Posted on 11/11/2014 5:12:39 AM PST by Kaslin
Liberalism is for poor people who are content to stay poor. Conservatism is for poor people who want to make a better life for themselves.
I tell you that from experience because I have been poor.
Once in college, on a trip out of town, I slept in an elevator all night because I couldn’t afford to pay to share a room with friends and I was too proud to crash without paying. On another trip, I slept in my car the whole week-end and ate bags of apples and powdered doughnuts because they were cheap. Later on, I got so hard up for cash that I very seriously considered planned homelessness. I came very close to sleeping in my car for a couple of months so I could save up the rent money.
I also know what it’s like to get so broke that I had to live on a bag of potatoes and three for a dollar burritos for a week. I’ve driven around on brakes that squeaked like a piglet because I couldn’t afford the repair. I bounced a few checks in my early twenties because I had so little money. I’d only have 2-3 dollars extra in my account. Then, the bank would take out an unexpected small fee for some reason and suddenly, I owed the check AND a 20 dollar bounced check fee I couldn’t afford. When I first started doing volunteer work with the Republican Party in my early twenties, I was told that my clothes were too shabby and that unless I could wear a jacket, the officials didn’t want me to fill in at their local headquarters even though I was doing it for free. I quit going because I couldn’t afford to buy one. That turned me off to politics for years.
When I did get into really desperate straits, it never even crossed my mind to try to get government assistance. That being said, I did feel horribly embarrassed the handful of times I asked my own parents for help, usually during some sort of dire emergency where I needed enough money to keep the lights on until my next paycheck or to get my phone turned back on.
That was how I was taught. My father grew up in the Depression and he had to deal with a level of poverty that made me feel lucky, even when I had nothing. It’s hard to feel sorry for yourself when your father grew up thinking of peanut butter and soda pop as luxuries while he walked around with holes in his shoes and hoped his parents had the money to afford a haircut.
My father taught me to save my money, to never be ashamed of any honest job and avoid government handouts like the plague. Once when I was a teenager, he came to me and told me that we qualified for the school lunch program. He asked what I thought about it. I looked him straight in the eye and told him that if we didn’t have the money, then I’d rather just skip lunch from then on. I honestly don’t know if we really qualified for the program or if he was just testing me, but either way, he was pleased with my answer.
In the end, that’s why I’m not poor anymore. The government didn’t do it for me. God bless my parents, but they didn’t do it for me. With a little help from God, I did it myself.
I did all sorts of crummy jobs. I worked as a Walmart portrait studio photographer, I was an assistant manager at Burger King, I worked in a group home, I did day care, I laid sod -- I even worked at Barnes and Noble where, I kid you not, a manager threatened to fire me because I was TOO GOOD at doing announcements over the intercom (Don’t ask me; to this day I still don’t understand that). Eventually, I found a job doing Internet technical support and the managers didn’t care what I did when I wasn’t on a call. I took the job because it allowed me to work on my own website, Right Wing News, during the down time and then I worked for hours on it every night. I spent YEARS working at my job, working on my web page, getting 4-5 hours of sleep per night, and then getting up and doing it again. Finally, when the company laid me off, I was doing well enough that I was able to go full-time as a blogger. Last month, Right Wing News had more than 10 million visits and, yeah, I’m not poor anymore.
You want to get out of poverty? Well, start with this advice from Walter Williams.
"Here’s Williams’ roadmap out of poverty: Complete high school; get a job, any kind of a job; get married before having children; and be a law-abiding citizen. Among both black and white Americans so described, the poverty rate is in the single digits."
Of course, you can be above the poverty rate and still be living paycheck-to-paycheck. You want to get ahead? Get a second job if you can and put the money back. The feeling you have when you accumulate enough money in the bank to KNOW that you can cover a big car repair, a surprise medical bill or even a few months out of work will change your life.
You also shouldn’t take any big unnecessary risks. By that, I mean you have unprotected sex, drive drunk, or break into a house once and it can change the course of your life forever. While, we’re at it, don’t go $100,000 into debt getting a philosophy degree from a private school and then whine about how hard it is to pay it off. Everybody makes mistakes, but the consequences of a single big mistake can follow you for the rest of your life. Don’t ever forget that.
As to the government, the best thing it can do for poor Americans is to create the conditions that allow them to pull themselves out of poverty. Keep a business-friendly environment, low taxes and minimal debt so that the economy can continue to grow. Stop crime in its tracks so that the poor aren’t victimized and businesses feel comfortable moving into their neighborhoods. Provide good quality schools or better yet, vouchers so poor Americans can get the education they need to move ahead. Keep illegal aliens out of our country so that they don’t drive down wages and take jobs that should be held by Americans. Beyond that, the government should pave the roads, put up the street signs, maintain a police force, and stay out of everyone’s way as much as possible.
You might be poor because of bad luck, bad decisions or maybe because you’re young and haven’t had time to accumulate any skills or wealth, but you don’t have to stay poor in a country like America.
“Among children from families in the bottom fifth of the income distribution, 84 percent of those who go on to get a college degree will escape the bottom fifth, and 19 percent will make it all the way to the top fifth.”
Liberalism offers to make a lifetime in poverty a little more comfortable with welfare, food stamps, and handouts. Conservatism tells you to educate yourself, work hard, avoid big mistakes, save money, and treat handouts from the government like they cause a disease so you can leave poverty behind. The conservative course may ask more of you, but it’ll raise you out of poverty while delivering dignity, self-respect and self-reliance, which is something liberals in the government can never do for you.
and don't get sick. That's the number one cause for people who were OK falling into poverty.
Repeal minimum wage and start profiency pay aka “pro pay” with a profit sharing option . Work hard, get paid well. Make the employee realize they are working for themselves per se.... Win win for all IMO.
Small mom and pop cafe in my town where after operating costs are paid the pure profit is divided with 66% shared by the 4 full time employees. The owner gurrantees a 9$ a hour wage has really good people that have worked there for years. Place is small, clean, efficient and serves our small town well with breakfast and lunch in the cafe .
My opinion.....stay safe !
Rule One when posting about grammar, spelling or punctuation. Triple check that thing.
That's what they always claim, and for some it's true, but for some it's rather suspicious. I'm extremely suspicious of people "sank into poverty" because they had "depression" or "a bad back."
I might be a little cynical because I have a brother-in-law with a "bad back" that prevents him from keeping jobs but doesn't prevent him from all his hobbies, many of which are quite physical. I also notice that many people with "depression" can't focus on work but can focus on a complex video game for 6 hours straight.
Thank you for posting this.
If you want to eat you have to work. Tell this to the generational entitlement crowd
I wish I had the guts to forward this article to my Pastor.
We have had several able-bodied young men live on our campus over the years and have even gone so far as to remodel modular buildings into living quarters for these guys to live in without any requirement on their part to earn their keep or any admonition for them to straighten up and fly right.
In fact, we are remodeling another modular and bringing two trailers onto the property for parolees and/or homeless guys to live in.
I would appreciate any prayers for me to be able to say the right thing the right way to open my Pastor's eyes to see that we are not helping these guys improve their lives. We are just giving them a way to continue to be a drag on society.
Of course, that is The Plan: "Vote DEMOCRAT and we will take care of your needs!"...
2 Thessalonians 3
“6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.
7 For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you;
8 Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you:
9 Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.
10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.
12 Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
13 But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.
14 And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.
15 Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.”
During harvesting, a bit is left for future gleaning, where every last bit is harvested by the poor. Note that this gleaning amount is LEFT in the field for the poor to get for themselves. The field was not gleaned by the owner and then the produce simply turned over to idle poor. The poor were welcome to come and glean, but they had to do the work of gleaning themselves.
This is the model for Biblical charity for the poor.
Leviticus 19
“9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.
10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the Lord your God.”
Leviticus 23:22 “And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the Lord your God.”
Ruth 2
“6 And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, It is the Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab:
7 And she said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves: so she came, and hath continued even from the morning until now, that she tarried a little in the house.”
Jeremiah 49:9 “If grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough.”
What you told them is too SIMPLE for many people to understand, I am not joking, you have to complicate things for some people. I sold printing equipment for many years and I had a dealership on one add on attachment that was so simple that most of my customers never were able to grasp how it worked. They kept trying to tell me that it worked in some strange way that they imagined. It really is amazing to see people overlook the obvious and search diligently for a complicated solution to a very simple problem. Then when you realize you have done it yourself it really hits home. I’ll go away now but I could talk about this phenomenon all day, it is fascinating.
Thank you for the references. I will meditate upon them and pray for the Holy Spirit to inhabit my words when the time is right.
“...proper English punctuation and spelling.”
You are asking for something that is out of reach for many. College graduates, including many who post on FR, don’t understand the use of pronouns and or homonyms. Even advertising copy which I would expect to be written by people who have a command of language often contains errors which would have gotten me thrown out of a fifth grade English class. I have actually seen their, there and they’re all used incorrectly in one paragraph on FR and possibly even in one sentence. I have seen the same with your and you’re. I begin to wonder what kind of people are being hired to teach language now.
exactly... I keep trying to tell my wife this.. we had a 3 month period where we were buying $50 bottles of wine... that adds up when it’s 2 or 3 a week.
we put the kabosh on that habit.
simple math, spend less than you make, save or invest in something stable, the money that you do not spend.
oh yeah and get married... 2 incomes really help.
I'd add "Smile" to your list, but yep, other than that, it's spot on.
Amazing how so few people can manage to get over that low a bar. I trip over people all the time who can't accomplish your three rules in an interview.
They don't get a second chance for me to check them out on a daily basis.
Yes, you should say something. Last year and part of this year I was homeless (not destitute, but had no perm. home) and I rented a missionary apartment from my church. We negotiated a rent, which I paid on time and when I left, I made sure the apartment was so clean you could eat off the floors if you wanted. And I made sure the church staff got a thank you note and small gift to show my appreciation for their help. They told me that very rarely do they get thank-you’s from people that they help. I was stunned.
Liberals: Measure ‘compassion’ by how many people they can get onto welfare.
Conservatives: Measure compassion by how many don’t need welfare.
I'm glad you mentioned that. To me, that is the starting point. Keeping the room clean. Instead, we let these guys live like pigs. You people are encouraging me. Thank you.
You know, many people have to be trained from the ground up. If you guys have the time and the means, you might start with very small studios and if the inhabitants keep it clean for, say, 3 months, they earn a privilege, like cable tv or internet hook up. After 6 months of cleanliness, they can earn an upgrade to a bigger room, that sort of thing.
I've caught several guys in there cruising dating sites that feature Russian women, Asian women, etc.
When I bring it to the attention of one of the church leaders, nothing is done about it. In fact, they make excuses for the guys. It's weird.
If you don’t help your self no one else will so prove your self or live a lifetime in poverty.
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