Judging A Book By It's Cover ~ A Review

[Julie]

What I am seeing in this discussion & other discussions I have witnessed about Poor people is a few viewpoints which are fairly predictable:

The Bootstaps Theory
-Being Poor is the Poor person's fault. They are stupid, lazy, or both.
The Aw Hell Naw Effect
-It's unfair that the NotPoor should have to "support" the Poor. We works hard for our scrilla, and they should too ghatdammit.

My 5 cents is: Things will never be completely fair because there will always be people who will take advantage of other people's hard work. There will also be uneqal distribution of wealth etc. due to inequity of intellect /ability / ambition etc. It sucks, but it is what it is. The best we can do it put caps, limits, and criteria in place for those who rely on our hard work for their survival. I don't think people who truly need help should suffer so we can avoid having the freeloaders get away with their freeloading.

[username]

Why should it all come out of our paychecks? I am responsible for the people I made to put on this earth. Why am I responsible for the lazy fucks, too? That kills me.

Where, exactly, should the money come from? Trees?

You bitch and moan yet you live in one of the wealthiest countries on the planet. A "world power". Shut the fuck up unless you have some better solution.

[Cynical Ninja]

Some peoples attitudes towards poor people here fucking sickens me.

EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US here could one day end up on the scrapheap with no house, no money, nothing.

Would you really appreciate someone coming up to you in that moment and say "fuck you poverty stricken cunt, you are obviously too stupid to have an opinion on anything". I have had financial and mental health problems in the past beyond my control, according to some fuckers here that should forever consign me to the scrapheap.

I can't stand people with no empathy with others, I do a little jig every time something bad happens to someone with no empathy for others because they fucking deserve it.

Appreciate and never take for granted the things you have, circumstances could conspire to take it all away in a heartbeat.

How fucking pathetic that Julie would give you a vote for that after doing nothing but getting on here and shitting on anyone that is not of her social status..........most of which I think is a huge fucking lie.

I agree with you, Julie has made a name for herself here mocking other peoples financial status while boasting about her own, bitch.

[Cynical Ninja]

That's a great speech but none of those are mutually exclusive. You can feel sorry for someone while still being truthful with them and supporting a hand-up, not a hand-out.

Further, you suggest that these people "need exposure to different ways of conducting life". Are you proposing armies of people going in to poverty striken areas to enlighten them? Or maybe, fixing up all the shitty schools so they get exposure to something different that way? That's great...and there go our tax dollars. Everything costs money. Our current, shitty, abused welfare system probably costs less and that's why its allowed to continue. Everyone is busy guarding the money coming out of their paychecks (rightfully so) but that same mentality also prevents us from thinking long term and actually taking the steps to reduce the need for welfare in the first place.

Anybody can learn. Take away the excuses, and anybody that really wants to know something can learn it.

Why should it all come out of our paychecks? I am responsible for the people I made to put on this earth. Why am I responsible for the lazy fucks, too? That kills me.

Impoverished people drain the system. I don't think any kid should go hungry (not their fault they had shitty parents), BUT I'm tired of providing for the adults who pop out children and can't afford them so they can retain benefits. Look at many generational welfare families and you will see kids of all ages so the parents can keep the gravy train coming.

It is a shame to have children and raise them in poverty. It make their lives harder. You should have a certain amount of welfare set aside, like unemployment, and when you exceed that, tough shit.

The American dream is just that dumbass, a dream.

You seem to think Horatio Alger books are true stories.

Wake up fuckhead, you obviously have no practical experience of poverty whatsoever so maybe you should shut the fuck up about the subject instead of trying pontificate to people with fuck all fuckface.

[Cynical Ninja]

Some peoples attitudes towards poor people here fucking sickens me.

EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US here could one day end up on the scrapheap with no house, no money, nothing.

Would you really appreciate someone coming up to you in that moment and say "fuck you poverty stricken cunt, you are obviously too stupid to have an opinion on anything". I have had financial and mental health problems in the past beyond my control, according to some fuckers here that should forever consign me to the scrapheap.

I can't stand people with no empathy with others, I do a little jig everytime something bad happens to someone with no empathy for others because they fucking deserve it.

Appreciate and never take for granted the things you have, circumstances could conspire to take it all away in a heartbeat.

I used to think that. In fact, I wasn't raised in a rich family so I shared the common "poor us, it could be anybody" attitude. Know what? Extreme poverty is a choice. Any American can change their lot in life through education and hard work. Is it tough to do? Yeah, that's why some take the easy way out and continue to live a life despair. There are too many success stories out there to even claim otherwise.

It doesn't do any good to feel sorry for people. They already feel sorry for themselves. It DOES help to look someone in the eye and tell them the truth.

Impoverished peoples (and I know most are white because a larger proportion of the US population is currently white) think, do, and spend differently than people with higher incomes. Look it up sometime.

It may piss you off, but the truth remains. The last thing impoverished people need is pity. What they do need is exposure to different ways of conducting life besides bitching and moaning and blaming someone else.

The fact you think anybody would "choose" extreme poverty confirms to me what a fucking idiot I have always suspected you to be.

[Cracker]

The fact you think anybody would "choose" extreme poverty confirms to me what a fucking idiot I have always suspected you to be.

You think life is a big crap shoot? People with jobs are just lucky and people who don't work are just not lucky?

You think I haven't seen poverty and chose something different? I have had bad situations followed by the rolling of pennies. I had two choices then; find a way out or sink into it.

Abject poverty is a way of life. A chosen way of life. Maybe not consciously, but by action. Situational poverty can happen to anybody, but generational poverty is learned (You may apply this to the post where you alluded I know nothing of poverty because you think I don't. I have had actual training in the area, so FU).

The 'Give a man a fish' proverb is an old one. This isn't a new problem.

Can I get anybody from West Virginia to speak on this? You have seen the difference with your own eyes. You can explain about trailers with tires on top and rotted steps and toys strewn around the yard with brand new $65,000 trucks in the front. You have seen generational poverty.

[Cracker]

I agree. I didn't grow up rich and my husband came here dirt poor from another country. We're not rich, but we are very well off because the opportunities here are plentiful for an able bodied person willing to work.

An illustration to my point.

[Julie]

I agree with you, Julie has made a name for herself here mocking other peoples financial status while boasting about her own, bitch.

Is that how I made a name for myself?

I thought there were other things involved...but then, I guess - like anything else - things shift depending on what people need to be true.

[Julie]

The fact you think anybody would "choose" extreme poverty confirms to me what a fucking idiot I have always suspected you to be.

You think life is a big crap shoot? People with jobs are just lucky and people who don't work are just not lucky?

Wait - when I said the same thing, it angered you.

Abject poverty is a way of life. A chosen way of life. Maybe not consciously, but by action. Situational poverty can happen to anybody, but generational poverty is learned (You may apply this to the post where you alluded I know nothing of poverty because you think I don't. I have had actual training in the area, so FU).

The 'Give a man a fish' proverb is an old one. This isn't a new problem.

Can I get anybody from West Virginia to speak on this? You have seen the difference with your own eyes. You can explain about trailers with tires on top and rotted steps and toys strewn around the yard with brand new $65,000 trucks in the front. You have seen generational poverty.

These are good points.

Generational poverty is learned and it is perpetuated by the continuation of learned lifestyle choices:

From choosing to use check cashing services or payday loan establishments rather than credit unions and banks...from not viewing education as a key to success to not even thinking of getting a college degree. Thinking that any lump sum of money you happen to get your hands on means a new set of rims instead of a Certificate of Deposit.

When my alarm clock goes off in the morning and I have to drag my ass to work, I don't like to think about the fact that part of my earnings has to go towards supporting these types of people - yet I know that this is what it means to be a part of a civilized society....especially a capitalist one.

Who is responsible to teaching ignorant people to make more responsible choices? The catch 22 is that the ignorant do not know that they are ignorant. What's the solution to this?

Another thought is, the way we are speaking about these folks is the way that the upper class speaks about the middle class. They have to be saying that the middle class would be upper class if they "knew better". Capitalism depends upon the existence of the haves & have nots. In order for have nots to exist, they have to be ignorant and dependent and they have to create more ignorant and dependent people to take their place when they die. In this way, those at the top get to keep their place.