Does anyone else feel little sympathy for the poor?

Question

I would consider myself to be among those poor. I served in the Marines for 5 years and now live off the GI Bill (for college) and a minimum wage job. It's no one's fault, but mine. There are no big corporations keeping me down. I simply don't have the education needed to land a decent job yet. On the other hand, I also haven't had kids I can't afford, started using drugs, or dropped out of high school. Why should the taxes I pay in the future go towards people who won't help themselves? I know that there are some people who have no choice (disabled, elderly, etc.), but there are also a whole lot of people who are simply lazy. Any money given to the poor should be in the form of job training, not welfare checks. I don't begrudge the rich their money because a lot of them (not all) worked very hard for it. People are poor due to their own choices. If you can convince me otherwise, I would be happy to hear it.

Answer 1

My mother got pregnant with me when she was 18. Yeah, dumb, but she was 18 and in love. My father even later proposed to her. As mistakes go, worse ones have happened. My mother continued to live at her mother's house for a few years, but after a falling out with her family that was not her own fault (my grandmother and her husband were.... unreasonable to the point of emotional abuse to my mom), she had to leave. We moved around a bit the next few years, and my mother used her welfare benefits to go to secretarial school, and then to get better and better jobs. Now, I graduated college, my brother is in school right now, and we have a house, three cars, three computers, and live in a nice suburb.

People make mistakes. It is in our nature. I'm sure you have, too. If the state wasn't there to help my mother out after hers, I shudder to think where we'd be right now. Prostitution? Drugs? Out on the street? Dead? Probably. If there's no one to help you, your prospects are dim. However, through hard work and state help, we have three productive members of society, who vote and pay taxes and everything, instead of homeless, drug addicted prostitutes.

Also, the poor I meet are seldom lazy. It is hard to be lazy when you are working ridiculous hours just to make ends meet. The welfare mom is a conservative fable. Read _Nickle and Dimed_.

Answer 2

Some poeple from birth are repressed and never learn how to communicate, or do for themselves. some people don't have the ability to go into the military and don't have the money for college or higher learning places no oppty to get it..Is something better than nothing yes, can they get SOME help yes is it ENOUGH, no. Without the GI bill where would you be? where would your $ come from Pell grants aren't enough! You had the oppty to be exposed to alot of things in the military that helped you grow up, learn, understand, become disciplined, and it gave you direction, and taught you how to deal with people, taught you the right and wrong things of our society..Not everyone has that oppty or ability. So yes there are some poor people out there that will never get a chance because no one will care.. There are those that wouldn't do anything if it was offered on a silver platter.... I have met alot of people who are less fortunate than me..and I try to take their feelings into consideration and I try to give them friendly advice about how to seek out help for themselves..some have taken that advice and become SOMEWHAT productive others have not..So moral of this writing is If OPPORTUNITY does not KNOCK you can't open the door...Talk is cheap and alot of people say "well why didn't they ask me" I would have helped them! Gee kinda to late now that they are dead or committed a crime or fell in with the wrong crowd..So my friend I suggest you reach out to those less fortunate than you and give them some help and encouragement, show them the way and maybe just maybe they will become great members of our society..Good question..not sure I agree with some of you're thoughts..Being a retired GI i kinda know what you mean and are talking about..But remember everyone has a story, a history, a past that effects their future..Good Luck to you..get that degree and make a $million..rooting for you..

Answer 3

I have known several poor people. Every single one of them simply did not want to work. They were happy doing whatever they want whenever they want. Some don't like having a 'boss'. I always tell them they have nothing to complain about then they brought it on themselves.

Have you ever noticed poor people who complain about being broke but they always have money for cigs and alcohol?

How about those who complain that they don't get enough money from the government?

I knew a woman who was on welfare for 25 years. She was able to work but she rather sit at home doing art crafts and selling AVON products and going to the bars every weekend.

I also heard that welfare issues debit cards and some of the recipients used them at casinos to gamble and buy cigarettes.

I knew habitual poor people who live that way because their parents, grandparents lived that way.

Some cannot help being poor due to unavoidable situations and they eventually get themselves together but others are just too lazy.

Don't get me started on the young people today. Not that all of them are like this but I have met many young people who believe they should be getting paid top dollar for doing very little. And when they start a new job expect to become the CEO within the first week! This, I believe is from their parents and the media for supporting this belief, by the parents giving them everything they want and the media telling them they have to live a certain way to be socially accepted in this world.

"We drag you up the mountain side because you're in bad shape, but think of how much quicker we can all reach the top if we didn't have to carry your weight!"---MPM

Answer 4

Some are poor because they are lazy. Most are poor because they are ignorant, mentally ill, uneducated, or unlucky.

People blame bankrupts for their own lot, but Prof. Elizabeth Warren (Harvard) has proven that it is illness in the family and uninsured health care, divorce and job loss that cause most bankruptcies; that credit card debt more often than not is used as a stopgap for medical bills and job loss.

Jobs simply do not exist in much of the world, including much of the USA. Employers do not provide child care. If your husband is dead or in prison (25% of black males are said to be felons; I haven't checked this) it does not good to blame the kids, or the mother.

Most "job training" is fraudulent: there are schools out there that prey on young people, get them to get education loans and teach them nothing useful. Really.

If you are working at minimum wage and using the current GI Bill (which has not kept pace with inflation) then you must be getting free housing. A lot of people don't have family to give them things.

Answer 5

I hear exactly what you are saying. The problem with doing away totally with welfare is some folks get down on their luck and it isn't always their fault. I have no problem helping these people. Some folks make stupid mistakes, but with some help they get on their feet and start contributing. I believe we are all entitled to make some mistakes and if they are willing to accept help and straighten out, again I don't mind helping out.
The biggest problem is that no matter what program you put in place to help people that deserve that help, there are a multitude that will find a way to abuse it. Still, can't see my way clear to abandoning those in need. Ferret the cheaters out, creates jobs, all those investigators get to do something other than stare in windows taking dirty pictures, I think those folks enjoy themselves way too much.

Answer 6

well, dear, our economic system takes the wealth created by the poor and gives it to the 'boss man." he would be utterly poor without his laborers. in most of the western world, people face these facts and society is organized to redistribute some of the wealth BACK to the people who created the wealth. So, all across europe and now spreading to other regions of the world, people get universal health care, years of paid maternity leave (there's some real family values tehre), and free universal education.

The poor are the hardest working, not the laziest. They typically work more than one job, for lousy pay.

You are demonstrating how very completely brainwashed you are - your thinking has been bought off by the false promise that you too can be a boss man and steal most of the wealth your laborers create for you.

lastly, there is no welfare for lazy drug addicts. there is welfare for their children, however. i guess you'd prefer J. Swift's modest proposal that we feed the children of these lazy addicts to the rich.

Answer 7

while 0.5 of the persons in alabama that are on medicare artwork finished-time at wal-mart, thats a situation. and youre good with reference to the youngsters being a great element, yet what do you advise we do? ought to we take the youngsters far flung from their mum and dad and stick them in a foster relatives (which gets money from the state) or ought to we basically enable them to starve and placed on footwear with holes in them? youre good that a number of this is of their administration, yet ought to you think of what it would be like bobbing up interior the "ghetto?" maximum undesirable human beings got here from undesirable families, that got here from undesirable families, so on, so on. doesnt that say something? i accept as true with interest preparation, and that i might additionally upload drug-abuse counseling. i too replaced into interior the protection tension, and choose that greater ppl might evaluate that an determination. i understand of many that have. a lot is of their administration, yet some is probably no longer. and there are some that take great thing with reference to the gadget. yet dont start to think of that a lot of money is going into the welfare gadget, it doesnt. and basically a factor of that is going to ppl who dont choose it. the thought maximum ppl on welfare are sitting on their *** all day is a vast bullshit tactic utilized via conservative politicians.

Answer 8

I have no sympathy for the poor if they are making no effort to try and better themselves and are looking from handouts from the government. Otherwise, if people are making a true effort, then I do have sympathy for those people. Just take accountability for yourself.

Answer 9

I read your "question" (more of a diatribe, IMO), moved on...but found it to be so troubling, that I decided to come back to it and put in my two cents - which, as a poor person, is about all I can spare right now.

Some of my answer is based on my own personal experience, some of it is based on other people I know, some of it is based on things I have seen. All of it is valid and relevant.

I am college educated, with skills in several fields. I have worked since I was 15, and, at one point in my career, was an upper-level manager for a large corporation in NYC. I waited until I was in my 30's to start a family. That was the beginning of the financial end for me. Believe me - you can never understand how much having kids costs unless you've had them, and you can never be fully prepared financially. Things happen = $$$ out the window. Major loss of income. Add to that a relocation from NYC to a relatively small town in Florida (I sought a better "quality of life" for my family), where jobs were scarce and living wages were scarcer. Compound all of this by a long-overdue divorce from a husband with a substance abuse problem. POW. Instant poverty. Loss of income, loss of insurance, loss of housing (our house went into foreclosure). I am in my 5th year of post-divorce upheaval and still struggling to make ends meet. I am not lazy, I am not unqualified, I am not proud. I am faced with limited employment opportunties, horrible wages, and unable to relocate due to divorce stipulations. I am ineligible for state or federal programs - including child care or "training" (which IS a joke, anyway). I have no health insurance of any kind. I make "too much" for welfare or other programs, but not enough to be able to buy things like health insurance on my own. I am one of many millions of Americans who have fallen between the cracks. It is humbling and disheartening, on a daily basis. I am not looking for sympathy - or suggestions on how to improve my lot in life. Only if you have walked in my shoes, can you relate to how quickly one's life can be turned upside down.

Especially in the last decade or so, I have come to see many people, both old and new friends, who have had similar misfortune befall them. My own sister, very successfully employed as an upper level manager for a huge publishing company in NYC for 17 years - canned, out of the blue, when the company was sold (to an Asian concern). 17 years, down the drain. Now, at almost 50, she struggles to find a way to keep her head above water - while paying almost $500 A MONTH for BC/BS health insurance, out of pocket....goes to school to improve and upgrade her skills...and cries a lot, stunned at how this could happen to someone who actually forfeited having a family for her career (a decision she will regret for the rest of her life). Not looking for pity here, either. Others I have known - primarily women - have had their lives take a nosedive - after lifetimes of working and being responsible taxpayers - after circumstances such as divorce, health issues, and a crumbling economy take their toll.

So far as things I have seen......at a restaurant I worked as a waitress (yes, a good ol' college-educated waitress), a Mexican guy (with a green card), working - no, SLAVING - 80+ hours a week as a dishwasher, just to help his family - and never complained once, not once, about how he was being abused by the restaurant owner. Lazy? Hardly. He put the other employees to shame. This is but one example - and there are dozens - that I have personally witnessed, whereby simple people are working like dogs just to try and keep from drowning. I have been proud to know every one of them.

My definition of lazy is a Congress that worked less than 100 days this year, have voted themselves pay increases several times over - yet refused to vote for an increase in the Federal minimum wage. Of course, we can hope that, after yesterday's elections, that some things will change, but, those things will not bring the immediate help to millions who strive, every day, to do the best they can for themselves and their families.

I found your "question" to be rather offensive and presumptuous. You are in a much better position to better your life, and labeling others who are less fortunate is truly demeaning and audacious. Perhaps, one day, you will be in a less pompous position, and it may be only then that you comprehend how unfair things can be sometimes. No one I know is whining, or asking for anything. Everyone I know just wants a fair shake. I hope that, at the very least, you find some gratitude as you climb your ladder of success, and don't do it by stepping on the backs of people who may one day be your seat-mate at the unemployment office.

By the way, thank you for your 5 years of service to our country. God bless America.

Answer 10

Can't disagree with ya