Political Ramblings

[MamaRoo]

That 'poverty level' is an interesting concept. As my unemployment is getting close to running out, and I still have no job prospects, I've been investigating what's available.

It's just me, so all the aid for people with children is out.

There's help for heating costs - but you have to apply at the beginning of the heating season, and my income needs to be less than $1000 per month. So I was too 'wealthy' while on unemployment. You also need to bring in a bill so they know how much to set you up for. Ummm...I haven't turned the heat on for most of the time. Only when my hands are too cold to function do I heat one room.

SNAP requires that I earn less than ~$1000 per month, so again I'm not eligible while receiving unemployment. If I do end up applying I can expect ~$200 per month. Not so bad, but since I have food allergies, no cheap pasta for me. Instead I'm shopping the 10 pound bags of potatoes on sale. Dented cans. Windfall apples from the neighbor's yard. I'm currently shopping this way, because unemployment doesn't really cover the mortgage AND food. I eat nothing pre-packaged (ok, sometimes a box of gluten free stuff is on the half-priced "damaged" shelf and I'll splurge). Today's breakfast - russet potatoes cooked in the drippings from the chicken I cooked last week. Wait! You say, didn't you have that for dinner last night? No, no, no, last night was RED POTATOES cooked in chicken juice.

I have a cell phone, but no land line. Internet for job hunting, but no TV. I get movies from the library to watch from the couch while I'm snuggled under cats and blankets.

I have an 18 year old paid for truck. Fortunately my bf is handy and he's done a number of repairs for me recently, otherwise I'd either be without a vehicle, or have put out a few thousand to get it fixed. There's no aid for transportation or car repair.

Tried a garden. Things don't grow well here.

Fortunately I'm heading into this from having had a job, so I have things like clothes and shoes, otherwise I'd be hoping for something reasonable at Goodwill, which, of course, is 35 miles RT from my house. So add in gas to the cost of the shoes.

Also fortunate that my Dr renewed my prescription without requiring a visit or blood test, otherwise I'd be out another $100 or so, plus the cost of the meds. Hospital charity care? Not eligible since I own a house and have an IRA. When you're on the street, or sleeping on a friend's couch you can apply to the charity care program.

A lot of other programs I'm not eligible for if I own property and have a retirement account. So sure, when I have no home, no way to care for myself, no safety net for old age, I can apply for assistance. A terrifying prospect.

I would disagree with anyone who says that being poor is easy. It requires planning, juggling, and a whole lot of stress. I could not even imagine what this would feel like to someone who had a child to care for as well.

 

[chickened]

I think but everyone pretty much agrees that we should help those less fortunate. Being poor does not mean the poor are miserable but means they are just less fortunate.
The wealthy and the affluent often think of the poor as miserable and they offer charity because they know no better having never "experienced" poverty and equate thier happiness and wellbeing as a result of thier success. On the other hand those that have experienced poverty know that charity only goes so far but putting oneself along side someone who needs a hand up is what really breaks the cycle not charity, for gods sake look at the reservation system with the native americans if you cannot believe me. Hiring someone putting them to work is the answer folks not handouts. To Obama's credit the ARRA money was a good idea but it was put into a corrupt. greedy system.

Accusing each other of being heartless and selfish is what the two parties in Washington do and we need not a PHD to realize how productive that approach is. That is why I voted for Romney not because I liked him but because I had hope he would unite the parties and accomplish something at the very least.

 

[chickened]

That 'poverty level' is an interesting concept. As my unemployment is getting close to running out, and I still have no job prospects, I've been investigating what's available.

It's just me, so all the aid for people with children is out.

There's help for heating costs - but you have to apply at the beginning of the heating season, and my income needs to be less than $1000 per month. So I was too 'wealthy' while on unemployment. You also need to bring in a bill so they know how much to set you up for. Ummm...I haven't turned the heat on for most of the time. Only when my hands are too cold to function do I heat one room.

SNAP requires that I earn less than ~$1000 per month, so again I'm not eligible while receiving unemployment. If I do end up applying I can expect ~$200 per month. Not so bad, but since I have food allergies, no cheap pasta for me. Instead I'm shopping the 10 pound bags of potatoes on sale. Dented cans. Windfall apples from the neighbor's yard. I'm currently shopping this way, because unemployment doesn't really cover the mortgage AND food. I eat nothing pre-packaged (ok, sometimes a box of gluten free stuff is on the half-priced "damaged" shelf and I'll splurge). Today's breakfast - russet potatoes cooked in the drippings from the chicken I cooked last week. Wait! You say, didn't you have that for dinner last night? No, no, no, last night was RED POTATOES cooked in chicken juice.

I have a cell phone, but no land line. Internet for job hunting, but no TV. I get movies from the library to watch from the couch while I'm snuggled under cats and blankets.

I have an 18 year old paid for truck. Fortunately my bf is handy and he's done a number of repairs for me recently, otherwise I'd either be without a vehicle, or have put out a few thousand to get it fixed. There's no aid for transportation or car repair.

Tried a garden. Things don't grow well here.

Fortunately I'm heading into this from having had a job, so I have things like clothes and shoes, otherwise I'd be hoping for something reasonable at Goodwill, which, of course, is 35 miles RT from my house. So add in gas to the cost of the shoes.

Also fortunate that my Dr renewed my prescription without requiring a visit or blood test, otherwise I'd be out another $100 or so, plus the cost of the meds. Hospital charity care? Not eligible since I own a house and have an IRA. When you're on the street, or sleeping on a friend's couch you can apply to the charity care program.

A lot of other programs I'm not eligible for if I own property and have a retirement account. So sure, when I have no home, no way to care for myself, no safety net for old age, I can apply for assistance. A terrifying prospect.

I would disagree with anyone who says that being poor is easy. It requires planning, juggling, and a whole lot of stress. I could not even imagine what this would feel like to someone who had a child to care for as well.

You and I both live in an expensive place to live doesn't help either.

 

[MamaRoo]

I think but everyone pretty much agrees that we should help those less fortunate. Being poor does not mean the poor are miserable but means they are just less fortunate.
The wealthy and the affluent often think of the poor as miserable and they offer charity because they know no better having never "experienced" poverty and equate thier happiness and wellbeing as a result of thier success.

This may very well be, but I'm sorry for the people that see life that way. I lived among truly impoverished people while in the Peace Corp, and they have something we've lost in the industrialized world. My neighbors were four people living in one room. Five in the winter when they'd bring in grandpa from the village. Never heard voices raised or arguing. One summer the oldest boy walked around in house slippers. Grandpa's shoes had worn out and he needed shoes because the village was all mud, so the oldest boy gave his to him. They were saving up to get another pair of shoes before school started. I gave them everything I had when I left. Came back to the states with a pair of sandals on my feet and the clothes on my back. But I still feel that they have more than I do in a lot of ways.

 

[MamaRoo]

To Obama's credit the ARRA money was a good idea but it was put into a corrupt. greedy system.

The ARRA money is exquisitely watched. If you have evidence of misuse, report it: http://www.recovery.gov/Contact/ReportFraud/Pages/Report_Fraud.aspx

 

[chickened]

My mother spent two weeks in a mountain village with the doctors she worked with in central america and some of the things she told me about the living conditions there were unbelievable. I really think there is nobody in America that has any real clue what poverty is or experiences it including me.

 

[chickened]

The ARRA money is exquisitely watched. If you have evidence of misuse, report it: http://www.recovery.gov/Contact/ReportFraud/Pages/Report_Fraud.aspx

The misuse that I seen was the amount that went to administrative costs and consultants. I did some government work with ARRA money and there was extra paperwork associated with it but what was wrong was the meaningless projects it was used on, not all of them but painting rocks grey was one that comes to mind, I actully bid on that one.

 

[Capvin]

I think that there is a danger of creating some confusion in talking about being poor. A really poor person will never seriously use the phrase "money can't buy happiness." That is not to say that every single poor person or family is miserable. They may be poor with grace, but when you are hungry, can't pay regular bills, can't do some everyday things for your children, then you know that being poor is hard and it is not some romantic notion that you may read about in a novel. Seeing people who live a meager existence within a relatively poor country is quite different from living in a slum in Mumbai or New York City or Miami where the difference between the haves and have nots is stark. Ed, I really think your statement of how wealthy may view poor is far off the mark in most cases. I am not talking about those who still harbor the notion of noblese oblige, but without the simple charity practiced by many who are comfortable, many of the poor among us would have it a lot harder.

 

[chickened]

I think that there is a danger of creating some confusion in talking about being poor. A really poor person will never seriously use the phrase "money can't buy happiness." That is not to say that every single poor person or family is miserable. They may be poor with grace, but when you are hungry, can't pay regular bills, can't do some everyday things for your children, then you know that being poor is hard and it is not some romantic notion that you may read about in a novel. Seeing people who live a meager existence within a relatively poor country is quite different from living in a slum in Mumbai or New York City or Miami where the difference between the haves and have nots is stark. Ed, I really think your statement of how wealthy may view poor is far off the mark in most cases. I am not talking about those who still harbor the notion of noblese oblige, but without the simple charity practiced by many who are comfortable, many of the poor among us would have it a lot harder.

It does bother me sometimes when people characterize the poor as an abstract of our society and use them as fodder for personal gain but it also botthers me when the rich who are the providers for the poor are used the same way.

As for charity I do not think the government should play that role in any society for obvious reasons like abuse. If the wealthy by and large are generous we would not need the government to redistribute thier wealth. I do realize not all wealthy people act tjis way in fact I thing it is more the crowd that aspires to be wealthy that are pretty well off that give to prove they are compassionate and in doing so they give indiscriminately to folks that really do not need it although they think they do because they do not have what others may have... I think that is still called covetiousness. You are right that there is danger in determining who is the poor and who is not and our government I am afraid is very guilty of just that.

 

[RHRanch]

For sometime it's been to comfortable to be poor in this country.

To someone like myself who has lived well below the poverty level as a child and at various times in my adulthood, and who has poor parents, your statement is terribly offensive. It was and is not comfortable to be poor. The fact that you believe that it is comfortable being poor in this country just tells me that you have no idea what you are talking about - I have lived it, and I know that being poor is a lot of things, and comfortable ain't one of them!