The poor is not your enemy. Open your eyes!

How is it that we, the supposedly 'enlightened', let politics turn us into the biggest hypocrits of this century?

We have let 'double speak' and appeals to our baser instincts turn us into people who hate the poor. Both parties accuse each other of starting class-warfare and yet they both are to blame. Now we, the public, have become infatuated with pointing to the poor as the reason for the ills of our society and economy.

We say they are lazy:

No one remembers that we are still coming out of the worst recession since the 1930's or that corporations have been sending jobs overseas at frantic rates to avoid paying fellow Americans (their biggest consumers) a living wage.

We hypocritally support such unconstitutional ideas such as drug tests for those who receive government support, yet where were you when we used tax money to give support to Wall Street after they raped our economy and drove up the housing costs in some places almost triple their actual value?

Did you rally for Wall Street to take a drug test? Doubt it.

In 2010, the US gave $52.7 billion to other countries in foreign aid. We 'nation build'. We spend more on ways to kill people than the top ten militaries in the world, combined. However, when it comes to our own people in need, we become obstinant...we become holier than thou and put our noses up in the air. We let ourselves be duped into hating the oppressed by the very people doing the oppressing.

"A nation greatness is measured by how it treats it's weakest members" - Ghandi

We are better than this, people. We are not the selfish, every man for himself, robots that the PTB would like us be. These tactics only serve to keep us divided and distracted from the real issues facing us these days.

We all need some kind of help sometimes. It isn't a sin...it's a fact of life. Some people actually do take advantage of the system, but should we throw out the baby with the bathwater?

“Investing in poor, young children has a phenomenally high economic and social rate of social return,” he says. “Because on the one side early investments in childhood development have huge returns later in life in labor-market productivity [and] at the same time they avoid the enormous social costs of crime and unemployment.” -The director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University

I can't find the exact quote and i can't remember who said it but it was something along the lines of:

"How backwards are our politics that the richest people in the country end up envying and begrudging the poorest for the little help they receive."

What a sham this whole system is, i can only pray that people start to wake up and realize that we are All in this together. Your neighbors are not your enemies just because they fall on a different side of an imaginary line that the PTB have used to divide us.

The poor are not my enemy?
I pay over 28% of my paycheck to federal taxes and SSI but can't afford to take care of a family. Sales, state and other taxes push it closer to 45%. I take care of myself but having a bunch of kids or even sending one to college is out of the question.

Meanwhile poor people have kids in litters and continue to vote for politicians who want to take more of my money and give it to people who don't pay taxes or are living off of Uncle Sugar.

Poor people, along with rich people and politicians seem to see me as the enemy. They are definitely waging financial warfare against myself and people like me.

Why shouldn't I reciprocate?

Why can't you liberals understand the difference between "helping the poor" and being held up by a corrupt government that wastes far more than it gives to the poor? We should help those who need it. Individuals should help individuals, families should help each other, churches and other PRIVATE charities should help out the less fortunate. Handing billions of hard earned dollars over to a kleptocracy to redistribute is something else entirely.

Originally posted by badgerprints
The poor are not my enemy?
I pay over 28% of my paycheck to federal taxes and SSI but can't afford to take care of a family...

But where is that 28% really going? It is not going to the poor of this country, it is going to drop bombs on people who have never done a thing to harm anyone in this country. It is going to set up puppet governments so Haliburton can continue to win billion dollar no bid contracts and to ensure that Exxon and BP can have access to oil reserves that they would otherwise not be able to touch.

Originally posted by badgerprints
The poor are not my enemy?
I pay over 28% of my paycheck to federal taxes and SSI but can't afford to take care of a family. Sales, state and other taxes push it closer to 45%. I take care of myself but having a bunch of kids or even sending one to college is out of the question.

Meanwhile poor people have kids in litters and continue to vote for politicians who want to take more of my money and give it to people who don't pay taxes or are living off of Uncle Sugar.

Poor people, along with rich people and politicians seem to see me as the enemy. They are definitely waging financial warfare against myself and people like me.

Why shouldn't I reciprocate?

edit on 5-11-2012 by badgerprints because: (no reason given)

You shouldn't reciprocate, because from what it sounds like, you are one of those people that need help too. The larger the deficit, the higher the taxes. The deficit comes from government overspending and making us foot the bill.

Poor people aren't the ones in congress overspending your money, so what makes you think that waging war against them is going to make any difference?

What about foriegn aid? What about overspending on the military? What about corporations that send good jobs overseas? How in the world can you blame this on the poor?

Politicians have convinced lower classed people that they are still middle class and deep down I think we know better, but it feels good to be in denial and ignore the real source of our woes.

reply to post by soulshn

But where is that 28% really going? It is not going to the poor of this country, it is going to drop bombs on people who have never done a thing to harm anyone in this country.

Sorry, but that's a fantasy perpetrated by the left. While I agree that the military-industrial machine takes a huge piece of the pie, likewise, a huge piece of the pie is going towards welfare and various social programs. Where do you think that money comes from? There's like 45 million people getting food stamps!

reply to post by DarthMuerte



Please stop with the divide and conquer labeling. I am neither a liberal, democrat, conservatist or republican. I am a human who thinks for himself and can figure out the difference between 'bad guy' and scapegoat. Join me.

S&F for you. I'm surprised that there has been little response to this thread by ATS members..

ATS: "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

Originally posted by ColeYounger
reply to post by soulshn

 

But where is that 28% really going? It is not going to the poor of this country, it is going to drop bombs on people who have never done a thing to harm anyone in this country.

Sorry, but that's a fantasy perpetrated by the left. While I agree that the military-industrial machine takes a huge piece of the pie, likewise, a huge piece of the pie is going towards welfare and various social programs. Where do you think that money comes from? There's like 45 million people getting food stamps!

First off, i think that is incorrect, but more importantly do you think voting republican is really going to change anything? Bush was responsible for the largest increase in medicare spending ever. Romney invented the ideas behind Obamacare.

YOU ARE ALL FIGHTING OVER WHICH SIDE OF THE SAME COIN IS BETTER! There is no real difference between the R's and the D's! Can you not see this?

Originally posted by intelligenthoodlum33
reply to post by DarthMuerte

 

Please stop with the divide and conquer labeling. I am neither a liberal, democrat, conservatist or republican. I am a human who thinks for himself and can figure out the difference between 'bad guy' and scapegoat. Join me.

How about you answer the question though?

No one is against giving someone a helping hand, but when the helping hand is expected indefinitely then we have some problems....and yes, we have raised generations of those who feel they deserve a handout.

(and yes, we have an TON of lazy people out there - I personally know a few of them.....who play WoW all day and go clubbing every weekend, and hey - one of them gets a babysitter paid so she can go relax)

45 million people NEEDING food stamps is disgusting, and boils down to very bad management of all resourses, living and non, especially in a country that has so much.

You know you are all going to have to help fix this, and many hands, still make light work. The simplest answers still are usually the correct ones.

When something gets top heavy it inevitably falls over....think about it. A weighty bottom is still an imbalance also but it resembles more fertility rather than distruction.

clear as mud?

reply to post by roblot


Thanks! I think that history shows that when things are rough, it helps the gov to create a common enemy from an easy target. In Nazi Germany it was minorities and counter-cultures. Now, in America it's our less fortunate neighbors.

It's a sad state of affairs when we refuse to learn from the past and allow the talking heads to appeal to our baser instincts. What's next?...micro-chipping welfare recipients? I wonder how much that would cost and I wonder who would have to pay for it and what company would get such a lucrative contract.

Of course, they would out-source the labor and deny us hypocrits the chance to even benefit from that.

Just to be sure.
I KNOW what it is like to be poor.
I was poor. I got to see the way this country deals with poverty from the inside and I fought my way out of it because I don't want to be that person. I hated myself for needing food stamps and scraping three and four part time jobs at a time just to take care of my wife and child. At one point in my life I was a landscaper, dishwasher, fence builder and I delivered periodicals during the daytime. I went to school at night.
I now have enough income to be considered middle class but it's not about what I make. It's about what they take...and who's taking it.

As a middle class taxpayer I see pretty much anyone except the middle class as my enemy because they all want me to fork over more. Some want a free ride when they don't contribute. Others have more than they ever will need but still want someone else to cover their agenda. Both sides get their way somehow but the middle class still gets screwed.

Class warfare isn't just hyped spin on the latest agenda.

It's been going on for a long time and both sides have won along the way. The middle has lost every battle.

The poor are not the enemy.

The enemy is the government that enables them, and makes it comfortable to be poor.

Obamaphones, food stamps, welfare, earned income tax credits, etc...are all actions of our government to keep the poor comfortable. When the poor are comfortable, what gives them any incentive to improve their lot?

reply to post by MidnightTide


Some of those people only need a helping hand, because they lost their jobs as a result of things beyond their control. No one says it should be indefinite. You think a honest person enjoys being on welfare? You think his/her children are just overflowing with joy and can't wait to get to school to brag about it?

Of course, we have a few lazy people out there, but does that mean we should make everyone suffer? Would you feel better if there were no welfare? Do you think the world would become a better place for it?

When people are hungry they will do what they can to feed themselves which many times lead to an increase in crime. So these people commit a crime and go to jail where your tax dollars go to pay for their incarceration and legal fees, which will come up to around $50,000 a year. Is this a more palatable solution for you? It definitely won't save you any money.

Source: www.lao.ca.gov...

Yes, we have problems as a country and it's not poor people, it's the corruption and selfish politic'n that caused so many people to be poor in the first place.

The only way most the the poor stop bring poor is if they face the hard truths of why they are poor. If they do an HONEST review of the decisions they made in their life leading up to their current financial situation 99% of the time they come to 2 realizations.

1) The decisions they made for themselves have led to their current status.
2) As long as they keep making these same kinds of decisions they will be no better off in the future.

Of course their are exceptions to the stated (mental and physical disabilities, those with sickness, those that have been injured). One would expect them to be poor. Able bodied correct thinking people should not and that's most the poor. And dont give me any blow-back about the working poor. If you are 40 and still barley making over minimum wage you've made some bad decisions or are currently caught up in a viscous cycle of bad decisions.

reply to post by badgerprints


Yes and I can't understand why the physical labours of a man is worth about a million times less than a pencil pusher with brains.
Funny ole backward world we live in. init?

If your in the middle be thankful it's not the bottom in truth, and 'poor' is a relative term only. You are very strong.

The least able, should always be the first consideration in any and all societies, how you get thanked for your hard earned efforts in 'your' dotage will be determined by what you set up and accomodate for with the coming of it.

The shame and stigma attached to extending your hand for assistance is a huge mountain to climb, don't begrudge those who can not see their way clear just yet, they are perhaps more important than you realise.
There is no shame in asking for help ever.
What would be sad is when one really needs and asks.......and no one answers.

The former middle class,who foolishly think they are the middle class,hate the poor because they see what they will be without maybe,3 paychecks?.

I have been thinking about this for years,how terrible poor and homeless are treated,watching it,experiencing it.

It's fear,it's denial,it's ignorance.

I got pretty good at getting by on almost nothing over the years,without help.

But I don't have enough resources to help you.

And I get called selfish,but reality is reality.

I am you.

Originally posted by AussieAmandaC

What would be sad is when one really needs and asks.......and no one answers.

How will anyone hear when millions who are simply taking a free ride scream the loudest?

You see, I don't spend my days thinking "Those damn poor people. They want my money."
I know who they are. I work with homeless. I donate money and time. I push for help to the ones who need it but I have no patience for those who expect more in life in exchange for a vote or a bribe.

The "POOR" are not all poor because they were put there or found themselves there through circumstance. A great portion of them are there because it's easier to sit with your hand out.

One thing is pretty much universal though. They all vote to take more from someone else. Politicians, poor people and the wealthy all seem to see the middle class as the ones who should give up their income so the rest can get what they want.

I didn't decide they were my enemy.

They did.