http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/going-hungry-america-distressing-humbling...

99 cent store for the 99%........


I wonder if there is a 1 cent store for the 1%?

Just anecdotal observation, there has been an increase in working poor. As in they have a job but cant make it ... My welder is in this category. He was unemployed for 3 months about 9 months ago and that seemed to have turned him from just about making it, to just about not making it.

There has been an increase in people who are getting turned away from charities. They are out of food and shelter sooner and sooner. There also has ben an increase in immigrants Illegal mostly availing of the charities.

And yet, there has been a huge increase in boarded up bank owned houses built or sold during the bubble that banks prefer to keep on their books @ loan value and claim they have more in assets than the actual street value of their assets.

There also has been an increase in the working rich - these are CEO's and other top level executives, not business owners who rake in millions. The top tier of income earners these days is the employees @ the top - not business owners, employees. Not job creators, not even investors, as simple as the rest of the populace. They get the job and get their pay assigned by their cronies, then they in turn set the pay rates for their cronies. It comes out of the company's bottom line in the good times. It comes out of the tax payers pocket in bad times. If times get real bad and the company fails, they walk away with their golden parachute.

Like the CEO of Goldman sachs said, "It is god's work"  
God helped hide Greece's debt before joining the euro zone, god helped retiree funds and other investors buy home loans from the people that bought dozens of houses for millions and then let em all go back to the banks ...

Cool.
Srinath.

WebsterMark wrote on 08/23/12 at 06:41:42:

Oh, please?... Really?...

.. and I don't care why they are there...
They are there...
...and no,.. it wasn't always like this...
I don't know where you live Web,.. but it's a very "Let them eat cake" attitude you have...
You make it sound as if it's okay for people to live in misery, if you can justify it with some life circumstance that led them there...
How does that make anything right?...
Because they had bad upbringing, or a mental problem or an addiction, that makes it okay?...
Because you see no way that it could be you?...

Romney is definitely your man...

Serowbot wrote on 08/23/12 at 10:33:02:


Y'know Ann said Her and Mitt were so poor @ one time they had to sell some of their stock. Yea, y'know I was giving some good advice to this homeless guy when he was asking for $ ... why dont you just sell some of your stock dude ... Yea ... good advice.

Cool.
Srinath.

arteacher wrote on 08/23/12 at 14:55:22:

And why do they leave food and energy (not to mention healthcare) out of cost of living calculations?  Because otherwise the results would not be something they were comfortable with.

I don't know what you base your assertions on, whether it's published verifiable statistics or just your personal beliefs. I can't speak to the statistical majority because I don't know them personally and haven't seen enough actual data to make the call. However, when I see what it's done to some good people that I know, I can feel sympathy for them and help where I can. While I accept personal responsibility for most of both the good and bad in my life, there are things outside my control. "There, but for the grace of God, go I." is something I think about more these days than ever before.

My objections were over Sew’s typical hyper-liberal tone that this is all the fault of ‘rich guys’ ; whomever they are. The idea that Romney has never been in a .99 cent store… what business does that line have being in a supposedly sad commentary on the state of the economy today other than a shallow, class warfare based attack at ‘the other side’. (forgetting that his side’s been in charge for almost 4 years and responsible for the woman out of work)

"There, but for the grace of God, go I."  

Don’t mistake my pragmatic attitude towards the economics of our day with a lack of love or empathy for our fellow man. As someone with, lets say a challenging childhood; I am first in line for those saved by ‘but for the grace of God’. If not for two elderly Aunts taking 4 kids to live with them on a moment’s notice, I would have been nothing but a statistic.

My church volunteers at a food pantry which was specifically started to assist the flood of Bosnian refugees who came to St. Louis. It’s open to anyone who needs help, but in the beginning, it was almost entirely elderly Bosnians. Over the past 3 years or so, we’ve noticed the number of Bosnians has reduced while the number of people from the surrounding neighborhood increased. It’s a poor area of the city.

What I see a lot of is more and more younger people showing up for help who are clearly in this bad spot because of poor life choices. Single women with multiple children and no man around. (Murphy Brown, where are you now?...) The younger men who show up are loud and obnoxious. They stand in line for their handout with a sense of entitlement that can be maddening to observe. Last time, I had to break up a fight. I don’t know if the number of older Bosnians has dropped off because they’ve gotten settled, jobs and learned the language or if they’ve been more or less intimidated away.

Occasionally, a young man with a wife and child will show up obviously embarrassed to be there. I hope he’s embarrassed. I hope he’s mad as hell at himself. I hope he cries out of anger and frustration when he gets home. I see hope when they realize the choices they made earlier have lead them to this. Those people don’t show up but once or twice. The others have become regulars. They have no desire to improve themselves. They have become accustomed to a lifestyle of lower standards along with everyone else.

No, this is not everyone one, but I believe it represents the majority. I think liberal policies and the line of thinking Sew expresses perpetuates the cycle of dependency.

I want to bring shame back in vogue.

I quit giving money to bums the day this happened: I pulled up to a stop sign in a rough neighborhood and this woman is jumping up and down trying to get my attention like it's an emergency.  Oh gosh,  her mother just had a heart attack and needed gas money to go see her right away!  I fall for that and give her 5 bucks.  Then I stopped about a block away to gas up, and another bum asks me for money. I start telling him about the other bum and before I can get two sentences out, he says "What, her mother had a heart attack?  She's smoking crack every night."  So I thank that guy for the information and gave him a buck, and think: Great, I just facilitated a crack purchase. So I went back to the first bum and started raising hell with her, trying to get my 5 bucks back.  It soon became clear that nothing short of a physical assault was going to make her cough it up. This bum REALLY wanted her fix.  So I moved on, lesson learned.

Now for the sad story. I'm on my bike and see this NON-bum hustling with a squeegee at a stoplight, you know, cleaning windshields for whatever tip he can get.  I really like that kind of guy, who offers you something in exchange.. and seeing that, would give him some pocket change even though I had no windshield to clean.  The timing of the light didn't work out, and I didn't give him any money.  But after I went to the store and was passing the other way.. a goddamm COP was writing him a TICKET!  For unauthorized solicitation or whatever.  It doesn't get any sadder than that, folks.

Now for the good story. I'm in Houston, I'm on foot and a NON-bum comes up and is selling beer.  He has a cooler full of ice cold Budweisers and is selling them for $1.  SOLD