Rich Men north of Richmond
- Thread starter msugrad2003
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Your posts seem to question everything (kinda devils advocate for posting sake) but you also seem to be lock step with a lot of media guide posts. It just caught me off guard seeing that quote from you and seeing your posts in the past.You really think I never heeded the message that media manipulates viewers and froths them up in order to generate more viewership and higher ratings?
How did you come to that conclusion?
I have a feeling that this is going to be some sort of meta analysis on your end where the joke is the joke or something like that.
I'm not sure they know what carried interest and capital gains are. I think they just see someone using an EBT card buying items not on sale, checking an expensive cell phone and leaving in a decent car because that happens and it is easy to understand why some legit consider that unfair. High finance and so many issues are too complicated. I have family who use "they" a lot when talking about America and who are causing most of the problems and they're not referring to a specific ethnic group. It's their favorite pronoun when they can't come up with something specific. They, my working class family, also get mad when you call Medicare a socialist program and not because they understand the technical meaning of socialism. "We paid for it" is what matters most to them as though taxes in Europe don't pay for their social welfare programs. They know socialism doesn't work, they think it refers largely to communism (it kinda does) but can't separate social welfare programs from the word "socialism." And thinking that non-working people living on the system is unfair is perfectly fine. I'm o.k. with paying people a certain amount to live and not live in my neighborhood. I like Europe's idea to put violent poor people in the suburbs so law-abiding citizens can enjoy those awesome cities without worrying about crime. Poor Europeans, btw, are taxed more than poor Americans. FYI, I once, briefly, qualified for food stamps back in the day. I was technically poor for a little while but I did have family who I knew would help if I ever really needed it. I'm a big fan of reducing the price people pay for college. College is a ticket to a much better life for a lot of people. Maybe put universities on the hook to some degree for student loans and stop allowing admins to enjoys salaries and benefits that put them in the top 1-5% of Americans.
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Eh, some mix in there. Maybe 50/50. A lot of working poor people aren't dumb, and they won't be working poor for too long. A lot of working poor people make far more than enough money to not be poor, but they blow all their money as soon as they have it. Dumb and bad with money aren't too closely correlated.
I think most people think they see this far more than they really do. But again, see "bad with money". They may see someone with a nice phone and car, but dont see that they live in a ********, or that they have 6 figure debt. And this view is of course inclulcated via propaganda.
I have taken in foster children. the system pays for their food via WIC, paid on an EBT-like card. I sometimes wonder how many people see me buying kids food or baby formula on an EBT card then bacon, beer, energy drinks, etc with my personal card while using my current gen smart phone and tsk tsk at another welfare queen.
Agree on the rest. Thats mostly why there's always a push to "means test" anything nice from govt, because then people will see it as "welfare" and be against it. Pete Buttigieg did this to student debt.
Jason Isbell has been writing similar songs about working class Americans and he's a great singer/songwriter although he can be self-righteous about it. His lyrics have addressed racial issues too and how America is a "white man's world." I've seen him a couple of times and his concerts are largely in a white man and woman's world because his fans are almost all white people. He also lives on a ranch in (near) Nashville so he still actually lives in a white man's world. He didn't hang a shingle in Jackson. I've often wondered how these working class heroes remain so when they become millionaires. I tried recently to get tix to a Tyler Childer's show and it sold out immediately. Didn't want to pay $250 from re-sellers. It's gotten so that these champions of the working class have ticket prices that poor and working class types have trouble paying for. Good for Tyler and Isbell, though. Both have been rewarded for being talented and they're written a lot of great songs.
That's an incredibly admirable thing to do. Our govt should provide a lot of assistance to people who do this.
In fairness, I don't know if European countries pulled the same scam with their public pensions where they pretended it was something other than the government transferring payments from the working to the elderly. I have a little bit of sympathy for that argument as the government and politicians were intentionally misleading about it, even calling it an "insurance" program and calling the difference between what has been paid in social security taxes and what has been paid out a "trust fund", as if there were assets there and the government didn't just spend the money as it came in.
Still, you should tell them they've only paid for it if they raised enough children into productive adults that their children's social security taxes and medicare taxes will exceed the amount of benefits they take. Anybody that hasn't done that is leaching off of other people.
Surprisingly, MS is fairly generous in financial assistance. Tater actually did some work here, though I cynically think it was to rebuff narratives around Dobbs. And medical too in my experience via Medicaid though I have heard of some gaps for therapeutic assistance for traumatized children. The beauracracy around the Medicaid "providers" seems to be a clear non-value add. There's multiple "providers" or "servicers" of the Medicaid benefits, and it jumps around. I've had siblings in care with different servicers for their Medicaid. The first month or two in particular until things settle out. One of the few things they tell the foster parents is absolutely refuse to sign anything in your name for medical. If the hospital insists, tell them to 17 off and make a scene if you have to. I had to do that once, but it was worth it as I saw all the bill demands flowing like political ads until it all got worked out. Don't want some idiot hospital administrator suing you because the county hasn't settled a bill yet and you signed to be responsible for all bills. They tried to pull me in but all I had to say is I don't owe you **** by law, call the county.
It's the systemic support that is generally lacking. CPS is criminally underfunded.
I think the answer is probably every person that has ever seen you doing that unless they are or know a foster parent. Only time I've ever been annoyed by SNAP was when I was younger and working crazy hours and was finishing up shopping where I had price compared every damn thing I bought and a guy using a combination of an EBT card and $100 bills bought a cart full of steaks and beer and name brand everything. I just assumed it was somebody working for cash under the table but I guess very easily could have been somebody with an older foster child. I was actually in your neck of the woods at the time; maybe it was you.
That's another pet peeve of mine (I get the sarcasm, btw). I think government should do some things without thinking they are a human right. Then again, good bacon makes life better.
I waffle on bacon more than maybe any other subject (no pun intended). I'll go through periods when I abstain from all pork, for ethical reasons.....but the gloriousness always pulls me back.
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