

 

[Sky Dancer]

The New York Times editorial that reveals "(o)ne in three Americans--100 million people--is either poor or perilously close to it"?

Well-known lefty Robert Sheer writes of his childhood and the illusion of abundance provided by Thanksgiving "when the food on my family's table was not the leftover produce that my Uncle Leon could no longer sell in his stall, or the nearly spoiled organ meats that our local butcher offered at a steep discount."

"Then came the economic miracle of World War II..."

"Every time I need to be reminded of what was done for my generation in the way of generous government-funded programs, I reread the part of Colin Powell’s inspiring autobiography where he writes about the educational opportunities and vigorous community support programs that postwar kids in the Bronx were afforded.

"Powell and I were engineering students in the same class at the City College of New York, though I didn’t get to know him until he was famous and I spoke with him as a journalist.

"But the great opportunities available to us, as compared to what is available to the poor today, is a recognition we share."

Robert Scheer: Thanks for What? - Robert Scheer's Columns - Truthdig

So now to make it seem like more the left is lumping in anyone they want in poor " or well almost poor" section as they demand more money, more debt, more Government control?

Powell I am sure paid for his education just like everyone else does. Or rather did until Obama told the OWS people he understands why they want to be forgiven the loans they willingly took out for Higher education.

That's a broad sweeping generalization about the left. IMO, government is wasteful and inefficient. We can cut back without hurting people.

I have no problem with reducing the size of the government. I have a problem with keeping the Bush tax cuts for the rich.

 

[rightwinger]

We are supposed to be the richest nation in the world, but conservatives will turn a blind eye to or "poo poo" the income inequality here because poor people in this country have microwaves.

Not only that, but they use food stamps to buy filet mignon and drive Escalades

 

[georgephillip]

The New York Times editorial that reveals "(o)ne in three Americans--100 million people--is either poor or perilously close to it"?

Well-known lefty Robert Sheer writes of his childhood and the illusion of abundance provided by Thanksgiving "when the food on my family's table was not the leftover produce that my Uncle Leon could no longer sell in his stall, or the nearly spoiled organ meats that our local butcher offered at a steep discount."

"Then came the economic miracle of World War II..."

"Every time I need to be reminded of what was done for my generation in the way of generous government-funded programs, I reread the part of Colin Powell’s inspiring autobiography where he writes about the educational opportunities and vigorous community support programs that postwar kids in the Bronx were afforded.

"Powell and I were engineering students in the same class at the City College of New York, though I didn’t get to know him until he was famous and I spoke with him as a journalist.

"But the great opportunities available to us, as compared to what is available to the poor today, is a recognition we share."

Robert Scheer: Thanks for What? - Robert Scheer's Columns - Truthdig

So now to make it seem like more the left is lumping in anyone they want in poor " or well almost poor" section as they demand more money, more debt, more Government control?

Powell I am sure paid for his education just like everyone else does. Or rather did until Obama told the OWS people he understands why they want to be forgiven the loans they willingly took out for Higher education.

Powell had his tuition paid for like all other vets of the time.
OWS is saying this country is rich enough to extend that benefit to all citizens.
The 1% disagrees and demands greater public debt to cover their private losses on Wall Street.

G.I. Bill - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[spectrumc01]

Americans have no concept of what real poverty is. Because not one of us lives in real poverty. Not one. And Thank (insert deity of choice here) for that.

Well thanks for setting the bar for us. I'm sure the poverty stricken are grateful. They have no home, no job, food is scarce, and they are existing. At least they don't have to worry about the government treating them like they do in African nations. At least not yet anyway, but as most, not all, conservatives put it..."F@^k them lazy B@%&#$%'s they don't need any government help at all. If they get help I'll be the one to determine who gets it not the government as I give to charities that help who I think deserves help, and F$*^k the rest."

 

[Poli_Sigh]

Americans have no concept of what real poverty is. Because not one of us lives in real poverty. Not one. And Thank (insert deity of choice here) for that.

You are absolutely correct - Americans have no concept of what real poverty is. But on the other hand, the majority of Americans have no concept of what real wealth is either and never have.

 

[georgephillip]

The leftists in government, both in Congress and in the bureaucracy, have a vested interest in being sure that sufficient people are 'poor' to keep them in their lucrative positions. So the threshhold for poverty continues to be raised. Never mind that more than a few of the 'poor' probably drive a better car than you do, could have a bigger and newer refrigerator and big screen TV, a cell phone, and reasonably nice furniture in their government subsidized housing.

There are also many, made dependent on government entitlements, who are condemned to the rat infested inner city projects where they eat sitting on the floor lest a stray bullet hit somebody and where their kids are afraid to go out unless they have a gang to go to, and whole generations are angry, often violent, and essentially unemployable. There is something wrong with a society in which there is an interest both in government and among the people to keep people in that kind of situation despite more than $10 trillion now expended on the so-called war on poverty.

We need to do it much differently.

"Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor is a classical political-economic argument, stating that in the advanced capitalist societies state policies assure that more resources flow to the rich than to the poor, for example in form of transfer payments.

"The term corporate welfare is widely used to describe the bestowal of favorable treatment to particular corporations by the government. One of the most commonly raised forms of criticism are statements that the capitalist political economy toward large corporations allows them to 'privatize profits and socialize losses.'[1]

"We agree many in government have a vested interest in keeping some people poor and "we need to do it much differently."

Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[spectrumc01]

Americans have no concept of what real poverty is. Because not one of us lives in real poverty. Not one. And Thank (insert deity of choice here) for that.

Do we have to wait for them to reach the "Real Poverty" level as you see it before we do something? Comparing ourselves to third world African nations and then patting ourselves on the back seems to be defeatist don't you think? Are you saying, we have achieved out goals when it comes to poverty stricken people?

 

[georgephillip]

We are supposed to be the richest nation in the world, but conservatives will turn a blind eye to or "poo poo" the income inequality here because poor people in this country have microwaves.

I think that today's microwaves fall into Sheer's "just getting by" status:

"It did not take long before I was old enough to realize that the largesse of Thanksgiving was the rare exception, and that 'just getting by,' as my mother’s brave optimism would have it, was the norm.

"Getting by, thanks to Mom’s piecework in the downtown sweatshops and my mechanic father’s signing on to one of the New Deal’s public jobs programs.

"Then came the economic miracle of World War II, dismissed in its day by some Republicans as Franklin Roosevelt’s treachery, and my parents and other relatives got their jobs back.

"The relevance of the wartime jobs to Thanksgiving in our family was that my Uncle Edward, the welder, was rewarded every year at his plant with one enormous turkey or two smaller ones..."

Millions of innocent human beings (mostly poor) perished in World War II and a handful of 1% families on both sides became even richer while the working poor got turkeys on Thanksgiving.

We should all be looking for ways to tax the profit out of war.

Robert Scheer: Thanks for What? - Robert Scheer's Columns - Truthdig

 

[Sky Dancer]

There is a post on this thread, about the lefts feelings about the poor, that is so false, so negative, and so judging of people whose politics lean left that I would have, (in the past), habitually been moved to counter it. The post is full of conjecture, it's mean spirited and it's not in the spirit of todays Thanksgiving celebration.

I'm not going to bite the hook.

 

[georgephillip]

The New York Times editorial that reveals "(o)ne in three Americans--100 million people--is either poor or perilously close to it"?

Well-known lefty Robert Sheer writes of his childhood and the illusion of abundance provided by Thanksgiving "when the food on my family's table was not the leftover produce that my Uncle Leon could no longer sell in his stall, or the nearly spoiled organ meats that our local butcher offered at a steep discount."

"Then came the economic miracle of World War II..."

"Every time I need to be reminded of what was done for my generation in the way of generous government-funded programs, I reread the part of Colin Powell’s inspiring autobiography where he writes about the educational opportunities and vigorous community support programs that postwar kids in the Bronx were afforded.

"Powell and I were engineering students in the same class at the City College of New York, though I didn’t get to know him until he was famous and I spoke with him as a journalist.

"But the great opportunities available to us, as compared to what is available to the poor today, is a recognition we share."

Robert Scheer: Thanks for What? - Robert Scheer's Columns - Truthdig

So now to make it seem like more the left is lumping in anyone they want in poor " or well almost poor" section as they demand more money, more debt, more Government control?

Powell I am sure paid for his education just like everyone else does. Or rather did until Obama told the OWS people he understands why they want to be forgiven the loans they willingly took out for Higher education.

That's a broad sweeping generalization about the left. IMO, government is wasteful and inefficient. We can cut back without hurting people.

I have no problem with reducing the size of the government. I have a problem with keeping the Bush tax cuts for the rich.

This government is vastly inefficient and corrupt beyond Einstein's imagination.

The Pentagon and HUD seem to be where much of the fraud takes place with Wall Street and the 1% positioned to reap the profits.

I don't see how to change that at the polls by "choosing" between Republican OR Democrat.

 

[Sky Dancer]

So now to make it seem like more the left is lumping in anyone they want in poor " or well almost poor" section as they demand more money, more debt, more Government control?

Powell I am sure paid for his education just like everyone else does. Or rather did until Obama told the OWS people he understands why they want to be forgiven the loans they willingly took out for Higher education.

That's a broad sweeping generalization about the left. IMO, government is wasteful and inefficient. We can cut back without hurting people.

I have no problem with reducing the size of the government. I have a problem with keeping the Bush tax cuts for the rich.

This government is vastly inefficient and corrupt beyond Einstein's imagination.

The Pentagon and HUD seem to be where much of the fraud takes place with Wall Street and the 1% positioned to reap the profits.

I don't see how to change that at the polls by "choosing" between Republican OR Democrat.

I understand your point. We can't give up and give in to despair. What I'm not going to do, is be at war with other citizens over left or right leaning solutions to our very dire financial circumstances, as a country and worldwide.

 

[georgephillip]

We are supposed to be the richest nation in the world, but conservatives will turn a blind eye to or "poo poo" the income inequality here because poor people in this country have microwaves.

Not only that, but they use food stamps to buy filet mignon and drive Escalades

Escalades?!

How come all I got was a plastic EBT card.

Is this some kind of age discrimination?

 

[Sky Dancer]

We are supposed to be the richest nation in the world, but conservatives will turn a blind eye to or "poo poo" the income inequality here because poor people in this country have microwaves.

Not only that, but they use food stamps to buy filet mignon and drive Escalades

Escalades?!

How come all I got was a plastic EBT card.

Is this some kind of age discrimination?

Escalade? I've never even heard of one.