Poor people in America are in dire straits...

[kentuck]

With all the Administration blabber about how great the economy is doing and how low the unemployment rate is and record home ownership, etc, poor people in our society are hanging on by the skin of their teeth. Many lower-middle class are feeling a severe pinch, also. These are desperate times for many millions of Americans.

No doubt, the upper threads of our society are doing quite well, thank you. Most of their wealth has been stolen from poor people's pension funds and their childrens' futures. The Administration disguised their theft in the form of taxcuts, but it was money taken from somewhere else - not excess money in the economy. It was taken from Social Security and borrowed from foreign countries in order to hand it over to the very wealthiest. They did not earn it. They did not ask for it. But they did not refuse it.

And now, our citizens, many who are making less than 9.00 per hour, are asked to pay $2.50 per gallon for gas, 50% or more for their heating bills and electricity, more money for food and necessities, and are told that they never had it so good. For these people, the depression has already arrived. These are hard times. Propaganda and feel-good bullshit does not help them a bit.

[EC]

1. Amen... n/t

[KingFlorez]

2. You are so right

If you get down too it low income people are doing not so good. People used to make a lot less and eat a lot more and now they make a lot more, but eat a lot less. Wages remain the same while prices jump higher and higher.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Your post brought this to mind.... always liked them, Marks solo

stuff was very good imho as well....

Brothers in Arms


These mist covered mountains
Are a home now for me
But my home is the lowlands
And always will be
Some day you'll return to
Your valleys and your farms
And you'll no longer burn
To be brothers in arm

Through these fields of destruction
Baptism of fire
I've watched all your suffering
As the battles raged higher
And though they did hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms

There's so many different worlds
So many different suns
And we have just one world
But we live in different ones

Now the sun's gone to hell
And the moon's riding high
Let me bid you farewell
Every man has to die
But it's written in the starlight
And every line on your palm
We're fools to make war
On our brothers in arms

[JamesTee]

4. Maybe...

this will convince them that they are not Republicans. I know too many people making less than $20,000 a year and they think that when they make it big, they'll get those big tax cuts.

[Quakerfriend]

5. I'm am furious about the poor and what this country has done

for them- NOTHING. It's just pathetic. I really felt my heart breaking as I watched the families of the Sago miners morn. The working poor in this country deserve so much more.

I think that people are really starting to strain under the weight of it all. I am relatively well- off and have no debt but, I am worried everyday- food, gas, electric all going up,up,up. No one wants to put their money in the markets. Houses in the Philly markets seems to be standing still in neighborhoods where they would have been snatched up in a matter of hrs-days.

[JamesTee]

7. I heard this weekend ...

that the current Sago miners were presented with a chance to join the UMW, but rejected it saying the don't need or want a union. The question becomes how much are people participating in their own exploitation?

[HockeyMom]

6. One of them

I used to make $15 an hour (hardly rich), but now make $9. I am spending almost $100 a month just in gas ($2.60 gallon) going to and from work (30 miles round trip). Last month, my electric and heating bills (renting) totalled about $550, not counting phone, cable, internet access, or FOOD. I am barely making ends meet now. If my husband (separated) wasn't paying my rent (when daughter graduates I will be cut off), I would be DOOMED.

[NMDemDist2]

8. no chit

the only reason I'm online is cuz we have managed to hang on to some of the goodies we got when we made $100K a year 4 years ago. Last year was a quarter that (how fast we've fallen) and this year ain't looking too good either.......

thank god I have no dependants and my hubby and I still are healthy. but it's a hell of a note to be here at my age I tell ya........

[demnan]

9. And when you're poor, where do you live?

The young people coming up get my pity. How can they afford the high rents and mortgages that are required just to live? Even living in trailers they struggle. I have to send some money to my niece just to get heat in her trailer. She and her husband both have several jobs but just can't cut it. The older people don't have it as bad as the young, especially without the education needed to get an above substance-level job.

I wish she had some better options, poor little thing! :( :cry:

[kentuck]

10. These are the people Democrats should be fighting for....

Not Samuel Alito...

[JamesTee]

11. Tell...

your niece and her husband that they are just not working hard enough :sarcasm: I just graduated from college and I have no hope of ever owning a house with the current price of real estate.

[demnan]

14. Yes I know! I am you!

As a woman I was making a low wage for years - then I went back and got a second education. Look I bought my first home, a very small condo in the suburbs when I was 47! I'm 48 now and thankful I've got a job now - I was unemployed for about a month (and I'm a web developer so I have a marketable career) but unemployment was only $330 a week, and the combined cost of the mortgage and condo and association fees tops 4 x that per month leaving nothing for utilities, much less food.

James, you will probably find a signficant other who can hopefully combine their salary with yours to afford at least a nice condo in a few years. In the mean time, if I might offer a bit of advice, please please don't get hung up on credit card debt like I did in my early years.

Nancy :hi:

[demigoddess]

16. I have been wondering when we get to the point where we have 75 or99

year mortgages like they do over in europe. Actually, it might not be a bad thing. But we will have less privacy.

[Ally McLesbian]

12. You are so correct

The difference between now and the past is that the churches, instead of fighting for the needy, are PART of the fascist network. They've brainwashed the working class into believing that it's better off to be miserable and keep gay marriages banned than to live happily and share the happiness with other members of the society.

It's especially pronounced on the Catholic side with the terror reign of Benedict XVI, but the Protestants are just as guilty as well.

[kentuck]

13. There are people living in the shadows....

hungry and cold and disillusioned. They have no hope. Alcohol and drugs are the final escape before they simply give up. They have nothing else to live for. They have become invisible. We drive by them every day and do not see them. We must open our eyes.

[cornermouse]

15. A lot of angry republicans were calling the Washington

Journal this morning. You should have heard them.

[Quakerfriend]

20. Funny, I've noticed angry repugs calling in, too!

[cornermouse]

21. Most of the time they spout the Bush line when they call in.

They didn't seem to be doing it this morning. They kept saying things like "I don't know whether I can vote for a democrat but I'm not voting republican any more". Surprising, maybe even a little shocking. I didn't think anything could penetrate the fog they've been living in.

[Democrats_win]

17. Still running into people who've been unemployed for 2+ years.

Then the credit card companies are trying to sue him. What fantastic GREED! Bush's tax cuts weren't enought for these MFs.

[ekelly]

23. Tax cuts.....

didn't allow people to go out and spend. Hell, even the child credit/rebate we got, (like $600 or something I think?) ALL of that money went to paying for debts ALREADY incurred.

Those tax cuts are such a joke. I know it didn't help us one bit.

[babylonsister]

18. This is why the SOTU will probably be a big flop, at least with

middle-class and poorer Americans, regardless of their political stripes. For the blivet to trumpet all his economic successes is just plain laughable if things weren't getting so dire.

[BrklynLiberal]

19. and as you said in the original post, the middle class ain't doin so well

either.

The only ones gettin richer, are the already disgustingly rich!!!!

[OneBlueSky]

22. and poor people on Medicare or Medicaid are in particularly . . .

desperate straits, given that Part D will cause them to have to pay MORE for their medications each year and will exclude many, many critical drugs (generally the expensive ones) from coverage . . .

[Little Star]

24. The so called middle class aren't doing so good either. n/t

[YOY]

25. So get more of them to vote

All Diebolding aside if more of the working poor were better informed and would actively participate then the face of this country would be a kinder one.

[Jim Warren]

26. Yup and it looks like a lock on $3@gal. by summer.

The tiny trial balloons are floating all through the media lately....... doing the legwork for their energy conglom masters.

[Sapphire Blue]

27. And they will get worse if the House passes the budget cuts this week...

Please see this thread...

Rich get richer, poor get poorer, & House votes on budget cuts Feb. 1

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2411549

If you haven't yet, please call your U.S. Representative toll-free @ 800-426-8073 until the February 1 vote.