The Homeless

imp said:
Phil, FWIW, I say, TAKE IT as soon as you can. I "dropped out" in 1999, five years before S/S eligibility, struggled a bit, worked one year teaching Math in rural high school, only because the Principal all but begged me, that helped.

To do it over again, no changes! imp
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Smart man.

I plan to be standing at the little window as soon as I turn 62-[SUP]1[/SUP]/[SUB]2[/SUB].

Of course, by then I'll probably have to get official "papers" once again - SS card, birth certificate, Driver's License - you know, all those pieces of paper that the government deems necessary.

So much for staying out of The System ... :(
 

I was stunned at the number of homeless in Seattle. Just about every overpass had a small tent city underneath it. People were living in decrepit old campers that they moved around the streets every few days. There were actually tents pitched on sidewalks in places. I heard that they are planning to designate a large homeless camp shelter somewhere out in the suburbs. Unlike the usual homeless shelter, they won't ban alcohol and drugs. The thinking behind that is to get as many of the homeless to come live in the camp, THEN get to work on getting them sober/off drugs. I'd have to think that Seattle would be one of the most undesirable places to be homeless in the winter.

It wasn't that long ago that the city of Orlando used to give vagrants one-way bus tickets to "somewhere", just to get them out of town.
 
jujube said:
I was stunned at the number of homeless in Seattle. Just about every overpass had a small tent city underneath it. People were living in decrepit old campers that they moved around the streets every few days. There were actually tents pitched on sidewalks in places. I heard that they are planning to designate a large homeless camp shelter somewhere out in the suburbs. Unlike the usual homeless shelter, they won't ban alcohol and drugs. The thinking behind that is to get as many of the homeless to come live in the camp, THEN get to work on getting them sober/off drugs. I'd have to think that Seattle would be one of the most undesirable places to be homeless in the winter.

It wasn't that long ago that the city of Orlando used to give vagrants one-way bus tickets to "somewhere", just to get them out of town.
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What a shameful display of "bounteous America", the Horn of Plenty fulfilling the needs of anyone and everyone willing to work, settle down in one place, live acceptably decent lives, raise children to respect and accept the work ethic, where has all of that philosophy gone? imp
 

imp said:
What a shameful display of "bounteous America", the Horn of Plenty fulfilling the needs of anyone and everyone willing to work, settle down in one place, live acceptably decent lives, raise children to respect and accept the work ethic, where has all of that philosophy gone? imp
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That America disappeared in MY youth, Imp. It started off that way, but the Demon of Progress and Technical Wonders took over and stripped us of our humanity.
 
Debby said:
I'm thinking that you hit the nail on the head Shalimar.
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That's what's so amazing about a part of the American electorate. They refuse to see what the REAL problem is. It's NOT the poor getting some help with food or housing.. It's NOT grandma and grandpa and their SS or Medicare.. It's the fact that since Reagan and Reaganomics... so much of the wealth has moved from the pockets of the middle class into the overseas bank accounts and tax shelters of the oligarchy. They keep voting for the party that promises them so much.. with no intention of serving anyone but their wealthy donors and moving more wealth to the top by rigging the system in favor of the rich.. and taking MORE away from the poor and Middle Class.. THEN blaming it ALL on the poor and the elderly. When are people going to wake the "F" up???
 
Far too much of what some are complaining of has disappeared because we can no longer afford to build and ship items as cheaply as other countries around this world can. Where do our low cost electronics come from. Foreign countries where they pay far less. For some that pay pennies compared to our many dollars for the same item. We then complain about not have so many good jobs and many will sit and do nothing but complain that we are now poorer because 1 & 2 & 3 & --------. Lower our taxes, make it possible to keep our jobs at home, make sure we can control our own lives ourselves, reduce the size of our governments local and federal and especially the federal.

Things can be done to make the lives of the working class better and improve our economy.
 
QuickSilver said:
That's what's so amazing about a part of the American electorate. They refuse to see what the REAL problem is. It's NOT the poor getting some help with food or housing.. It's NOT grandma and grandpa and their SS or Medicare.. It's the fact that since Reagan and Reaganomics... so much of the wealth has moved from the pockets of the middle class into the overseas bank accounts and tax shelters of the oligarchy. They keep voting for the party that promises them so much.. with no intention of serving anyone but their wealthy donors and moving more wealth to the top by rigging the system in favor of the rich.. and taking MORE away from the poor and Middle Class.. THEN blaming it ALL on the poor and the elderly. When are people going to wake the "F" up???
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So true QS. I don't know about the Reagonomics part because I wasn't paying any attention back then, but you are right on about the wealthy donors 'paying' to have the rules skewed in their favour so that they get richer and the poor get poorer.

A Seattle entrepreneur named Nick Hanauer actually gets it despite the fact that he's one of the 1%. The excuse is always that 'you shouldn't tax the rich more.....because they are the job creators'. I suppose it's the old trickle down theory but Mr. Hanauer's TED Talk was titled 'Rich People Don't Create Jobs' and for saying what he said, his talk got banned from TED. I think a few here would enjoy what he has to say (if you haven't heard of him already).

The premise of his talk is that if you give the rich guy an extra couple thousand back from his taxes, he's going to just stick it in his bank account, reinvest it and get richer whereas if you give a couple middle class (or lower) families that couple thousand, they are going to go out and buy clothes for their kids, school supplies, do a bit of renovation on their old house.....in other words, it goes right back into the economy and many more benefit. Anyway, listen if you want, I thought he was pretty sensible.


And I also want to make the point here, this is not all about America. The exact same problem has happened in Canada and I'll bet Europeans would also have the same complaints.
 
Shalimar said:
QS, perhaps they will wake up when they lose enough to become really really angry and march en masse to Washington? Voting with their feet?
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I believe it's already affecting them... They are just blaming the wrong people.. Careful.... "F" bomb alert...




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Shalimar said:
Isn't this what history teaches us? The rich gouge everyone else, until the "hoi polloi" get pissed and revolt in one way or another?
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It's not so much about gouging but maintaining their status quo. They want to keep their money and power as do many. Some do it ethically, passively then there are the criminals and banksters.
 
Every time someone tries to change the US tax rules it gets dropped real fast. It does not matter who is in charge, just don't mess with the way some folks can get rich. A tax change has been offered many times but then just ignored. Check into GE's situation and their general manager, Immelt, who has been but don't know now, a financial adviser for Obama's government.

Interesting all this stuff about Ronald Reagan. His Congress was all Democrats for his entire term. It was all Democrats before Reagan, his first term was a split Republican and Democrat Congress, his second term was again all Democrat. How can we blame Reagan for the actions of a mostly Democrat Congress where the power really is. The only control would have been any spending things that Reagan could force on to the Democrats who usually are the spenders.
 
Our treasury department is now involved in paying over 400 billion dollars each year and that include the interest too. It is actually nearing 500 billion per year. We now owe over 18.8 trillion of debt and growing quickly. It was only 7.8 trillion during the Bush term, till the Democrats took over in his last two years and raised it up to 10.5 trillion where Obama took over and ran up the rest to the 18.8 trillion debt. And still rising.
 

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