A comment on a FB post from some Rightwing group.
I have been poor, truly poor. But I always thought of it as temporary a condition of having no cash on hand nor ease of borrowing the little I would need until I found work, or cash or something. So I never qualified for government poor-ness and the benefits that would flow. I have never collected un-employment, never, not one dollar. So I really couldn't have been poor, could I? My calorie intake when I was poor was really bad, lost much weight quickly, my smoking habits dried up faster, although if you want to smoke you will beg a cigarette from strangers faster than asking for a meal. Folks once shared smokes, quicker than meals or money.
Then again, I wasn't really POOR, since I had my spirit, my pride and my self esteem to buoy me up until I really fell out of whack, or sunk into the abyss.. . I can see how being depressed would make one poorer.
So maybe I don't really know any poor, but then I don't know that I know any serial rapists or murderers either. Just not hanging around with the right crowd. I am sure I am not poor, for all of the measurements, I exceed. But then I am much smarter than most of the people of the world. I am so smart that I know they can't all be like me, nor can any government ever make them like me or better. And I don't think they would want to be me, nor would I like a world full of folks like me, either.
I do know that teaching people, at a young age is fine, that work is good and will create rewards is better than drugging them with media buzz and other harmful toxins. I only want what is best for them, I don't know any truly poor people, and I thank God for that - not the government.
Hard to be poor in America today...
ReplyDeletePoor in spirit is too easy.
DeleteJust a reminder that the first 6 months of unemployment is actually an insurance that companies pay into to take care of the employees they have to lay off. That part is not paid by your and my taxes. I don't know about the extensions. I suspect that they are paid by taxes, but I really don't know.
ReplyDeleteI am putting unemployment insurance in the category of homosexuality, I shouldn't talk about it since I have no experience with it. That goes with great government and atheist morality. Now I could talk about 'gay abandon'.
DeleteRegarding poor people: I have had students when I taught in the public schools whose only meals for the day were the free breakfasts and lunches they got in school. Some of them are now productive working people who used the help to learn a skill and earn an income ... plus paying taxes. I also know some former students who are living off trusts and not earning an income that can be taxed. It is an "income" tax, after all. Unearned income doesn't count for much in our tax system.
ReplyDeleteSo being poor isn't a condition one has to accept forever? And being maintained by properly invested money is worse than being maintained by money taken at the point of a gun from others that have to much?
DeleteTeaching them young that there is NOTHING wrong with working for a living is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteYep, us and Mike Rowe know.
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