All this talk about helping the FedWorkers brings home to me how many of us know ZERO about poors

[jodymarie aimee]

how poor people live...EVERY DAY...unemployment is half of regular salary.

And you can't just GET FoodStamps...you need a social worker and mucho documentation...3 months of bank statements, 3 months of pay stubs....ALL assets cannot be over $2,000....that includes home and automobile, stocks, etc...You cannot own more than $2Grand of assets...they will even ask you how much $$ you have in your wallet/purse...in the in person interview...and here in WI a single adult gets 49cents a day...

My people that I work for every day are poor disabled and elderly...they make from $4Grand -$15Grand a year. When they see these stories on the TV where folks are lamenting having to pawn jewelry or they can't go out to dinner for their Anniv...or their kid can't go to hockey....my people roll their eyes...

I wish my poors could go on TV 24 hrs a day...then Americans would see how it really is....their shutdown never ends...

[hlthe2b]

1. "poors"?

I appreciate the point you are trying to make and yes, many/ most Americans do not have a clue...

But, still, I cringe at that term. It just seems very disrespectful.

[demmiblue]

2. Same here ("my" too). n/t

[jodymarie aimee]

5. I have used poors in all my DEM work/letters for a decade

no one is offended....how they live is the shame, not a word...I have utmost respect and love for these folks

[cwydro]

11. Do THEY know you call them that?

One thing in “letters and Dem work” and another in person.

I used to work with the developmentally disabled. What would you call them? You know, in letters and stuff...

[OneGrassRoot]

6. I wish we'd inject "people" into descriptors...

I cringe when people say/write "blacks" and "gays" and "the homeless" and such. I cringed at "poors" just the same.

Adding the word people/person humanizes so much more, imo.

[Eko]

3. Never ending shutdown for them.

Grew up poor, my single mom raising us 3 kids. The middle class gets all the attention, the poor, never ending shutdown is perfect.

[shanny]

4. why the ever-loving eff should federal workers be unable to cope with a hit like this...

or anybody for that matter. WTF is wrong with our country when people with steady employment can't miss a paycheck? WTF is wrong with our country when ANYBODY can't cope with a $400 emergency?

Richest country in the history of the world and the best we can do is GoFundMe? And meantime the "poors" get NO consideration whatsoever. What.The.FUCK?

I'll say this: as beyond-belief horrific as rump is, he certainly is exposing the failings and fault lines of our greatest-evah country.

[Ferrets are Cool]

14. +1

[cwydro]

7. "Your poors" - wtf?

[blueinredohio]

8. It's kind of hard for me to feel sorry for them.

They know when this is over they will still have a job. I hired in at a job in 1978 in 1979 I was laid off for 5 years. Had to work for minimum wage which st that time was next to nothing and lost everything I had.

[Hortensis]

9. Being poor has become normal in America. Many who grew up in times

when even low-skill people could live on full-time pay have children who are poor adults needing their assistance in these times.

As for knowing about being poor, I was just remembering last night how as a child I used to curl up fully clothed and pull the covers tight over my head, tucking in all edges, so that my breath could help keep me warm all night. It was normal, as was hunger, though I don't really remember suffering. Children have acceptance of such things as long as they're not actually in pain. I was mostly treated kindly. so I was generally happy. For my mentally ill mom trying to take care of me, not so easy of course.

[sharedvalues]

10. And conservatives intentionally make it hard to get food stamps

Work requirements, pay stub requirements, bank statement requirements, other paperwork requirements, in person interview requirements—
All of these are INTENTIONALLY created by conservatives and their billionaire donors to make it hard for poor people to qualify.

Rightwing billionaires know that if they add those rules, fewer people use food stamps. The conservatives don’t care that the people dropping off the programs are the ones who can’t figure out the paperwork, or the ones who can’t get to an interview, and without family those poor people will get sick and die. Rightwing billionaires and their employees (like Seema Verma at Medicare/Medicaid) WANT to push poor people off the rolls.

It’s sick.

Here’s some discussion.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2018/09/10/more-signs-trumps-medicaid-work-rules-add-to-costs-and-bureaucracy/amp

And here’s Koch ally and granny-starver Seema Verma. For shame. Her parents should hang their heads for the grinding poverty their daughter brings. All to enrich billionaires.
https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/711x474/?fit=scale

[Lefta Dissenter]

12. Um, I get your point, but

“My poors?” They’re not your pets. I work for a bankruptcy attorney, and one thing I most appreciate about my boss is the respect he has for our clients. So I know the people you’re talking about, but I sure like to honor them as individuals and recognize their contributions to our society. They’re not “my” anything, except for “my clients” who deserve every ounce of dignity in this world.

[Meowmee]

13. We need a society

Where no one suffers this way, without a lunatic and fascists in charge. Many of the people involved are struggling suffering, they are going to food banks and can’t afford basic necessities. The longer it goes on the worse it will be for the economy.