FTFA:

Anything to help pay the bills, which come to about $7,000 a month, including some $4,000 in mortgage payments.

WTH do they spend $3,000 a month on?! My husband and I spend about $1,000 a month for the two of us and that includes gas, utilities, food, shopping, entertainment, etc. We sure don't need handouts from the food bank or any equivalent program.

Contrabulous Flabtraption: Well, let's imagine a world where abortion isn't illegal - you know, like ours. Do you then still support people having children who can't provide for them?

I'd prefer that they didn't but I'd still support social programs to take care of those children.

And yes, abortion is legal, but despite the best efforts of the very people who scream that poor people shouldn't have kids.

Sliding Carp: Bacchus-ette: They should stop being poor.

They should just move.

They should just die.

/Voting for Zombie McCain

Well, at least the banks were recapitalized, and no one on Wall Street had to forgo a bonus, so the TARP bridge loans and the AIG bailout worked. Off to Europe for the next round of hitting the reset button for capitalists!

Can't give the same kind of free money to working-class people, though. They'll probably just spend it on food and paying down debt instead of sinking it into the stock market via investment banks and hoping for big short-term profits. Giving money to non-investors is socialism, and we can't have that.

And God forbid we divert resources toward widespread infrastructure repairs and upgrades... if the private sector doesn't create jobs, then that must mean no one deserves to eat until the Stock Market Gods and Bond Vigilantes have been sufficiently worshipped; any other method of putting people to work and giving them enough money to buy food and pay a mortgage/rent is the Biggest Theft Ever from the Job Creators.

Well they should keep the toll. If they don't have no tolls, then they won't have no rolls.

I have a client base of high-tech, B2B companies, and at least 2/3 of them are hiring and having trouble finding help. My company is also having trouble finding good candidates. Today on my lunch break I went to the supermarket, a TJ Maxx, and Subway, and all three were soliciting applications. My neighbor has a landscaping company and he cannot get enough help.

It's clear to me that there are really two disparate economies in this country. One is the white-collar, college-educated space and those that service them, and this economy seems fine to me. The other is seemingly, and sadly, farked.

I Said: Poor people should abstain from sex

You didn't go far enough.

The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty toward the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. -- George Orwell, 1984

RanDomino: TimonC346
Welcome to the new 70's and 80's--doesn't matter who is in control, the gaps are growing until we enter another 10 year period of success where it seems everyone is rich, then another 20-30 years where we are knocked on our butts because the financial systems we invested in took our money and ran.

There will never be a recovery. Massive debt provided the financial surge of the 1990s just as the new oil economy probably ended the Great Depression. But now the oil is all tapped and the debts are as high as they can go- so what is there to keep profits going up, up, up at all costs?

"Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?"

There is a reason that my Grandmother thought the Republicans were trying to kill us. She lived through the depression as a kid, through labor organization, through seeing her father murdered by corporations for being a labor organizer.

Here we are in the 21st century having to fight all over again to prevent the rich from taking it all and crashing the economy. It is not just the poor that are short sighted and make bad choices, it is just that when the poor do it they generally only affect themselves and their family. When the rich do it they affect everyone.

What will be interesting is how the kids who grow up through this depression react as adults. I'm guessing that they will be the save now, save later, never trust corporations, banks, or politicians as all they will do is steal everything type of people.

Republicans have not only lost the next election, but they may have lost an entire generation of voters with their short sighted, ridiculous, and mean policies.

I Said: I do not have any sympathy for someone who loses everything as a result of a poor economy and massive fraud by major corporations, but continues to vote republican for any incumbent from either of the two major parties.. We can't help you if you refuse to help yourself.

serpent_sky: Some of them can swim, so I use my personal lear jet, because as far as I know, none of them can fly. Much, much more assurance I will be safe from actually laying eyes on one of the poor for even a moment.

You're still flying a Learjet? *snort* I hope I don't see you while I'm flying in my Gulfstream. And you claim that the poor can't fly? Oh dear, what a conundrum!

I Said: Nice thread. Only people with money should have babies. Good to know.

-Abortion is wrong
-Medical care is a privilege, not a right, and you need to pay for it
-Don't have babies if you're poor because you can't afford it

Basically: Poor people should abstain from sex and quite frankly if they'd have the good sense to just die we wouldn't have all these pesky taxes that keep society afloat.

That should be the new GOP slogan.

I Said: Nice thread. Only people with money should have babies. Good to know.

-Abortion is wrong
-Medical care is a privilege, not a right, and you need to pay for it
-Don't have babies if you're poor because you can't afford it

Basically: Poor people should abstain from sex and quite frankly if they'd have the good sense to just die we wouldn't have all these pesky taxes that keep society afloat.

That should be the new GOP slogan.

Poor people should abstain from unprotected sex.

Jonathan and Veronica Long and their four children downsized to an apartment, then a friend's spare room....a heavily pregnant Veronica Long pushed a stroller

Well, we're homeless and can barely afford to feed the children we have...I know, let's make another one!

bluelancer03: Oh man....so many possibilities for firstworldproblems.jpg

You know what who gives a fark about anything other then the first world right now? Go starve in third world if you care so farking much. We have problems at home and if we don't fix those problems the problems will only get worse in the third world.

I Said: I do not have any sympathy for someone who loses everything as a result of a poor economy and massive fraud by major corporations, but continues to vote republican. We can't help you if you refuse to help yourself.

... or does not vote at all.

Cagey B: What this world needs is more philanthropy. That's why I opened a new retail outlet for the consumer products that I import from China. While I could have selfishly held on to the investment capital that I used to build my new CageyMart, I instead chose to JobCreate™ several hundred new PatriotWage™ retail jobs.

Many of my employees, so I'm told, have been able to afford a refrigerator, thus lifting them out of poverty and into the realm of success. I like to think that I've truly made a difference in their lives.

Top Drawer of you Chumly. I've thought of doing something like that, but then my latest concubine suggested I was getting "soft". However, Kudos to your efforts.

I Said: Only people with money should have babies. Good to know.

I remember that dork from Fox News ( Gibson ) getting his panties in a bunch about how white people are headed for minority status and how he pleaded for whites to have more kids.

The thing is whites have a tendency to reduce breeding when the jobs that allow family formation to happen become scarce. And the cons are actively engaged in making those jobs more and more scarce.

snocone: /is that not why they were allowed to get fat?

Dad always likes to say, "Pigs get fat, and hogs get slaughtered." There's some merit to that.

Slaves2Darkness: rudemix: FTA:Staring resolutely ahead, a heavily pregnant Veronica Long

Had to stop reading there, which was good because it was the first sentence. When you're homeless having a baby (unless you are doing so to eat it) is never good planning. Not to say the imploding economy didn't hurt, but bank some money, don't spend a lot of it on tattoos and when you're broke, don't get pregnant.

So, you missed the part where she did not think she could get pregnant anymore because of a medical condition. I'd be interested if a doctor told her that or she just Googled it and used that bad information in her decision making process.

I missed that part. It was lost amidst all the other glowing choices the couple made like not following the rules of their free residence/food and the picture of their econo-size cheeto bag. Which makes me think of that awesome 'bad food is cheaper!!!' argument people make. I suppose that bag of cheetos was much cheaper than a couple apples and a banana.

Efficiency and progress is ours once more.....

The problems usually reserved for convicted felons, and their families, have been mainstream for quite some time now. It's amazing what happens when apathy takes over a society. Sooner or later, every one has the same problems. United We Stand, Divided We Fall.

Pocket Ninja: And yet there remain those soulless bastards among us who still wish to deny the rich a tax cut.

Amazing. Chalk another one up for the Prince of Fark.

Bob16: I Said: Only people with money should have babies. Good to know.

I remember that dork from Fox News ( Gibson ) getting his panties in a bunch about how white people are headed for minority status and how he pleaded for whites to have more kids.

The thing is whites have a tendency to reduce breeding when the jobs that allow family formation to happen become scarce. And the cons are actively engaged in making those jobs more and more scarce.

I thought it was more closely linked to economic status/education. Higher economic status/education: less kids. Independent of race.

Oh, and I love this bit...

Other employers turned him down. He thought it might have to do with the tattoos covering his arms

You farking THINK?

PlatinumDragon: Well, at least the banks were recapitalized, and no one on Wall Street had to forgo a bonus, so the TARP bridge loans and the AIG bailout worked. Off to Europe for the next round of hitting the reset button for capitalists!

Can't give the same kind of free money to working-class people, though. They'll probably just spend it on food and paying down debt instead of sinking it into the stock market via investment banks and hoping for big short-term profits. Giving money to non-investors is socialism, and we can't have that.

And God forbid we divert resources toward widespread infrastructure repairs and upgrades... if the private sector doesn't create jobs, then that must mean no one deserves to eat until the Stock Market Gods and Bond Vigilantes have been sufficiently worshipped; any other method of putting people to work and giving them enough money to buy food and pay a mortgage/rent is the Biggest Theft Ever from the Job Creators.

Meh after the two bail outs and TARP the Republicans are lying when they say they are not Socialists or that they believe in a private sector free market economy. The only difference between the Republicans and the Democrats is who gets paid.

With the Republicans the corporations, rich, and warmongers get paid. With the Democrats the poor, the middle class, and corporations get paid.

Boy, for "poor people" those folks sure are fat. If you look at pictures during the Great Depression, you could tell folks really really had a hard time finding a meal. They were ALL quite skinny. Not in this day and age. Look at all the tub 'o lards in the checkout line with food stamps and WIC cards. Going hungry for a couple of months might do them some good.

I bet this guy still brags about how much his tats cost

Nemo's Brother: Bill Clinton making China a perm most-favored trading partner screwed us greatly. It benefitted him greatly, and you have to wonder what ties Hilary had with Walmart when they did this

There's an old Vulcan proverb: Only Nixon could go to China.

HeadLikeOrange: I have a client base of high-tech, B2B companies, and at least 2/3 of them are hiring and having trouble finding help. My company is also having trouble finding good candidates.

Right, right.

I find that completely believable since it's a well known fact that it's impossible to lie on the internet.

NuttierThanEver: If they weren't rich enough to stay rich during the downturn all I have to say is: Well the world needs ditchdiggers too

Not since the invention of:


Increasing efficiency has come at the cost of existing jobs. Up until now we've been offsetting the loss by creating new markets and new jobs.

What happens as efficiency continues eliminating jobs without new ones being created?

The people at the top keep the wealth and people at the bottom start losing it. Serfdom here we come!

I Said: Nice thread. Only people with money should have babies. Good to know.

-Abortion is wrong
-Medical care is a privilege, not a right, and you need to pay for it
-Don't have babies if you're poor because you can't afford it

Basically: Poor people should abstain from sex and quite frankly if they'd have the good sense to just die we wouldn't have all these pesky taxes that keep society afloat.

That should be the new GOP slogan.


Funny that the GOP is always the first to cry about "Class Warfare" when really they should be all for a big ol' class war.

They could clearly afford the best weapons and a good old fashioned war would probably put an end to all of those entitlement program recipients that they think are the root of our country's problems.

StrangeQ: Well, we're homeless and can barely afford to feed the children we have...I know, let's make another one!

Well, to be fair the doctors told her she had a medical condition that would keep her from having anymore children. If a doctor told me that I would probably ditch my birth control which costs me $406 a year especially if I was hard up for money.

That doesn't explain the previous four kids though. They lived in a two-bedroom house and decided four kids was a good idea?

rudemix: FTA:Staring resolutely ahead, a heavily pregnant Veronica Long

Had to stop reading there, which was good because it was the first sentence. When you're homeless having a baby (unless you are doing so to eat it) is never good planning. Not to say the imploding economy didn't hurt, but bank some money, don't spend a lot of it on tattoos and when you're broke, don't get pregnant.

About 4 blocks from where I used to live, there was a "Homeless Prenatal Services Center". Hopefully, it was just a euphemism for "abortion clinic".

likes838: While we could take a moment like this to look at the big picture and see how the system failed in educating, caring for, and providing possibilities for the people (especially in moments of need), I guess it's easier to shame the poor.

Pfft, the poor don't deserve perfectly good shame.

I'm going to stick to shaming harlots.

I Said: I thought it was more closely linked to economic status/education. Higher economic status/education: less kids. Independent of race.

If you look at the history of white birth rates in this country you can see that the baby boom took place during the golden age of capitalism when a high school drop out could fairly easily get himself a job that would support a family.

IrateShadow: Also, I'd love to know what "house rules" this couple was willing to sacrifice their housing over.

Wondered about that myself.

/It was a Jewish charity...mandatory circumcision maybe?

Philip J. Fry: What happens as efficiency continues eliminating jobs without new ones being created?

You either get increasing socialism, as the cost of providing the bottom rungs of Maslow's hierarchy become realistic functions of societal governance, or you get increasing poverty and desperation, followed by violence and unrest.

Philip J. Fry: Serfdom Revolution here we come!

Fix'd. When we no longer even have lives of faux-plenty, we'll start wanting it. And we're such a powderkeg that we won't need to want it all that badly.

One of the reasons serfdom lasted so long is that the Powers That Be were working together with the Religious Leaders That Be to convince people tha it was their lot in life to be where they were.

I see a similar thing happening today - we're creating an even larger permanent underclass, which continues to vote against their own economic interests because someone has convinced them that God wouldn't want them to vote any otter way.

"Veronica's husband, Jonathan, had a busy studio where he recorded and produced up-and-coming rap, hip-hop and R&B artists. But when the economy tanked, his clients ran out of money and he had to pawn his equipment to pay the bills."

good.

Philip J. Fry: What happens as efficiency continues eliminating jobs without new ones being created?

That's why I could never believe a Star Trek style utopia, brought about by advancing technology, could ever happen. Eliminating all human need with the invention of transporters and replicators and holosuites is all good and great, but what makes you think the rich guys who own these things are going to let you use them?

Don't you forget that there have been ongoing protests on Wall Street for over five days now!

PEACEFUL FEMALE PROTESTORS PENNED IN THE STREET AND MACED! Link (new window)

Cops turn Violent, NYPD drag girl across the street.Link (new window)

COP KNEEL ON THROAT Link (new window)

Pick: Boy, for "poor people" those folks sure are fat. If you look at pictures during the Great Depression, you could tell folks really really had a hard time finding a meal. They were ALL quite skinny. Not in this day and age. Look at all the tub 'o lards in the checkout line with food stamps and WIC cards. Going hungry for a couple of months might do them some good.

I'm thinking the type of labor being done in the Great Depression compared to today's service jobs, along with the highly processed foods that are now the norm could be the difference. It is easier to be fat these days when you're poor because the cheapest food is the worst thing for your wasteline/health.