The American Dream (I don't want to pay for your milk!)

a reply to: JDmOKI

Let me say it again just to be clear, you are not OWED an American dream. Just because you went to college does not entitle you to anything. That was your choice to take on the debt from going to college, the choices you make in life are yours, and the public shouldn't be saddled with the consequences of your choices!

a reply to: SpaDe_

What consequences? I work hard for my living and pay taxes and so do a lot of people. In my opinion , the American dream is being able to live reasonably without having to work 2 jobs 40+hours a week just because my employer wants to cut workers in order to buy a new car and live his american dream.

And if you didn't notice Banks give out student loans like candy and has reached 1.2 TRILLION dollars. They screw you before you even get started on that magical "american dream" of working hard and dying poor.

My consequence was taking out loans to better myself and becoming a slave to the system

a reply to: ghostrager
Two of your reasons are contradictory.
Your mortgage and your student loan. I don't care that the reason you give is "but they were loans and I'm working hard to pay them back".
Take your mortgage, It's other peoples money, might even be a couple of dollars of poor peoples money. Yet you went and were rewarded with a mortgage and if that money wasn't there you wouldn't have a house.
The same goes for your student loan. It was other peoples money that helped you and if that help was not there you would not have had your education.
As for Believer, think on this. If you weren't processing all those people the work load wouldn't be there and there would be no need for your position and you would be unemployed.

a reply to: crayzeed

When the handouts that people get from the government start coming with repayment coupons and interest tacked to them, then your analogy might work, but until then your analogy is completely invalid.

a reply to: JDmOKI

You seem to have answered your own question. Now explain how anyone else but you should bear the burden of your choices?

a reply to: ghostrager

why should society give you :

morgage and student loans ??????

a reply to: ghostrager

Exactly, so leave it up to me to choose what to do with what I've earned from my hard labor.

...and yet you pay taxes involuntarily and/or against your will.

This thought process of yours does not make any sense when weighed against the current paradigm we exist within. You give up a percentage of your hard earned $ each pay-cheque without choosing to do so and without any say in dictating the amount, yet you boldly state that it should be left up to your own freewill on how it should be spent when you disagree with some avenues of expenditure, simply because it makes you feel cheated out of your own time and energy invested.

In other words: The concept of generosity does not resonate within your predisposed mindset.

What are your thoughts concerning the homeless regarding improving their living situation through government funding?

Does the idea of your tax dollars going towards such matters bother you?

I don't want to pay for your housing. Or your phone bill. I don't want to pay your rent. Or your birth control. I don't want to pay for your education. Or your grocery bill. I'm sorry you have type 2 diabetes, but I don't want to pay for it!

So, why do you then? Why don't you simply choose to not to do so?

Also, if you disagree with wars, then why don't you also simply choose not to have your tax dollars go towards that? You are not working your arse off for that as well, correct?

I want to pay for my mortgage, my food, my phone, my student loans, and my healthcare. These aren't "rights", these are fruits of hard labor. All of the socialist programs have only raised the hurdle for my American dream. I'm not working my ass off for you to sit on yours.

Those are NOT the fruits of hard labour and mental persistence....

The fruits of success stimulate feelings of joyfulness (lightheartedness) and nurtures the attitude of generosity, not the bitterness of casting unfair judgement on those who seek social assistance as you have done. This subtle and unconscious attitude of greed usually arises from a lack of fulfilling goals from that very same hard effort many speak about partaking in.

Your sentiment (OP) echoes a person who projects a poverty consciousness, or a poverty state of mind. After all, a person who has all their material needs met do not become bitter towards those who need a helping hand. Instead they smile at the fact their hard earned dollars can make a difference in certain areas of other people's lives.

I'm not working my ass off for you to sit on yours.

I sit on my ass all day long because my hard labour has produced such an abundance of fruit. I really don't care who eats off the tree of social assistance funded by my tax dollars, or who is scamming the system because of laziness, or whatever. Only a poverty stricken mindset would bitch and moan about such things as being unfair.

Perhaps, the essence of your OP is more personal of nature and you have projected/deflected the lack of material success onto the masses who appear to dip into the pot... without bringing anything to the party? After all, some always need a scapegoat for their own lack of success.

For instance:

All of the socialist programs have only raised the hurdle for my American dream.

Often times the only hurdle we create is within the mind (excuses disguised as concepts,) and that usually is what prevents one from attaining their dreams....despite wherever they happen to reside.

Is the glass half full or half empty when it comes to attaining your highest dreams?

I should really stay away from this argument, but to hell with it....I'm really angry!

An economy is only as strong as it's weakest link, if you leave the poorest in society without a basic spending power, that economy will either stagnate, recession, or growth will crawl.

Here in the UK, the ideology of the current government is the same as the OP and by proxy so is a chunk of our current populations.

However this ideology is fundamentally flawed, the savage cuts to welfare set out yesterday, only serve to punish and in some instances place a glass ceiling in attaining upward mobility...all because like the OP, they think they are supporting the poorest and feel they shouldn't.

Not only is the OP's attitude anti-society, it is selfish and riddiculous....just like here in the UK, what do you think happens to the money that is saved by not giving the poorest a leg up?!

Do you think, that somehow, if it's been a good year, the government will turn round and say "Hey, you know what, we have a surplus from all the savings we made this year....here's a one off £5000 for each person!"

No, of course not, they take those savings and plough them into perpetuating the wealth of the 1%, business et al.

I really don't want to live in a world that is this stupid!

Flame away!

originally posted by: CranialSponge
Yesirree...

All those selfish leeching military veterans collecting their federal disability cheques.

Who the hell do they think they are buying milk on your dime ?!

So you need the government to fix a problem created by the government.

Your gif is appropriate.

a reply to: SpaDe_

I could NOT agree more. I cannot stand the entitled crowd given crap that they didn't earn just because of how they were born or who they were born to. Then having the NERVE to turn around and gloat about it all the while telling the other side that they should just take it on the chin, grow up, and get over it because they somehow "earned" what they have despite never working hard for it.

Oh....sorry did I misdirect? Yes the people I am talking about here are the rich, white male CEO's that destroy lives, reduce hours, and screw over the employees while taking a 5 mil a year salary coupled with a 10 mil golden parachute when they inevitably screw the company in the ground. How did they get that job? A friend of a friend. Amazing how your bull crap, anti-welfare rhetoric sounds exactly like the description of rich, white males who "friend" their way to the top just to continue the path to destroy the lives at the bottom...all while taking welfare...excuse me...tax breaks....in order to pay less on the dollar for their property than mom and pop. And what precisely do they give the community? Lower prices at the cost of back breaking, thankless and minimally-paid labor of those underneath.

What's that? The city WON'T give me my tax break? F-it...move the process line to India or China

a reply to: SpaDe_

by taking out student loans to go to college? Good idea lets just stop everyone at high school and not allow the poor to go to college.

lets start cutting pell grants, scholarship, raise tuition so we can have the best sports coaches....

oh and lets get rid of the community college system as well can't let your tax dollars help educate future generations of those dirty poor people who make bad horrible choices to be poor

a reply to: SpaDe_

You have some nerve saying I pretty much deserve what I get when you don't even know my situation just because you hate poor people.

Go get all your buddies together who are brainwashed into thinking trickle down economics help everyone and not just the people at the very top. go ahead and believe that tax cuts to the rich help people at the bottom. The top view people as numbers and assets to increase profit margins.

Even if you know the "BURDEN OF MY CHOICES" don't i deserve a second chance to help climb that mountain back to the magical american dream?

oh wait never mind that would include taxes to help others you don't agree with that. I'll just continue to work I guarantee harder then you) and try to succeed as an educated, single, loyal, tax paying, no criminal record, childless, US citizen

I found the problem that I think we can all agree on.


I knew we paid for them, I just didn't realize we were also paying for all the gimmicks.

originally posted by: JDmOKI
a reply to: SpaDe_

You have some nerve saying I pretty much deserve what I get when you don't even know my situation just because you hate poor people.

Go get all your buddies together who are brainwashed into thinking trickle down economics help everyone and not just the people at the very top. go ahead and believe that tax cuts to the rich help people at the bottom. The top view people as numbers and assets to increase profit margins.

Even if you know the "BURDEN OF MY CHOICES" don't i deserve a second chance to help climb that mountain back to the magical american dream?

oh wait never mind that would include taxes to help others you don't agree with that. I'll just continue to work I guarantee harder then you) and try to succeed as an educated, single, loyal, tax paying, no criminal record, childless, US citizen

of course not friend. Didn't you get the memo? Mistake or not, you're in a harsh situation and you NEVER deserve a second chance...EVER!

Oh this guy is homeless? Who cares why....to hell with him! Me? Yeah I have two 50's, a ten and a five in my wallet. Huh? Yeah I make 2k every two weeks. Why you ask? Oh why don't I help the man on the street? Because it's not my problem! He just isn't working hard enough! Sure he has had absolutely no chance to clean up or eat proper in a month. Sure he has two nickels in his pocket. But dang it! Bootstraps people! There is no reason he shouldn't be able to walk into a building and get a job despite his lack of suit and tie for interview or hygiene issues because nobody helped this gent find even a shower and a three dollar meal. Nope...his fault

bootstraps....But hey don't worry...trickle down ALWAYS works and always has. Haven't you noticed? That's why every homeless person on the streets was immediately placed in apartments through the generosity of the Waltons and CEO's across America. Oh wait nvm...they were buying yachts

Those taxes you despise are also there to keep you safe. Imagine for one moment what would happen if all social "handouts" were to disappear tomorrow: forget about your business, you'd spend the rest of your days fighting off hordes of hungry desperate people and criminal gangs.
Some would enjoy that.
I prefer a civilized society.

originally posted by: ghostrager

I don't want to pay your grocery bill.

Ghost

Food grows on trees. It's free. You pick it off the tree, ya eat it. That's it.

Since you have cut down all the trees you owe us food.

Sorry man I can't help but collect from the government. I didn't ask to get paranoid schizophrenia and I did everything in my power not to have to live off the government. I came down with schizophrenia when I was 17. I didn't get to finish school because I was drugged to max in a psyche ward. After suffering from 2 long psychosis's I tried to build a life for myself. I spent 10 years in the workforce trying to overcome my illness and work. Unfortunately I was unable to do so. I was making $50k a year at one point. I fought as hard as I could to make it in this world. In the end I lost everything I had fought for only to get $850 a month from Social Security. I use to make that in one week working.

When I was working I didn't cry about it when I paid my taxes. It is what it is and I didn't blame the poor or those that had less.

a reply to: ghostrager

I had years where i paid $30k+ in taxes. Had my savings drained when i lost my job of 10 years, then was unpaid by a bad business owner i worked for. I ended up using food stamps and Medicaid for about a year until i finally landed a decent enough job. I'm glad some of those years i paid far more in taxes than many who complain about how much they paid will ever pay, contributed to helping me keep my family fed.

The thing is, there are people who abuse the system, a lot of them, almost enough to cover some of the costs of halliburton rebuilding Iraq, or "foreign aid", but there are plenty of people who work their butts off, then something happens (illness, job loss, etc.)... Had there not been such programs, i would have dumped my house, lived with my parents, slowly spent my savings on food, forgone medical care, etc. Less fortunate people (ie no family) would go homeless, most of them never to become productive again. I was able to save others a lot more by NOT letting my house go into foreclosure, by getting back to work rather than being homeless, possibly in prison for robbery to keep my family fed, etc. I'm back to paying more in taxes annually than most complainers will in 5 years.

Things aren't as simple as the manipulators would like the simple minded to believe.

originally posted by: blondegiraffe
oh my gosh, i feel the same way. i don't understand why people with foodstamps can buy all sorts of junk like soda, candy and chips, and they can buy them at GAS STATIONS. in my opinion, gas stations should not be able to accept foodstamps since they don't sell actual food and people with foodstamps should have to buy real food. i just hate the way the whole system is set up. people get disability payments who aren't even disabled. the government has no incentive to try and bring jobs back to america when we have a welfare state where if you want to have five kids you can't take care of, and you either don't want to, or can't find work, it's ok, because all the people who actually do work will support you. if we just let all these people fail, maybe everyone would see what a sorry state the american economy is actually in, since half of them probably wouldn't be able to find a job. and all these people who are replying that are saying "you are being selfish, what if something happened to you and you needed help?" i actually was legitimately homeless, living in my car for 9 months because i had to get out of a bad relationship. i worked, but being homeless is surprisingly expensive, so i went to the housing department because i thought they could help me get a lower rated rent and security deposit. THEY TOLD ME THEY COULD NOT HELP ME BECAUSE I DID NOT HAVE AN ADDRESS. I had to pay for a p.o. box in order to get housing assistance, which was stupid because i was denied since i made too much money (i was a cart-pusher at walmart). ok? so the people who actually do just have a bad run of luck, 9 times out of 10 can't get help anyway because they either make too much money to get help or because of some other bureaucratic crud.

K

Okay, I have to respond to this. Guess what? Gas stations do sell food. In many poor neighborhoods where there is no grocery store and most do not have the means of transportation to get to one, they buy most of their food at these gas stations/convenience stores.

And as most know, gas stations do not sell much healthy food. People take what they can get. I don't think you're being selfish, just ignorant. Most people on disability deserve it.

Then you whine about the fact that you were homeless and had a hard time getting help. So which is it? Vilifying poor people, or the fact you were once in their shoes? Ironic.