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That's just stupid. Many of those people just go and live with family or friends and continue looking for a job, they don't kill themselves... and why would they? They just keep looking for a job.
What if you don't have close family? There's a lot of folks who are basically on their own in the world and have no where to turn. What if you're 50 and divorced or unmarried? There are reasons people end up on the streets. Maybe you should ask a bum next time you see one about his/her story.
Before I moved, I used to volunteer at a soup kitchen in Detroit. Gave me a whole new understanding of poverty, and the people who live it every day. Some of those folks are disabled, some mentally and others physically. Many times, they are abandon by family because they don't have the means or ability to offer the care needed. Many times, their families themselves are barely struggling to make ends meet. Others end up homeless almost by choice. They'd rather live life by the hit. Getting high becomes the focal point of their lives. What I realized though... Everyone's got a story and a reason for ending up where they are.
Being poor or unemployed does not link to being unhappy/depressed.
Go to any poor country or American neighborhood filled with immigrants from a poor country and you will see...they know how to have a good time. Same with some country bumbkin rednecks in the middle of the woods, the probably are happier than your average stressed out city dweller.
If anything wealth is depressing. The thirst for it is isolating and having wealth can kill all drive, energy, and ambition.
Like the Janis Joplin song, ''freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose''
And we've ''lost it all' due to long-term unemployment over the past 5 years.
We are both recently unemployed AGAIN, but we just feel we can cope with whatever comes.
If we ever DO get on our feet again we'd like to buy a van that we can fix up as a temporary shelter in case we'd ever need it.
We could live in it with our pets and survive intact.
We'd definitely drive out into the country to live.
I think about things like this a lot now because I know it can happen ''just like that'' again.
I never thought I'd plan a ''future'' this way, but constant lay-offs and a down economy make it so.
But we'd survive. Life is a gift and somehow we'd survive. We've come this far.
You can endure much more than you think and be happy with a lot less.
Last edited by HappyDogToday; 06-25-2013 at 09:00 PM..
Like the Janis Joplin song, ''freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose''
And we've ''lost it all' due to long-term unemployment over the past 5 years.
We are both recently unemployed AGAIN, but we just feel we can cope with whatever comes.
If we ever DO get on our feet again we'd like to buy a van that we can fix up as a temporary shelter in case we'd ever need it.
We could live in it with our pets and survive intact.
We'd definitely drive out into the country to live.
I think about things like this a lot now because I know it can happen ''just like that'' again.
I never thought I'd plan a ''future'' this way, but constant lay-offs and a down economy make it so.
But we'd survive. Life is a gift and somehow we'd survive. We've come this far.
You can endure much more than you think and be happy with a lot less.
I believe that having an escape route or plan of some type will become more important over time, especially if the economy doesn't improve. I would rather know some basic farming techniques, have a mobile home, and live on a small plot of arable land if TSHTF rather than being a homeless and begging in a large city.
Actually I think an older person would be more employable than a younger person IMHO. That generation (50+) have better work ethics, morals and resourcefulness than most people under that age range. They as children lived through some hard times when they were children but they didn't realize it as hardtime but just living thier lives. Those who lived in rural areas also have one up on all other also IF they participated in those life sustaining skills when they were children. I have met many who talk about what their grandparents did but never particpated it actually doing it.
Tell that to the hiring managers and interviewers who see "Class of 1992" on the resume and throw it out....or in my case, when I do make it to the interview, see the color of my skin and do the hem, haw, um, er, uh, so what subject are you qualified to teach again? -- thing quite possibly looking right AT my MATH teaching license....if I started putting "born in 1969" on things I really never would get anywhere. People even older than that -- I really don't know why they don't just lay down and die. I'm not even 50 yet.
This state has a high rate of drug overdose, DUI, and the ones who make the police chase them and shoot them dead -- someone told me that these are all forms of suicide out of hopelessness because of the job market. Funny though, the ones who do all these things aren't the highly educated ones whom no one will hire because of our age. It's the younger, teens and 20's cohorts who are doing these things. And I almost forgot that Albuquerque itself is probably covering up how many shootings they have on a regular basis that count as homicides.
What if you don't have close family? There's a lot of folks who are basically on their own in the world and have no where to turn. What if you're 50 and divorced or unmarried? There are reasons people end up on the streets. Maybe you should ask a bum next time you see one about his/her story.
Before I moved, I used to volunteer at a soup kitchen in Detroit. Gave me a whole new understanding of poverty, and the people who live it every day. Some of those folks are disabled, some mentally and others physically. Many times, they are abandon by family because they don't have the means or ability to offer the care needed. Many times, their families themselves are barely struggling to make ends meet. Others end up homeless almost by choice. They'd rather live life by the hit. Getting high becomes the focal point of their lives. What I realized though... Everyone's got a story and a reason for ending up where they are.
Some of us out here are in this boat because our bio families are abusive. We'd rather scrape by and possibly live at the YWCA forever than be beaten up on a regular basis over things we didn't even DO and threatened with jail time if we try to fight back. I keep having flashbacks to the thought of winding up in jail myself for things my nephew did and told everyone that I did, just because my brother has more "clout" than I do even though I'm the one with the law degree.....
...yeah, the YWCA's in Syracuse or Rochester are starting to look GOOD now that I think about that as an alternative....as Upstate New York is about the ONLY place that has ANYTHING for domestic violence victims who are childless.
Because the government has made it where you don't have to work. It's more profitable to have EBT, Section 8 housing, Medicaid, TANF (if you can get it), disability, never-ending unemployment, etc. than it is to have a low paying job.
And MOST OF that you can't get unless you have out of wedlock children.
EBT is a mere $200 a month.
Section 8 takes decades of being on a "waiting list" if you're not "priority" and yes, in some places they do offer "priority" to domestic violence victims but they seem to MEAN "domestic violence victims WITH children."
Medicaid, again: not without out-of-wedlock children in MOST states.
Disability - not without a medically provable disability. Self-explanatory.
Never ending unemployment - not unless you've been EMPLOYED recently enough.
Low paying job - again, not without REFERENCES and RECENT work experience.
This is coming from TEXAS, someone thinks that single, childless, non-disabled people are getting ANY of that??
And MOST OF that you can't get unless you have out of wedlock children.
EBT is a mere $200 a month.
Foodstamps in NY is $200 a month for a single people w/no kids & cash is $90 every two weeks "IF" you get approved for it. It's not free either. The city makes you work for that cash.
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Medicaid, again: not without out-of-wedlock children in MOST states.
You can get this in NY with no problem. There's a separate office for Medicaid here and unlike the Foodstamp office, it's never crowded.
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