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

[BadgeBunny]

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

I've nearly always found this to be true. Even if the person holds a wage-earning position. But, yes, especially so when I was "on the dole". It would have been much, much easier to have just spouted out a half-dozen more kids from a half-dozen more dads and home-schooled them all.

Oh, well ... Live and learn.

 

[BadgeBunny]

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.

I feel ya. It's a pretty sad deal, huh?

 

[ez bake]

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



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?

The problem is really two-fold.

1. People are educated now and with college degrees in things like management and finance. Very few are willing to cross-train immediately after sinking $50k-$100k into their current career-path because some college lied to them with statistics of "booming career opportunities". When you're 17 or 18 and planning your future, you tend to believe "government statistics" and what not (the bag of tricks in some of these college recruiting media/materials is shameful).

2. Companies don't want to pay "American" salaries and are convinced that they can save money by shipping jobs overseas (they also have access to far more tax loopholes by shipping jobs into countries where they have agreements around taxes). The Executive agenda has pretty much resorted to slick-talking methods of cost-cutting and no real creativity or innovation to produce more profit. In their eyes, you don't cut costs by paying people decent salaries (or employing enough people to actually do the work).

I work for a company that has done major outsourcing with all the grace of a one-legged crack-whore getting into a fist-fight with a homeless midget at a Chuck E Cheese.

I could tell you some stories... oh man...

 

[okietool]

The one thing about manual labor that involves boots on the ground, no out sourcing.

I think when someone is trying to get off public assistance, there will always be a transition range. The question may be how to effectively prorate assistance.

 

[Vamoose]

I could tell you some stories... oh man...

I'm listening.

The one thing about manual labor that involves boots on the ground, no out sourcing.

This is true. Can't outsource the oil patch.

 

[Glocktogo]

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.

Because you'll be more beholden to the machine if you get penalized for going off assistance. The machine wants your loyalty and your votes far more than it wants you to succeed. What's touted as "assistance" is given in the form of a guilded cage. If it were truly noble, it would come with the support and means to get off assistance eventually.

 

[okietool]

I'm listening.



This is true. Can't outsource the oil patch.

Or construction. You can of course import the labor ala Schlumberger.

 

[BadgeBunny]

Because you'll be more beholden to the machine if you get penalized for going off assistance. The machine wants your loyalty and your votes far more than it wants you to succeed. What's touted as "assistance" is given in the form of a guilded cage. If it were truly noble, it would come with the support and means to get off assistance eventually.

Yup. I remember when I gave my caseworker the documentation that made me ineligible. She did everything under the sun to convince me to not take that second job ... But you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. I also had a caseworker do her gut-level best to convince me that if I would just take my oldest son to the "right" doctor they would be able to get me on SSI for him because of his "learning disability". (He needed glasses ...)

 

[Glocktogo]

Yup. I remember when I gave my caseworker the documentation that made me ineligible. She did everything under the sun to convince me to not take that second job ... But you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. I also had a caseworker do her gut-level best to convince me that if I would just take my oldest son to the "right" doctor they would be able to get me on SSI for him because of his "learning disability". (He needed glasses ...)

Any guesses as to what her political leanings were?

 

[Lurker66]

Any guesses as to what her political leanings were?

in that feild, im betting shes a christian, prolly identifies herself as a conservative, so ill go with registered Republican. But prolly not doing a very good job in her position.