Life in America

Alright so this thread is gonna be discussing the real life in America.

You can either;

A. Get a job to pay for your food, water, cloths, transportation and entertainment.

B. Get on welfare cause you can't get a job, this includes food stamps and government housing. This is the free route and you really can't lose cause everything is free and the more children you decide to have the more money you'll receive.

C. You can decide to be homeless and live from begging people for money, digging through garbage for food and lining up at the local salvation army for meals. This route is probably the worst since you have no real place to sleep and your bed can be anything from sidewalk to bus booth or under a bridge.

D. You can sell drugs and either make it or break it, break it meaning ending up in jail which is a pretty likely scenario in the B/C categories considering the way of life is so low people do drastic things when this happens. When you make it though, I'd imagine it would be like winning the lottery everyday.

Just a few of my thoughts, feel free to discuss/add anything that is fitting to the topic.

-D

reply to post by Anoynymoose


You forgot prostitution, human trafficking and being a professional robber.
All great ways to sustain.

i would love to win the lottery everyday

it all sounds quite depressing when you state it like that... true though, true


you did forget though, the people with jobs who dont actually work, but somehow still manage to earn more then the rest of us.

reply to post by osirys


Thanks for contributing.

This is what I was shooting for, I'd like people to add to this thread with any information they have.
I simply stated the basics.

E. Moving away from society, being self-sufficient, living off the land?

it happens even in America......

reply to post by gator1177


Until the authorities show up and condemn your "living space" on grounds of trespassing. Also you wouldn't live very long considering your diet would consist of slim to nothing specially if your crops failed or you didn't find anything hunting.

Still I guess it could be a way of life, I'd recommend stocking up on necessities from society beforehand.

Originally posted by Anoynymoose
reply to post by gator1177

 

Until the authorities show up and condemn your "living space" on grounds of trespassing.

Don't forget building codes violations.

*You can't even sell lemonade in America. You used to be able to, but now it costs several hundred dollars for the privilege of setting a stand where your kids can earn $20.

you can leave the country... not being facetious... seriously, you can leave the country.. and you probably should.

reply to post by Anoynymoose


as with my E. option your A. (jobs are not there) B.(they are making it harder to get welfare....don't eat the poppy seed muffin!) C. (you will be arrested) and D.(you will be arrested) they are taking all our options away....go figure

LOL! I took the "leaving" option.

There is also the common problem of getting a job, but it isn't enought to pay for housing and food. (forget entertainment and clothing- entertainment is a silly luxury, and clothes can be always gotten from others who don't want them anymore).

I ran into this problem as a young single parent in the US, and at that point the next option was to get on welfare- which meant I'd have to stop working.

Since then, I tend to think that the kind of system some other countries have, which is more progressive make sense. If you are on welfare, for example, and you get a job, you are not cut off completely if it is not paying enough to live, you can continue to get a small amount to help, until your pay goes up, you work up to a better paying job, and the aid dwindles down in consequence.

The theory that only the dire cases deserve any help (okay, I see the logic) has the secondary effect of influencing people to drop into the "dire case" catagory and not be able to crawl out (sometimes theory doesn't work in reality).

Especially in a culture and system that sees employment opportunities as something you work upwards progressively through experience (you must start at the bottom and work your way up). It means that to get on that ladder, you must accept the minimum wage type jobs first and live on that until you can earn something on the next rung. A problem when the minimum wage is not enough for basic survival needs. (at least it wasn't in the area I was in at that time).

I am a hardworker, and truly believe in being independant, and willing (and did) go without food for days, and live in a corner of someones garage for a couple of years, all to keep working without turning to welfare. But having a child- choosing not to feed him for a couple days was not something I felt I had the right to do. I have the right to choose hardship and struggle if it made my conscience clear, but children? Do we have the right to make that decision for them? Do parents not have the responsibility to make sure they have their basic survival needs met ? This was a terrible question for me that caused me a lot of turmoil at that time.

I still struggle with it looking back, looking at pictures of my skinny, skinny baby son, remembering scraping rice grains from the corners of an old cupboard to try to find enough to feed it to him, asking neighbors if they had any old veggies they were going to throw away..... but I can proudly say I did it without help. I never became a dependant, and got trapped in that system. Great. I am a true american! But my son suffered from inability to thrive physically, and to this day, has a skeleton like body and has a tendancy to not take care of himself. I guess he never learned it because I didn't do it. I couldn't do it. It was all or nothing in that system, and I chose nothing.
But now? I wonder if I made the right choice and if I would counsel a young woman in that situation to do the same, or whether I'd just say, "forget working, just get on welfare, take the food stamps, think of the kid before your pride."

reply to post by Bluesma


*HUG* seriously you did good you did what you could I commend you for that! That makes you awesome in my book, if it matters. You may look in the mirror and see faults, i don't see see strength, love, and determination after reading your post.....

I wish more people could be like you...

reply to post by Anoynymoose


You forgot that you could be a veteran of these insane wars and be disabled and then rely upon the government for your pitiful well-being. Just saying...........