Poverty in America - Under Obama's Watch ...

[BadgeBunny]

Actually the same article those numbers came from stated that fraud was 1% or less. I'm not sure how they can really measure that accurately but it does seem to make the sadness of the situation that much more so.

THAT, right there! For someone who found herself relying on public assistance to feed and house her children many years ago I can vouch for being thankful it was there. I can also vouch for how difficult they make it for a person to do the right thing and get off assistance. At one point in time I worked 2 jobs all year in order to pay for daycare for my boys in the summer. I made $75 too much a month to qualify. WTF?? That's right ... I made $75 too much money a month to get assistance with a day care bill that was almost $300 a week in the summer, when no one was in school. And you guys wonder why some folks just give up.

 

[ez bake]

I think a lot of people see stuff in the media about folks abusing welfare and think its a lot worse than it is. I used to think that myself, but I've seen a lot more families with two incomes (from jobs) on foodstamps/Gov Assistance than those with 1 or no job at all.

I used to think that individual welfare abuse and corporate welfare were about the same percentage, but I'm becoming more and more convinced that Corporate welfare has shot out to a commanding lead.

 

[ez bake]

I will say this though - the number of absolutely disgustingly $#!++y parents out there who don't seem to give two rat's asses about their kids is just astonishing to me. I know more kids in poverty who have parents that just don't seem to care (about anything involving their kids at all) than I ever thought possible.

When kids are brought up without actual real parents who love/care for them... you have a good chance of repeating the cycle.

 

[dowmace]

THAT, right there! For someone who found herself relying on public assistance to feed and house her children many years ago I can vouch for being thankful it was there. I can also vouch for how difficult they make it for a person to do the right thing and get off assistance. At one point in time I worked 2 jobs all year in order to pay for daycare for my boys in the summer. I made $75 too much a month to qualify. WTF?? That's right ... I made $75 too much money a month to get assistance with a day care bill that was almost $300 a week in the summer, when no one was in school. And you guys wonder why some folks just give up.

I know exactly what you mean. Years ago I was making $13 bucks an hour and was receiving daycare assistance. I got a raise to $13.25 an hour and suddenly made to much to receive assistance. So $10 a week raise took away hundreds of dollars of assistance. Long story short I had no choice at the time but to ask my employer to keep me at my current payscale.

 

[JB Books]

The way it is structured, a person is penalized for working harder.

 

[Stephen Cue]

Shipping jobs over there is one thing, it's quite a different thing when you have to bring them here because you can't find enough qualified Americans. Very prevalent in the Telecommunications field, as well as others.

Business definition of qualified: willing to work long hours for a few bowls of rice.

 

[MLRyan]

Business definition of qualified: willing to work long hours for a few bowls of rice.

Correction: Qualified=willing to work, period.

 

[ez bake]

The way it is structured, a person is penalized for working harder.

That seems to be true at the bottom-end of the scale as well as the top (when you look at corporate America, government, the Church, the school-system, etc.).

 

[Mos Eisley]

Business definition of qualified: willing to work long hours for a few bowls of rice.

Not in this case...unless you call six figures a few bowls of rice.

Correction: Qualified=willing to work, period.

Maybe the only ones willing to work, and applying just aren't the ones who have much experience in communications. It's hard to believe because this field has exploded over the last 20 years. How many people have cell phones for pete's sake?

 

[HMFIC]

Yup...

I do believe that there is a place for some assistance for those who need it. As a country though, there is something wrong when 15% of all Americans have to resort to it. It's a sad testament to our economy and the general state of what it takes to get by these days.

It's very concerning to me that the average time a family stays on assistance is 37.3 months too... what does that say?

Overall, has the average cost of living in America eclipsed the average pay? I'd love to see some honest, in-depth studies about all of this. We need to identify and solve the problem.