Republicans are taking away my unemployment for my own good.

[Broomstick]

@monavis

Yes, poor people need help, but don’t need computers, I pads etc going to concerts, ball games etc.

If you want to apply for a job these days yes, you NEED a computer. Or at least access to a computer. Maybe you haven’t looked for a job recently but nearly everyone requires you do it on line. Including for entry-level positions at places like McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, and other big box stores.

Granted, you don’t need much of a computer, and IF you are reasonably close to a public library you might be able to use one there, but unless you’re applying to help at an Amish-owned business you’ll almost certainly need on-line access, an e-mail address, and a phone number. That means either access to a computer, a pad with WiFi, or a smartphone.

As for the concerts/ball games/etc. - you are basically saying poor people should sit home at night and have little to no access to popular culture and entertainment. I’m not talking about top tier seats at the Super Bowl but people do require some relief to an endless cycle of work-sleep-work for optimum mental health. Can be people survive having nothing but work and no play in their lives? Sure… but it has bad mental and physical effects. Cripes, even medieval peasants got their holidays and beer!

Frankly, I’d rather people go to a local concert or ball game (a moderately priced entertainment) then self-medicate with booze to alleviate boredom and depression but that’s just me. One reason poor people have historically gotten drunk a lot is because they have nothing else to do AND they want to get away from the drudgery that is their lives.

Or are you going to tell 1/5 to 1/4 of the US work force that they don’t make enough money to have some fun and they should just suck it up and work harder?

I don’t know your situation so I am not addressing you personally, and do not understand why what I write affects you.

Because a lot of what you’re saying DOES apply to me, either now or in the recent past. I was one of those “fussy” people at the food pantry who handed back half of what I was given because it would have made either my spouse or me ill. I own a computer, oh horrors!. Actually, I’ve owned TWO during those poverty years, the first had been purchased back when I was middle class, and when that blew up some friends of mine bought one for me outright as a present. So, don’t worry, honey, none of your tax dollars went to funding the machine that assisted my job search during those years, or enabled my spouse to start up a small business (which, alas, is still not profitable but we keep trying - these things take time, after all). I’ve bought steak with food stamps instead of the greying ground mystery meat. I’ve dared to go out to the occasional movie while unemployed or underemployed just to get away from the shit circumstances I was in for just an hour or two. ** I’ve been the person you bitch about here and THAT is why your comments infuriate me - or did you think there were none of those people on this message board?
**

I would like to see all people have a nice home, good food; but that is not a reason to complain about what they do get.

Sure it is. Middle class and wealthy people complain all the time about what they have, why should poor people be any different? Oh, right, they’re inferior and thus must be held to a higher standard to get even half the respect of “real” people, that is, those who are middle class or higher.

[LavenderBlue]

@monavis

I know she doesn’t feel that way, she is proud of the fact that she can still do it. I guess it is a matter of one’s perspective! She doesn’t complain and is in good health;
She never asked for help. We have become a thing society and put people last.

Good grief. She’s a very old lady working three jobs. No one should be working three jobs at that age unless that’s what they want to do. If she’s happy with it then good for her. But if that’s what she has to do just to eat, then terrible shame on us.

[CrazyCatLady]

@monavis

The food pantries don’t except any fresh food, They want things they can store. I imagine if someone donated canned meat they would accept that. They do appreciate canned soups, veggies, and packaged food like Macaroni, Cereals etc.

Then why do you keep going on about how the food pantry won’t take your donations and cheap cuts of meat are just as nutritious as more expensive ones? You make it sound like you tried to take some hamburger meat and they turned it down because it wasn’t filet mignon.

And for mercy’s sake, if your friend is having as hard a time as you initially made it sound, imagine what kind of shape she’d be in if she wasn’t able to work three jobs. Do you honestly want to live in a society where it’s just peachy-fine and dandy for someone to be in that sort of situation?

[stolatt]

Happy, I’m so sorry. I’m in Michigan too and it sucks quite a bit. We did everything right and the bottom just fell out. I took a minimum wage job and it was like a brick to the face. No full time work and no benefits. I’ve been looking around to see if I can pick up a gig or two cleaning (or anything really), but no luck so far.

I hope you involve yourself in something to keep your spirits up. I’ll be pulling for you.

[Anaamika]

What really blows my mind about people like **monavis **is how she keeps on talking about how she *starved *and didn’t eat for a whole weekend, and that was just the way things were done, and people should pull themselves up by their bootstraps…

Do people like her ever think of the innocent children also condemned to this fate?

We can say all we want “YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE HAD KIDS!” but the fact is those kids are already here and they gotta eat. I do not want to live in a society where little children have to go the entire weekend without food. This is not Little Match Girl Victorian England.

And do you want those kids to grow up and not have kids before they can afford them? Well, then they need proper nutrition, and education, and a hope of a decent life, so they may build towards it! There is not much hope, really, to move out of your class in this country. You can move up a level or two but that’s about it. So you have a whole class of hopeless people who think, what’s the point? I will never get anywhere.

Regardless of whatever I may think about Happy, I do not want his children to go hungry. And I don’t even have kids and I am thinking about our - your - future! If his kids go hungry and don’t get what they need, where will the future be? And it’s Republicans who are all about “family values” and making babies, and yet they never seem to think it’s the babies and the children who need our help most of all, and they are the reason we pay into programs that help the downtrodden.

[Broomstick]

Actually, I pay into those programs to help everyone, not just the children or just the sober or just the college educated. Everyone.

I also accept that while most people will get past the bump in the road there are some people who never will. Punishing everyone in an attempt push the dysfunctional into a self-sufficiency they aren’t going to achieve benefits no one.

Oh, and CNN recently posted an article about how the “relocate to where the jobs are” doesn’t always work out. North Dakota Sees Surge in Homelessness

[monavis]

@IvoryTowerDenizen

How are poor kids supposed to do their homework if their family doesn’t have reliable access to a computer? How are the poor folks themselves supposed to retrain if they can’t take classes, which often requires reliable access to one? How about job searching from home, rather than taking 2 or 3 buses to get to the library, so you can watch your kids, cook those nutritious meals etc.

You just don’t have a clue what it takes to lift yourself up from poverty today. Not 60 years ago. People can’t lift themselves up by their bootstraps if they have no boots.

I liked the earlier comment about investment in people. People with hope, not beaten down by unrelenting, exhausting poverty, make our society better.

I know very well, I know several people who lived high on the hog, Who now are homeless. I also know some who did get out of poverty by living under their means. not buying what they wanted, but they truly needed.

[monavis]

@LavenderBlue

Good grief. She’s a very old lady working three jobs. No one should be working three jobs at that age unless that’s what they want to do. If she’s happy with it then good for her. But if that’s what she has to do just to eat, then terrible shame on us.

There are people who do not want to retire and it has helped her to enjoy her old age. She is not complaining.

[monavis]

@Broomstick

If you want to apply for a job these days yes, you NEED a computer. Or at least access to a computer. Maybe you haven’t looked for a job recently but nearly everyone requires you do it on line. Including for entry-level positions at places like McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, and other big box stores.

Granted, you don’t need much of a computer, and IF you are reasonably close to a public library you might be able to use one there, but unless you’re applying to help at an Amish-owned business you’ll almost certainly need on-line access, an e-mail address, and a phone number. That means either access to a computer, a pad with WiFi, or a smartphone.

As for the concerts/ball games/etc. - you are basically saying poor people should sit home at night and have little to no access to popular culture and entertainment. I’m not talking about top tier seats at the Super Bowl but people do require some relief to an endless cycle of work-sleep-work for optimum mental health. Can be people survive having nothing but work and no play in their lives? Sure… but it has bad mental and physical effects. Cripes, even medieval peasants got their holidays and beer!

Frankly, I’d rather people go to a local concert or ball game (a moderately priced entertainment) then self-medicate with booze to alleviate boredom and depression but that’s just me. One reason poor people have historically gotten drunk a lot is because they have nothing else to do AND they want to get away from the drudgery that is their lives.

Or are you going to tell 1/5 to 1/4 of the US work force that they don’t make enough money to have some fun and they should just suck it up and work harder?
Because a lot of what you’re saying DOES apply to me, either now or in the recent past. I was one of those “fussy” people at the food pantry who handed back half of what I was given because it would have made either my spouse or me ill. I own a computer, oh horrors!. Actually, I’ve owned TWO during those poverty years, the first had been purchased back when I was middle class, and when that blew up some friends of mine bought one for me outright as a present. So, don’t worry, honey, none of your tax dollars went to funding the machine that assisted my job search during those years, or enabled my spouse to start up a small business (which, alas, is still not profitable but we keep trying - these things take time, after all). I’ve bought steak with food stamps instead of the greying ground mystery meat. I’ve dared to go out to the occasional movie while unemployed or underemployed just to get away from the shit circumstances I was in for just an hour or two. ** I’ve been the person you bitch about here and THAT is why your comments infuriate me - or did you think there were none of those people on this message board?
**

Sure it is. Middle class and wealthy people complain all the time about what they have, why should poor people be any different? Oh, right, they’re inferior and thus must be held to a higher standard to get even half the respect of “real” people, that is, those who are middle class or higher.

I know very we;; what poverty is, I lived it every day for years. My husband was laid off work for 6 weeks and we saved more in that year then ever before, but we didn’t even buy a 3 cent stamp that we absolutely didn’t need.

The American dream then was to work hard ,save and get ahead.
Easy credit has got a lot of people into trouble, they (I would imagine) didn’t take into consideration the amount of debt they were adding on to themselves. One doesn’t won solo if one is in debt.

[monavis]

@CrazyCatLady

Then why do you keep going on about how the food pantry won’t take your donations and cheap cuts of meat are just as nutritious as more expensive ones? You make it sound like you tried to take some hamburger meat and they turned it down because it wasn’t filet mignon.

And for mercy’s sake, if your friend is having as hard a time as you initially made it sound, imagine what kind of shape she’d be in if she wasn’t able to work three jobs. Do you honestly want to live in a society where it’s just peachy-fine and dandy for someone to be in that sort of situation?

I never gave the food pantry meat they do not accept fresh food. or perishable. I have mostly given money .
The woman who was buying prime rib roasts and tenderloin steaks , could have used her Booze and cigarette money to pay for that. If she asked for help Then it is a different situation.She is 87 and looks like 59.

[monavis]

@Anaamika

What really blows my mind about people like **monavis **is how she keeps on talking about how she *starved *and didn’t eat for a whole weekend, and that was just the way things were done, and people should pull themselves up by their bootstraps…

Do people like her ever think of the innocent children also condemned to this fate?

We can say all we want “YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE HAD KIDS!” but the fact is those kids are already here and they gotta eat. I do not want to live in a society where little children have to go the entire weekend without food. This is not Little Match Girl Victorian England.

And do you want those kids to grow up and not have kids before they can afford them? Well, then they need proper nutrition, and education, and a hope of a decent life, so they may build towards it! There is not much hope, really, to move out of your class in this country. You can move up a level or two but that’s about it. So you have a whole class of hopeless people who think, what’s the point? I will never get anywhere.

Regardless of whatever I may think about Happy, I do not want his children to go hungry. And I don’t even have kids and I am thinking about our - your - future! If his kids go hungry and don’t get what they need, where will the future be? And it’s Republicans who are all about “family values” and making babies, and yet they never seem to think it’s the babies and the children who need our help most of all, and they are the reason we pay into programs that help the downtrodden.

Of course not, people can feed a child food the is not as costly. My children are all grown up and they were fed good , needed food, and never went hungry. All I am grateful for are in good health.

[monavis]

@Broomstick

Actually, I pay into those programs to help everyone, not just the children or just the sober or just the college educated. Everyone.

I also accept that while most people will get past the bump in the road there are some people who never will. Punishing everyone in an attempt push the dysfunctional into a self-sufficiency they aren’t going to achieve benefits no one.

Oh, and CNN recently posted an article about how the “relocate to where the jobs are” doesn’t always work out. North Dakota Sees Surge in Homelessness

We have relatives in ND and during the depression my mother in -law said she went to the grainery and cooked wheat to eat I have a lot of relatives there and non are going hungry. There may be some but non I know of.

[aruvqan]

@monavis

We have relatives in ND and during the depression my mother in -law said she went to the grainery and cooked wheat to eat I have a lot of relatives there and non are going hungry. There may be some but non I know of.

My mom’s community and family managed well through the Depression - being Amish they did not do the mortgage everything to get the newest mechanical combines and improvements - they remained using horses and wagons, horse combines and the old methods. They planted their crops, raised their animals and kept modest. Mom had a side project raising extra chickens for the eggs and dropped them off at customers in town on the way to work. Her brother G. A. had 4 cows and sold milk and butter for his side project, Buzz was too young to do much of anything, and Mom never told me what her other brothers did [or I can’t remember] but everybody did something.

[My mom claimed that a lot of the farmer issues was not entirely the dust bowl, but in the mortgaging of the farm to get equipment - the mechanical combines and such were very expensive. When the poor folks were hit with the drought 2 years running and the large crops failed, they couldn’t make the payments on just the truck farms that were the food the farm families grew to eat.]

[CanvasShoes]

@Happy_Lendervedder

But me taking a low-wage job means we probably put our kids into daycare, which puts us further into the hole every week.

Also, I hardly think taking a job stocking shelves at the grocery store or flipping burgers is going to ultimately catapult me back into a higher-wage job again.`

Encouraging me to become underemployed is not an improvement to being unemployed in my opinion, as it actually puts my kids into daycare and bankrupts us faster.

Have you considered taking on roommates? You say you own a home, I’m not sure how many bedrooms, but if it’s possible this can help a great deal (been there, done that). In particular ones that could double as childcare? (been there done that as well, my ex-husband and I roomed with another couple and split childcare duties). Can you and your wife work opposite shifts so that no daycare is necessary? Unemployment (at least in my former state) allows for a certain number of hours at a job, and only reduces a percentage of your UE accordingly, which bumps up the bottom line a bit, in other words, even though they cut a little of your UE, they base in on how much your paycheck is and you’ll end up with more overall. Can you find a part time job (even if low wage) that can fit those parameters?

Even if a job looks crappy at the outset (it’s low wages and might bump you off UE partially or completely) often they can lead to better jobs or networking (which in turn gets you better jobs), or both. Otherwise, you’re trapped by your own decision not to go back to work (unless it’s a specific pay level). Sometimes people have to start over, and sometimes you have to start over at the bottom, it’s nobody’s fault, but what is the alternative? Stay on UE forever until you get what you consider to be the “right” job?

[SciFiSam]

Monavis, are you typing drunk, or unwell? You’re missing the point of all the posts you’re replying to and your typing’s gone to pot.

[CanvasShoes]

@BobLibDem

I wouldn’t term libertarianism as a mental defect, I would call it a lack of morality. ** It’s I got mine, if you can’t compete in the job market, tough. ** Rand Paul is a perfect illustration of the lack of humanity that libertarianism represents. “I’d love to help you, but I think it’s in your best interest not to.” What an asshole.

bolding mine…

Maybe the 1%ers have the attitude “I got mine, now screw you” but for the rest of us, people who make around (or less than) what Happy used to make it’s not “I got mine” but “I’m still trying to get mine” and "I am making/have made XYZ sacrifices to do so, so "why won’t you? Why is it okay for some of us to spend a few miserable years, sacrificing and living in crap holes, eating top ramen, and scraping our way up one tiny rung at a time, only to have others say “no that’s too much for me, you’re not being fair”? WE didn’t do this, WE are in the same boat as you (two paychecks away from having to start all over again), WE are not some entitled rich 1%er, yet we managed to somehow do it. Why are we less worthy than you that it’s okay for us to sacrifice, but not you? (collective you, not singling out the OP).

It’s like what the chronically fit always like to throw in the faces of fat people “no it’s not easy, but it IS simple”. Yeah, it’s hard as hell, and it sucks to have to do things like give up your privacy and extra room in your home (or apartment) to share with roommates so you can make ends meet. It sucks to work night shift while your wife works day shift so you don’t have to daycare. It sucks to ride the bus, even if you have a car because you can’t really afford gas, it sucks to work at some crappy job just so you can show due diligence on your resume. People who get out of the trap do all of these things, and more. They’re not just magically lucky and someone came knocking at their door one day with the perfect job.

I’ve done resume screening in my job history on many occasions. Bosses DO look more favorably on people who got out there and hustled, even if it was just McD’s as opposed to someone who has a two year blank in their job history. And it might only be McD’s but (and a few people asked ) here is how it translates to possibly finding a better job.

a) the aforementioned “how it looks to potential employers”
b) you meet people, possibly people who can help you make a change, or put you in touch with the right people within your industry.
c) it helps you feel as if you have control,
d) it keeps you in the “habit of working”

[fisha]

Great post CanvasShoes, thanks for articulating that much better than I could.

[CanvasShoes]

@fisha

Great post CanvasShoes, thanks for articulating that much better than I could.

I’m a dumb dumb. But I have my moments.

[Broomstick]

@monavis

There are people who do not want to retire and it has helped her to enjoy her old age. She is not complaining.

First you said she had to work three jobs in addition to her SS, now you say she’s doing it by choice. Which is it?

@monavis

I know very we;; what poverty is, I lived it every day for years. My husband was laid off work for 6 weeks and we saved more in that year then ever before, but we didn’t even buy a 3 cent stamp that we absolutely didn’t need.

I was laid off for three years. Six weeks is nothing.

Easy credit has got a lot of people into trouble, they (I would imagine) didn’t take into consideration the amount of debt they were adding on to themselves. One doesn’t won solo if one is in debt.

When I was laid off I had not one penny of debt, some modest investments, and a year’s worth of salary in the bank.

Within four years it was gone, all gone.

I know what you’re doing - you’re trying to hedge everything with exceptions and anecdotes because it terrifies you that someone could do everything right and still wind up in the crapper… and not be able to climb out. If the poor are guilty of something - debt, poor decisions, lack of education, whatever - and you don’t have those stains on your person then you’re safe. Except you aren’t. No one is safe. Unless you’re in the 1% of the 1% you, too, can wind up in the crapper.

@SciFiSam

Monavis, are you typing drunk, or unwell? You’re missing the point of all the posts you’re replying to and your typing’s gone to pot.

Yeah, that is weird. What’s up with you, Monavis?

[monavis]

@SciFiSam

Monavis, are you typing drunk, or unwell? You’re missing the point of all the posts you’re replying to and your typing’s gone to pot.

You have the right to your own thoughts. If I agreed with you you would be more charitable?