Like it or not, there ARE times when the poor are to blame for their own circumstances.  Don't show up to work regularly and you have no one to blame but yourself if you don't have a job.  My mother is homeless now and I won't lift another finger to help her.  Why?  She is a nurse capable of making a LOT more money than I can, yet has decided other things are more important in her life, like men, drinking, sleeping, etc..  She's not depressed, she just would rather do the "party" thing.  When she couldn't make her rent, I spent ive years trying to keep her in her apartment, finally moving her to another one.  In this time, when I couldn't come up with the money, she'd get a job, keep it for a week or two, then lose it.  It finally got to the point where she'd worked at every facility in the country or had been heard about, essentially blacklisted, which is when I had to move her.  I'm 28.  I'm not wealthy by a long shot.  So these expeses were incredible for me and I had to quit college to fund her living.  I lost my own car.  I ENDED UP HOMELESS ONCE MYSELF TO KEEP A ROOF OVER HER HEAD.  So now that she is the one homeless, I'm not going to help anymore.  I got myself off the streets.  She has to help herself now.  SHE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR HER OWN POVERTY AND HOMELESSNESS.  100%.  She's been given more chances and financial support than most people can ever hope to get.

You may like to bury your head in the sand and say poor people never are responsible, but unfortunately there ARE times when they are.  No, not all of them are poor by choice, but there are many who are.  Research the "culture of poverty" a bit and you'll understand that there are even people so used to being poor that they're fine with it.  All of my mother's relatives fit this bill, and none of them wil get jobs, just gladly accepting welfare.  Are they not responsible for their poorness, or are they victims of not receiving more hand-outs?

My pity lays with those who work, yet don't make enough to make basic ends meet.  I don't care about their credit bills from buying electronics and things they don't need, or trouble paying rent on a place that's far too expensive for them to afford when there are cheaper, yet safe and clean, options.  I'm talking someone who has a modest home and the basic bills that can't be paid with one full-time job.  These are the poor who should be getting help, not those who are abled ad yet CHOOSE not to work.

Speaking as an employer, I have to say that poverty has less to do with what I pay my employees and more to do with their ability to make sound decisions in their lives.  I have employees with families making $12 per hour who own homes and have meaningful savings accounts and others who are single, earn $15 or more yet are in debt and can barely pay their bills.  Is it easy for anyone to live on these wages?  No it is not, and I understand that.  However, if I were to increase my average wage from its current $12 per hour to $17 per hour the business would be bankrupt in a matter of weeks.

There are no wages and no jobs without people with initiative striking out and risking their own futures to create enterprises.  I worked 70+ hours per week for 15 years to save money to own a business and anyone who wants to tell me to pay my employees more needs to start a company, create jobs that pay more and hire them away.  Have at it.  Good luck.  You'll need to spend less time whining, though.

Aria NC if your mother's side of the family "chose to be poor" as you put it, it is because they do not know anything more than their lifestyle. There are no role models to show them that there are other things they could do with their lives but to them, it is not accessible because no one around them shows them otherwise.

The poor are not necessarily to blame but rather are a victim of circumstance. To be identified negatively throughout society, they do not see another way. Also psychological concerns that that person may have to handle and not be receiving proper treatment may engage in activities harmful to themselves and others around them.

Aria NC - Many of our poor should not be "blamed". A large number of people in our country will never be poor because they won the "birth lottery" - they have families who will support them through whatever hurdles they face in life. Others may not have won the "birth lottery", but they were winners in the "marriage lottery" - they were fortunate enough to find spouses that will always care for them. There are a few more who have friends/churches who will fill in the "gaps" of their life.

Unfortunately, there are "others" - large numbers of poor - who don't have families, spouses, friends or churches that can provide them with "welfare"/"aid"/"help"/"charity"/"education"/"support" when they fall on tough times. A job loss, an illness, a disability, a sick relative, a housing issue (fire, natural disaster, poor landlord maintenance, etc.), a transportation problem (change in bus/train route, car problem, etc.) or any other "life issue" can put people quickly on the path to homelessness and/or poverty.

While you may have been able to "get back on your feet", not everyone has the resources that you do. You obviously had the smarts - street and/or intellectual - to re-establish a stable life for yourself. Not everybody else does. Someone who is battling a disability/illness - whether or not they "look" sick/disabled - may not be able to do what you did. Someone caring for a sick child/parent may not be able to secure/retain well-paying employment (a job that allows them to afford basic needs - shelther, food, etc.).

I know many people who WANT to "work", who cannot find jobs in today's economy that will support their families. I know others that have become depressed and given up - settling for a part-time low-wage retail/food service position...or not finding "anything" at all. When we give up on them, that doesn't solve the problem...we, as a society, will still have to "pay". We can either pay to "help" people or we can pay to "warehouse" them. It makes more sense to help assist/educate people and enable them to succeed in our society.

Instead of just providing "handouts", would you object if there was an "activity" requirement to receiving aid? The "activity" could vary from person to person - paid employment, volunteering, schooling, rehab/therapy/group counseling, caregiving for relative(s), etc. Let's say that they had to check in periodically with a social worker/case worker to ensure they are being "productive" and staying involved in their community. Would that be a more acceptable alternative? Would you support giving "welfare" to someone who volunteers/cargives/studies for their GED/etc.?

Tiesha, Jody -

I came from the same place my mother's relatives did.  We didn't have any special privileges in our lives.  We had the same, but my mom decided to go a different route.  She decided she wanted better, and so used what she had been living as an example of what NOT to do.

Over the years of my childhood, every single one f my mother's brothers and sisters had lived with us.  We took them, one at a time, out of where they were and brought them to our home in a better, safer city that my parents bought a house in by working their way up step by step.  My parents co-signed cars for them, etc., but each and every time they decided it was better to go back to their life rather than work.  They actually had a preference for living poor but having all their time be free than to live in a better area if it meant having a job.  Yeah, they complain about not having the nicer things, but they haven't been willing to work for it, even when they were given a HUGE leg up.

Know what else?  My parents were TEEN PARENTS, yet finished high school, and my mom went to nursing school, and they owned a house with a little property by their mid-20's without ever having any better of role models than my mom's siblings had by that point.  And then my parents were the role models, role models them themselves never had.  Yet they did it anyway.  They didn't make excuses.  They wanted something, and so they found a way to do it, first my getting stable work, then moving to a better area in the small town they lived in, then, when they could, moving to a slightly better area and getting better jobs. 

Also, Jody, my mother was/is dyslexic, yet still bemace a nurse.  She didn't let her learning disability stand in the way.  And you clearly don't realize I am disabled.  But I can tell you are going to make excuses and not hold poor people at all responsible for their choices. You'd rather just throw cash at them like charity cases rather than to make sure they have access to education.  If they choose not to go to school when it's available to them, that's on them.

Further, I had no special privileges to be myself off the streets.  In fact, due to circumstances beyond my control, I didn't get to finish high school.  Yet that's never been used as an excuse.  I am about as "uneducated" as they cme due to not having a piece of paper called a diploma, yet found a way to do all I could.  Nothing stopped me from asking questions or going to a library, and nothing is stopping anyone else frm asking questions or going to libraries.  Even a crappy library, like the one I got to go to, is better than nothing, and information about resources are available.  I wanted off the streets, and was wlling to find a way.  Someone not willing to try must not want it very much.  Period.

Aid is supposed to be just that - aid.  Not a sole means of living.  I've got no problem with giving HELP to people who are, say, working full time and stil can't make basic ends meet.  But you bet I have one hell of a problem with giving full support, especially for years, to abled people who refuse to work.  Unfortunately many in the system fall into this latter category to the detriment of those who work and end up disqualified for making $2 over the "poverty" line (which is really set too low).

Amen.

What about those abled adults who use having children as an excuse to collect welfare rather than work?  Don't bury your head in the sand.  They are out there.  Every single one of my mom's relatives do this.  And they're teaching their kids the same thing.  Have kids young and you don't have to work.  And guess what.  The kids are doing it.  It's horrific, and should be seen ad child abuse to encourage young teens to have babies for welfare.

Working families are where the help needs to be, not the people who won't work.  The poor working families who can barely make ends meet have to pay taxes so the non-workers don't have to get jobs, instead hiding behnd having children as reason to not work.  This is sickening.

Aria NC - I'm curious where you live. In what state are people able to just have babies and live off of welfare? In my state, a parent with two children gets less than $300/month from TANF. When I was researching the "welfare debate", I discovered that this same family in the 1970s would have received almost $800/month.  My understanding is that "today's family" would receive food stamps, but likely less than $200/month. Most subsidized housing programs in our area have long wait lists (some are greater than 7 years!). Many homeless prevention programs have income/job requirements that some poor people cannot meet because they can only find part-time work (or no work at all). There seems to have been more "affordable" housing in the 1970s, but many people are struggling to find it today. So, our cost of living has risen, but welfare has dropped dramatically in our state.

I can only speak for what I've learned about my state, so I'm not saying that there aren't places and people in our country who are "living off of welfare", I just haven't found/met them. I'm curious where they live. I'm also curious what you are referring to when you use the term "welfare". Are you talking about cash assistance, food stamps, subsidized housing, social security - "one" of these or "many combined" - what are you referring to?

California.  I know not all states are the same, and technically this shouldn't be happening here.  But social workers are hesitent to kick a family off welfare because they don't want the kids to suffer.  So they essentially enable parents to use their kids as emotional blackmail to keep living off the system and not get jobs.

Poster child?  Nadya Suleman.  Living on the system for several years, keeps having kids, and has had a state-paid nanny since her first child.

$19.70 would make someone like like royalty in many areas of this country.  I am a stay-at-home wife with a husband making less than this, yet we ive comfortably in the Bay Area by not getting into debt.  $19.70 is actually unreasonably high as a minimum wage.

If the minimum wage had kept pace with the productivity of American workers - the minimum wage today would be around $20/hour. This is what many "minimum wage workers" earn in other developed nations.

Unfortunately, our CEOs and those "at the top" have opted to skimp on employee pay and take a bigger piece of the pie for themselves. Our American CEOs take $475 for every $1 earned by an average worker. In Canada, the CEOs only take $20 for each dollar. In France, the CEOs take $15. What makes our country's CEOs so much more deserving - than our employees AND the CEOs in other developed nations? It's likely that our CEOs actually make more than $475, as this link is from 2006 - http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2006/05/look-numbers-how-rich-get-richer

Why attack those at the bottom of our societies income scale? Why not take a harder look at those at the top who are hoarding the wealth?

Perhaps, if the father has a drug problem, then he should be in rehab. Maybe he's not "lazy" - just an addict. Does Medicaid/SCHIP pay for parents to go into such a program?

It's possible that his wife is overwhelmed, codependant - or perhaps has a mental health issue. Does she have access to the medical care/therapy that she needs?

It's easy for us to judge one another...and it's easy to assume we have all the facts...or know the whole story...unfortunately, we usually are missing much of the picture.

If we had a more effective "safety net", we could identify those who need help and what help they need. This family sounds like they need a great deal of help.

Jody, you're making ecuses and taking responsibility off of these people.  There are TWO of them making mistakes here, and I highly doubt both of them are "victims" of anything but their own choices.  They've chosen to bring multiple children into this world, and as such, they bear responsibility for their actions.  People like you who make excuses make people like them feel they can claim that they're the "real victims" rather than the ones in control.

I know these people having lived next door to them for 7 years.  He takes pills and deals in pills.  He obviously does more product than he sells.  She was even sent out to whore a few years ago.  He has always chosen to stay home and not work.  He is LAZY.  He wouldn't even clean up the house.  He somehow kicked her one leg one year and she had a broken leg yet didn't leave him.  She is brainwashed by a faggot.  I've seen this done up here in Ohio many times so this situation is nothing new here.  The women are suckered into getting married to these queers and then stay due to the threats and/or physical abuse by the husband against her or threats about the kids.

They came home last Thursday with the kid.  He doesn't walk two doors down to collect the mail.  No, he makes her do it.  Since she has been laid off he never made one attempt to look for work.  Well, why should he - he has his personal slave.

There is no excuse for these two.  She now has a vegetarian brain not eating properly for months and months eating cereal and can't think properly.

She had to go to work during the day and then go out whoring at night to make ends meet.  She did this for years up until just recently.  All he did was go to his twice weekly fag parties.  Her mother detests him and obviously didn't bail them out when she visited them last night for several hours.  She even brought her tricks home several times and did "business" when her son and husband were in the house!!  She did this several times.  She would come home very late (after 2AM), stay home for a few hours and then go to work at 8AM and work all day.  Apparently the money she made at her daytime and nighttime jobs were not enough for him.  Rehab would be a waste for him as he has no intentions of listening to anyone or doing anything to help himself.

I did overhear him yelling at her last night after her mother left.  He kept saying over and over again that he was hexed.  Yes, hexed.  That is his mindset.  Blame it on someone or something, but NEVER him.  He is perfectly capable of working for food stamps but refuses.  He is perfectly capable of looking for work as he has a phone and a working vehicle but he refuses.  He thinks that everyone should give him money for free as he deserves it.

Like I said before I can hardly wait until that horrible circus leaves town.

Please don't make excuses for them.  They put themselves in predicament.  They even took money from people when they really didn't need it and now when they do need some help, no one is going to help them.  They have worn out their welcome begging for stuff in the neighborhood.  the only time he would leave the house is when she had arranged a free meal at a neighbor's house - otherwise he stays inside.  There are jobs here but you have to go out of the house and look for them and fill out applications.  He just does not want to work period.  He will be the direct cause of his family being homeless.  No one else's fault but his.

It's not about "making excuses" for them.

My point - just because you think a person looks "nomal" (whatever that means) and maybe "employable", doesn't mean that they are. There are many people who are mentally ill, addicted to alcohol/drugs or disabled in some other way - but...if you met them on the street, you would think they're "normal". There are quite a few people in our country, who with proper nutrition (good point about diet LP - it really is much more important to normal "thinking processes" than most of us realize) and therapy could function "normally". However, "us" - just telling "them" - to go "get a job" will not solve anything.

We will pay for our neighbors one way or another. We can do this by warehousing and stigmatizing and judging them...or we can invest in them and maybe give them real help to succeed in our society. I'm not talking about a "handout", but a "hand up". Someone who will talk AND listen to them. Many of these individuals - at the minimum - will need job training and counseling - in order to "just get a job".

What I don't understand is if you lived next door to them all these years why didn't you call CPS? It seems that the wife is codependent and feels that she doesn't have a choice, but if you called CPS at least the children wouldn't suffer and they would have to get the needed help or loose custody of their children. Instead of judging take action if nothing else for the kids. You don't have to approve of their lifestyle. Obviously there are alot of issues there but doing nothing and blogging your judgements is not the way to go.

"Creating jobs" is a hideous old mantra from both sides of the oligarchy.  We don't need any more bullshit jobs in this country.  Some bogus "job" is probably why L P's neighbor is on drugs, that or military service.  Probably both.

This lady getting a Master's Degree at Tufts (!), "reaching out" to the homeless, is probably 1000X removed from any wisp of poverty or homelessness.  And she really is a hero for our time, look at the grant she got to study "those people".

Bitter, cynical, formerly homeless.

It's my opinion that all people should be able to do something that they feel "adds value" to the world. For some, this is full-time employment...for others, it may be volunteering in their community...for, still others, it's caregiving (for children, parents, relatives, neighbors, etc.)...while there are still other people who need more education/therapy/etc.

If those at the "top" paid more in taxes, they would still be "rich". BUT, the rest of us - we would see revenues being generated to allow "average people" to thrive.

By attacking the "poor", we fail to look at the real issue - those at the top who are taking more than they deserve. See my posting and link to Mother Jones above on a different comment - no American CEO should make $475 for each $1 the average worker makes when in Canada the CEOs only make $20...and in France $15. For those who may worry - our "rich" will still be rich...but, perhaps, we can help each other out of their revenues (their "surplus")...and eventually we too will pay into the system (because we're doing "well" too).

I've thought about this.  A great way for anyone to save money is to grow their own food, yet this is impossible for many of the poorest people these days.  We're classified as poor, yet live comfortably in a nice apartment (no debt really helps), yet there's no where to grow anything!  It would save us so much money each month to grow our own produce.  But we're not wealthy enough to own land or be able to rent land, so off to the grocery store for us to buy or produce.  $3 for a pound of peaches on sale.  $2.49 for tomatoes that are "ripened" by a type of gas.  It adds up quickly.  And then there's worry each year that whent he lease ends, the cost might go up again.  For this reason, we move yearly.  It's insane.  It's even more insane that, all things considered, we're considered to be doing well.

Abstinence-only education realy works, I tell ya.  (sarcasm)

My mother's relatives fall into this category, having babies as an excuse to not work.  Teens having babies is celebrated as it means more welfare money.  Yet I was told I shouldn't be having babies because they need the tax money from me working full-time for their welfare (I'm the oldest and onl responsible cousin, which means I, somehow, am not to have children, and when I lost twins in December, well, it was a sign to them that I shouldn't have children).  These are people in a town with jobs that can't find worker because so many people choose to live on welfare.  85% of the people in this town are on welfare.  Most of them are abled people who just don't want to work whena job would earn them less money than they get through welfare, section 8, etc..  But somehow being supported off the backs of working people came to be seen as a right rather than a temporary privilege, and it is now seen as wrong to stigmatize those on welfare and we're supposed to want to "help" them more (enabling them is what we're doing, if you ask me).  I've got no problem giving help to a family that works and just can't make basic ends meet.  It's those who openly won't bother trying because they don't want to work who I hate with a passion.  they're passing this "welare is a fine lifestyle choice" mentality on.

Of course this will go on generation after generation. I am a single mother with two children one with a bipolar disorder. Many times I worked 2 jobs to support them while other moms in the complex were getting subsidized housing, food stamps, electric help. They laughed and mocked me for working, but I didn't want my girls to grow up contributing to the welfare system. Both are grown now and neither have kids. You lead by example and show them that hard workis better then being a slave to thesystem.

You say Obama understands poverty?  I haven't had such a good laugh all week until I read that line.  That's a real knee slapper.

Obama was not even born in this country he has no right to be our leader and when his term is up you will see that he will have made everything worse. I can't wait to vote him out he has give so much money to the banks and to the auto makers he could have ended homelessness I would have let gm fold and the banks that couldent handle there money why would you give them more. This country needs to go into another depression to make everyone appriciate what they have and to stop over spending and needless spending. I know that is radical but some times tough love is what is needed. I'll survive, would you could you make it more than a week or two without your electricity, water,gas,any of the basic nesesities. THINK ABOUT IT it's coming.