Claeyt wrote:I see we're all in the 'I grew up poorer than you' moment here. Well unless you were an American or European who was physically homeless or in foster care or an orphan I don't want to hear it.
Actually, it was an "I sympathize with you, Darwoth, I had similar experiences." post, and also for Taipon and others asking about poverty in the US. I realize your posts are all about self-aggrandizement, but most of the rest of us are just talking, not bragging. I would gladly trade the ability to post about those experiences for NOT HAVING EXPERIENCED THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE. And geez man, being an orphan is bad, but it's also a completely different situation which has nothing at all to do with the economy or poverty.
You rant about mental illness, losing a parent, drug addition, drunkenness, and physical abuse and/or neglect of parents against their children, and while some of those things can be partly a result of the despair that comes with being poor, they actually have nothing at all to do with poverty. You don't have to experience them to actually be poor. My parents chose to spend what little money we had keeping us alive as best they could instead of buying drugs. How dare you say that didn't make us poor. How dare you say that all those people out there, including my mother, who work their asses off every day taking care of people too young or sick to take care of themselves, spending all their free time hunting for the cheapest prices on basics like food and clothing so those under their care don't go hungry, unable to get any government assistance whatsoever (in our case because they thought my dad was faking being so sick he could hardly get out of bed), how dare you say they aren't poor or suffering just because they're not actively starving to death. And we didn't own much of a home. We sold our home to move to the Ozarks where the cost of living was lower and lived in a tiny old mobile home that was literally a tin oven on some days because we couldn't afford to turn the air on. My dad added a screened porch while he was still able for that sort of thing and we basically lived out there in the summer.
And don't you DARE have the GALL to claim I don't know what suffering is when I, as a CHILD, had to grow up watching my father sink slowly into physical and mental illness. Lyme Disease attacks the nervous system in a most insidious way, causing a host of painful physical symptoms and debilitating mental ones. And it was ***** terrifying watching him slowly falling apart dying. So don't you wade in here and claim only you understand human suffering you self-righteous little ****.
Food Stamps help people. Federal Disability helps people. Welfare helps people. I've seen it with my own eyes. I've seen people who would be dead or living in an alley without help like this
No one here said they didn't. I distinctly remember that -I- said people who need it can't get it while others who don't, do get it. The system is ***** up and that's all anyone has said so far. Not that charity shouldn't exist, but that what we have is not doing its job. You yourself just mentioned several cases where people were not getting back on their feet despite government assistance. They seem to not be properly using the funds they are getting to care for their kids. Logically, you would be agreeing with us, yet all you saw here was an opportunity to jump all over everyone, promote how saintlike you are for doing some charitable volunteer work like you're the only one, and at one point ... blame poverty on black people?? Seriously, wtf?
Tmeow, poor people who don't pay income tax STILL PAY MORE IN TAXES THROUGH SALES TAX, FEDERAL TAX ON STUFF LIKE GAS AND ELECTRICITY AND PROPERTY TAX THROUGH RENT AND OTHER ESSENTIALS as percents of their total income than the rich pay as a percent of their total income so just stop.
I never said our tax system wasn't ***** up. We would be better off with a flat tax on things like income, and no tax on most everything else. Seriously, why do we even HAVE property tax?? However, you are wrong again. First, yes, rich people do tend to save more money than poorer people and money in a no-interest bank account isn't actively taxed, but all purchases are taxed mostly equally, percent-wise, so the ~8% sales tax a poor person pays for groceries is the same ~8% sales tax I pay. I have more money to spend, so I probably buy more expensive foods, but I still pay
the exact same percentage of money. Maybe I own more property, a bigger house, more cars, whatever, but I also pay more property tax as a result. And any money I invest instead of just stuffing in a mattress, guess what? It gets taxed. Add that to the fact that there are also a lot of government programs that will help pay for things like rent, utilities, food, clothing, and other essentials if you are poor, the fact that we have a progressive income tax system (you pay a higher percent of income tax the more money you make), and the fact that you CAN get more money in an income tax refund from the government than you actually paid in, and your claim is *****.
Your sister pays taxes on stuff. Instead of criticizing her for getting help, wonder if she was maybe a paycheck away from being homeless without that help.
She pays taxes on her premium HBO channels, sure. She's about one paycheck away from buying a new couch. I know what my sister's finances are and I know that if she wasn't a spoiled brat who thinks the world owes her a living and who can't resist buying the latest iPhone and then crying to my parents that she's out of money and getting them to buy her kids clothes, she and her family would be able to live just fine on what her husband makes. Instead, she's getting WIC and several other assistances she truly doesn't need while someone else out there who does need it, isn't getting it.
Everything you've described in your life story there is not true poverty
***** you, Claeyt.
Claeyt wrote:...and NO Darwoth, you can not legally buy anything but food with an EBT or Food stamps card. [...] there is a small percentage who engage in food stamp fraud
No, there is a small percentage who get caught. The percentage who don't get caught is higher. I like how you deny it's possible in one sentence and then admit that it happens in the next. And those are the people who Dallane is referring to when he calls them scum. The ones who lie and cheat to get the benefits that others should be getting, and the ones who maybe do need those benefits, but then turn around and spend them on drugs and cigarettes instead of on their starving children.
And before you accuse me of wanting to starve out the poor or something equally ridiculous, I do think that poor people should be helped. I just don't think the system we are using is working the way it should be, but this post is long enough already.
