Hurricane Katrina
Judecat:
I blame the mother of the 8 kids too. Over half my co workers where young, black, single mother, with baby's daddy nowhere to be found. But they had one child, or maybe 2, they had gone to school or were still going to night school, working as case work assistants, or offcie clerks or data entry clerks, in order to actually provide for the children they had. And the men in the office who had children, they may have not still been with the momma's, but they were taking care of the kids. Yeah a lot of the women had been on assistance, but they managed -- which is why I wanna sma kmiss 8 kids and can't get child support cos daddy's 1 and 2 are in jail, Daddies 3 and 4 are on drugs, and no body knows where 5-8 went to.
The only reason I never needed assistance is cos I never had kids, so when my husband left me I could was free as the breeze, not because I think I'm better than anyone. (Except maybe my ex sister in law with the 4 kids, 4 different exes who never worked a day in her life.)
veilchen:
Well JM, unfortunately, the thread of starvation might spawn worse happenstances, such as crime, exploitation, neglect, substance abuse, prostitution, etc. What needs to be happening is to allow those women to access higher paid jobs with possibility of advancement. That means education, counseling, the works. It would also help if women would actually be paid comparable wages for comparable work, not .75 cents for every $ 1.00 a man makes for comparable work.
Apathy sets in when people feel hopeless and helpless; it is the number one killer of any motivation.
Go witch! Great accomplishments, you are one of the people who beat the odds, and beat them soundly. It would be wonderful if others could be motivated by your feats, seeing that it can, indeed, be done, and realizing that good and visible results are never instantaneous.
Judecat:
I don't where were they are getting the statistic of woman make 75 cents for ever dollar of a man in the same job, because I have never had a job where the men with the same job and the same seniority have made more than me. Since I got out of the Army I have never worked anywhere that my sex disqualified me for a certain job, or interfered with a promotion. I think they need to update the study, or if it is a worldwide study break it down by country --because I really don't beleive those statistics are universal at this time.
I think there is more appathy now than ever in the history of America. I think that welfare is killing everybody's motivation to work. Think I feel like getting a job and working 40 hours a week, when at the end of the month my welfare queen ex sister in law has just as much if not more money in her pocket as I do.
I also actually agree with JM, because I think the crime rate was actually lower before people got used to the sense of entitlement. My grandfather at the the turn of the 19th century was worse off than a lot of these people -- his father was dead, his mother was sick and didn't speak english, he never got a chance to go to past 3rd grade, because as the oldest he had to take care of the family. Did he steal Diamnons and Victola's -- no he ran errands for pennies, picked up coal dropped from the trains to heat the house, worked at the canning factory. 9 kids in that family -- not one of them a prostitute, junkie or criminal.
And prostitution has always been with us and always will, welfare state or no. poverty or no. My birth mother was from a middle class white collar family, and made her living as a call girl until she got too old to command the hight prices. She also gave up all her children for adoption into middle class homes.
SimsHost:
Quote from: witch on 2005 September 09, 23:47:03
...Benefit system in US sounds similar - more you earnt, more penalties in loss of benefits. Financially better to stay home and vegetate than work or study...
That's one of my pet peeves about the public assistance system. People are punished for trying to earn money on their own, so it turns into a trap. It's the same for disability benefits. It almost feels like somebody designed the whole thing to make sure that the needy stay needy. Not good.
Even worse, the Department of Health and Human Services has to spend fantastic amounts of money administering this complex system, to the point that only 10% of the funds the department spends actually end up in the hands of the needy, and a minuscule bit goes into actually distributing the money.
I would guess (without really knowing) that graft and corruption consumes only a tiny portion of the other 90% of the department's budget. The rest goes to pay for all the folks and facilities that are required to make sure somebody isn't trying to cheat the taxpayers.
I have my notions about how to fix it. Basically, we could pay a minimum living stipend to everybody whether they need it or not, and raise taxes to balance it out; but that silly idea would never get past the legislature in any country that has popular elections. It would offend conservatives because of the idea of Big Welfare and even higher taxes; it would offend liberals because it cuts them off from the opportunities for demogoguery that get them elected; and it would offend everybody because the idea of paying welfare benefits to rich folks really goes against the grain.
Nevertheless, I like the idea. It puts needy folks on the same ground as Donald Trump and Bill Gates; no stigma associated with public assistance. It eliminates the vast majority of the costs of administering the welfare system, so the increase in taxes might actually turn out to be a decrease after all the dust settles. It provides a solid foundation for all us working stiffs who are one paycheck away from disaster. Tying it to citizenship would eliminate problems with illegal immigration; it provides a very strong incentive to become a legal immigrant. And it makes sure that the truly needy are taken care of.
witch:
Quote from: veilchen on 2005 September 10, 15:21:46
Well JM, unfortunately, the thread of starvation might spawn worse happenstances, such as crime, exploitation, neglect, substance abuse, prostitution, etc. What needs to be happening is to allow those women to access higher paid jobs with possibility of advancement. That means education, counseling, the works. It would also help if women would actually be paid comparable wages for comparable work, not .75 cents for every $ 1.00 a man makes for comparable work.
Apathy sets in when people feel hopeless and helpless; it is the number one killer of any motivation.
Thank you, I was working out ways to say some of this but nothing sounds as concise and clear as you make it here. In my volunteer years with Womens' Refuge and Rape Crisis, this is exactly what I saw and experienced. Powerlessness. No resources. Apathy - a kind of stasis.
The adult women students who attend out pathway and preparation courses often acquire life skills out of all proportion to expectation, in addition to their course content. You can visibly see them growing as individuals. Fascinating.
Quote from: veilchen on 2005 September 10, 15:21:46
Go witch! Great accomplishments, you are one of the people who beat the odds, and beat them soundly. It would be wonderful if others could be motivated by your feats, seeing that it can, indeed, be done, and realizing that good and visible results are never instantaneous.
Thank you again. It was about finally taking responsibility for myself, no-one was ever going to come and save me, no white knights, no nothing. I lost 20 years to drink & drugs but I'm just grateful I have some brain left and can still learn. I'm 48 next birthday and have just started learning Java programming as I feel I might like a career change at some point. ;) Ain't life grand?
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