Welfare, Gimmie, & Hypocrisy

Blockhead wrote:

"_"
Reading your post, you just defined me as poor, since I am barely able to afford those items and maintain them.
Why am I required to pay for those things to support my family if you deem them as necessities that all people should have to live?

Just because something applies to you and your situation does not mean its the same everywhere else. Just because you got everything in your house for $2.50 does not mean everyone can. Please understand that other people situations do not reflect yours.

btw, how do you like your ROKU?

I in no way just defined you as poor. I merely pointed out that your repeated assertion that people who have these things must have paid for them - and are therefore wealthy enough to support themselves & must just be abusing the system because they have bad priorities - is flawed to the point of being absurd.

The fact that you pay more for these things - and maintain them, which we already told you many people are not able to do - only reflects you inability and/or unwillingness to find & accept old, cheap things for your family. You are able to have this attitude precisely because you are NOT poor.

As I have said all along, poor people are usually able to have things because they have to resort to alternative methods of acquiring them (and often because they're willing to accept lower-quality things). My first three cars were ugly piles of junk that were older than I was & broke down all the time (one was actually totaled), but were given to me by relatives when they would otherwise have just taken them to a junk yard because they knew I needed a car. (Somehow I don't picture a responsible man such as yourself sending your wife & children off into bad neighborhoods at night in such unsafe vehicles - but you at least have that choice.)

Not everyone who is poor is able to acquire all these things so cheaply, so we should be careful to not assume that it's necessarily easy for poor people to get a car, for instance. This is why social capital is so important. But my extensive experience with poor people tells me that most of those who do have such things acquired them by similar alternative means. (Why do you think poor people are so much more likely to have broken-down cars in their yards? It's not because it's just their white trash lack of values.)

My Roku box is awesome!

Blockhead wrote:

polaris_x wrote:

Blockhead wrote:

Maybe you should take a look at the federal budget...
And once again, if someone have no education/planning/savings plans, etc, handing them monthly checks is not HELPING them... We should help educate them in how to save money.
Taking (forcing) someone elses money that they work for and giving it to someone who is not working to support their way of live is THEFT.
People seem to foget that there are charities...

then what do you call taking someone's money and forcing them to pay for bombs that kill innocent people?

Defense...

but similar to you not wanting to pay for someone to eat ... i don't want to pay to have people killed ...

Blockhead wrote:

Maybe you should take a look at the federal budget...
And once again, if someone have no education/planning/savings plans, etc, handing them monthly checks is not HELPING them... We should help educate them in how to save money.
Taking (forcing) someone elses money that they work for and giving it to someone who is not working to support their way of live is THEFT.
People seem to foget that there are charities...

You are incorrect if you believe that people on public assistance don't work. Most of the people I've known have been employed. They work at minimum wage jobs and struggle to support their families. Food stamps or subsidized housing help them. The fact that someone qualifies for one type of assistance doesn't mean they automatically qualify for another. It depends very much on the state and locality where they live.

I haven't forgotten that there are charities. I already said that I've spent most of my adult life working at nonprofits, including what you would call charities. Because of the tremendous demands on them, particularly in this economy, they are limited in what kinds of services they can provide. They can fill in some gaps in public assistance but not all.

whoprincess wrote:

Blockhead wrote:

Maybe you should take a look at the federal budget...
And once again, if someone have no education/planning/savings plans, etc, handing them monthly checks is not HELPING them... We should help educate them in how to save money.
Taking (forcing) someone elses money that they work for and giving it to someone who is not working to support their way of live is THEFT.
People seem to foget that there are charities...

You are incorrect if you believe that people on public assistance don't work. Most of the people I've known have been employed. They work at minimum wage jobs and struggle to support their families. Food stamps or subsidized housing help them. The fact that someone qualifies for one type of assistance doesn't mean they automatically qualify for another. It depends very much on the state and locality where they live.

I haven't forgotten that there are charities. I already said that I've spent most of my adult life working at nonprofits, including what you would call charities. Because of the tremendous demands on them, particularly in this economy, they are limited in what kinds of services they can provide. They can fill in some gaps in public assistance but not all.

blockhead has demonstrated time again in thread after thread the inability to understand that there is a group of people called "the working poor".

Blockhead wrote:

Gimmie has demostrated time and time again in thread after thread hypocrisy at its finest and his inability to think logically.

is that a fact?

i have stayed true to my convictions the entire time.

where have i been a hypocrite? :?

where have i shown inability to think logically?

you are the one with the chip on your shoulder, let's knock off the victim complex ok?

Blockhead, it would really help your case if you ever showed any interest in actual reality. If you really cared about this issue, instead of just wanting to villify poor people, shouldn't you have some interest in LEARNING about it from those people (like Whoprincess) who have much more expertise? You are talking about welfare programs and they people who utilize their services; she is telling you how they work and what the experience of many of those people is. Are you not the slightest bit interested in knowing?? :?

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

i was just sitting at my desk and thinking...

what is it that jesus and most of the saints that are held in high esteem have in common?

they were poor. they lived amongst the sick and poor in society. they served them, cared for them, and ministered to them.

they did not browbeat them, they did not berate them, they did not judge them. or put them down. or call them inferior. or blame them for their situation. or call them "lazy" or "leeches" or say that they were "stealing" resources from the rich.

to me it is funny that those of us who are not religious try to do the former, while those that have found jesus tend to do the latter. there is something seriously wrong with that picture...

I understand your point, but please do not overgeneralize this because it is certainly not always the case. However, it is the case many times, and, to me, it personifies hypocrisy (as opposed to what you were 'accused' of before. )

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

i was just sitting at my desk and thinking...

what is it that jesus and most of the saints that are held in high esteem have in common?

they were poor. they lived amongst the sick and poor in society. they served them, cared for them, and ministered to them.

they did not browbeat them, they did not berate them, they did not judge them. or put them down. or call them inferior. or blame them for their situation. or call them "lazy" or "leeches" or say that they were "stealing" resources from the rich.

to me it is funny that those of us who are not religious try to do the former, while those that have found jesus tend to do the latter. there is something seriously wrong with that picture...

"Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Matthew 19:24