The Dole.

[Bob Fechter]

"IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER,YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM"
WRITTEN BY A 21 YEAR OLD FEMALE
Wow, this girl has a great plan! Love the last thing she would do the best.

This was written by a 21 yr old female who gets it. It's her future she's worried about and this is how she feels about the social welfare big government state that she's being forced to live in! These solutions are just common sense in her opinion.

This was in the Waco Tribune Herald, Waco , TX , Nov 18, 2011

PUT ME IN CHARGE . . .

Put me in charge of food stamps. I'd get rid of Lone Star cards; no cash for Ding Dongs or Ho Ho's, just money for 50-pound bags of rice and beans, blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want steak and frozen pizza, then get a job.

Put me in charge of Medicaid. The first thing I'd do is to get women Norplant birth control implants or tubal legations. Then, we'll test recipients for drugs, alcohol, and nicotine. If you want to reproduce or use drugs, alcohol, or smoke, then get a job.

Put me in charge of government housing. Ever live in a military barracks? You will maintain our property in a clean and good state of repair. Your home" will be subject to inspections anytime and possessions will be inventoried. If you want a plasma TV or Xbox 360, then get a job and your own place.

In addition, you will either present a check stub from a job each week or you will report to a "government" job. It may be cleaning the roadways of trash, painting and repairing public housing, whatever we find for you. We will sell your 22 inch rims and low profile tires and your blasting stereo and speakers and put that money toward the "common good.."

Before you write that I've violated someone's rights, realize that all of the above is voluntary. If you want our money, accept our rules. Before you say that this would be "demeaning" and ruin their "self esteem," consider that it wasn't that long ago that taking someone else's money for doing absolutely nothing was demeaning and lowered self esteem.

If we are expected to pay for other people's mistakes we should at least attempt to make them learn from their bad choices. The current system rewards them for continuing to make bad choices.

AND While you are on Gov't subsistence, you no longer can VOTE! Yes, that is correct. For you to vote would be a conflict of interest. You will voluntarily remove yourself from voting while you are receiving a Gov't welfare check. If you want to vote, then get a job.

 

[Mark]

1,000,000 times YES to all of the above.

 

[Bob Fechter]

1,000,000 times YES to all of the above.

Just one generation from "The Greatest" to "The Neediest." I believe, Mark, you and I know why.

 

[tom pritchett]

It's hard to believe that this would come from a 21 year old. What is the old saying, if you are not a liberal when young, you don't have a heart. If you are a liberal when old, you don't have a brain.

 

[Mark]

The hardest working employee I have is only 23. Not all young people want life handed to them on a plate.

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

It's hard to believe that this would come from a 21 year old. What is the old saying, if you are not a liberal when young, you don't have a heart. If you are a liberal when old, you don't have a brain.

It doesn't matter what age or gender the writer was. It"s the content that matters.

 

[Jim Rosenthal]

I have two godchildren ages 24 and 28, who I helped raise and who at this point I am taking care of as the sole parent. Both of them got through college on scholarships, graduated owing nothing, and have essentially no debt. The older works as a civil engineer and is buying his own house (x 5 years now) The younger is a teacher, but is currently working for a veterinary practice and training for a shot at the 2016 games as a catamaran sailor. While I've helped them occasionally, all of this is strictly inside the family- from the financial standpoint, they owe no one anything and we intend to keep it that way. Neither of them smoke or use drugs.

Not all young people are good-for-nothing sponges. Many are hard-working decent folks like my god kids. I think we hear too much about the bad ones and not nearly enough about the good ones. Just my two cents.

 

[Mark]

Fine kids there Jim.

 

[Doug Clark]

The letter was written by Alfred W Evans 1SG, USA(Ret) Gatesville, Texas

I don't get why quoting the original source adds or takes anything away from the sentiments expressed, so why do people feel the need to add extra home spun hokiness to these stories?
There's plenty of other people on the internet saying this was written by a 21 yo female, why would it be worth the lie when it was written by a retired serviceman instead?

Please explain.

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

See post #6
But I often wonder why as well.

 

[Nick]

It doesn't matter what age or gender the writer was. It"s the content that matters.

It is also means learning from history, what implementing those contents would mean and deciding if you want to go back to the Victorian realities.

If “you” are happy to go back to those days fair enough that is your prerogative, but it also means understanding that just because I am not does not make me a supercilious, sanctimonious (although the very nature of this post may well contradict that) limp wristed wishy washy do good liberal whatever.

It makes me someone who would not wish such circumstances on his worst enemy and believes there but for the grace of God go I, but increasing wonders if posting such things is just ego boosting total futility.

From the French Lieutenant’s Woman

Outside of marriage, your Victorian gentleman could look forward to 2.4 fucks a week," Mike (Jeremy Irons) coolly calculates after Anna (Meryl Streep) has read to him the statistics according to which, while London's male population in 1857 was 1 1/4 million, the city's estimated 80,000 prostitutes were receiving a total of 2 million clients per week. And frequently, Anna adds, the women thus forced to earn their living came from respectable positions like that of a governess, simply having fallen into bad luck, e.g. by being discharged after a dispute with their employer and their resulting inability to find another position

England Today

The charity – Kids Company – says it has seen a 233 per cent increase in kids relying on charity to be fed in the past 12 months.

Let’s be clear, no one is saying children are dying of hunger out there. And, given the plight of children who really are starving on this planet, it would be crazy to use that language.
But even the language the charity IS using is shocking. It says an estimated one million children are suffering “food insecurity” and are going without the “food necessary to stay healthy”.

The problem, say charity workers, has got considerably worse since the economic downturn as unemployment, shrinking benefits and soaring food prices take their toll.
But poverty isn’t the only cause. Quite often it is combined with drug or alcohol abuse by the parents of these children.

Recent cases include children caught stealing frozen raw meat to eat and a nine-year-old girl found in a locked flat, eating pictures of food she had drawn on paper.
Another charity, Magic Breakfast, is funding pre-school meals for 6,000 children in more than 200 schools. Many more schools want help but the charity is struggling to cope.
But should we really be relying on charities to ensure our children have enough to eat? The first responsibility, of course, lies with parents. But if, for whatever reason, the parents can’t or won’t provide then the responsibility surely lies with the state.

One answer is for free breakfasts to be provided in schools for those who need it. In deprived areas teachers report increasing numbers of children coming to school hungry.
Some teachers say they regularly bring food in for pupils arriving for class with empty stomachs. Others say they pay out of their own pockets to buy them snacks and fruit.
And schools have a crucial role in identifying the needy children so that during holidays local social services can ensure they continue to be fed properly.

Doctors say free breakfasts would help tackle health problems related to poverty and poor diet, such as anaemia and stunted growth as well as poor concentration.
It’s like a ghastly tale from Victorian Britain and, austerity or not, our children deserve better.

From A Christmas Carol

'Scrooge and Marley's, I believe,' said one of the gentlemen, referring to his list. 'Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr Scrooge, or Mr Marley?'

'Mr Marley has been dead these seven years,' Scrooge replied. 'He died seven years ago, this very night.'

'We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving partner,' said the gentleman, presenting his credentials.

'It certainly was, for they had been two kindred spirits. At the ominous word liberality, Scrooge frowned, and shook his head, and handed the credentials back.
'They are. Still,' returned the gentleman,' I wish I could say they were not.'

'The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?' said Scrooge.

'At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge,' said the gentleman, taking up a pen, 'it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor
and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.'
'
Are there no prisons?"

'Plenty of prisons,' said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.
'And the Union workhouses.' demanded Scrooge. 'Are they still in operation?'

'Both very busy, sir.'

'Oh. I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,' said Scrooge. 'I'm very glad to hear it.'

'Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,' returned the gentleman, 'a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?'

'Nothing!' Scrooge replied.

'You wish to be anonymous?'

'I wish to be left alone,' said Scrooge. 'Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned-they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.'

'Many can't go there; and many would rather die.'

'If they would rather die,' said Scrooge, 'they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."

 

[Nick]

"IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER,YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM"
WRITTEN BY A 21 YEAR OLD FEMALE
Wow, this girl has a great plan! Love the last thing she would do the best.

AND While you are on Gov't subsistence, you no longer can VOTE! Yes, that is correct. For you to vote would be a conflict of interest. You will voluntarily remove yourself from voting while you are receiving a Gov't welfare check. If you want to vote, then get a job.

So Bob,

I presume that includes the estimated 1 in 4 of homless who are ex serviceman.


"One or two comments questioned the percentage of homeless who are ex-Services. What I wrote was: ‘I had known that perhaps up to 25% of the homeless were veterans’.

Note the ‘perhaps’ and ‘up to’.

The fact is, nobody really knows. The methodology of ‘research’ is questionable, for the nature of the problem hardly lends itself to comprehensiveness.

In 1994, Crisis, the national charity for single homeless people, published a report that suggested that ‘up to 25 per cent of men and women living rough in our major cities are former service personnel’.

Only twelve years ago, it believed there were ‘100,000 homeless ex-servicemen – equivalent to the population of Dover.’

The current estimates of total homeless (including what is called the ‘hidden homeless’) varies between 500,000 and a million.

But nobody really knows."

 

[Pat]

Just for the record, in the US the myth of the homeless vet is propagated by the Media, the Homeless, Homeless Advocates, anti-war activists, the VA, and even the Department of Defense (all with their own agendas). The vision of the crazed Vietnam Veteran is skipping to the Iraq/Afghanistan generation and has permeated the discussion. Probably one of the most interesting frauds in US History. We aren't crazed psychopaths, uneducated or social misfits who entered the military because we couldn't adapt to society. (Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't include myself in that last statement).
The latest VA/HUD study that has interesting numbers on homeless Vets (0.14% - NOT 14%) less than 1/2 of 1% of the entire veteran population! In fact, evidence suggests that OVERALL, the unemployment rate of veterans is much lower than the general population. However, the tragedy is that newly released veterans do have disproportionately high unemployment as do new college graduates and others attempting to enter the work force for the first time. This is compounded by repeated negative veteran stereotypes in the media and employer's being uneducated in the nature of military service and the valuable experience gained there. Ironically after WWII the issue was just the opposite. Non-veterans were seen as slackers and had difficulty finding jobs.
The military is a premier training institution for civilian success and most of its ‘alumni’ consider themselves better equipped and far better off for their service. This story needs to be told because the misperceptions lead to the belief that veterans are ill prepared for regular employment. This inaccuracy undeservedly hampers transition into civilian careers. However those employers that have actually hired veterans have had such success that they typically tend to hire more. This employer behavior clearly shows that military alumni are currently, and have always been, in high demand where their value is understood (and appreciated).
Veterans don't need pity or condescension, they need support.

 

[Nick]

However, the tragedy is that newly released veterans do have disproportionately high unemployment as do new college graduates and others attempting to enter the work force for the first time.

Veterans don't need pity or condescension, they need support.

Veek,

Exactly, like many others in a similar postion (new college graduates and others attempting to enter the work force for the first time. etc etc etc) they need our support.

It does not appear they will get it if our "young lady" had her way, they are unemployed and in the case of the vets have some 22inch rims / assets from when they were employed.

In addition, you will either present a check stub from a job each week or you will report to a "government" job.

We will sell your 22 inch rims and low profile tires and your blasting stereo and speakers and put that money toward the "common good.."

If we are expected to pay for other people's mistakes we should at least attempt to make them learn from their bad choices. The current system rewards them for continuing to make bad choices.

AND While you are on Gov't subsistence, you no longer can VOTE!

Yes, that is correct. For you to vote would be a conflict of interest. You will voluntarily remove yourself from voting while you are receiving a Gov't welfare check. If you want to vote, then get a job.

 

[Mark]

I think Nick has a good heart and is well intentioned. My difficulty with the posts you made above Nick (and I am not suggesting that you are guilty of it personally), are that the way it is written makes a starker suggestion that we are already back in Victorian'ish depraved circumstnaces already. "children cought stealing frozen meat to eat" for example harkens to images of Fagin and his urchins living off the street.

I don't belive that expecting someone to earn their benefit money by contributing to society is a bad thing! Why can't the lazy b'stards be sent out to clear the highways of litter, clean out ponds and maintain parks etc etc?

I do wish when we talk about 'benefits', the dole etc, we could leave out the genuinely needy, such as those with disabilities etc, and understand that (I hope) most people with a similar view to mine, are not asking that we kick 3yr old orphans out into the street, Nor do we expect crippled, ex-service men to crawl around on wheelie boards raiding rubbish bins for food.

Get the lazy dole scroungers off their backsides, out from watching the TV all day and set them to work. No work, no dole money.

 

[Bob Fechter]

I love how some will immediately go for the "so you want to put children in the street" arguement on this subject, and the rest divert from the message by saying "the real author is ........ why are you perpetrating a lie?"

I understand that a lot of you guys get unhinged when the subject of poverty and the homeless gets brought up, but really, take a breath and think this through.

There is an abundance of aid throughout the Western world. Enough for there to be massive, really massive fraud and abuse. I'm not going to waste time trying to list even a small percentage of it.

All I'm asking is that my opposite thinking bretheren step outside their comfortable world of victimhood and think about there actually being consequences, fair consequences, for receiving aid. Not shame, consequences.

 

[Keith]

Rather naively, I get both sides of the argument and I suppose it matters how high the shit pile you're standing in at the time.

Personally, the shit never got past my knees, but I know people in shit up to their necks.

I see people all the time who say to me "Hi Keith, I see you're still in the shit then". To which I reply, "perhaps, but it's now only up to my ankles"

To live a life completely free of shit, is an impossible dream I'm afraid, and to all those who would say, "I'm not helping them out of the shit" I would recommend the parable of the Good Samaritan, because I actually feel we are deep down, more good than bad, and that it's easier to spout a pile of shit about how macho we all are, because it's a male competitive thing. Flex flex.

Oh well, Same Shit, just a Different Day...

 

[Nick]

I love how some will immediately go for the "so you want to put children in the street" arguement on this subject, and the rest divert from the message by saying "the real author is ........ why are you perpetrating a lie?"

No different to how some will immediately go for the all the countries ills are "all the fault of the lazy good for nothing unemployed" argument on this subject.

When if you actually analyse it all the countries ills are probably down mine and others greed.

Rather naively, I get both sides of the argument and I suppose it matters how high the shit pile you're standing in at the time.

Oh well, Same Shit, just a Different Day...

Actually Keith so do I, guess we are all shaped by our experiences in life. Same shit (I like that just a different day bit) maybe time I stopped helping the shovelling of it. :thumbsup:

It's a new dawn, It's a new day, It's a new life, For me, And I'm feeling good

 

[Keith]

Oh shit....:worried:

 

[Mark]

Yep, time to run for cover then....