This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was first published at The Conversation.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1448569
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1448569
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GOPers don’t like poor folks.
They take money that should go to the uber wealthy donor class. That’s how GOP politicians think.
There was a time in my life where i was living out of an old Ford pick up. I know what being poor feels like. The goobers who are unwilling to help those in need should try it to see what it’s like.
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Poor folks don’t like poor folks. How many millions of them voted GOP in the last election, landing them in the crosshairs of these fanatics? They’re their own worst enemy, in dozens of ways.
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Feed the rich, starve the poor.
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One of those “dozens of ways” is a goodly portion of folks “down on their luck” have a dearth of rational thinking. Spend one’s time feeling like a victim and that’s what that one will stay. Picking one’s self off the floor and getting started rebuilding will change one’s outlook. But that person needs to do it themself. That’s a lot to ask of an irrational person. So they stay victims. It’s easier.
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Let’s see how Joe responds.
Joe’s pretty busy today after visting Ukraine and Poland. I expect he’s trying to get some sleep at the moment as he flies home.
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I realize being poor is a bitch. When I left home at 17 I rented a house for $50 a week from a friend’s father. It was in a very crime infested part of a major city. It was gutted, the guy was rehabbing it. No working furnace, so I heated it with the gas stove, shutting off all but two rooms, the kitchen and dining room, where I set up my bed. I subsisted on eggs and popcorn for two weeks until I got my first paycheck. Walked 6 blocks to the nearest bus station to ride to work. And it didn’t improve significantly from there for nearly a year. But I didn’t get irrational. I attended to my affairs and kept my chin up. It can be done.
Miss Kitty works in the mortgage sector that services low income buyers. She reviews all their credit history, banking records, spending habits, in order to determine if they qualify for the subsidized money her company doles out. She sees all manner of poor choices. People barely scraping by taking out loans to buy Land Rovers with an $800 monthly payment. A lady the other day gave her hell for denying a loan. It was explained to her her debt to equity standing was all out of whack. Seems she had hidden an account at a clothing store where she regularly bought $500 hats. To look good in church. Many of these people are the same people that we hear we’re screwing by limiting their government benefits. I know because stories like the above are what Miss Kitty sees, every day, all year long, and has for a decade now.
Who in the hell takes on an $800 vehicle payment when they haven’t the money to buy food?
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I volunteer with a senior assistance outfit. I take groceries to seniors in need. Two of my clients live in a trailer park. All the trailers are old and run down but fully two thirds have late model to brand new vehicles parked by them. One in particular has 3 vehicles. Two sedans still with dealer tags and out front is a less than 2 year old Ram pick up that sports more chrome than that possessed by some countries. Gotta look prosperous when away from one’s hovel.
I hated being homeless and busted my ass to get out of that state of affairs. Within 5 years i had a decent job and a family. In another two years we bought the place we rented. 17 years later that 30 year mortgage was paid off.
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GQP: “This is horribly inflationary and these people are eating way better than they deserve to…I mean, vegetables that aren’t from a can? Human food? We need to bring it back down and then some, and if that means some people don’t have enough to eat, so be it. The eating people deserve to be able to afford better food, and they deserve first shot at it too.”
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Let’s remember, this is a country where sports players (and their team owners) are multiple-millionaires. Jeff Bezos could give away half his money and still have enough so his great-grandchildren will not have to work. Yet kids go to sleep hungry; this is unacceptable. Tax the rich! They can afford it. They might have to forego their third vacation home, I’m so sorry for your loss.
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Yes, some poor people make poor choices. So do people of all classes. It’s only the poor that we attack for this, as if they are the only ones with bad judgment. As if they deserve to suffer.
I don’t mean to get on a soap box, but is this any different than the contrived criticism of poor people buying filet mignon with their SNAP benefits? Maybe it does happen, and maybe it doesn’t, but when it comes down to it, it’s all about a learned prejudice many people have that “those people” don’t deserve to have nice things or any pleasure in their lives and that they can’t be trusted to make the right decisions. I mean, if they could, they would have pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and made something better of themselves, right? /s
My dad’s story was similar to yours, so I’ve heard it my whole life. My in-laws also grew up poor and have a similar attitude. Because they overcame their circumstances, it made them less sympathetic to those who either didn’t or couldn’t do the same. Though I don’t feel the same, I can understand why they might feel that way. The question is, should policy be based on that?
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The person of marginal means nevertheless committing to an $800 Land Rover payment wouldn’t have satisfied their need for dependable transportation, and bought a bit of pleasure in the process, by purchasing a $350 a month KIA?
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I agree, that would be the smart/prudent thing. I’m not arguing that point. I would suggest, however, that that is probably the exception, not the norm.
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Who in the hell takes on an $800 vehicle payment when they haven’t the money to buy food?
Where do you come off saying shit like that!
Poor stevie lived in a crime-infested neighborhood at 17. And walked 3 hours uphill (both ways) to catch the bus that took him to work. And then home to the baddd neighborhood. And this went on for “nearly a year.” Oh, oh, poor stevie, a whole year! What can we do to make it better?
“Seems she had hidden an account at a clothing store where she regularly bought $500 hats. To look good in church.”
Happens all the time. Poor black folks walking around wearing $500 fancy hats. See it all the time!
“People barely scraping by taking out loans to buy Land Rovers with an $800 monthly payment.”
Right, happens all the time, every other car a Range Rover full of black people. Drive past me all the time. Speeding to, reckless driving and all! No respect.
Thank God you didn’t have to grow up as a kid in that bad neighborhood before or if you ever made it out.
We all know why people are poor and mostly remain poor. It has little to do with tenacity and ‘backbone’ and ‘bootstrap’ bullshit.
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Sadly necessary when many people in the US consider poverty to be a personal and moral failing. Its the core reason why the poverty trap exists in the US.
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He already did. It’s in the article. The point is that there needs to be a better response from the Congress, etc.
Some people make bad choices because they don’t understand or know what their choices are. We have Americans who are generations into poverty. Some live in extremely poor communities and counties- places where there is little to no employment opportunities. This is the commonality between Urban and Rural America. If you’ve lived your life seeing your parents and grandparents living in poverty, you may not know how to stop that cycle.
In addition to no jobs and generational poverty, you also have institutions that prey on poor people, and being poor is expensive. Republicans scream freedom unless you’re using the social safety net. In some states, you don’t qualify for benefits if you have some money in the bank (more than $2000), but if you’re trying to pull yourself out of a hole, you’re going to need more than $2K. Republicans are constantly trying to micromanage what people on SNAP can buy. If someone wants to buy a Steak, Republicans shouldn’t care how they spend the little money they get monthly. Because someone is on SNAP shouldn’t mean the government
can monitor they food purchases. We still have neighborhoods with more payday loan companies than banks. Speaking of which- banks charging monthly fees on accounts with under a minimum amount is a huge way banks make money off poor people. Overdraft Fees, Maintenance Fees, ATM Fees and etc. BTW, when I had Electronic Data Systems (EDS) as a customer, my company would get asked
to work of RFPs and RFQs with its’ business units. The shift to EBT wasn’t just about stopping fraud, it was about making money. The card issuers would have a long list of fees associated with Electronic Benefits Transfer, and the fees went back to the card-issuer AND State. A few years ago, I was changing jobs and spent a couple of months on unemployment- when the EBT card showed up, the accompanying brochure listed several fees that cut into your benefits.
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Oh wait, notice that the same Republicans who are complaining about inflation and rising prices are willing to cut off additional benefits to the people most affected by inflation.
I don’t see Jim Jordan working to make sure the folks in East Palestine keep additional SNAP benefits. He’s all over social media complaining that Biden isn’t in Ohio, but he’s not lifting a finger to help those people.
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