Posted on 04/05/2009 5:12:56 AM PDT by grimalkin
Prayers for you and family cookiedough. You are very determined.
When I read your comment, I immediately thought of the old Budweiser commercial with the frogs. Bud-weis-er! I'd love to see a GOP ad featuring sheep saying O-Baaaa-Maa!! But I doubt the GOP would have the balls to portray the people who voted for Obama as sheep.
The government already has built-in help out there — but — (and this is the real big “catch” here), that help does not allow you to live at a previously accustomed “high life style” from a formerly high-paying job.
The help will be so that you can “live” — and live in a very low and unaccustomed lifestyle. So, the help is there, it’s just not at your former lifestyle...
I understand exactly what you’re talking about and the problems that you and your family are going through. And you’re right, these kinds of problems are not always the problem of the people themselves. There are outside circumstances that are beyond the control of the people involved, no matter what they may do or can do or have within their abilities to affect, one way or another.
It’s a troubling time for many and there are also many people who don’t seem to realize that (as long as they, themselves are still doing okay, they think everyone else should be too...).
I think what is going on, overall in this country (and around the world) is a judgement of God, and that it will also affect a lot of Christians in the process. This is what does happen with “corporate judgments” of God, upon a nation. It does spill over and affect others, very widely, even those who didn’t have anything to do with the causes of the judgement.
I’ve had to adjust, too, but it’s been a bit easier for me, since I don’t have a big family to take care of now, at my age. They’re grown up now and having to deal with this stuff on their own, having been doing that for quite a while now.
And yes, it’s troubling to see your young ones have to suffer through these troubling times...
There may be major adjustments to be made, but never give up on God showing the way, whatever way that is, that He wants to direct you to. He always has done that for me, in all circumstances, and He promises He will do that for any of those who are His.
These girls should be watching TVLand. A recently rerun Brady Bunch episode featured Jan Brady being elected “Most Popular”. She promised everything to everybody to get elected and then couldn’t/wouldn’t produce. She became quite arrogant based on her overwhelming victory. The backlash was devestating.
There are people who are deserving of public assistance, and if there was ever a time for that to be, for this person and her family, it would be now, in these very trying circumstances.
I wouldn’t advise going for separation. That’s just not right, at all. There is public housing and Section 8 housing. I would try and apply for that. I would go to the local “Housing Authority” for your area and get in an application right away. But (and this may be “unfortunate” if it’s the case), you may find out that you don’t qualify for it, until you don’t have a home any longer. If that’s the case, then I would be ready to file immediately, if and when that becomes the case. I would start going down the list of agencies to help, start finding out who can help and what the offer in the way of help. I would start “lining up things” for that eventuality — as you seem to see this coming down the road, pretty soon (this being directed at “cookiedough” obviously)...
I would try to arrange for “temporary shelter” while you wait for a public housing application to be processed. If you’re homeless and have kids, you’ll be put “at the top of the list” for first consideration over all others. It may take one or two months, though, depending on the area you’re in and if there are enough available facilities.
Anyway, I would get to work on these things right away, so you’ll know the area and layout and terrain you have to “maneuver in” from now forward, since your circumstances are obviously changing now...
You were saying, cookiedough — I looked at the requirements for being able to get food stamps, figuring to save on the grocery bill and stash that money away — but we make too much money for that. Then one of my sons got the applications for the free lunch program at school — we don’t qualify — and I was mortified by that.
—
There happens to be an area of a “gap” from the completely destitute — to the level of income where people are making enough to get by comfortably. In this “gap” (between those two ends) — if you fall into it, you’ll find that you can’t get by, while at the same time, there is absolutely *no help* available for you at all.
It — unfortunately — turns out that the only hope for people who are in that “gap” — is to fall further down, until they reach the “full help available” to those who are in the very low end, which means you must then end up having no resources, no income, no-nothing — and then — you’ll find the “help” opens up very widely for you...
That seems to be the way it works. You’re not going to find that you can “save money” (unfortunately) by getting a bit of assistance “here and there” while you try to “work your way back out of it”. It seems that the “government help” only opens up when you are completely destitute... (and not to help you keep from getting to that point...)
I know that from working with and helping some other relatives through some trying circumstances of their own... and seeing what was involved in that.
Thank you for that post, you listed everything that I am struggling with. I’m over 50 and stuck in Los Angeles, with its crime, traffic, high cost of living, illegal aliens, etc., etc., etc. When people say, “Well, just move!” they don’t know what they’re saying! It’s not a simple thing to do.
You are so right. And, correct, too.
We (the formerly productive folks) are all up the creek or soon to be so. Making, or in the recent past having made, “too much” eliminates the non-preferred class from any benefits to refinance, get reduced school lunches, etc.
Not that we want it; we (or at least a lot of us) now need it. We will swallow our pride to care for our kids.
But, sorry, you chump, you made over 100 grand in 2007.
Everything zero does is calculated to redistribute wealth.
Everything. Those who call him stupid are incorrect. He knows precisely what he is doing.
Age discrimination is rampant in my field, as I suppose it is elsewhere. But, just as those over 50 and unemployed are totally screwed, so are the youngsters just entering the workforce with a debt that is close to impossible to imagine much less pay off.
Where is AARP?
Kidding.
I know where that leftist bunch is; it is busy adoring zero.
I am beginning to think that communes in rural areas will be the only hope for many of us.
As to helping our distressed FRiends, I’m all for it. I have a job for now, and could help. But how? I currently give about $500 a month to people I know need the help. That would be my retirement money, but they need help now. I never give to organized charities except for the Catholic Relief Fund, and I’m not Catholic. It’s only that the % of money with that organization actually going where it should is vastly superior to left wing greed-driven organs like United Way.
We are getting what we deserve as a body politic; Obama is a socialist and, in my opinion, he is an anti-American racist.
I fear for my children.
I will never forget going into a winn dixie to buy some peanut butter and oatmeal to feed the family. There was a 400 pound "lady" dressed in some kind of leopard skinned dress in front of me with a whole food cart filled with steak and pork chops and another cart fill with all her other stuff. She paid for it all with food stamps.
When I got outside I saw her loading her goodies into a new caddie. I was a young guy at the time and I just couldn't believe it.
What a story!
I remember seeing a large (I mean very overweight) family, no husband just mom and late teens and 20”s shopping with food stamps. they were all dress in leather jackets and nice clothes and shoes. Huge carts of food paid with food stamps but the cigarettes and beer were paid with cash. Loaded into a nice car as I remember. First time I ever saw any food stamps.
You said — “When I got outside I saw her loading her goodies into a new caddie. I was a young guy at the time and I just couldn’t believe it.”
—
Yeah, the lady probably had about six kids at home, for one thing, and that gave her a lot of food stamps. She didn’t have a home and was living in public housing, for another thing. The guy whose car she was driving, wasn’t married to her, and the kids weren’t his, and also he was a drug dealer, just living in the public housing (off the “record”, as the public housing wouldn’t let him live there in the first place). That’s probably the “scenario” that you saw...
A friend of mine, a woman in her 50s, divorced, has been making a decent income for several years buying vintage costume jewelry and reselling it on eBay. Even in this economy, she is clearing $500/week, after Paypal and ebay fees, packaging and item costs. She buys lots online, sorts it, prices it low unless she lucks out and there is some gold included. I think her average price is $2-$5/item and she has about 100 items listed at any one time. She has learned a lot and the price guides for vintage items are often in the library or you can browse them at antique malls.
Today, paper routes require a car and are done by adults. When my 45-year-old son has been in tough economic times, he has taken on one or two routes. Sometimes he subs for other people and that way, they will sub for him. Pay varies, but I think it can be up to $100/week. Right now he is temping in network administration for about $14/hr, but he has kept two paper routes just because he learned to never give up an income source if possible. He had his own programming business that died a year ago. He also joined a couple of those computer-repair-type networks, like Geek Squad and picked up income that way. His wife has some health issues, but she makes around $400/month doing the bookkeeping for her church and another $200 week working at a local convenience store part time. Both the church work and the convenience store have given her networking opportunities that lead to other part-time work. She is an expert knitter and has picked up work at yarn shops teaching others and finishing abandoned projects. This led to some work for her husband upgrading and customizing the stores’ computers and software.
Decades ago, during WWII, my mother picked up income by knitting baby booties and other baby clothing and selling it on consignment at various shops. I have known people who finish needlework projects, like chair seats, for those who suddenly find they don’t have the time. In the 70s, as a young mother, I made money after teaching myself to sew on a borrowed machine. I started out trading repair jobs for things like hair cuts and making clothing for us. I graduated to sewing for others who were looking for a bargain.
Our businesses have been erratic this past year. My husband has been able to put together his skills in woodworking and his love of sailing, along with an industrial sewing machine he picked up at a discount a couple of years ago for his own sailmaking projects. He has made a tiller for one person and is repairing a catamaran trampoline for another, at the moment. One job came from a friend at his sail club and the other from a guy he met online in a sailing forum. From all our years of self-employment, we are fairly confident these will lead to other jobs. Inventory your hobbies, tools and and skills and think outside the box. You may have opportunities you haven’t recognized.
For your boys, right now is the time to line up yardwork. They can work as a team, raking and perhaps doing weeding later on. If they lack the skills to identify weeds, get them started with some online learning now and show them what is what over the next two months. Teach them to wash windows and that is another skill that is in demand. Undercut the price being charged by the illegals.
Can they walk dogs? Can they offer to water plants and feed cats when people are away? Might only be a few dollars at at a time, but it adds up, gives them confidence and adds to their skill sets. You can teach them how to present themselves and even print out business cards and a price list to distribute to mailboxes. For a bit more of an investment, they can print up postcards and mail them to prospective customers. Keeping busy will help with their anxiety.
Have you discussed some sort of moratorium with your lender?
There are programs I read about to help people stay in their homes in these times.
Perhaps you can’t qualify for food stamps, but there are food pantries available to stretch your budget. There is a program called SHARE that just asks you to have done some community service in the past or to help out packing the food parcels at the SHARE site.
Can your kids take their lunches? My husband brown bags and it saves him $7/day. Fishing season is close. Get them their licenses and some second hand equipment and let them try to catch some food for the freezer.
You are blessed if you have family you can count on, even it is for taking the kids over the summer while you relocate. My problem with camping in Vermont is that there is probably little work up there, so it wouldn’t further your needs. But, if you could combine the camping with an internet business for the summer, with one parent staying with the kids while the other relocates for work opportunities, lives very cheap and sends money home to be saved, it could be a short term help.
Come check out the Midwest. South Dakota has relatively low unemployment in Sioux Falls, for example, and low cost of living. I have children there and if things get worse for us, it is an option we have considered.
Prayers for you all. We all fight fear right now, even those of us in a better position than you all are at the moment. My lifelong experience is that just when we are about to give up, God does provide. He is faithful, but you have to be out there actively looking for the opportunities He provides. It sounds like you are trying. Blessings and good luck.
Its something I will always remember because at the time I felt like a complete failure, no job and couldn’t even get foodstamps to feed the family. Lol, we got through it and I now understand exactly what was going on with that woman.
Cookiedough,
I would ask you to go back and carefully read my comments again. It clearly states that I don’t support callously setting those that have lost their jobs a drift, asking difficult questions is very much not synonymous with lacking compassion. In reality they are very much the same.
Getting to the point, the reporter (and to at least some extent the Deck family) is purposely making an information poor emotional appeal for national political action.
As for not leading others to wrongly “making assumptions”, wasn’t that the underlying point of my entire post? Indeed, very little information was presented in the article... Wasn’t the whole thrust of the story to lead us to an emotional conclusion? Isn’t posing rhetorical questions a valid means of discussing such a story?
Wishing that I don’t have to learn directly that bad things can happen to good people implies I lack compassion or even a sound world view. Living amongst third world poverty, witnessing war, sharing my life for the last 20 years with a wife that grew up in a civil war and wisdom from my grandparents that grew up during the Great Depression have ensured I would never be so vain to believe disaster couldn’t visit my family. But more importantly, I was taught not to play the role of an inactive victim. Many of the rhetorical questions for Mr. Deck came from the experiences of those I know and my own challenges.
Finally, there certainly are “little people” that did most everything right but are still getting hurt. But you are very mistaken if you believe there aren’t a very large number of “Ordinary Joes” that were just as greedy, inept, short sighted or immoral as some of those on Wall Street or in government. Rows of 2300 sq foot subdivision homes, Lexus cars bought with too good to be true loans, tourist boarding airplanes with tickets bought on credit cards, etc. are far from a figment of imagination and I assure you no one physical forced anyone to buy anything. (Heck, I’ll even admit my own gilt for helping to make the mess by making invests that I poorly understood.) Of course these “Ordinary Joes” also vote for politicians that promised them government checks, jobs, and other things we know can’t really be sustained. The government we have isn’t because we’re victims, it’s because we accept it. Probably the biggest lie being sold by Democrats (and yes even Republicans) is the infallibility of the common man.
Your parents will receive notice that the IRS wants to audit your father next week. </sarcasm>
Dear Lillian,
Yes Lillian, there is a Santa Clause, and I am he.
As for your father’s request: I would be quite happy to help him out of his current financial distress with the monies I have recently um... ah... redistributed from those evil wealthy folks.
First, however, I require that he and the other members of your family sign an err... uh... oath of fealty to me (see the enclosed document). Mail that back signed and without delay, and I will have you back on you feet within 4-8 weeks. I uhmmm...ehhh... promise.
Don’t lose hope!
Egomaniacally yours,
President Barack H. Teleprompter
I pity Obama’s grand children, for they will have to live with the subsequences of their fathers actions.
They are in love. He is in love with her because she is authentically 100% black, and she is in love with him because he has backers who have put him in a position of power and she gets to ride along.
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