A homeless man's threat

[Pontus Bosporia]

My words exactly! Parents need to raise their children with that concept in mind. This is probably one of the reasons why I'm not ready for kids myself. It's really tragic (and irresponsible, in my opinion) for parents to shade everyday life for their kids with rose-colored glasses. We aren't doing them any favors by sugar coating everything and telling them they deserve special consideration for everything. Life isn't fair so you do need to get over it.

[Andropoland]

Oct 1, 2012 15:57:51 GMT The Ruescher Empire said:

@andro: I'll address your comment regarding taxes here. You are a socialist at best communist at worst right? Well with that in mind are you not in favor of everyone being treated equally? Should people not all be taxed and benefited the same by society? Why should the hardest working be punished and the laziest rewarded? Not to say all the rich people in the US are hardworking, but didn't Bill Gates work himself up from nothing essentially through nothing but hard work (and poor Patents by Apple )? There are some that come into their wealth through inheritance, but even the lowest of farmers get land from their fathers and fathers before them. As for the poor being lazy remark (which I'm sure will raise hell) I point to a few people I've known in my life. First my mother, god rest her soul, was as poor as they come (literally on the street poor for many years) but she decided to stop being a victim and make something of herself. She started working at dead end jobs, multiple dead end jobs, and she slowly built herself a small little life. She met my father through friends, married, and live comfortably for many years having me and my brother. My parents divorced when I was about 5 and suddenly my mother had to support me, my brother, a house, and car (yada yada yada). What did she do? She went to school for the first time. She had to borrow food from friends, beg at food shelters, and in the end had to go on welfare for a few months until she finished school. What was the first thing she did when she got a job (and paid the bills)? She went down the Welfare office, and gave all the money back. Then she went to her friends, and paid them back, then went to the food shelters and donated twice as much food to repay. To be honest she could have lived comfortably on welfare (she later stated that she actually earned more on Welfare then working for a year or so) but she got off her ass and made something of herself. Now you may say, well she had friends and family, she had support, and so on. Well next I will point out my friend, who I shall simply call Alex. Now this is a man who once he finished high school, went to a job in a restaurant (small italian) and worked there for the next fifteen years. He lived with a roomate, worked for minimum wage and only reached 4 dollars above minimum after 15 years. Now he scrimped and saved and learned all he could (from TV, internet) about cooking and has recently opened his own restaurant which has been successful enough (in other words making a living). Now he was a poor person by all regards, and literally spent a decade and a half working his ass off to make something of himself.

Now that was a rant about poor and rich

I'm just going to quote my part, so there isn't a second, completely unnecessary wall of text on the next page...

First, off, I'd like to point out that I am, for the most part against welfare. People should work if they want to live in society. That is pretty standard thought.

However, if people can't find jobs, the government needs to find jobs for them. The government should also subsidize income for people with generally low-paying jobs, such as manufacturing, and pay for that subsidization via taxing the rich.

That way, it's only the people's fault if they can't find work, the government isn't supporting people too lazy to work (Not to find work, just to work), and it's all being paid at the expense of the rich! Sounds like a perfect scenario to me.

And I also heard something about immigrants being bad, and someone else taking offence. Immigration isn't bad, it's only the fact that some immigrants tend to act irresponsibly when it comes to having children, drugs offenses, and especially entering the country illegally. I mean no offense, of course, but those things are just not acceptable, and whether the people involved are immigrants or not it needs to be stopped. (Mostly the "having children in poverty" and "Illegal Immigration" parts, marijuana legalization advocate here. )

[Adriaticus]

Good points, I admit but I've got something to add to this. You mentioned it's not the unemployed person's fault if they can't find a job...and the govt should find jobs for them. OK. I'd have to add that there are a lot of people out there who won't go back to work until their unemployment benefits run out. With wages lower now because too many candidates looking for too few jobs, some people wouldn't make much more working now than they would get on unemployment. A certain family member has purposely not accepted several job offers (that would pay him a bit more than he gets from unemployment) because he's getting about $400 a week in benefits, the State of California is covering his house payment (program to help homeowners out of work), he gets food stamps, and a whole lot of other "benefits" because he is an unemployed head of household with a wife and two kids. Oh, and he's getting a major break on his water, sewage, and garbage service bills because of all of this. If it's not enough that taxpayers like me are helping him pay his house payment, and feed his kids, he's got the shameless nerve to go on mini vacations and lounge around the house doing nothing all day. And, he's got about a year left before his "benefits" start to run out.

OK, these benefits exist for a genuine purpose, not for creeps like this guy to stick the state and county with supporting his lazy, sorry ass while he takes a "break." There will ALWAYS be abuses like this when there is not social conscience or sense of social responsibility. I'm a single, part-time working student and I pay about as much into the system (state and fed) every year as this louse gets in tax refunds. How fair is that? He gets to live with his expense paid while I can barely afford to put gas in my car to get to school and work.

[Andropoland]

Oct 18, 2012 0:04:49 GMT Adriaticus said:

Good points, I admit but I've got something to add to this. You mentioned it's not the unemployed person's fault if they can't find a job...and the govt should find jobs for them. OK. I'd have to add that there are a lot of people out there who won't go back to work until their unemployment benefits run out. With wages lower now because too many candidates looking for too few jobs, some people wouldn't make much more working now than they would get on unemployment. A certain family member has purposely not accepted several job offers (that would pay him a bit more than he gets from unemployment) because he's getting about $400 a week in benefits, the State of California is covering his house payment (program to help homeowners out of work), he gets food stamps, and a whole lot of other "benefits" because he is an unemployed head of household with a wife and two kids. Oh, and he's getting a major break on his water, sewage, and garbage service bills because of all of this. If it's not enough that taxpayers like me are helping him pay his house payment, and feed his kids, he's got the shameless nerve to go on mini vacations and lounge around the house doing nothing all day. And, he's got about a year left before his "benefits" start to run out.

OK, these benefits exist for a genuine purpose, not for creeps like this guy to stick the state and county with supporting his lazy, sorry ass while he takes a "break." There will ALWAYS be abuses like this when there is not social conscience or sense of social responsibility. I'm a single, part-time working student and I pay about as much into the system (state and fed) every year as this louse gets in tax refunds. How fair is that? He gets to live with his expense paid while I can barely afford to put gas in my car to get to school and work.

That's exactly what I'm saying! However, that's why minimum wage laws are so important, and really should be upped a bit more.

The government should cover people for a month, tops, and if the applicant refuses all the jobs he's offered by the government (Since the government is in this system, hypothetically, managing employment), he gets dropped on his ass outside the system. That's how it should work.

And I also disagree with most educational institutions. Paying money for higher education? Now that's just plain wrong. Colleges and universities are another thing I believe should be under the control of the government, so they can give everyone an equal chance.

[Ticonderoganaut]

I think there should be some cost to the student when it comes to higher education. After high school these graduates have choices: fulltime job, trade school, or university. I really think the whole cost should not be passed on to the students but there should be some incentive to learn and value the experience. The only way people value things is when it costs them something. I can't tell you how many rich kids (or spoiled upper class kids) who didn't care if they went to class or graduated because mommie and daddy took care of everything for them. Besides, if the govt pays the whole cost, that just gives them another reason to pass the cost on down the line in the form of more taxes.

[The Ruescher Empire]

Hmmmm well I shall weigh in on this again As Andro is ridiculous in everything he says

Andro, just no. Government managing jobs? The government, any government since the foundation of modern nations, has never EVER been successful in managing an economy all on its own to create jobs and wealth. Case in point China. China was a backwater nation by all means, until the 90s/00s. Why? Because the government controlled the economy with an iron fist. It was only when it released it's grasp that the economy exploded (in a good way ). Hell the most prosperous parts of the country are the ones that the government leaves completely alone (like Hong Kong, Guangzhou, etc.) so that free market forces take over. China went from essentially backwater to 2nd largest economy (excluding the EU as it's not an actual nation yet).

Onto your next point. Subsidizing jobs. There has never been so potentially a terrible idea. It would essentially make people lazy. The reason why people work hard at jobs is to advance in the company and get better pay/benefits/position/etc. Not only that but if he's advances, he actually gets more taken away so it's meaningless? Oh yay. Take away any driving motivation for that person to want to advance in the company and you take away a driving force for people to better themselves and the company they work for. Hell our tiered taxation system is already bad enough...

Also minimum wage increases are pointless. Historically whenever minimum wage increased immediately other cost of living expenses increased due to increased labor costs (think grocery store employees, restaurants, rent, etc).

Also post-secondary should not be free. I state this, as a university student paying his own way (jobs and some debt) that you do not appreciate or put the effort into it unless you pay for it. Many students (my friends) have their parents paying for their university and they generally do the worst in the class. By investing in your own future you take an active role to shape your own future, not having someone shape it for you. Also you remember all those jackass losers in highschool? The bullies, dopers, and all around morons with no futures? Do you really want to see them hanging on in university? It is better to get as much of of those dredges of society and put them to work in their McDonald's.

[oswaldo]

What a enjoyable post from yours with funny picture about A homeless man's threat ! Really I like also enjoy this post very much because of its funny thinking. Thanks a lot for your nice sharing.