Do people really think the poor want to be poor? (health care, Brown)

[70Ford]

Saw this in a health care thread... it's enlightening.

Originally Posted by jeffington

Exactly. The productive classes are under no, and should be under no, obligation, whatsoever, to be hosts for the parasite class who refuse to do what is necessary to stand on their own two feet, while using their poverty as a way to legitimize theft from the productive classes.

Health care is like everything else. If you want it, buy it. If you can't afford it, work hard, improve your skills and live up to your responsibilities.

Unfortunately, such is not the way of the parasite class.

Heh. I grew up poor. A lot of things on this list...yeah. Oh well, maybe this will enlighten some who see the poor as "parasites." Maybe. Maybe you had to have been poor to understand. Incidently, all it takes is one wrongful accusation, or one lawsuit, or one bad medical problem to knock you right back into "parasite" territory. I think some people don't realize that, either.


Being Poor

Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.
Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV.
Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they’re what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there’s not an $800 car in America that’s worth a damn.
Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.
Being poor is knowing your kid goes to friends’ houses but never has friends over to yours.
Being poor is going to the restroom before you get in the school lunch line so your friends will be ahead of you and won’t hear you say “I get free lunch” when you get to the cashier.
Being poor is living next to the freeway.
Being poor is coming back to the car with your children in the back seat, clutching that box of Raisin Bran you just bought and trying to think of a way to make the kids understand that the box has to last.
Being poor is wondering if your well-off sibling is lying when he says he doesn’t mind when you ask for help.
Being poor is off-brand toys.
Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house.
Being poor is knowing you can’t leave $5 on the coffee table when your friends are around.
Being poor is hoping your kids don’t have a growth spurt.
Being poor is stealing meat from the store, frying it up before your mom gets home and then telling her she doesn’t have make dinner tonight because you’re not hungry anyway.
Being poor is Goodwill underwear.
Being poor is not enough space for everyone who lives with you.
Being poor is feeling the glued soles tear off your Dollar Store shoes when you run around the playground.
Being poor is your kid’s school being the one with the 15-year-old textbooks and no air conditioning.
Being poor is thinking $8 an hour is a really good deal.
Being poor is relying on people who don’t give a damn about you.
Being poor is an overnight shift under flourescent lights.
Being poor is finding the letter your mom wrote to your dad, begging him for the child support.
Being poor is a bathtub you have to empty into the toilet.
Being poor is stopping the car to take a lamp from a stranger’s trash.
Being poor is making lunch for your kid when a cockroach skitters over the bread, and you looking over to see if your kid saw.
Being poor is believing a GED actually makes a god****ed difference.
Being poor is people angry at you just for walking around in the mall.
Being poor is not taking the job because you can’t find someone you trust to watch your kids.
Being poor is the police busting into the apartment right next to yours.
Being poor is not talking to that girl because she’ll probably just laugh at your clothes.
Being poor is hoping you’ll be invited for dinner.
Being poor is a sidewalk with lots of brown glass on it.
Being poor is people thinking they know something about you by the way you talk.
Being poor is needing that 35-cent raise.
Being poor is your kid’s teacher assuming you don’t have any books in your home.
Being poor is six dollars short on the utility bill and no way to close the gap.
Being poor is crying when you drop the mac and cheese on the floor.
Being poor is knowing you work as hard as anyone, anywhere.
Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually stupid.
Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually lazy.
Being poor is a six-hour wait in an emergency room with a sick child asleep on your lap.
Being poor is never buying anything someone else hasn’t bought first.
Being poor is picking the 10 cent ramen instead of the 12 cent ramen because that’s two extra packages for every dollar.
Being poor is having to live with choices you didn’t know you made when you were 14 years old.
Being poor is getting tired of people wanting you to be grateful.
Being poor is knowing you’re being judged.
Being poor is a box of crayons and a $1 coloring book from a community center Santa.
Being poor is checking the coin return slot of every soda machine you go by.
Being poor is deciding that it’s all right to base a relationship on shelter.
Being poor is knowing you really shouldn’t spend that buck on a Lotto ticket.
Being poor is hoping the register lady will spot you the dime.
Being poor is feeling helpless when your child makes the same mistakes you did, and won’t listen to you beg them against doing so.
Being poor is a cough that doesn’t go away.
Being poor is making sure you don’t spill on the couch, just in case you have to give it back before the lease is up.
Being poor is a $200 paycheck advance from a company that takes $250 when the paycheck comes in.
Being poor is four years of night classes for an Associates of Art degree.
Being poor is a lumpy futon bed.
Being poor is knowing where the shelter is.
Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.
Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.
Being poor is seeing how few options you have.
Being poor is running in place.
Being poor is people wondering why you didn’t leave.

[gobrien]

Being poor is trying to make it a fun night for your kids by playing games by candlelight after your electricity has been shut off.
Being poor is still scrimping to buy toilet paper even after you spent 7 years of your life as a single parent college student and now have your degree and have trouble finding a good paying professional job because you are shy.
Being poor is not being able to pay a traffic ticket, losing your license, and knowing there is nothing you can do because all your money goes for food and housing.

[Wonderful Jellal]

Some no, some yes.
If you don't support your kid at school "you must have an A" you want him to be poor in the future

[alphamale]

No.

[pvande55]

Priests and nuns take a vow of poverty so I guess they want to be poor. But let's make this clear: we won't stop individuals or organizations from helping the poor, but the government should not lift a finger to help them. Government has bigger fish to fry.

[TylerJAX]

Most of the time when people are poor it's either because they are content with being poor, they don't know how to acquire more wealth, they lack the life skills necessary to not be poor, or they have kids that they shouldn't have had.

[clb10]

Being poor in America is considered being rich in most of Africa and Asia.

That is why REAL poor people fight like dogs to get to America. They see the opportunities that "poor" Americans ignore.

[TylerJAX]

Don't take my post as poor bashing either, it's just fact. As a conservative I believe that throwing money at the poor won't really improve their condition, I believe we as individuals and as a society can do something to help rectify my second and third reasons, and warn people about the last.

[70Ford]

Originally Posted by TylerJAX

Don't take my post as poor bashing either, it's just fact. As a conservative I believe that throwing money at the poor won't really improve their condition, I believe we as individuals and as a society can do something to help rectify my second and third reasons, and warn people about the last.

I was on free lunch for years, finally we made enough when I was in high school that we didn't qualify. Which was fine by me. I've had many meals where government cheese was part of it.

Would I have died without proper nutrition? I dunno. Would I have the same brains and abilities today if I had been hungry for all those years?

Who knows. I know I'm glad we had it available.

American Rhetoric Movie Speech from The Great Debaters -- Wiley College vs Paul Quinn College on Social Welfare

[TylerJAX]

^If it wasn't bad enough that your parents were irresponsible for having you, they couldn't swallow their pride and be good church going Christians and receive charity out of the goodness of people's hearts. You were fed on stolen money, money that someone could have donated out of love instead of stolen with the threat of jail time. This wasn't your crime, but you insist that the theft must continue... bravo chap, bravo!

Don't take all of that personally, I'm just doing a bit of role-playing lol. Seriously though, it's awfully irresponsible to have kids that you couldn't support without public assistance.