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One thing no one really talks about is the number of working homeless in this country. Now that housing prices have gone up astronomically, there are more and more people with fulltime jobs but no housing. If these people can't afford housing, how are they going to afford medical care? I'm not talking about illegals either -- I'm talking about legal citizens of the USA.
The Washington Post has written some excellent articles about the working homeless in the last few years. There is no way anyone in a metropolitan area can afford housing on a $20K a year job, let alone a job that pays minimum wage.
Yes, the working homesless aren't on many people's radar, nor apparently are others that are just plain hungry. Sure could create some health programs, I'd reckon.
The babys mama and the family I am talking about do not live in the ghetto, they live in my middle class neighborhood, the house they live in is a nice house and bought with creative financing, which is rampant in this city. The house has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and certainly not up to code but looks nice. I admit the house looks very nice, with lots of Christmas decorations, two fairly new vans, and a wonderful white vinyl fence. My elderly neighbor 82 is furious because she only had one child kept her in a private school and both her and her husband worked to be able to do so and she can't afford a cell phone but has noticed that all the adults seem to have one that live there. My neighbor asked me why the state would give children to someone who did not do a good job of raising thier own. Medicaid for at least 14 people how much does that cost the state and why can't the working poor have a low cost system?
But then we go with babys Mamas who have the kids who are here, how can we deny the kids? Some sort of education for parents that have one on welfare, that if you have another what? We can not sterilize people unless they say okay, maybe a big fat payment if you get a vasectomy or your tubes tied. I bet if we gave everyone a years worth of benefits if they consented to have thier tubes tied or a vasectomy they would agree.
Last edited by alexander59; 12-20-2006 at 07:10 PM..
One thing no one really talks about is the number of working homeless in this country. Now that housing prices have gone up astronomically, there are more and more people with fulltime jobs but no housing. If these people can't afford housing, how are they going to afford medical care? I'm not talking about illegals either -- I'm talking about legal citizens of the USA.
The Washington Post has written some excellent articles about the working homeless in the last few years. There is no way anyone in a metropolitan area can afford housing on a $20K a year job, let alone a job that pays minimum wage.
I agree some people are working for peanuts but we have to do what we have to do. Why not share an apartment with others making crappy money or share a house? A lot of young people get roommates and share expenses.
We can not sterilize people unless they say okay, maybe a big fat payment if you get a vasectomy or your tubes tied. I bet if we gave everyone a years worth of benefits if they consented to have thier tubes tied or a vasectomy they would agree.
I would not pay people to get a vasectomy. "Baby Momas" seems to be a code word btw, so it's kind of funny.
People who keep pumping out kids which the taxpayer is then forced to subsidize should be sterilized for the common good of the country.
I agree some people are working for peanuts but we have to do what we have to do. Why not share an apartment with others making crappy money or share a house? A lot of young people get roommates and share expenses.
I don't know where you live, but in cities rents are high. House rents are even higher than apartments. In NYC, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco -- 1 bedrooms run $1000 to $2000 a month. A person making $10.50 an hour (which is almost double the minimum wage) can't afford this -- and if they have kids, they really can't afford this. A lot of these "working homeless" are not young kids. They are older people, often with families. (Young kids can usually live with mom and dad if they don't make enough money!) A person making $10.50 an hour makes $22K a year. After taxes, they may bring home $18K a year. If someone were to pay $12K of this money for rent, $6K, or $500 a month, would have to cover electric, gas, food, transportation, medical, and everything else for a single parent with a child.
Salaries in this country NEED to be increased a lot to make housing affordable.
I don't know where you live, but in cities rents are high. House rents are even higher than apartments. In NYC, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco -- 1 bedrooms run $1000 to $2000 a month. A person making $10.50 an hour (which is almost double the minimum wage) can't afford this -- and if they have kids, they really can't afford this. A lot of these "working homeless" are not young kids. They are older people, often with families. (Young kids can usually live with mom and dad if they don't make enough money!) A person making $10.50 an hour makes $22K a year. After taxes, they may bring home $18K a year. If someone were to pay $12K of this money for rent, $6K, or $500 a month, would have to cover electric, gas, food, transportation, medical, and everything else for a single parent with a child.
Salaries in this country NEED to be increased a lot to make housing affordable.
I understand that but I make well above minimum wage myself and I couldn't afford a home or an apartment in NY or California. We have 50 states and sometimes you have to relocate. I used to live in NY and NJ and paid big money for a DUMP! We ended up moving across country to Arizona. Salaries have increased in this country but we all can't afford to live in certain areas. If these are families making minimum wage in these areas they should have done their family planning a little better, especially living in NY on minimum wage. I don't want to sound cold or harsh but we all have a certain responsibilty for ourselves. We just can't go through life making bad choices and expecting everyone to keep pulling us out of it. I understand crap happens, it happens to all of us at one time or another and we need a helping hand but we have to accountable for bad choices we make.
We ended up moving across country to Arizona. Salaries have increased in this country but we all can't afford to live in certain areas. If these are families making minimum wage in these areas they should have done their family planning a little better, especially living in NY on minimum wage.
It takes money to move! Not only that, we aren't talking about people making minimum wage -- we're talking about people making twice the minimum wage!
Look at the low salary people in Florida who are being replaced by foreign workers with work visas! All because employers don't want to pay anymore.
It takes money to move! Not only that, we aren't talking about people making minimum wage -- we're talking about people making twice the minimum wage!
Look at the low salary people in Florida who are being replaced by foreign workers with work visas! All because employers don't want to pay anymore.
Trust me I know it takes money to move. We were a young couple with a baby when we moved too. We scraped up and drove across country and scraped up enough for an apartment and did what we could to make it work. If you can get to an area, whether it be by car or bus or whatever and then try to make it where the cost of living is cheaper than these other areas. It can be done. Even if you get government assistance just to get on your feet in the new area, it's worth it. It's better to do that than stay somewhere you will never be able to afford. Look at all the people leaving NY due to the high taxes.
I also understand these foreign workers are replacing our workers and I will say I don't think these people are working that cheap anymore. I know these illegals make good money off the books here in AZ and collect welfare at the same time. Many of these stats about the poor and the starving are incorrect. We have many working under the table and living off of welfare. We have single moms with 4 kids from 4 different fathers collecting welfare and living with their boyfriends that work. I think this war on poverty is a sham.
Once Arizona has an overabundance of workers, those good wages will start going down.
You know, I like capitalism when it works in my favor -- but I see the inequalities of it too. I greatly admire people like Bill Gates who was able to not only increase his wealth but drag most of his employees up with him. I wish more companies were like that. These days, there are huge gaps between the paychecks the top people get and the paychecks the bottom people get (and it wasn't always this way).
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