Republican governors are denying food to the poor again
Dollar General Corp. and Dollar Tree Inc., the retailer of the working poor, reported disappointing earning this week. That isn't interesting. What was interesting was the reason they gave for the big miss.
“[W]hen you really start breaking it down and you look at that core consumer that we serve on the lower economic scale that’s out there, that demographic, things have not gotten any better for her, and arguably, they’re worse,” said Todd Vasos, chief executive officer of Dollar General, according to a FactSet transcript of the Thursday earnings call. “And they’re worse because rents are accelerating, healthcare is accelerating on her at a very, very rapid clip, and now you couple that in upwards of 20 states where they have reduced or eliminated the SNAP benefit and it has really put a toll on her.”
SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program....
“We estimate that the headwinds from price deflation and the reduction of SNAP benefits negatively impacted our same-store sales for the second quarter by approximately 60 to 70 basis points,” he said.
Food stamp enrollment has been in decline in recent months, which normally signals good economic news. However, this time it signals a self-generated crisis.
Food-stamp enrollment in the U.S. is declining from record levels, in part because some states are ending benefits earlier than they have to.
Seven states, all led by Republicans, have decided this year to end waivers for some able-bodied recipients that were made available in the 2009 federal stimulus bill -- even though the benefits are federally funded...
In the seven states -- Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and New Jersey -- aid is ending sooner than the government requires. They join eight other states that had discontinued waivers in prior years because of economic conditions or state action: Delaware, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Oklahoma, Indiana, Wisconsin and Texas. Other states are ending waivers only for certain regions.
Two million people have fallen off of food stamps since the 2012 peak. The three months of food stamps every three years rule dates back to the 1996 welfare overhaul law.
“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”
― Hélder Câmara
Comments
Shame on them.
Breaking the cycle of welfare dependency by starving kids, the elderly, the sick or injured.
When the painter finished up painting my house, on a whim, I asked him if he could cook. Yes...so I gave him a giant Porter House steak, along with his pay check. He had tears in his eyes, said he had not eaten a steak in many years. He sent me a thank you note the next day.
My heart breaks when I see people checking out of the grocery line with Ramen noodles and Shasta Cola, and hearing someone snipe at them for eating such crap.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I was a cashier at a grocery store for ten years
I need to write all the crap I saw from the so called "Free and Brave". People are mean, rude as hell, nasty and verbally abusive. Not just to me but to people they judged in line.
I even had a woman get mad because the apparently neurologically disabled young woman ahead of her had a hard time swiping her debit card. The lady, who had adorned her neckline with the symbol of torture (crucifix), started making really obscene comments outloud till the young woman was in tears. I refused her service. I stopped my belt, and called for a service manager.
People would scream at me due to the cost of their organic orange juice.
I've had people yell at me because they were on the phone and I tried to say "hi" to them.
People expecting me to pick up their snot rags, or they simply just toss them into the bag I was bagging for them.
I once had a bag they customer gave me to fill with their deli products... it was full of anal plugs.
Knives, guns, drugs - wet panties from the beach. People never clean their bags.... dog hair, cat hair... it's pretty disgusting.
I'm so glad I'm out of that hell hole of an industry. You can't please anyone you just have to be professional and as true to yourself.
I was always great at being fast with WIC checks. And I would say something to the usually old white fat guy who felt he would have to eyeball the groceries and inspect everything. In fact, I would make those people get in another line. It was none of their business who was buying what and with what.
"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison
Extreme Callousness
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
How have we become such a cruel country?
I read my history and know we are, but it runs counter to the memory I have of the country I grew up in. Sure, we were trying to dismantle Jim Crow and killing people in their own country far away, but we were still fighting poverty and honoring the idealism of our better angels.
How have we fallen so far? "Greed is good" may be the answer. The normalization of selfishness that came in with Reaganism in the 80's was the inflection point, I think, when a country slowly getting better became a country not-so-slowly getting worse. I begin to wonder if I will see us remember our better angels again in my lifetime.
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When Reagan spouted "greed is good" inanities, the for-profit
press reported the crapola like is was the most usual thing. The Republican economic program was based on Laffer's napkin doodlings and the villainous Friedman's ravings that business was being a traitor to its class if it thought about the community in which it was based and the people it employed.
The fact the Democrats failed to mount a meaningful and sustained fight against this drivel should have showed us(me) that they were becoming useless.
And with the DLC, the Democrats became worse than useless.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Classic Herblock Editorial Cartoon on the Great Society
This January 26, 1965 editorial cartoon by Herblock of the Washington Post shows the beginning of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. Perhaps it's not possible to have both guns and butter - and the Vietnam War surely spelled political doom for LBJ - but it's also hard to deny that he was the best domestic policy president since FDR. Many decades later, that is still true.
The optimism that LBJ expressed in launching many important domestic policy initiatives seems like a distant memory - a casualty of the onslaught of Neoliberal policies under which society's poor have been largely neglected by both major political parties. The concerns of Wall Street have long overshadowed those of Main Street.
"Kindly move over a little, gentlemen!"
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
Has there ever been a cartoonist as great as Herblock?
I have favorites, but seeing this one reminds me what a giant he was. Thank you.
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I grew up the same time as you
And I have the same recollections. As far as the present, I think the millennials may be bringing back the "brother's keeper" mentality. That's what I'm seeing in the young coworkers I meet. They are all for Bernie's economic message and totally open socially. Great people! I live in the Twin Cities, MN and work in food service. Democrats in power; economy booming. I think these kids are ready for revolution. One predicts it (he's on the left). I fear it may come from the right. That's one of the dangers of Hillary.
I hate to admit it
but I started to buy into the Reagan mentality in the 1980s when I was in my 20s until my uncle a WW2 vet heard me ranting about poor people getting free stuff. I don't remember word for word but he talked about the way people helped each other during the depression and the war and that it wasn't the poor taking from me but the rich that were robbing me blind. My uncle has been gone a while now but our little talk still remains and anytime I hear people slamming the poor I make sure I point out that it is the rich taking from them not the poor.
I hear the poor get slammed for being
losers, blood suckers, leeches on the good people of society.
My friend stocks Lay's Potato Chips at several stores. She will be stocking the shelves, railing about trashy people using Texas LoneStar cards, driving nice cars, and on and on. Well, I mentioned they buy her products and if they didn't she would be out of a job. And that those cars just might belong to a parent or neighbor. And that those big, strapping men and women using that card might not be as able to work as they appear, since diabetes and MS and cancer aren't always obvious.
I have had a client making $150,000 per year, which due to some overseas loop hole, he doesn't pay a cent in taxes, tell me he wouldn't be bothered one bit if they all starved and dropped dead in the ditches by the side of the road. Do I even need to tell you both of these stellar folks are Good Christians and tithe to spread the Word?
This is third world thinking. It is where we are headed.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
No I've actually spent great
Lengths of time in third world countries. The ultra rich, of which there are few, live in prisons they call compounds, only shop at certain places and only frequent specific streets. Everybody else has far more compassion. I remember having a long conversation with a guy who was in his 20s. He had no arms or legs and spent his day in the town square in Guadalajara Mexico. People would stop and give him a few pesos, call him by name, ask after family members. One guy donated much more than usual. He had gotten his first pay check from a new job at Pemex. His first thought was to share the wealth. So no not like a third world country at all. Most of the people there still have a soul or whatever makes us decent humans.
I think politicians should do several things
1. They should get a frikken job.
but seriously
I think all politicians should work in a manual labor or retail job for no less than 6 months. And it can't be at their daddy or mommy's corporation...
I think all politicians should spend at least one day a week feeding hungry people.
My spouse does Meals on Two Wheels twice once week, once the next. Most of his clients already are on some or many forms of assistance but it simply isn't enough. For some of them, he's the only visitor they get.
For a few, he's the one who finds out they have passed on alone.
NO ONE should go hungry in this so called great nation. Not one of us. It's a fucking shame that tonight millions will be hungry. National shame.
And it doesn't have to be this way at all.. It's just a total lack of will on the part of the American Public. We have allowed greed to surpass need.
"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison
I wouldn't have survived without food stamps.
As a single mom in the 70's, going to school full-time, raising two kids, waitressing only three nights a week, food stamps and day care assistance saved me. I graduated college, got a job, and said thanks and good bye to welfare assistance. I'm happy it was there for me to use when I needed it, though.
It's criminal what it has now become. What will be the tipping point when people have finally had enough of the theft of their lives? It's happening to me, as well, which is why we are taking steps to survive. We've got to stick together. We've got to stay active in our discourse with others. We've got to stay engaged. This essay is a perfect example of that discourse and engagement. Lest we forget...
I hope we all make it. I think we will.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
The two million people who were kicked off the food stamps
program goes back to the damage that the Clintons did during his terms in office as gjon mentioned.
And the damage from them didn't stop there. After the crime bill passed, Clinton took $17 billion from education, food stamps and housing vouchers and other social programs and gave $19 billion to the cops and the prison industry.
Now anyone who has a felony on their record can't get on public housing. If one person who lives in a public housing project commits a felony then the whole family is kicked out.
I recently got a housing voucher and the amount of rent for anywhere for me to live was $550.
$550 in this rental market is basically useless because if I rented one of the places available I would be risking my life.
The units I looked at where surrounded by gangs and drug addicts. Not only that, but I have no idea how they could pass inspection for people to live in them.
Congress gets so many perks that we pay for while they can afford to pay for them themselves, but have no problem cutting the meager offerings people on social programs get.
And of course they never talk about cutting corporate welfare or the subsidies they get while they find loopholes for not paying taxes.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
That made me tear up, Janet.
What on earth makes people think poverty is a choice?
That the sole and only correlation to poverty is laziness?
Who the hell wants to live on welfare, die alone by choice?
Not everyone was born with a high IQ, family connections, the right school, the right genetic make up.
I am in complete despair for my country.
Where is the love? The compassion? Did communism and the Cold War wreak this havoc upon us?
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I think it's because for them
it's a defense mechanism. If they can point their finger at people then it somehow absolves them of the reality that it can happen to them. Most of us are just one paycheck, one small crisis, away from falling off the edge. There's very little safety wiggle room and so that edge is very slick.
I think the people assume it's a choice just like they assume only bad girls get assaulted. If they make it a choice or lack of bad judgement et al... then it won't touch them or their loved ones.
Up until it does.
"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison
That assumes people with "something"
are steadfastly in denial, and that might very well be the case.
My potato chip lady pal has a little house that her hubby left her in his will. I wrote his will, handled the probate of his estate. I believe she was a good wife, loved him, deserved it. Nevertheless, he could have left it to his kids. She was deserving, but LUCKY.
My $150,000 per year client almost went to jail due to owed back child support during a lay off, but his darling 2nd trophy bride was riding a horse he paid $15,000 for, because, you gotta keep peace in the family, as opposed to peace on earth. And $7500 for a boob job.
Because.
They are just the 2 folks off the top of my head as exemplars.
There is a distinct superiority based upon income or assets that doesn't have any bearing upon labor.
It is just so cruel and so fucked up, it makes me crazy.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I saw what you did there.
"Did communism and the cold war wreak this havoc upon us"?
Can I use that?
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Absolutely.
I think it did, with the assist by the Religious Right.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Nostalgia: The Berlin Wall was taken down and the USSR went
out of business and we all heard a lot of talk about the "peace dividend." We thought we'd benefit from the peace dividend but the controllers of the global capitalist economy decided to spend it on imperialism to support the neoliberal agenda of smash and grab aimed at the global south; and, the labor arbitrage where capital flowed to the areas with the cheapest and easiest exploited labor.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Oh my God...the "peace dividend"
I had forgotten about that little goodie we were going to receive. I guess it's in escrow now because we are warring all the time.
Perhaps the "peace dividend" has been levered several times
and then collateralized and sold to buy armaments for our wars in the middle east and our overthrow of South American governments who have the temerity to put the needs of their people before the wants of the international grasping class.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
"Date back to the 1996 welfare reform bill"
Oh, you mean the bill signed by democratic president Bill Clinton. And no doubt supported at the time by current democratic nominee Hillary Clinton? You know, the candidate who has spent her whole career "working for women and children".
As I pointed out just this morning I believe, democrats have done more harm to the safety net than republicans have.
Democrats because they could get away with those thefts.
Dems don't do that, and then they do. Rinse and repeat (I dislike that term) but our "government" works better when thought of as one massive $$$ extraction scheme with no returns. Except for the wealthy.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Why the poor know how to share...
My sis & I have often commented on how poor people will share everything they have, while those that have more to give are less generous. (See how nicely I worded that?) Those who are poor know that they may be the one needing help tomorrow, so they share what they have today. Those who are well-off, plan to stay that way, so why help someone when you won't need help yourself?
I think part of it has to do with poverty being so far from one's experience that it can't be imagined. If someone has never truly been in need, "poverty" means skipping that new car every year, not going to that fine, fine restaurant this week, no world cruise this summer. I have visited homes where the kitchen contained a bag of dried beans, a bag of rice, and an onion on the counter. I have taught in higher SES schools and heard teachers, whom I had considered to be good human beings, grousing that "Everyone can afford school supplies." So obviously, those who can't are just lazy and selfish. I have taught in schools where children discuss what Spring Break means: "No breakfast, no lunch."
If you've never been poor, you can't imagine it, can't believe all that it entails. And perhaps, are afraid that it's a disease that could be caught if you were to care enough to help.
years ago, a dKos diarist described a hellish day
involving his car breaking down on a california freeway while on his way to a rare job interview.
when someone finally stopped to help, it wasn't anyone with resources to spare, it was a family of migrant workers. they not only stopped, but (as i recall) shared their food and drove ahead to buy the replacement part he needed, then helped him install it. it took at least a couple of hours of their time. when he tried to give them $20, they refused. then he snuck it into something that was going back into their vehicle, but they noticed, and made him take it back. in explanation, the family's father simply said something along the lines of, "today it was you. tomorrow it might be me."
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
What the fuck is the matter with this country?
How does this happen? I don't get it.
Right now I am reading "East West Street" about Raphael Lemkin and Hersh Lauterpacht. Lemkin came up w the term "genocide", Lauterpacht the term "Crimes against Humanity".
When Lemkin was lecturing in Durham NC in the very early 40s after emigrating here he said,
Although then the audience erupted w applause, I suspect now there would be no clapping and the answer would be 'no'.
Don't believe everything you think.
Your comment reminds me of this picture
And how many of these people have the Clintons to thank because of the bills that were passed during Bill's administration?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
It's a recipe for extinction
And maybe that's appropriate.
As Hitler (and Stalin} proclaimed,
"Alte und Armen zur Zwangsarbeit!
The [otherwise unproductive] aged and the poor are to be put to work!
But that's also in the NT, isn't it? H'mmmmm.
There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.
in the spirit of Bipartisanship
Under Reid and Obama, the Dem controlled Senate cut food stamp funding by $4 billion.
Source of the demonization of
Source of the demonization of the Poor? Actually quite simple really. The Propaganda Mills of the Wealthy, to "Institutes" and "Think Tanks" like the Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, Americans For Prosperity and the other 400 such paid for by the rich to make the rest think all the ills financially are to to the needs of the poor.
They get the idiots at the MSM to spot terms that may be familiar, "Entitlement programs", "Welfare Queens", "Takers", and many other de-humanizing terms are spewed out by these hacks who are well paid to get the News, Churches, and even those who should know better, the Politicians to make it seem all the problems landing on the middle class are because the government wants to spend so much on the poor.
Forget that the Oligarchs tax you high as they get to have so low a tax rate on them as to keep almost if not all their millions a day.
Forget that we spend more than 11 nations on our Military Industrial Complex, let alone the 15yr old war for the rights of corporations to rape resources from other countries, killing people there who never had intent of harm to US.
Forget that major companies pay no taxes as they ship work overseas, forcing middle class to poor class, but sure do as they want you to and blame the guy making less than 20k a year hoping he doesn't get sick or have an accident at work. Blame your troubles on the guys and gals who lost the ability to work, or whose job went overseas.
Forget that the Government hands out corporate welfare called "subsidies" to Big Oil and others who report record profits in a quarterly report, so If they kept 90billion how is it they need taxpayers money of say as high as 21billion bucks as people starve, die because the insurances said no to surgery, or their home has been seized by a cold and heartless Bank, owned of course by the wealthy who say the poor are the cause for the world's evils?
Forget that they rigged an election cycle to trash democracy as they do not care for democracy, just that they get to hoard more money offshore and laugh at the rest of us as the lower classes struggle and forget about the fact that the wealthy are walking away from the fight they started amongst us lower classes, and they do it multiple times.
Why do they use their paid for propaganda mills to make poor and working poor, middle class, diverse ethnic groups fight each other? despise each other? attack each other?
Because, the same reason they killed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. he was going to start work to unite the poor, regardless of color, gender ID, and status. A United People frightens them as they seek to cow us to try and hamfistedly avoid another French Revolution. That is correct, if we did not have so many electronic distractions, there would be world wide mobs seeking their blood and heads and they are aware of it. With their Greed comes Paranoia.
I am of the disabled and poverty stricken part of the population, I used to be working poor. The Wealthy are few, we are legion. more so if our brothers and sisters in adversity join us from all stations of life and say Enough! We are not gonna take this crap any more, and you guys need to pay your fair share and help support the society that granted your families the chance to gather that wealth! Those blessed with such wealth need to be reminded that they got there on the backs and blood of others. They have forgotten to such a point that all they see i a world teeming with the people they have harmed hating them.
The cure? Learning to actually share, not a couple hundred thousand here and there, many can afford to give back millions.
Before Reagan a 70% did not hurt them at all, they made enough to live like kings, now they live like emperors, paying a measly 10% if that.
We need to not let ourselves be lulled into the silly mindset that they "earned" that money and "deserve" it all. That is the propaganda talking. Most inherited their fortunes.
Many more have to work hard, grovel for their crumbs. Poor people have to jump through hoops if they want the system to help them, disability has a LOT of criteria to meet. Many poor you may see "bucking the system" also tend to NOT be on the system, but rather they ask for help from friends, family and others, as they don't or can't be bothered with those hoops.
I hope I did not ramble too far off course, but knowing what I know makes me so sad and angry at the upper classes who were lucky and had better "launching platforms" than others and can't seem to see it, or how they themselves are manipulated by these Propaganda machines the wealthy employ.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
You did not ramble at all
What you wrote is pure truth and I wish that more people saw this and would understand what you, me and thousands of other poor, disabled and seniors trying to get bye on their meager SS payments go through each day.
I see many people comment about how they hate that they are paying for people to 'sit at home' living off their tax dollars while they are working their butts off.
Then in the next sentence they will write that the businesses need their tax breaks and subsidies because they are the ones that create the jobs.
It doesn't matter how many times I tell them that the companies that are receiving these breaks have offshored their jobs, or registered their businesses in foreign countries so that they don't have to pay taxes here.
You are right that people buy into the propaganda that people on social programs are just lazy bums and don't deserve the meager amount of money we get.
Very well said!
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Thank you. It is hard to
Thank you. It is hard to watch the world as it drowns in this corruption and inequality around us.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
I have a dream
about this part of your comment.
That one day enough people will decide that they have had enough and go on strike. If enough people quit buying groceries, gas, eating out, going to movies and not buying anything essential for at least a week or longer then that might get the government's attention because many company's profits will plunge and they start listening to us.
I think this has happened in other countries but I don't remember the outcome.
But it is long past time for our government to represent us and not the corporations as they have probably since the beginning of the government.
The whole world marched against the Iraq war and it happened anyway.
We write emails, make phone calls, sign petitions and protest trying to get their attention and nothing changes.
Maybe a big enough strike would.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
I do try to live as a minimalist.
But yes, consumers have the power.
O.k. When is the next meeting for the revolution?
-FuturePassed on Sunday, November 25, 2018 10:22 p.m.
Yeah, it would take a massive
Yeah, it would take a massive effort, but the larger the "strike" the more they have to actually pay attention!
So long, and thanks for all the fish
Thank you. It is hard to
Thank you. It is hard to watch the world as it drowns in this corruption and inequality around us.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
Exactly. I believe if the 4th estate actually did it's job
and citizens of this country knew the truth that it is the wealthy stealing from them and not POC or the poor this would be a completely different country.
O.k. When is the next meeting for the revolution?
-FuturePassed on Sunday, November 25, 2018 10:22 p.m.
Agreed. it is something that
Agreed. it is something that could keep the politicians honest and help if the media were NOT corporate owned, and could do actual journalism with the integrity to drag things out in the open. They hate that, and it is why they went after whistle-blowers and Wikileaks as rabidly as they have, truth hurts, and they don't like it!
So long, and thanks for all the fish
You got the game down.
This is why OWS had to be violently shut down.
What OWS did was give a simple framework to understand class warfare and struggle that could not be marginalized with charges of Marxism, commie red attacks (note how much overt and not so overt red-baiting about Bernie).
I guess the best explanation is cultural hegemony.. There are others who can explain and understand it much better than me. But this is why simple consciousness raising is such a dangerous act if it spreads too far and wide as it did with OWS, and now with BLM. If and when Hillary becomes president, she will crush BLM just as Obama and democratic party city mayors crushed OWS.
http://sociology.about.com/od/C_Index/fl/Cultural-Hegemony.htm
Just two paragraphs:
Yup, and this trend is
Yup, and this trend is accelerating. It also fits the whole demonization with the poor. I am not in a privileged class, never was.
I can remember the class division as discussed as Poverty level, working poor, lower Middle Class, Middle class, upper middle class, the well offs, the rich, the very rich and the final tier as Ultra-rich.
Now we have the poor, working class/poor, middle class, management class, and the 10%and the 1% as well as maybe the 0.10% classes.
Currently America is becoming every day a tyranny, it must stop.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
It might be more than the R's doing this
Its more than likely global in nature, neoliberalism, globalization, free trade
all end with the same result.
Here's a link stating "Greece Was the Prologue"
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/08/greece-debt-austerity-syriza-tsipras-...
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Democratic politicians create the poor
is how I see the totally broken system in California. Stuck in gold-rush mentality "that's the system" (says Jerry Brown uber Plutocrat).
Where I live we have Christmas in June for the food pantry to help feed under-paid and under-employed workers. It is in addition to SNAP, organized and funded by locals. NeoLiberal greed is pervasive and encouraged here, charities are big business and perfectly acceptable to the unequal-minded, they're symbiotic. Pay shit wages and someone else always picks up the difference, so profit! Welcome to Sonoma County ground zero for homelessness, Skid Row North. "Embrace the suck" (says Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi), embrace the shittiest landlords on earth.
Neither Rs or Ds will pay a living wage that is the unconscionable part, the source of hunger (and despair). It is why Cloverdale gets a new Dollar General Store, most people can't afford Whole Foods Markup (how convenient, creating more consumers of the "healthcare" industry by selling or giving away unhealthy food). Exploiting poor immigrants? Democratic goal achieved!
Please proceed to enjoy the California crops, and give no thought to middle-class lives destroyed by the pesticides, cheap labor, and government subsidies required. Don't think about the environmental destruction, just look at the shiny Tech and Hollywood Entertainment (all TPP supporters by the way), be grateful poor slobs our delicious marketing is so yummy! Who cares about lung cancer now #1 in China? Not Bill Clinton or industry lobbyists. They helped cause the cancer by granting MFN to a government that did not give one shit for planetary or human health, only the profits of a relative few families. The United States (of Consumers) perpetuates death culture, a dying planet.
Free Trade it's the law. Cheap labor and imports rule, opportunity not so much. Unless you're an asshole, a.k.a. an "innovator" - buzz-word bingo for those clawing up. I haven't met an honest entrepreneur in decades, most are vultures expecting to get rich at others expense. Fuck that shit, and the Republican governors too. Evolve damn it, I'd like the pendulum to swing the other way for once in a lifetime. Thanks.
Yep, I see it
Hubby and I were in Minnesota last week visiting family and friends. Some good restaurants have closed or drastically reduced their hours, while more fast food places keep cropping up, and I counted at least three Dollar General or Dollar Trees that weren't there just a few years ago. This in Minnesota, where the economy by all accounts is booming.
The last time the minimum wage was raised was under W, a republican. Obama made some noise about it, could have done something about it if he really wanted to, but he did nothing. Asshole. And just because most people make more than minimum wage doesn't mean they can survive on what they do make.
"The world doesn't owe you anything" I hear often. You know, none of us asked to be born, so really, it does; either make sure people can make a decent living and have dignity, or don't force people to have children they don't want or can't take care of thus forcing even more people into poverty.
It's all I can do to keep from falling back into depression.
This shit is bananas.