Crime and the economy

[beak]

NPR is pretty centered.

I will leave this thread. I seem to be the only person with an opposing view.

 

[Mrs. Glassman]

I have not read the whole thread...I did see that it's about to be closed, and I want to say about crime & the economy, that the thing that broke my heart the MOST...was some footage of the aftermath of KATRINA.

The news was airing footage of people looting stores. Some left with TV's & high dollar items.

I saw a lady run out of the store with DIAPERS under each arm. Baby diapers.

I broke down & cried right there. How sad & deperate do you have to be to steal diapers for your baby.

That's all I'm going to say on that, because the thought has me crying again.

Freaking BABY DIAPERS!

 

[redhen]

Mrs. Glassman :

I have not read the whole thread...I did see that it's about to be closed, and I want to say about crime & the economy, that the thing that broke my heart the MOST...was some footage of the aftermath of KATRINA.

The news was airing footage of people looting stores. Some left with TV's & high dollar items.

I saw a lady run out of the store with DIAPERS under each arm. Baby diapers.

I broke down & cried right there. How sad & deperate do you have to be to steal diapers for your baby.

That's all I'm going to say on that, because the thought has me crying again.

Freaking BABY DIAPERS!

 

[Sugar Sand Farm]

Beak I agree with you. As one who always had insurance until I really needed it I feel I can speak. We tried to get insurance on our own but the premiums were so far out there. They wanted over 600.00 a month and that would not cover doctors visits. It would cover the first heart attack up to 10,000. but if you had anymore you were on your own. It also would not cover any of my medical issues as They were preexisting. Now with ecomony as bad as it is our hosiptal is on a pay as you go program. You need to go to the emergency room it cost you 150.00 to walk in the door. All services are prepaid. All tests are prepaid. The only thing they will see you if its life threatening, they then airflight you (charge you) to a larger county hospital where you can be treated. Because of this practice I have had to wait until DH has gotten paid to have tests done, go to the doctors, etc. I have had to forgo paying my mortgage to have tests done. Believe me the electric company or the mortgage company doesn't care you need medical help they want their money. I am going through another medical problem now. It has cost us 500.00 this week for tests and doctors visits and they have done nothing for me. I am still in pain and they want to run more tests. The test will have to wait as we can not afford to pay for them until DH's next check. Believe me living like this is miserable. asking for help that is denied is embarassing and frustrating. Don't get me wrong we would be willing to pay for insurance but it has to cover our needs otherwise its money down the drain. I hope noone has to make the choice of being healthy or having a roof over your head or food on the table. Someone somewhere needs to address this mess.

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

Well take a look at this poll:

http://www.timepolls.com/hppolls/archive/poll_results_415.html

Most of you have done a good job on this debate without getting too mean. We all seem to agree that the system is badly broken, we just disagree with how to fix it.

Like cancer there are no really good fixes. This situation evolved over time and simply got worse and worse and SO entrenched in our economy that no simple fix will do.

If we just socialize medicine we wipe out a huge industry. We can't do that. If we don't create a stronger socialized version (Please note I am using the term socialized under the pretext that this is what most people are calling it, this is not socialism but that is a debate for another day.) we drain the economy by having too much of our income going to one thing and people suffer from the inability to meet other costs.....

There is no pretty fix, just one that can be implemented.

 

[rabbithaus]

Mrs. Glassman :

I have not read the whole thread...I did see that it's about to be closed, and I want to say about crime & the economy, that the thing that broke my heart the MOST...was some footage of the aftermath of KATRINA.

The news was airing footage of people looting stores. Some left with TV's & high dollar items.

I saw a lady run out of the store with DIAPERS under each arm. Baby diapers.

I broke down & cried right there. How sad & deperate do you have to be to steal diapers for your baby.

That's all I'm going to say on that, because the thought has me crying again.

Freaking BABY DIAPERS!

I heard reports about this as well. To me, the tv takers were just plain out thieves as one doesn't need a tv. But if you need food, baby supplies, medicines, etc. and there is no store owner available to pay, what should you do? The items are not yours, very true, but you couldn't pay if you wanted to. Desperate times... I hope to never be in such a situation but if worse came to worse, I would probably hold out as long as possible, then take what I need, and make restitution later. In the chinese fairytales I've read, food thieves were recognized as stealing out of need and were treated much less harshly than 'stuff' thieves even if the latter claimed to be selling the items for food, etc. They often had happy endings to those stories.

And yes, as a cloth diapering breast feeding mother, I know that disposable diapers and formula are often not 'needs' but the mother would have to steal pins and such to make cloth and her milk is probably long gone.​

 

[Boyd]

Quote:
In the chinese fairytales I've read, food thieves were recognized as stealing out of need and were treated much less harshly than 'stuff' thieves even if the latter claimed to be selling the items for food, etc. They often had happy endings to those stories.

Reminds me of Les Miserables.