“… perhaps the worst part of being poor is the continuous, soul-eating fear and worry. If anything, anything at all, goes wrong, a relatively minor illness, a broken down car, or any other unexpected emergency, you're toast, because you have no margin for error. Being poor means facing potential disaster every day.”

I’ve never seen it described better, Jeff.

Coming in late to this thread, it’s really fascinating to see all the opinions from people who have never been poor, who simply don’t have a clue. They don’t understand the domino effect of poverty, either. You can’t afford the internet to find a job, but you can’t afford the gas to go to individual businesses, and you can’t afford to do blind mailings at $0.44 per envelope, even if you could afford to get a new printer cartridge for $75. The car is still running (barely), but you can’t afford insurance on it; it gets you to your low-pay driving job, but if you have an accident, your license will be revoked for not having insurance, and lack of a license will also cause you to lose your job.

Employers just want young, dumb and cheap, and then complain that they can’t/don’t do anything. Some want trained and cheap, and then complain that nobody has those two particular assets.

So you think you don’t need a phone? Well, in the real world, employers won’t hire you if they can’t get in touch with you. Even a fast-food joint wants people who will be available on short notice when someone else is sick or quits or is fired.

Want to get a CDL? How do you intend to pay for it? Check with the trucking companies first – nobody is hiring, most of their rigs are parked, some companies are going under. If they aren’t hiring, they’re not giving away free training.

Start your own company? State license, county license, city license, register the name. Insurance? Bond? Business bank account? All cost money. Going to start a business without money? You need money to sell drugs on the street, why should anything else be different?

Got a line on a job? The competition can easily be 300-500 or more. Got long hair, big boobs and a cute butt? Maybe you’ve got a chance. Is the guy doing the hiring the 26-yr-old manager, and you’re 40? Forget it, because he sees you as a threat: you probably know more than he does, or he’s afraid you’ll try to tell him what to do. Back to young, dumb and cheap – they’re less threatening.

Got a line on a job out of town, but your car is pretty decrepit? You can’t get it repaired until you have some money coming in, and you can’t make the money if it breaks down.

A black man I once met said welfare is designed not to help, but to keep people in their place. He said the illusion of getting something for nothing is very powerful. I’ve never seen any indications that he was wrong. Native Americans mouthing tribal pride with their hands out are no threat to the government. Black people on welfare demanding their rights are just hot air, also no threat. Whites breeding like rabbits to increase their monthly assistance checks are hardly anything that government is going to worry about. Raise taxes a little and give them an extra five bucks and pat them on their little heads, and they’ll shut up.

But we don’t give welfare just to individuals. We have an enormous amount of money being paid out to businesses that don’t need it, but they’re getting it. It’s often referred to as “corporate welfare” ($92 billion in 2006, you know how much in 2009). We are subsidizing the growing of corn, wheat, sugar, milk, cotton, rice, and soybeans. We subsidize the tobacco industry and the tobacco-damage industry. We subsidize the oil/gasoline industry and paper mills. We subsidize Amtrak, Boeing, Xerox, Archer Daniels Midland, IBM, Motorola, Monsanto, Dow Chemical, General Electric and others. Despite the fact that all those companies are making record profits, money is still being taken from low- and mid-income people and given to these huge companies.

The little people aren't poor enough yet, raise the taxes so the funds can be passed on to big business.

Isn’t it great to have “cheap” food (heavily subsidized) that is paid for at the grocery store and again through federal taxes? Isn’t it great to shop for “cheap” goods that are paid for with outsourced jobs and slave labor? Isn’t great to have “free” education that doesn’t really educate?

Cheap and free, aren’t.

Sue