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POVERTY: For poorest of poor, each day's a struggle

 
 
Reply Wed 5 Jul, 2006 06:47 am
There's an interesting report in today's Chcago Tribune

For poorest of poor, each day's a struggle:

"Judy Sirko and her family know the upscale areas of the western suburbs well from routine `treasure hunts' through their trash"

This online report includes a multimedia presentation.

The following graphics are from the print edition (frontpage, page 7)

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/9136/zwischenablage011sr.jpg - http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/4772/zwischenablage019wq.jpg

I suppose, similar can be found elswhere as well - in the USA as in Europe or any other continent.

And we don't want to see this, mostly.
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Type: Discussion • Score: 2 • Views: 2,519 • Replies: 12
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littlek
 
  1  
Reply Wed 5 Jul, 2006 06:44 pm
Re: POVERTY: For poorest of poor, each day's a struggle
Walter Hinteler wrote:


And we don't want to see this, mostly.


12 hours later, am I the only viewer.....?
0 Replies
 
gustavratzenhofer
 
  2  
Reply Wed 5 Jul, 2006 06:54 pm
Quote:
Soon after she became homeless, Sirko visited the Illinois Department of Human Services office in Villa Park and, for the first time in her life, asked for cash assistance.

Eight months later, the state granted her request. Sirko now receives a monthly welfare allotment of $435, as well as $415 in food stamps.



I know people who work blue collar jobs making 15 to 30 dollars an hour, who would rather see their tax money go to the rich than to help out a woman like this. They don't want to see someone having a "free ride". In their pathetic, warped little minds, everyone is capable making a good living and no one should have to be on welfare.

I call those people idiots.
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Merry Andrew
 
  1  
Reply Wed 5 Jul, 2006 07:04 pm
That's a good word for them, Gus. Short, straight to the point, easy to remember.

You made me recall that much of the opposition to humanitarian endeavors on the part of our government does not come from the moneyed classes -- they couldn't care less about the plight of the needy -- but from the hard-hat brigades. They seem to have this motto of "I made it on my own, why do I have to pay more taxes to support people who can't do what I did?" That's a specious argument, of course. Not everyone born into poverty is capable of extricating oneself from that morass.

I still find it utterly appalling that in the richest country in the world (according to its own press releases), 90 percent of the wealth is controlled by about two percent of the population.
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nimh
 
  1  
Reply Wed 5 Jul, 2006 08:00 pm
bm
0 Replies
 
edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Wed 5 Jul, 2006 08:43 pm
Nobody has stood up for the poor in the USA, or most any place else, in years. It is fashionable to consider them leeches and bums. What Gus said.
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snood
 
  1  
Reply Wed 5 Jul, 2006 09:15 pm
What a relief to see this thread. Thanks.
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Green Witch
 
  2  
Reply Wed 5 Jul, 2006 10:42 pm
What! Don't you people want the return of the medieval feudal system? The nobility will rule the land and serfs will beg for their bread and medical care from the churches. How could you reject such a tried and true way of life??? Just ask the Bushies - they'll tell you.

I've worked for years with food banks and it always amazes me how hard poor people work. They don't always work smart, but they do work hard - especially the women. A few bad decisons and these people find themselves in a hole that is too deep to climb out of without help. Our society has designed a system that keeps them in that hole until it becomes a grave. We really need to learn that by investing in these people we are investing in our society. A country is only as strong as it's weakest citizens. No one wants charity and "free lunches" don't work, but we have designed a social system that keeps the poor poor and the rich rich. I can't say I see any big changes for the better any time soon.
Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Wed 5 Jul, 2006 10:55 pm
I think "few bad decisons" - that's really a key sentence.

If we normal Joe's make one bad decission, we might get angry about that, even start a threat with that topic here .... but for others such is really a big step forward to their grave.
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msolga
 
  1  
Reply Thu 6 Jul, 2006 12:45 am
gustavratzenhofer wrote:
I call those people idiots.


Yes, cruel, heartless idiots.
0 Replies
 
dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Thu 6 Jul, 2006 02:31 am
Re: POVERTY: For poorest of poor, each day's a struggle
littlek wrote:
Walter Hinteler wrote:


And we don't want to see this, mostly.


12 hours later, am I the only viewer.....?



No.
0 Replies
 
sozobe
 
  1  
Reply Thu 6 Jul, 2006 09:20 am
Walter Hinteler wrote:
I think "few bad decisons" - that's really a key sentence.

If we normal Joe's make one bad decission, we might get angry about that, even start a threat with that topic here .... but for others such is really a big step forward to their grave.


Yes, exactly.
0 Replies
 
Hooper1953
 
  1  
Reply Mon 26 May, 2014 11:47 pm
@Green Witch,
How can anyone one make it or save ? No Jobs ? food high and everything else is so expensive ....Sad ?
0 Replies
 
 

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