i'm not a bush lover - wait - i am, but i don't like the bush family anyway. but little bush put in a child tax credit that was the best thing i ever seen. no matter what else, i will always be glad for that.

Even a blind man can hit the ball sometimes if he swings enough Moe...Compassion heals a lot of wounds...intolerance only creates them.

How 'bout a little historical context for accuracy with this quote: "Arbeit Macht Frei" was the German phrase placed in the iron gates controlling entry to Auschwitz (Auswiechem) in Poland. It translates to "Work Makes You Free". The context is that of the concentration camps - oder 'Konzentrationslager'.

With that in place, what comparison, exactly, is being made?

Really King?? Ive always taken you for such an intelligent poster...It means taking the "undesirables" Blame a failing economy on them...and herd them into unfit prison (camps) If mankind doesnt learn from history we are doomed to repeat our mistakes.

At the risk of belaboring the obvious, the Nazis didn't put 'welfare recipients' into the gas chambers and the ovens. They put Jews and what they deemed 'üntermenschen' into them ... the flawed historical analogy is, at best, less than tenuous ...

People don't seem to understand. When you get so poor that you cannot make very important choices due to a cash flow problem. Voluntary becomes mandatory and you end up being the victim of the situation.

Prisons were built to treat humans like animals. And now they want the poor to be treated like animals too.

I forgot to mention Americans are also extremely short sighted, think they are smarter than they really are and also have bad manners!

And yet you still recommend forced sterilization


I agree that drug tests should be mandatory; they are mandatory for most jobs now, it should be mandatory for assistance as well. In
regards to alchohol, until alchohol is made illegal, you and nobody else has a leg to stand on in saying that someone can or can not drink (so long as they are of age).

Now, before someone gets all huffy with me. Some may remember, others probably don't as I have been gone for a rather longtime.

I myself, am a single parent of two children, one of whom is being treated for severe behavoral and mental health conditions. At this time, he is medically incapable of being left in daycare, or even with family members for me to work. I have letters from several professionals stating that I am not to work outside of the home, unless he is in school. Needless to say I do not have a job at this point in time, and I am receiving assistance.

Because of the issues at hand, I am required to perform 8 hours a week community service. I am extremely lucky in that I am able to perform it at my family church which is two buildings down from my house. This also allows me to take my son with me during summer and winter vacations etc. when he is not in school. I could very easily get it so that I don't have to even do community service outside of school hours, but I don't; I do what I can.

In regards to finding work, I am in the process of starting my own business out of my house, over the internet. Will it work? I personally believe so, though I am not foolish enough to think I am going to come off of assistance instantly when I "open the doors" so to speak. Do I drink beer? Yes I do. I save soda cans and bottles (along with the beer), and I pick them up from the side of the road after those of you who are too lazy and disgusting to take care of your own trash. This is how I pay for my beer. And you know what? I only drink maybe 12 cans per month on average. My rent is paid in full every month; my utilities are paid in full every month. My fridge and freezer are kept fully stocked as are my cupboards. I do not own a vehicle, because after paying all my rent, utilities and getting food I do not have enough to keep insurance on the car.

But, with all of that said, you will find that I am not very different from the average person on assistance, other than the hardship of being unable to work away from home.

Back to the person I quoted: I am not judging you other than to applaud yo in the fact that you worked three jobs at one time when trying to get your feet back under yourself. I AM however telling YOU to not judge the rest of us who may not be ABLE to work three jobs. I am also telling you to your face (so to speak) that you need to learn that you do NOT have any right to tell someone they should be steralized for any reason, let alone because they don't have a 6 digit household income.

I agree that if they took the bars off, and turned unused prisons into more like a shelter, then yes it would be a good idea. But this Shelter needs to be just that; a shelter. People need to be able to come and go from their rooms as they need or want to, not be shut in and have the doors closed.

Nobody said to use derelict unsafe buildings. They suggested to renovate unused buildings. And the sad thing is that most states DO have empty prisons that are NOT unsafe, or unsanitary etc. These buildings are laying around unused, with tax dollars going to keep them in good repair but empty. I personally say, renovate them into shelters and go for it as long as it remains voluntary and not forced.

with all the prison overcrowding in every state, why are these prisons closed? i would think they would be unsuitable as prisons or they would be using them as prisons. i'm not for this idea, but i will try to keep an open mind.

these threads are sure proof positive of that,,,,pedantic bigots can be the most annoying

Our welfare system in itself is part of the problem. If POOR people have no incentive to work they won't. All those free government hand outs...

Most welfare recipients and recipients of Unemployment milk it to the very end. Look at the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.

I am sorry but poor people should not be having kids when they cannot support them.

If you want help there should be strings attached like mandatory drug testing. About 75% of welfare recipients are drug abusers currently.

How about all those azzholes with "Homeless and Hungry" signs? Tweakers and Smack addicts. If they really wanted help what the hell are they doing on the streets? the help is available but most offering help require no drugs. 90% of the bums walking around are HARD CORE drug addicts. the other 10% are mental cases who don't want help.

The ideal of the Declaration of independence to "Promote the general Welfare" has been blown so completely out of proportion! Welfare is to help, not lend a means of income to MILKERS!

My mom filed for Welfare in the 1970s and we were on it for four months when my mom was in between jobs and my dead beat Father was unemployed. Still my mom got off of Welfare when she could while others just ride it like a bicycle happily going to the welfare office every two weeks for their free government check. Back then the lines were FULL of black people. Granted there was one or two other white people in the lines but the whole building was full of black people back then in the Hawthorne office. I am not race bashing but this is an Observation I made as a kid back then.

When I was living in Northern California a lot of white folk up there are welfare recipients and many of them were total lazy milkers. My that was why the women up there liked me so much. I work for a living!

There are way too many milkers and way to much fraud in our welfare system.


How is it that some "Poor" people are being interviewed on the news and yet they have a 64" LG LCD TV, expensive furniture, and a PS 3 and a Nintendo Wii in the background? Where did they get the money to buy that **** when I can't afford it myself and I AM One of the poor? Hell I barely make $20K a year and I work my azz off!

I so badly want to say "fuque the poor" but I am not supposed to here!

If you are poor then it is time to get a job and stop whining! Don't want to flip burgers? Beats digging trenches. I do work others refuse to do so sorry but my sympathy well has run completely dry!


Labor camps? Maybe for prisoners! Criminal (Prisoner) rights is another issue I have MAJOR contention with. The poor just need to get off of their azzes and do something with themselves instead of vegetating in front of Big Screen TVs drinking cheap beer and stuffing their faces with Government cheese!

I love how people say 'get a job' like its a onesided thing


like 'take a bath'...lol


sure Ill go out there and grab up one of those millions of paychecks floating around


http://www.statemaster.com/graph/eco_wel_cas_tot_rec-economy-welfare-caseloads-total-recipients

five million currently on welfare

for those poor with numbers, thats a little over 1% of the population

now,, if there are five unemployed per job opening currently,

that means that only 20 percent of those looking have a job to just 'get'

and then, there is the minor detail of competition and educational and experience REQUIREMENTS..


oh , lets not forget little facts such as how the system is set up for at least 5% to be unemployed and how the majority on welfare are single moms trying to raise their children best they can because of FATHERS who do squat(where is the outrage from the public about THAT) or how welfare families have the same average number of children as anyone else or how small a part of the budget welfare for children is compared to welfare to corporations and big business


I dont condone laziness, but i dont condone broad assumptions and character judgements about how lazy or unwilling to work people are who dont happen to have traditional income

And this really is different than public housing how? Opening the door to an unused roof over someone's head is a bad thing? Does it make it any less dry than a public housing unit? And isn't it better than the woods?

to the first,no, to the second yes

public housing in many places isnt barred and has seperate exits for each home,,,

on the flip,, when I see the words 'consent' or 'volunteer' I take it as a personal decision,,,,

not the one for me,, but maybe others might find it reasonable for THEM

Am so very sure they would leave the bars and if its unused why not let it be used as a self suffiecienct facility......guarantee we're paying something on them anyways

Good question Moe...that was my understanding as well

You do not know the people I know. You evidently have not seen what I have seen.

There is work out there but I have physically been present to "That job is beneath me, I won't do it," and "But I would have to take less pay. I am better off on unemployment." I see and hear so much about what people will not do.

Hell, I got a friend who very well may be going to jail tonight for stealing from his own family and other friends I know and I was the one caught in the middle. Time and time again the slacker got jobs HANDED to him and he quits the next day becasue f every excuse under the sun and he blames everyone else. He is like millions of Americans of all colors who refuse to take responsibility for themselves. I resent getting sucked into this drama but hey, someone has to help rehabilitate the mess a friend of mine cause for every on e else around him. No one wants to be poor but how many of them are willing to do what it takes to not be poor.

I am doing work I do not want to do but my bills don't pay themselves.

This is America and I don't buy this whole "Poor People" BS. Either you spine up and get a job or quit bitching about how unfair life is. LIFE IS UNFAIR! People keep each other and themselves down. I am so sick and tired of all the excuses and finger pointing. in every direction other than to the source of the real problem, American's lack of personal accountability!

Poor people! FASH! I bust *** to make $20K a year and I can BARELY keep up at all! And yet am I here whining about where my welfare is? HELL NO.

If you are poor, GET A JOB!

Got a job that sucks? Look for a better job and quit whining!

Need training to get a better job? GO TO SCHOOL AND OPEN THE DAMN BOOKS THIS TIME! THERE ARE LOTS OF GRANT PROGRAMS TO HELP OUT!

Oh but making a life takes effort and sometimes the effort needed is greater than many are willing to give.

People need to GROW UP!