IrishAyes
IrishAyes's JournalI'm going to stay awake all night now worrying about those rich people. No, really!
It should keep my mind off more pressing matters. If I do sleep and dream, it will be with visions of another $60 dancing in my head. That would be almost enough to replace what the state screwed me out of in August when my income had not changed a penny. Kicked me higher up the copay ladder, then declared my expenses had dropped! and used that as an excuse to take away my food stamps. What they really did was push me another $65 a month deeper down the rabbit hole with that Orwellian accounting. Believe me, I sounded off loud and clear even though I knew it wouldn't do any good.
But now that I've calmed down a little, I promise to try to remember the rich man's burden.
Why don't you write about rape porn? You'll get lots of readers that way. Some men
sound so desperate to make people think it helps reduce rape, so they can keep rolling in that garbage. And God help the man or woman who calls it what it is.
See? That's how it's done. Glad to be of help.
Actually, I do think the habitual pot stirrers know exactly what they're doing
and it makes me seriously question their motives and origins.
Welcome news indeed.
Now if we can just get recreational use legalized everywhere and make the Feds back off, things will be a whole lot better.
That video's a keeper, alright. Thanks. But it will be awhile before I can watch it.
Like many of you, I spent much of this week with leaky eyes.
By this time next year, many people will scratch their head and wonder what all the fuss was about.
By then, of course, the low-information group will be lusting after the next big GOP lie. I'm sorry, but the adage of a dog returning to its vomit describes that situation to a T. Maybe by that time the GOP will have whipped itself into a frenzy over impeachment. Apart from the uncalled for suffering that would cause many Americans, especially the President himself, I'd almost welcome a serious GOP effort in that direction. I can't think of much that would hang them any higher.
While I've done comparatively well on a shrinking income
because I had the background and opportunity - not to mention, luck of the Irish - to prepare for it, that's not the case with many people. I grew up in a family and era where the least wastefulness was abhorrent. Didn't matter how much you had or could expect to get - don't waste a penny of it. I'm trying to say I didn't build this alone and I know it.
But a lot of people who grew up in cushier circumstances were never taught the lessons I learned from early childhood. Unfortunate as that may be, it does not excuse their victimization by financial sharpies either. The danger of falling on hard times is less likely to encourage thrift in those to whom it's an alien concept.
Then there are the desperately poor who were born into abject poverty and PERHAPS have no model of long range planning in their world. Everything might be only now, now, now if you don't expect to live past 30 or ever to get a real chance at sustainable security. Some lucky few might manage to extricate themselves with help, but the odds are against them and I WON'T blame those who wind up ground beneath vulture capitalism's massive wheel. Those whom hunger stalks can't be expected to save for the future!
I'll never forget watching a major Florida developer caught on the wrong end of the boom-bust cycle explain how one day he'd been fabulously wealthy, on paper at least, and the next day busted back to nothing. If he was smart enough to do what he did, he should've had sense enough not to overextend himself like that. But he wasn't and he didn't. Rampant greed blinded him. He said as much.
And the unfortunates snookered into mortgages they couldn't afford, whether their own or as faulty bulk investments, I feel for them too. Might doesn't make right, and I abhor those who took such advantage of easy marks. But then that's the very nature of capitalism.
Gentrification is a double edged sword alright.
What can be done? I don't know, except some relief offered by the required low-income housing. Doesn't make it right, though. Sticky wicket at best.
And why am I not surprised? Echoes of Star Jones' wedding, etc.
Not to mention England's Lizzie the Hun caught trying to tap into a fund set up for those she helped pauperize!
One thing I can say about internet reading; it certainly sharpens your senses
of who to listen to and who to ignore. (I dislike the word 'whom' in most conversational discourse.)
I do try to look at the overall picture. Castro wouldn't have lasted as long as he has in Cuba if not for the widespread popular support of the masses. Hugo Chavez was too highly beloved of the poor to have been what the other poster describes. Of course people who had to give up some of their ill gotten gains won't appreciate it, and others in the same category worry about it happening to them. Or if they have nothing at all, they may even be so addicted to the fantasy of wealth that they still feel threatened. No, far better and safer to worship the rich and hope they'll reward you with a crumb or two!
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Gender: FemaleHome country: US
Current location: retired to MidWest
Member since: Mon Feb 18, 2013, 10:15 PM
Number of posts: 6,151
