Being Raised,Brought Up...A Real AMERICAN!!!!!

[ConfederateSS]

------What it ment to be A REAL AMERICAN
---------Now in the Century Everyone now a day hates ...The 19th Century...You know...When Americans...Built America... People would come from all over the World...Not for Free Entitled Health Care,Schooling,Free Shit,Free Shit...They Didn't have 15 kids...For 15 check handouts by the Government....They had 15 kids,because ,9 would die...As they eeked out a Life, farming Rock and Dirt...On The Prairie...Or Ranching, Horses or cattle....
-------Or Walking from St.Louis The Gateway to the West...To Oregon,Santa Fe, Or California...Or The Irish from the East,other Europeans,and Africans...Or Asians from West...As they Built the Trans, Continental Railroad...Or Spanish/Mexicans who came or were in The Southwest,Along with Native Americans trying to hold onto a way of life...
----------Back to the Gateway...New Americans would head west... Disease,Indian Attack,Drought, Famine,Blizzards, Scorching Heat....They didn't complain,Take handouts...They Marched on!!!....Bible ,Fist ,and Gun, That's How The West Was Won...Built The Greatest Country the World has Ever known...
---------This Place,America,The Promise Land!!!...has Everything but population...Sister,pack up your washboard....
----------Get my Bible and my Banjo...Get me a gun that won't rust...
----------Get me the Best Mule in Missouri...It's California or BUST!!!
----------Get me behind me Mississippi....It's California or BUST!!!!
----------Out of my way , you blasted Rockies...It's California or BUST!!!
------------That was the American Spirit...Not gimme Health Care,Hold my Hand U.S.Government,gimme free shit,I am entitled to free this,free that...In the 19th Century!!!!!

--------My parents grew up in the Great Depression as kids...They raise us, like they were raised....All the kids would have chicken pox,measles, mumps...We would still go outside and play together in the summer time... Because we all had that stuff...We were not locked down...
---------In the summer during storms, afterwards...My Father would get us, we would get a couple of wagons...Handsaws hatchets,an axe...We would walk around,like 30 blocks...Look for fallen limbs,trees,etc...Chop them up...Put the wood in the wagons...Make 10,20 trips back and forth...As people would laugh at us...Early on Getting laughed at ,year after year...As we were walking,Yes,even in school...But I began to understand why my Father had us gather and store wood, next to the garage,in the garage,under the back part of the house,sunparlor,next to the house,in the basement...We had a fire place...He kept the heat seat at 55/60 degrees F...Not for us,but to keep the pipes from freezing...Our living room was huge...We made a smaller room in a room with a make shift tent,So the fire place...just had to heat a small area....We didn't freeze in the Wintertime...
---------Kids in the neighborhood played baseball and strikeout ,a form off baseball all the time,10 in the morning to 10 at night....A few years later...Some of the kids were drug dealers and gang members...I road my bike everywhere...Made a few dollars working in the family store in Corktown by Old Tiger Stadium....
---------So ,one day I was walking around my block, the next block...Seen some of my friends...I said ,Hey do you guys want to play some strikeout...Up at Beard School,(Where Senator and Rep...Sandy and Carl Levin went as kids)...They said ,we can't,let's play behind the house next store...Now in their backyard were 2 BMWs and 1 Benz...Brand new...They have Kool clothes and gold chains....We played a couple of games of strikeout...As I was walking to the corner store in my neighborhood....I was thinking what I told them when we were playing ball...You guys have all this stuff,money...But you can't go anywhere...They would be shot by rival gangs or drug dealers, or arrested by the cops...If we played at Beard School...I am Happy having a little money...Free to go where ever I want... ...
------------Today, after being brought up...Doing things with my own two hands and two feet...Not being materialistic,Taking care of myself,Health wise,GOD and myself...I can gladly tell The U.S. Government....Shove your pathetic bribes...to get a shot made by science , not GOD...Up the Government's ass....The shot doesn't make you immortal...What everyone who gets it must think...Maybe if more people had the Spirit of 19th Century and were raised not to take hand outs from the government...think health care is a right of entitlement... America would be a more greater and wonderful place than it is today...As Duk would say...FULL of FREELOADERS...But Duk...Most of the freeloaders are Democrats...the LEFT...Because ,it is the Democratic Party, who gives free shit to people for votes and to control their voting puppets...
-----------If more people put their trust in GOD...No,you are not going to live forever....But ,your faith in GOD...Going to HIS Kingdom...takes away the fear of dying...Knowing we will be with HIM in HIS Kingdom, when the time comes... ConfederateSS.out!(The Blue and Silver Rebellion)...

[DirtyDishSoap]

[HitRed]

God, thank you for second chances.

[ConfederateSS]

-----Duk, my answer is from 2 dimes...Flu shot thread... ConfederateSS.out!(The Blue and Silver Rebellion)...

[bigtoughralf]

lol the good old migration of Africans to the USA during the 19th century

[jusplay4fun]

lol the good old migration of Africans to the USA during the 19th century

No, ralf, you AGAIN missed the point. There was no such implication made in ConfSS opening remarks. In your twisted view of America, you may have ASSUMED so, but, as usual, YOU ARE WRONG.

The Great Migration, sometimes known as the Great Northward Migration or the Black Migration, was the movement of six million African Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest and West that occurred between 1916 and 1970.[1] It was caused primarily by the poor economic conditions as well as the prevalent racial segregation and discrimination in the Southern states where Jim Crow laws were upheld.[2][3] The historic change brought by the migration was amplified because the migrants, for the most part, moved to the then-largest cities in the United States (New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.) at a time when those cities had a central cultural, social, political, and economic influence over the United States.[4] There, African Americans established influential communities of their own

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Migration_(African_American)#:~:text=The%20Great%20Migration%2C%20sometimes%20known,occurred%20between%201916%20and%201970.

[hotfire]

Actually, people moved to America to get 40 or 80 acres of Farmland for free from the Government, as a sort of handout you might even say.

[DirtyDishSoap]

Honestly, OP just proves why i really despise him and the rest of these really idiotic hicks that remain in our society. Like...a vacuum that sucks up the smart and dumps their stupid bullshit on everyone else, making whoever (thank f*ck it has been absolutely no one in CC, ever) dumber for even acknowledging said bullshit


I got news for you, Confed. You're a sorry sack of garbage thats been brainwashed by f*ck knows what, and your shittu way of thinking will soon die off within the middle if not the end of this century.
I take comfort no one listens to your shit.
Your cause is hopeless and no one here gives a f*ck about your dumb way of life that no one even in the last century lived.
You're as delusional as Saxi and his ratings. It's just outright awful and the fact you've been told this by and large over years and years and you still remain this fucking brain dead is staggering.

If i could, id beat your car to death with a tire iron. But legally i can't.

Joe Biden is a better American than you.

[jusplay4fun]

Actually, people moved to America to get 40 or 80 acres of Farmland for free from the Government, as a sort of handout you might even say.

But once they got their "handout" they did not sit on their front porch waiting for the next "gob-ment" check (or next handout or EBT benefits). They actually worked to raise crops and domesticated animals. The handout of land was meant to encourage settlers to the Prairies and Plains. This was part of the Jeffersonian ideal of Democracy, to have a region of farmers who owned and cared for their own land.

Jeffersonian democracy, named after its advocate Thomas Jefferson, was one of two dominant political outlooks and movements in the United States from the 1790s to the 1820s. The Jeffersonians were deeply committed to American republicanism, which meant opposition to what they considered to be artificial aristocracy, opposition to corruption, and insistence on virtue, with a priority for the "yeoman farmer", "planters", and the "plain folk".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffersonian_democracy#Westward_expansion

The Homestead Act and the Populating of the Great Plains
In 1862, at the height of the US Civil War, Abraham Lincoln took advantage of the absence of the slave-owning southern states to sign into law the Homestead Act of 1862. This revolutionary act opened up huge amounts land in the American Great Plains to private settlement. As a result of this act, 270 million acres of land was claimed and settled. Under the act, if someone was either the head of a household or at least 21 years of age, they could claim a 160 acre parcel of land. Once claiming the land, the homesteaders had the responsibility of building a home and farming the land for 5 years before they could “prove up,” or take the land officially. This may sound easy, but it took its toll on many a settler that tried it. The immigrants that lived these lives provided their families with volumes of stories about the difficult life of settling these western lands. Watch the videos below to learn about some of these settler immigrants. Think about the stories they told and the struggles they went through as you watch.

https://vpm.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/social-studies-005-mg-r1-grades-2-5/european-emigration-to-the-us-18711880s/

[ConfederateSS]

-----------Big Raf....outside of the fact that Africans conquered and sold other Africans to The British who brought them to The Americas...The British Screwed the whole world up...The Sun never sets on the British Empire...A curse, as The trouble in the Middle East, mostly caused by the British after WW 1...
-------------As for the West...Those who went on land rushes...Like The Oklahoma Sooners...Once you staked out your land...what you had to run to yourself...If after so many years...If you didn't work the land...The Government would take it back,even if you paid your taxes...Put it back as public domain...That was separate from... Taking the land back from back taxes...Most of the People who went to California, walked with wagon trains, had their own money to make a new start...not land grants...
---------------The point you missed...Big Raf...Was The American Spirit...The one that kicked Britian's ass,To become the Greatest Nation the world has ever known...Saved Britian's ass twice from speaking German...The American Spirit that was hard work and faith in GOD...Not entitled health care and paid by the government not to work...That is before the Covid pandemic...Now it is 1,000 times worse...Idle hands are the devil's workshop...As for Law...I am all for Frontier Justice...The Left Liberal D.A..'s...Let the criminals back on the street...To commit even more horrible crimes...
----------------...Back to basics as far as Society, Hard Work and Faith in GOD...Support your country, not Your country supports you...... ConfederateSS.out!(The Blue and Silver Rebellion)...

[riskllama]

[Dukasaur]

But once they got their "handout" they did not sit on their front porch waiting for the next "gob-ment" check (or next handout or EBT benefits).

How many people have you actually met that sit on their porch waiting for a handout? There are some, for sure, but it’s a tiny percentage of the total.

The overwhelming majority of the poor work for a living, and simply don’t make enough money for a reasonable standard of living.

There are many reasons, but most of them are intentional policies by the ruling class. For instance, in many places workers will qualify for dental benefits if they work 25 hours a week. In order to prevent employees from qualifying, managers will deliberately schedule workers for 24 hours a week, ensuring that they’ll never qualify for dental benefits, never qualify for a pension plan, never qualify for regular raises, etc., etc., etc.

Workers often have to work multiple part-time jobs just to pay their basic bills. They face multiple hits — not only do they never have benefit and have to go into debt if they need dental work, but they also absorb extra commuting costs and the general poor standard of living that comes with working erratic and unpredictable hours.

The vision of armies of freeloaders is a right-wing myth. I’ve been poor most of my life and I’ve known a lot of poor people. For every intentional freeloader that I’ve met, I’ve met half a dozen people busting their ass to get ahead and never quite making it.

[mookiemcgee]

Totally not a racist Mitch McConnel says voting rights aren't an issue, because if you look at statistics African Americans are voting just as much as (real) Americans (like Confed and Mitch)...

Is this the voter fraud you guys have been harping about since Nov? the fact that fake americans (reads african americans) were voting and therefore a fraud was perpetrated against (real) US voters?

https://www.wlky.com/article/mitch-mcco ... s/38829280

[ConfederateSS]

-------- Slavery was The African Americans ticket to America...In the 17th through 19 Cens...Everyone has been a slave at some point ,some where some time throughout history... Everyone!!!....The Irish were treated like slaves,Asians,but most the Chinese...The Mexicans by Mexican and French officials...Others have punched their tickets of hardship to The USA...Do you think any American would have it be different...Be born in Africa in The 21st Century...People Today try their hardest to flock to The USA...Africa and all other parts of The WORLD... Everyone here has a chance IN 2022 A.D.,by the power of their own two hands to make it in America if they try and work hard... EVERYONE
-------- There are slaves and slave labor even today...Renamed it Human Trafficking....Or let's stick to slave Labor, how much shit do you have to make you life easier around your house...Made overseas by slaves...You might want to get down off your high horses...Yeah, that's what I thought...
--------As for the Oldest Participatory Democracy today in the World!!!...Want to guess what form of Government it is...Confederation...The American Indian Confederacy...founded in 1142 A.D....Take that 1619 project...Why is that important...Let us see...The Articles of Confederation ,the Founding Constitution of The USA ,came from them...Later The U.S. Constitution that replaced the Articles of Confederation ,was frame worked by Ben Franklin after The Great Law of Peace of The American Indian Confederacy...
--------The The CSA adopted the Articles of Confederation ,that came from The American Indian Confederacy...Indian tribes would ally with The Confederate States of America....Blacks would fight for the CSA... Mexicans would come from Mexico to fight for The CSA, Irish from Ireland would come and Fight for the CSA...Along with others,all fighting for their own reasons,most because The North was in The South's backyard...After The War Between The States...People went West,my people came North in search of work not handouts,my people can be anybody...AMERICAN... AMERICAN ...... ConfederateSS.out!(The Blue and Silver Rebellion)... ...I use to have a picture of my 2 daughters as my avatar...MagnousGreeol commented on them...On the 6th (3rd from the back) page on my wall...MG knows what my family looks like,or anyone who remembers them...
----------REAL AMERICAN ,HARD WORKING...Mookie,not one who is A new,not Real American...A new,money,health care dependent on others...new American ...I bet you shoved that Obama stimulus money ,Trump/Biden Covid stimulus money up your ass...Not me,I never claimed,asked any of that government bribes,the government can keep it's money...I like my self-respect ...It is not for sale...

[jusplay4fun]

I do not keep stats on how many are "on welfare." There may not be

armies of freeloaders

but there are certainly many who get some or many forms of government assistance. And yes, many work several jobs (over time) to try to keep up and pay bills.

There are many types of "welfare" and public handouts: rent, School Lunch, EBT (formerly "Food Stamps"), SSDI and AFDC (for Dependent Children, unless that name has also changed), Medicaid, unemployment, WIC, and likely more. There are some state programs, I do not know some of them, I am sure. (After proofing this, I recalled WIC and realized that I forgot to include unemployment benefits.)

I know that in certain communities, a HUGE percentage of students get Free and/or Reduced Lunches in the School Lunch program. I am talking about at or near 80-90% in some areas. (I did research this and my stats are verified by USDA stats online when I researched it around 2018.

Many get disability checks because they are disabled due to...name it, actually physically disabled, old, and many are MENTAL, and many are addicted to drugs or alcohol or both (and/or have mental issues, too). Many are those I saw at the high school who were labeled Special Ed and had learning problems.

I see SOME at the Food Pantry (or food bank) where I volunteer. I see them when I go to my Church to do Church business. They come looking for a handout, assistance, money for ....car tires (TODAY), rent, etc.

I would get panhandle requests about once a month when I would go buy coffee at a popular nearby convenience store in the evening BEFORE I go back to school to work after 7:30 PM (before I retired because I now do not want to work 50-65 hours per week and I could retire. COVID is not the reason I retired.) I learned to avoid walking near their hangout spot to avoid the requests. As another example, I got panhandled by the same guy (I am sure) at the Food Pantry and after Church service within about 2 weeks.

I know a police officer who would show up at a scene, take statements, and nearly all there (at a low income area, such as a hotel or seedy trailer park) do NOT work (part of his report) and were instead waiting for their monthly benefits check. That is how they get money for food (in addition to EBT), rent (and they likely get some rent assistance, too), cigarettes, and other things.

Now to be fair, before COVID and when I helped feed the poor and hungry and needy ) I saw them and many were indeed disabled, a few in a wheel chair. Many were working poor. Most were elderly; I assume that most of them do not pay income tax.

Now, some stats:

47 % (and now 44%) of adults do not pay income tax. That means, in most cases, they are not employed and are VERY LIKELY are getting some kind of government benefit checks. Again, to be fair, many are elderly. The article below says so. BUT why are there so many job openings? Many have learned to NOT work and have become dependent on the government checks instead. Many are or were working SINGLE Moms. Some quit a job and want to job where they can work from home.

Just say the number 47 percent and many people know exactly what you are talking about: It was the calculation that the Tax Policy Center did a decade ago of the share of people who pay no federal income tax. At least among tax and political geeks, the number became the numerical equivalent of those celebrities who are so famous that only their first names are necessary: Sort of the LeBron of tax policy.

For some, the number came to symbolize a class of entitled takers who lived their lives getting government benefits while contributing nothing to society. They were this century’s version of Ronald Reagan’s welfare queens. That never was who the 47 percent were (after all, nearly all of them did pay some taxes). But the implication was clear.

Age and non-payers

Now, Don Fullerton of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Nirupama Rao of the University of Michigan have taken a deeper dive into the 47 percent (now 44 percent according to TPC estimates)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/howardgleckman/2019/08/06/remember-the-47-percent-who-pay-no-income-taxes-they-are-not-who-you-think/?sh=4e3408f847d7 2019 article; please read

Introduction
Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), an integral part of Social Security, provides modest but vital benefits to workers who can no longer support themselves due to a serious and long-lasting medical impairment. The Social Security Administration (SSA) administers SSDI.

Some 8.2 million people receive disabled-worker benefits from Social Security. Payments also go to some of their family members: 104,000 spouses and 1.4 million children. [NOTE: close to 10 million]

SSDI benefits are financed primarily by part of the Social Security payroll tax and totaled about $145 billion in 2019.

https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/social-security-disability-insurance-0

You can avoid poverty by:
Graduating from high school.
Waiting to get married until after 21 and do not have children till after being married.
Having a full-time job.

More of the article [btw: 2012]:
Thanks to the Great Recession, poverty in America has increased in recent years.

So what are the best ways to avoid falling into poverty?

The Brookings Institution has spent a great deal of effort studying this issue.

And presidential candidate Rick Santorum has been quoting their findings on the campaign trail.

Brookings whittled down a lot of analysis into three simple rules. You can avoid poverty by:

1. Graduating from high school.

2. Waiting to get married until after 21 and do not have children till after being married.

3. Having a full-time job.

If you do all those three things, your chance of falling into poverty is just 2 percent. Meanwhile, you'll have a 74 percent chance of being in the middle class.

Applies to everyone

These rules apply to all races and ethnic groups. Breaking these rules is becoming more commonplace, unfortunately, for all racial groups.

[DirtyDishSoap]

-------- Slavery was The African Americans ticket to America...In the 17th through 19 Cens...Everyone has been a slave at some point ,some where some time throughout history... Everyone!!!....The Irish were treated like slaves,Asians,but most the Chinese...The Mexicans by Mexican and French officials...Others have punched their tickets of hardship to The USA...Do you think any American would have it be different...Be born in Africa in The 21st Century...People Today try their hardest to flock to The USA...Africa and all other parts of The WORLD... Everyone here has a chance IN 2022 A.D.,by the power of their own two hands to make it in America if they try and work hard... EVERYONE
-------- There are slaves and slave labor even today...Renamed it Human Trafficking....Or let's stick to slave Labor, how much shit do you have to make you life easier around your house...Made overseas by slaves...You might want to get down off your high horses...Yeah, that's what I thought...
--------As for the Oldest Participatory Democracy today in the World!!!...Want to guess what form of Government it is...Confederation...The American Indian Confederacy...founded in 1142 A.D....Take that 1619 project...Why is that important...Let us see...The Articles of Confederation ,the Founding Constitution of The USA ,came from them...Later The U.S. Constitution that replaced the Articles of Confederation ,was frame worked by Ben Franklin after The Great Law of Peace of The American Indian Confederacy...
--------The The CSA adopted the Articles of Confederation ,that came from The American Indian Confederacy...Indian tribes would ally with The Confederate States of America....Blacks would fight for the CSA... Mexicans would come from Mexico to fight for The CSA, Irish from Ireland would come and Fight for the CSA...Along with others,all fighting for their own reasons,most because The North was in The South's backyard...After The War Between The States...People went West,my people came North in search of work not handouts,my people can be anybody...AMERICAN... AMERICAN ...... ConfederateSS.out!(The Blue and Silver Rebellion)... ...I use to have a picture of my 2 daughters as my avatar...MagnousGreeol commented on them...On the 6th (3rd from the back) page on my wall...MG knows what my family looks like,or anyone who remembers them...
----------REAL AMERICAN ,HARD WORKING...Mookie,not one who is A new,not Real American...A new,money,health care dependent on others...new American ...I bet you shoved that Obama stimulus money ,Trump/Biden Covid stimulus money up your ass...Not me,I never claimed,asked any of that government bribes,the government can keep it's money...I like my self-respect ...It is not for sale...

[jusplay4fun]

I thought for a minute that ConfSS learned to post a video link. NO, we cannot have THAT much change or learning here in the CC Forum. IF that were to happen, there would be 10 inches of snow in July in Miami, Florida.

[Evil Semp]

What about corporate entitlement? The TCJA gave gave a 40% tax cut to corporations. The rate went from 35% to 21%. The corporate tax cuts are permanent while the individual tax cuts expire in 2025. 91 companies in the fortune 500 did not pay any federal tax in 2018.

Food stamps are an entitlement program that also helps corporations. The pay is low or the workers don't get enough hours so the qualify for the entitlement programs and the companies benefit.

Are there people out there who would sit on the porch waiting for the check to come in the mail? Yes there are. Are there companies out there who gladly take advantage of the entitlement programs that the government offers? You can bet there are.

Why is it always the individual that gets the blame for gaming the system but you let the companies off scot free?

Why not try to fix the problems? Cutting funding for food stamps doesn't fix the problem. IMO if they fix the problems it will pay for itself.

https://www.americanprogress.org/articl ... g-winners/
https://itep.org/corporate-tax-avoidanc ... law/#intro
https://www.investopedia.com/taxes/how- ... fects-you/

[jusplay4fun]

What about corporate entitlement? The TCJA gave gave a 40% tax cut to corporations. The rate went from 35% to 21%. The corporate tax cuts are permanent while the individual tax cuts expire in 2025. 91 companies in the fortune 500 did not pay any federal tax in 2018.

Food stamps are an entitlement program that also helps corporations. The pay is low or the workers don't get enough hours so the qualify for the entitlement programs and the companies benefit.

Are there people out there who would sit on the porch waiting for the check to come in the mail? Yes there are. Are there companies out there who gladly take advantage of the entitlement programs that the government offers? You can bet there are.

Why is it always the individual that gets the blame for gaming the system but you let the companies off scot free?

Why not try to fix the problems? Cutting funding for food stamps doesn't fix the problem. IMO if they fix the problems it will pay for itself.

https://www.americanprogress.org/articl ... g-winners/
https://itep.org/corporate-tax-avoidanc ... law/#intro
https://www.investopedia.com/taxes/how- ... fects-you/

So what solution do you offer to end poverty, ES? increase corporate tax? How does that help?

I say the poor need to take more responsibility to get themselves out of poverty and not depend on the government. And increasing government benefits MAY help in the short term, but also makes the poor even more dependent on the government in the long term. We tried that already; it is called The Great Society by LBJ. Where did that get us?

I already posted this and the ideas went unaddressed by ES:

You can avoid poverty by:
Graduating from high school.
Waiting to get married until after 21 and do not have children till after being married.
Having a full-time job.

I will argue that many of the poor do not do all 3, so their PERSONAL choices and their lack of educational achievement leads to them ending up in poverty. What happened to personal responsibility? Does the government have to insure that everyone ACHIEVES equity? by doing little to help themselves? If a student does not try to help themselves by learning and graduating from high school, I have to PAY extra taxes (basically FOREVER) to be sure they, the poor, get FREE from the government (via my taxes): AFDC, EBT, rent assistance, Medicaid, SSDI, unemployment, and much more? Does this lead to less poverty? Less waiting for "gob-ment" checks by merely sitting on their porch and by doing nothing or little to help themselves?

That is how I see why

the individual that gets the blame

for being poor. Can they get out of poverty? To some extent, by helping themselves and getting jobs, no matter what the pay and no matter what the tasks. I think that Duk addressed this very issue earlier in a recent post.

Getting a job, especially for a man, is LARGELY a matter of pride and self-satisfaction, believing that he he assisting himself, his family, and society overall.

ES also said:

Food stamps are an entitlement program that also helps corporations. The pay is low or the workers don't get enough hours so the qualify for the entitlement programs and the companies benefit.

I disagree. It benefits corporations to keep people on "Food Stamps" (EBT or benefits)? This argument may apply to Medicaid, but not food benefits. As I said before, in my experience in helping the poor and needy, they are not starving. They may have trouble making ends meet. I will give one story that happened last week at the Food Pantry where I volunteer. Yes, it is only ONE story, but it illustrates my point. A grandmother came by for the first time in several months to claim food for 4 and not just the 2 (as normal, herself and her husband). Why? She (apparently) had not had the need for this extra food assistance in recent months UNTIL NOW. She had two grandchildren join her household for this month. She expects that this is short term and that may be so and I hope so for the sake of her grandchildren. And we may see her next month; that too is possible.

I have made some personal efforts to help the needy and not by merely giving a few bucks to a panhandler. The food given away at the local Food Pantry (or what some call a food bank) comes 1) directly by donations; 2) grant money for charitable foundations; and 3) government programs. And some at my Church, pre-COVID, have given free meals weekly to any poor person who showed up. I hope we can re-start this once COVID goes away (as much as we can likely expect). We also keep a food pantry at my church to help those in the short term. Since the federal government has been giving away LOTS of free stuff during COVID, we had few show up at the Food Pantry (until benefits begin to run out) and many fewer seeking emergency food donations at my Church. I know this as, in addition to my other volunteer work, I actually deliver donations from my Church collected weekly to the local Food Pantry.

I think the MAIN point ConfSS tries to make is that REAL Americans help themselves and do not depend on the government to help with nearly everything (food, rent, medical care, money for a few expenses, etc.). Unfortunately, he is neither succinct, cogent, nor grammatically correct in making most of his arguments. But his point is still VALID.

[Evil Semp]

My post wasn't about providing a solution to poverty. It was about people getting accused of being entitled but not the corporations.

You quoted me missing some key words. I finished the quote for you.

That is how I see why

the individual that gets the blame

for gaming the system but you let the companies off scot free?

I have to PAY extra taxes (basically FOREVER) to be sure they, the poor, get FREE from the government (via my taxes)

In 2018 how could a business a business that made $10 billion in profits and not pay any federal income tax. Maybe if these businesses paid their share you wouldn't have to pay extra taxes.

You can avoid poverty by:
Graduating from high school.
Waiting to get married until after 21 and do not have children till after being married.
Having a full-time job.

I can agree with graduating from high school.
I can't totally with waiting until you are 21 before getting married. How about waiting until you can afford to get married.
It sounds like religion saying don't have children until you are married. Again wait until you can afford to raise kids.
I again don't totally agree with this. Waiting until you have a full time job. Many places especially don't many full time positions. Those place complain they can't find help, but they don't pay well and don't hire full time.

I think the MAIN point ConfSS tries to make is that REAL Americans help themselves and do not depend on the government to help with nearly everything (food, rent, medical care, money for a few expenses, etc.). Unfortunately, he is neither succinct, cogent, nor grammatically correct in making most of his arguments. But his point is still VALID.

I would think REAL AMERICANS would treat their employees fairly. Don't cut benefits to make profits look better. And that does happen.

I agree that people shouldn't have to rely on the government for all those handouts.

I said cutting food stamp funding doesn't fix the problem. Making some item ineligible to be purchased with food stamps would be a start. No more candy, chips or pop. A little more enforcement to make sure stores aren't selling ineligible items as food stamp eligible. Make people who are on unemployment, food stamps and other programs do some community service.

[Dukasaur]

Nice cogent post, Semper.

[KoolBak]

Not. The overgeneralization of evil corporations makes me sick.

He says some company had 10 BILLION in profits, yet paid no federal tax.

Expound. Defend your statement. Who was it? What are the numbers? I was a CPA in my previous life as well as commercial lender and corporate controller. I lent millions to hundreds of businesses. I still do taxes for a dozen corps a year, including my own. Let's talk about your example

Also, for every evil corporation that you claim is harming their employees, there are nice corporations going out of their way to help.

A corp in and of itself is NOT inherently bad or good. It's a legal shell vehicle run by humans. If it's engaging in shit tactics, it's the miserable bastards at the helm directing them. And they can do that based on the laws that attorneys, governments, municipalities and politicians make.

And lastly, there is NO WAY to avoid taxes forever. They can be managed. They can be deferred. But in the long run, there is no getting around them.

PS - My small corporation hasn't paid taxes in 25 years. You should bitch about that too.

The fact that it's an S-Corp probably won't interest you.....you can still bitch.

(pssst....S-Corps don't pay taxes...the net flows through to the owners' tax return where they're taxed on the individual level. But hey....evil S-Corps don't pay taxes!! Complain!!)

[Maxleod]

Not. The overgeneralization of evil corporations makes me sick.

He says some company had 10 BILLION in profits, yet paid no federal tax.

Expound. Defend your statement. Who was it? What are the numbers? I was a CPA in my previous life as well as commercial lender and corporate controller. I lent millions to hundreds of businesses. I still do taxes for a dozen corps a year, including my own. Let's talk about your example

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/04/amazon- ... -deal.html

Amazon is ordered to pay nearly $300 million by EU over ‘illegal tax advantage’

https://www.reuters.com/technology/ital ... 021-12-09/

Italy fines Amazon record $1.3 bln for abuse of market dominance

[KoolBak]

Lol. So what was it? I'm not going to chase your links. These are foreign fines according to the headlines. Has nothing to do with the question.

[jusplay4fun]

My post wasn't about providing a solution to poverty. It was about people getting accused of being entitled but not the corporations.

You quoted me missing some key words. I finished the quote for you.

That is how I see why

the individual that gets the blame

for gaming the system but you let the companies off scot free?

I have to PAY extra taxes (basically FOREVER) to be sure they, the poor, get FREE from the government (via my taxes)

In 2018 how could a business a business that made $10 billion in profits and not pay any federal income tax. Maybe if these businesses paid their share you wouldn't have to pay extra taxes.

You can avoid poverty by:
Graduating from high school.
Waiting to get married until after 21 and do not have children till after being married.
Having a full-time job.

I can agree with graduating from high school.
I can't totally with waiting until you are 21 before getting married. How about waiting until you can afford to get married.
It sounds like religion saying don't have children until you are married. Again wait until you can afford to raise kids.
I again don't totally agree with this. Waiting until you have a full time job. Many places especially don't many full time positions. Those place complain they can't find help, but they don't pay well and don't hire full time.

I think the MAIN point ConfSS tries to make is that REAL Americans help themselves and do not depend on the government to help with nearly everything (food, rent, medical care, money for a few expenses, etc.). Unfortunately, he is neither succinct, cogent, nor grammatically correct in making most of his arguments. But his point is still VALID.

I would think REAL AMERICANS would treat their employees fairly. Don't cut benefits to make profits look better. And that does happen.

I agree that people shouldn't have to rely on the government for all those handouts.

I said cutting food stamp funding doesn't fix the problem. Making some item ineligible to be purchased with food stamps would be a start. No more candy, chips or pop. A little more enforcement to make sure stores aren't selling ineligible items as food stamp eligible. Make people who are on unemployment, food stamps and other programs do some community service.

Let us look at some of ES's so-called cogent responses:

ES’s idea on not paying for snacks and “No more candy, chips or pop” has merit. Snack foods are currently paid for by “Foot Stamps” now using EBT cards and under the SNAP program of the USDA. We can, for now, look into this as a good suggestion.

I listed work requirements for the SNAP program. These are better than Community Service, imo. Those are usually reserved for those convicted of crimes and/or in drug rehab programs under Court Supervision (as I understand such requirements, as least in VA).

Nutrition Assistance
SNAP provides nutrition benefits to supplement the food budget of needy families so they can purchase healthy food and move towards self-sufficiency.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

• How can I use SNAP benefits?

Any food for the household, such as:
• Fruits and vegetables;
• Meat, poultry, and fish;
• Dairy products;
• Breads and cereals;
• Other foods such as snack foods and non-alcoholic beverages; and
• Seeds and plants, which produce food for the household to eat.

Households CANNOT use SNAP benefits to buy:
• Beer, wine, liquor, cigarettes, or tobacco
• Vitamins, medicines, and supplements. If an item has a Supplement Facts label, it is considered a supplement and is not eligible for SNAP purchase.
• Live animals (except shellfish, fish removed from water, and animals slaughtered prior to pick-up from the store).
• Foods that are hot at the point of sale
• Any nonfood items such as:
- Pet foods
- Cleaning supplies, paper products, and other household supplies.
- Hygiene items, cosmetics

While SNAP is intended to ensure no one in our land of plenty should fear going hungry, its rules also reflect the importance of work and responsibility.

The General Work Requirements
SNAP has two sets of work requirements. If you are age 16 – 59 and able to work, you will probably need to meet the general work requirements to get SNAP benefits. The general work requirements include registering for work, participating in SNAP Employment and Training (E&T) or workfare if assigned by your state SNAP agency, taking a suitable job if offered, and not voluntarily quitting a job or reducing your work hours below 30 a week without a good reason.

OF course there are exemptions from the work requirement. See the link below if interested in that
https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/work-requirements

I am glad that ES agrees with:

I can agree with graduating from high school.

These three ways to avoid Poverty are NOT MINE, but were published in a newspaper in Florida. Arguing that those ideas are wrong will require, for me anyways, more evidence that ES provided. Just saying so or saying I disagree does not by itself make the conjecture wrong.

I am glad that ES and I can agree on LOTS:

I would think REAL AMERICANS would treat their employees fairly. Don't cut benefits to make profits look better.

I agree that people shouldn't have to rely on the government for all those handouts.

BUT we do disagree on some points. If I cut out part of his quote, that is not intended to change his ideas but I am attempting to understand where we have common ground before we discuss these important matters in more detail.

I think I already addressed these points above at the start of my reply here today.

I said cutting food stamp funding doesn't fix the problem. Making some item ineligible to be purchased with food stamps would be a start. No more candy, chips or pop. A little more enforcement to make sure stores aren't selling ineligible items as food stamp eligible. Make people who are on unemployment, food stamps and other programs do some community service.

I assume this is checked to avoid fraud:

A little more enforcement to make sure stores aren't selling ineligible items

I will offer the notion that finding data on this point will take lots of time. Here is what I found easily:

The vast majority of SNAP recipients and stores play by the rules. FNS works aggressively with state and federal partners to identify fraud and abuse, and hold people accountable when they don’t follow the rules.

FNS studies attempts to sell SNAP benefits, and identifies program improvements to correct mistakes and eliminate waste, and help prevent scams. Studies and analysis enable development of new rules and new policies related to fraud. Electronic benefits transfer (EBT) enables FNS to identify suspicious behavior, conduct investigations, and collaborate with other investigative agencies. You can help by reporting suspicious activity.


Recent areas of oversight and improvement:
1. Reducing Improper Payments and Errors
FNS works to ensure that only eligible individuals and families participate in SNAP, and that they receive the correct amount of benefits. Examples of our work to improve the accuracy of SNAP eligibility determinations include:

SNAP Quality Control (QC) has determined that over 98 percent of SNAP recipients are eligible.
Program rules require states to take additional action to ensure that ineligible people do not receive benefits, e.g., cross checking information against several federal databases.
2. Pursuing Retailer and Recipient Fraud
SNAP fraud is very rare. But when it does happen, it undermines the public’s confidence in the government and the Program. FNS has a team of analysts and investigators located across the country that is dedicated to monitoring retailers’ compliance with rules. FNS aggressively combats new fraud scenarios such as:

Updating the definition of trafficking to include new schemes;
Publishing a new rule to enable states to require contact from households that request multiple replacement EBT cards without explanations; and
Providing technical assistance to states on how to monitor social media and popular websites, such as Craigslist, for attempts to buy or sell benefits. Furthermore, FNS has contacted social media companies and websites for their help in preventing program fraud.

https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/fraud