2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumThe Richy Richs of this world do NOT make the best politicians ....
How One GOP Plutocrat Helped Make 20,000 Kids HomelessThere are 20,000 kids sleeping in homeless shelters in New York City, according to the city's latest estimate, a number that does not include homeless kids who are not sleeping in shelters because their families have been turned away. Up to 65 percent of families who apply for shelter don't get in, and their options can be grim.
"Some end up sleeping in subway trains," Patrick Markee, senior policy analyst at Coalition for the Homeless, tells AlterNet. "Some go to hospital emergency rooms or laundromats. Women are going back to their batterers or staying in unsafe apartments."
Families that make it into shelters are taking longer to leave and move into stable, permanent housing. Asked by reporters why families were staying 30% longer than even last year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, "... it is a much more pleasurable experience than they ever had before."
Is it great?" He elaborated a day later in response to outcry over his comments. "No. Its not the Plaza Hotel ... but thats not what shelter is supposed to be and thats not what the public can afford or the public wants.
http://truth-out.org/news/item/13157-how-one-gop-plutocrat-helped-make-20000-kids-homeless
As F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in The Great Gatsby, "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me...They think, deep down, that they are better than we are.
KansDem
(28,498 posts)That's why they buy them.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)MindMover
(5,016 posts)I have to disagree ...
they set themselves and there 1% friends up so that government became more friendly to the 1%ers ... proven over and over again ...
If you think that the safety nets that have been established by Roosevelt and Kennedy were somehow benevolent then you are not living on SS income ... and using medicaid for your healthcare ...
pnwmom
(108,977 posts)are teabaggers and libertarians, who think all people are stronger if they go through life without any help.
MindMover
(5,016 posts)and I am not a teabagger or libertarian ...
I am a person with my eyes wide open and my head clear of anything stronger than a sasparilla ...
pnwmom
(108,977 posts)But I wouldn't hold Roosevelt or even Kennedy responsible for that.
MindMover
(5,016 posts)and I will agree that Roosevelt nor Kennedy are responsible for the shell game that we have goin on now ....
pnwmom
(108,977 posts)and even worse leaders.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)I'm guessing a person would have to be one hell of a polititian to do that.
Teddy busted up the robber-barons..I guess those rich people weren't too happy with him.
And the Kennedys have been politically influential for what...80 years?
karynnj
(59,503 posts)Some of the Senators who did the most in legislation were/are wealthy - including people like Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and Frank Lautenberg.
Marta Steele PR
(11 posts)which begins another generation of plutocrats. But as the recent election should have conclusively demonstrated, the public still has power.
Personally, I don't resent working for a rich boss ... leaves me free to do work like this for authors like Marta. But he justifiably worries about losing my skills and knows you can't buy loyalty. Who who would you rather be?
Karl Marx may have been right about communism, but volume 2 of Das Kapital is just racist. That said, "Workers of the world: Unite!"