Letter to the Poor
By Outcast and Castoff | opednews.com
What follows is directed to those who, like the author, are poor. It may be of limited interest and possible offense to those who are more successful under the current system.
My sisters and brothers living in poverty,
You're probably surprised to receive this since we don't get much mail other than foreclosure and eviction notices, but it's important for us to begin talking to each other, and I'm hoping this is one way to get the conversation started.
I don't have to tell you that we can't expect to receive much help from anyone these days. The politicians have spent all the government money on fighting wars and helping bankers, so there's nothing left for health care or public works jobs or college for our kids. At least that's what most of the Democrats and all the Republicans claim, and they're backed up on this by all the radio and cable TV talkers.
Big surprise, huh? Nobody ever pays attention to us except when they claim we all drive Cadillacs. It makes them feel better when they cut what little help we do get if they can claim we're all lazy, crazy, drug-addled and sexually loose. The millions who are joining our ranks these days because they've lost their jobs, lost their houses and lost their credit will soon learn what it's like to live poor in America. Not only do you have to struggle to keep a roof over your head and food on your table, but you also get to hear constantly that you're inferior as a human being in every respect.
I know some of us had great hopes that things would be better with this new President, but I think it's starting to sink in that he's not going to be able to do much even if he wants to. Early on, he and his advisors decided that it would be better to keep things pretty much as they were with the banks and insurance companies and all the rest. Otherwise, they feared, tens of millions of the "middle class"--those people who are two or three paychecks away from being poor like us--would be thrown onto the trash pile along with us. They paid the ransom money to Wall Street, backed off making any real changes in the system and prayed that things wouldn't go completely to hell.
Good letter. Here's the
Good letter. Here's the original source with an option to add comments: http://outcastsandcastoffs.blogspot.com/2009/08/letter-to-po...
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good job
This is first person character writting that is as real as a $3 fed note.
Its message trough a cynical sincerity theme transends the metaphorical masquerade with a definitive reality appropriate for current influential government polices.
and then you die
Good essay. I wonder how we
Good essay. I wonder how we could go about getting this huge block of potential supporters to realize a large share of their misery is due to government drug laws making their neighborhoods too unsafe to conduct business in, government labor and discrimination laws making it too risky to employ them, and an inflationary money supply transferring what little wealth and income they do have, pretty much directly into the pockets of banksters, government bureaucrats and bicoastal money center upper classes. And that this is not because those currently in government are "evil", but simply because all possible government with this much power will lead to that very result.. Whoever could do that would do both our cause and our country a huge favor.
What the letter asks for is exactly what the system is afraid of
People getting together after they realized they are on their own.
This is powerful.
The welfare state was just a tool to make people impotent, fearful, dependent.
Great letter!
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"I think it would be a good idea"
Mahatma Gandhi,
when asked what he thought of Western civilization
Yes it comes from a
Yes it comes from a "leftist" site. The point is that the left is waking up as well. They may express it in a different way, but the realization is the same: The government isn't here to help you or save you - it is just making the problems worse. The mainstream media doesn't help, because they're just either 1) government cheerleaders or 2) corporate cheerleaders.
As I pointed out in The Morality Hazard of the Fed, the government sets the tone with immorality at the top, being to print money from thin air. The attitude of entitlement set by the government seeps its way all through society.
If Americans have any disadvantage, it is their trust and faith in the goodness and justness of government to do the right thing.
I don't see this article as a "wake up" on the left.
I see this article as an invitation to the right.
"Nobody reads Horatio Alger stories anymore", is an appeal to the right. The RIGHT does not read Horatio Alger Jr Stories anymore because he was outted as being a pedophil, and his stories about rag to riches for boys found his solution was, the boy needed a wealthy businessman to save them, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Alger,_Jr., which the author left out.
There were a number of Beat Generation authors and even Hunter S. Thompson and his book, "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail" 1972, which were under the influence of Horatio. "Father knows best" and this "paternal" idea that a high powered man can take your hand and lead you into a prosperous land is very much alive and well, just look at Obama and Ted Kennedy. Talk about "Big Brother".
Our problem is that corporations have taken over our government with a "Green" agenda that blames mankind for what corporations and government have done.
I see this article as the left leading the right into a trap.
Obama's Mother in Law moves into the White House so now we're all supposed to have our parents move in, while they bulldose homes? Do we talk about opening our doors, instead of standing for the old folks being evicted? Isn't this article how we take it up the ass happily instead of fightring for the American Dream?
Instead of fighting for our independence and each man owning his castle, we all become like insects and learn to "help" each other boil the little water we'll get, because we are Sooooo lazy and worthless eaters, who need to be housed in packs like rats... what then, vaccination for the family. Sure will be easier to pick the whole tribe up and rid the planet of the "consumers".
The immigrants who came here, worked very hard to MOVE OUT OF THE HOUSE and live the American Dream. I say, Fight to keep it that way. Good on those who came here and did well. BRAVO and Kudos to them. But let's not all go and do what the immigrants (and Obama's) are doing in the name of "working together". Let's work together in making a stand as a coalation of independents for Independence of corporate and government manipulation. We do this by joining non partisian groups like CopWatch. We do it by standing up for the little guys, not moving them all into cramped housing. What's the next step on the left? Rationing.
WE ARE GOING TO WIN!
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Let me paint on picture here
Let me paint on picture here where I believe you are sadly and tragically wrong: retirement. It used to be that children were your retirement. When you got old, you moved in with one of your children and you became part of their household. You helped watch the kids. You did what you could around the house and in the kitchen. Even as you grew increasingly frail, they found you little things you could do and you remained a presence in the family and an influence on the new generation. You lived with your family until the day of your death.
Now contrast that with the "new and improved" retirement. Each person has their own retirement account, so when they get too old to live on their own, they move into an expensive retirement center. Their family visits when they can, but not nearly as often as you would like. As your friends die off and your family gets wrapped up in their own lives, you slowly wither away and get bumped to the next level of care until you die alone in a cold, clinical room. If your lucky, maybe your family is able to be there for the final moments, but the last years of your life are truly wasted.
This is the real life tragedy of millions of people today. I actually got to witness both sides of this story within one year between my grandfather and my wife's grandfather. While my wife's grandfather never actually moved into his children's house, they essentially moved into his. His entire family with all of the grand-kids and his great grandson were there for the last week of his life. It was a beautiful reminder of how family was supposed to be. My grandfather, in contrast, actually passed away alone in a hospital bed.
You tout individualism, but you need to realize that we are actually social creatures. That is why you are actually on this website, after all. We all desire friendships, community, and support. The government and the corporations have tried to replace that with their own regime. This article is a sign that people everywhere are starting to wake up to that fact.
There is a balance here that I think you are missing. I actually agree with very many of your points, but the main point here is to stop looking for the government to bail you out and to start looking at how to not only better yourself, but work together with your family and your neighbors to create a better community. This was the true strength of America, and unless we can rebuild our families and communities, we will all die alone in this world.
Don't just focus on your hatred of the government. Focus on loving your family and your neighbors. You will always wield a greater power to change yourself than you will ever have over the government.
I understand that Michael saw this article as a indication
That the left was waking up. I disagree with Michael. I think the letter is propeganda to invite the right to join the left in the name of love and family above govt. What do they have to back that offer?
On the right, as you may know, many churches act as extended family to an individual. The left, shunning the church, works very hard to paint a picture that secular Godhead/government, can do what God can not. But throughout history we see the evidence that communism, socialism, fascism... every form of government on the left ends in mass genocide.
Did Obama end the wars he spoke against? He's wrose than Bush. We have gone from the frying pan into a fire.
The site OEN supported Obama. Many antiwar left supported Obama, and they know very well, they are no different that those on the right who continued to stand with Bush (as they stand with Obama) so, they are going to "reach out" and give us all the warm fuzzies on how wonderful life is sharing a bath with two families like their immigrant parents who run a lawn mower as a freakin success story. Not that they are living at home themselves...
Mrs Obama has 60 servants.
How many do our families get?
WE ARE GOING TO WIN!
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Wisdom is wisdom no matter
Wisdom is wisdom no matter what the source is. The fact is that even in the most optimistic scenario (most of the congressmen are sent home and replaced immediately by Ron Paul supporters who immediately abolish the Fed, etc.), we are still going to have to make significant lifestyle adjustments. The culture of the past thirty years is simply not sustainable as we only accomplished it by living off of future debt. Now that bill must be paid, and we need to be prepared to adapt accordingly.
The poor.... the other white meat.
I know the secret of Soylent Green, do you?
I may not know the truth, but I know when I'm being lied to...
I may not know the truth, but I know when I'm being lied to...
I think you have mentioned that before...
...not sure if I am ready to go there yet - lol.
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sdrawkcab gnihtyreve od deF eht & tnemrevog ehT
I'm not a fan of Rob Kall or OEN
That said, I read the article and this sentance caught my attention:
"Look around at who does manage to get ahead. Most of them are immigrants: the Pakistani guy with the convenience store; the Vietnamese family with the restaurant; the Mexicans with the lawn service. (How's that for some stereotypes?) Did you ever think that maybe it was an advantage not to grow up in America? These people do things differently. They share housing until they can afford more room. They work for free in the family business until things get going. They cooperate with each other even while they're competing with the rest of the world. And it works."
I translate this to read:
Let's adopt the values, traditions, and cultures of the third world, so we can survive oppressive governments like they do.
I would prefer to fight for an American life style my forefathers fought for me to have, than to raise a white flag in the name of affording a third world life sharing what used to be illegal crack houses and brothels because "it works".
"It works" making us all third world.
Yes, I found it offensive, as I do much of the altruistic muck by the nieve and big government lovers on OEN.
WE ARE GOING TO WIN!
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Really
Why so ignorant?
The family unit is what the government wants to destroy. Vietnam is a third world nation? You sound of nationalism and racism. Since the American way got us Obamites and socialism maybe its time we looked to our fellow humans and adapt lifestyle and do what works. The American way is a dream by the way. Hence "The American dream".
Ignorance must be bliss
Corporations want to destroy the family unit, not the government.
Veitnam was under a repressive regime. We worked very hard to render it to a third world country.
Nationalist? somewhat.. Isolationist? somewhat.. non interventionist.. yes. Racist? I don't think so. I didn't vote for Obama and some claim that makes me a racist, so.. being ignorant, well...there you have it.
The American Dream is a good dream. The great thing about HELL is there's no dream. Just living with your parents and siblings and all their children and everyone helping each other boil water.
I wish you much happiness, i'll stick with my ignorant American Dream.
WE ARE GOING TO WIN!
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The government destroys
The government destroys family units. That is specifically what all those in government whose job is even tangentially related to family are getting paid for.
Take away government schools, and people home school or community school. Like they did when America was a great country, not just another shithole with a history of greatness.
When government directly interacts with the family, they do so to take the kids away. Never, ever, the other way around.
When they make drug laws, they artificially enable high incomes to flow to teens in their most vulnerable and risk seeking years, shifting economic power from responsible families to runaway, ever younger, male teens. Who are then locked up for the duration of their family forming years.
When they make divorce laws, they go out of their ways to make it as economically attractive as possible. Contracts be damned.
When they make child labor laws, they specifically limit the ability of children to work in their parents' business, making it harder for mom and pops to compete with the Wal-Mart's of the world, where the kids will then later be "forced" to find work.
Etc. etc. How anyone even semi sentient could believe government is not destroying families, is beyond me. And corporations are out to make money. They do that partially by advertising to those in the most uncritical age brackets. Who are stuck watching TV because their parents are not, due to more government regulation, allowed to bring them to work, or to take time off work to educate them themselves.
Man, you've got to realign your sights.
When you talk about the government, and you say THEY
You are talking about corporations who have invested WAY more than you and me to BUY politicians who make laws that benefit THEM, not you and me.
THE PROBLEM is that Corporations find families are a burdon. The government has become a tool for corporations, not we the people.
WE ARE GOING TO WIN!
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The problem is simply that
The problem is simply that there is a government big and powerful enough to have any influence, even if "taken over." That is what we need to realize. Then we can work to shrink or end it. Not sit around and sing Kumbaya, thinking government is great, just not this particular government.
The lover
Of dreams is the hater of reality.
Sure
The reality of group living makes loving the American dream, each man's castle is his home, easy.
WE ARE GOING TO WIN!
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One thing the immigrants have that we've lost, due to our
TV conditioning, is the fact that the family unit is much tighter. Yes, Asians get married then move back in with parents. There are so many advantages to that. You can live cheaper, all are there to support each other, granparents are close by for watching kids, you are there to take care of them as they age, all are close for helping out with a family business, etc. Here, due to MSM condidtioning, if you live with your parents you're considered a loser. We have been purposely conditioned this way. That keeps us down economically, and there's the extra speacial double whammy of not having tightly-knit families anymore. The family unit is the basic building-block of society. We're losing that so it's contributing to the deterioration of society.
As Hillary Clinton said
"It takes a village to raise a child".
Compare Chelsea's village to your own child. Think Hillary is planning on living with Chelsea? (Do Bill and Hillary even live together?) Think the Obamasw plan on living with their kids after they send them to Yale? But we American... well.. we should not look to our elected leaders, but look to the poor and huddled immigrants for leadership? Please.
Here this article is getting you to think of USING your family to "live" cheaper. Cheaper is not better.
Talk about "the dumbing down". My gawd.
The American way of family is more like the Kennedy's and Bush's. None of them live together either. But they invest, they got each others backs. They establish an extended family, and none of them are talking about moving in together to live cheaper, eh?
WE ARE GOING TO WIN!
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Are you sure about that?
Who is to say that THAT is not exactly what the Bushes are doing down Paraguay way! The Kennedys have been torn apart by death for decades, or who is to say that they may have had a tighter bond, as well!
Look, for example, at the Obama family, including Grandma, who I'm sure is quite the asset to the family mechanism. We would all be better off with tighter knit families, have no doubt about that.
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It is good and proper to respect the U.S. flag, perpetuated with the blood of American heroes. It is a fatal mistake not to recognize those who wrap themselves in the same flag to cover up their crimes against the American people.
~ Sherman H. Skolnick
. @ @ . Power to the People!
@ O @ -----> PEOPLE
. @ @ . NOT Corporate Entities!
The key here that you
The key here that you missing is this: those families choose to live together. It is not a matter of the government making them do it. They are smart enough to realize that to live together has many benefits and will ultimately help them be better off in the end.
You need to let go of your selfish, rich boy mentality, or you simply will not survive the days to come. We are all about to get a taste of what real poverty means.
I don't believe that for one minute!!!!!!
If they could own their own home they would!
Let's talk about the RICH Immigrants from Iran, Taiwon, China, and thier palaces and the palaces they buy for thier children to live in next door and the help they hire to care for their families. Let's talk about the college students from oil rich nations who get FREE education and housing and food, not from Uncle Sam, but from CORPORATIONS who don't want to pay American prices. They would have us ALL living like Chinese Communsit huddled and working for worm soup and grass sprouts so they can afford to immigrate to other palaces
Come on.
WE ARE GOING TO WIN!
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Sure they would live in
Sure they would live in their own own if they could (probably), but they do not force the issue before their lifestyle can support it. They make the appropriate sacrifices to get ahead instead of looking for a government handout. They take full responsibility for their survival.
No they don't
Someone gets seriously ill, they go to the government. Someone gets pregnant. They go to the government and they get allot of government help if they are legal.
WE ARE GOING TO WIN!
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I think
You missed the point. Working together and making your life better does not "make you third world".
My Grandparents, Like many many others came to this country and did exactly what is described in this article. The lived in multi-family housing. usually with friend or relatives. They helped each other so that "the next generation: would live better. They could have come here and looked for hand outs, and complained that life is difficult, but instead they banded together and worked for what they wanted so that their kids would have it better. Your assertion that the author wishes to keep the poor in a "third world" status, is foolish, and insulting to most immigrants to this country. The nation was build by people who came here with nothing and worked together to improve their lives and their community.
The folks that still do this tend to do better then those who look for help from the government. Most of the Mexicans i know come here and bust their butts to make money to improve their lives and their families lives, not so they can live in "third world" poverty for ever. They fled a country for exactly that reason.
I do not know the people who run this site or their past. I judge the article i read based on it's current content and ideas. Those were damn good in my opinion, and very much how this country use to live. We could not have settled this nation, without common cooperation and self determination. Those are the principles that the article lays out, not "third world" living.
PS If you think the "third world" looks like a bunch of Mexicans living in house together and sharing a common goal, then you have not been to the third world.
Thank you for your comments
Let me rephrase what the author's article said to me:
COMMUNISM IS BEST FOR THE FAMILY, and then it gives an example of ccommunists who can not afford an American lifestyle so the undermine it with their COLLECTIVE "family" (selfish) agenda. (which is many times illegal and funded off illegal activities as drugs, protitution and worse...
We "settled" this nation by killing the Natives on it. We settled this nation with the blood sweat and tears of slavery. We sustain this nation on endless wars and absuing emmigrants.
I personally wish you MUCH MUCH happiness living with your relatives and sacrificing your rights to own your own home to the communist collective mentality of , "All for one and one for all".
Human nature tells me, not everyone is going to be happy as you. I bet we see far more family suicides and homicides with this "great" idea.
WE ARE GOING TO WIN!
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No, what they are saying is
No, what they are saying is that sometimes you have to make lifestyle changes to get ahead. There is nothing communistic about what he was saying. The family is still independent from the government, and the family businesses are very entrepreneurial and capitalistic. Believe me, they want to make a profit.
The problem is that we have gotten fat and lazy living the easy life while forgetting that sometimes you really do have to sacrifice.
Consider the idea of buying a home. For the past fifty years or so, we have been indoctrinated with the idea that we all need to have our own house, and that borrowing money is a good way to do that. Those of us who have fallen for this lie come to find out that we end up paying three times as much money to buy a house when we do so via a mortgage.
Now consider the alternatives: 1) You could live with your parents and save up money until you can afford a house of your own. 2) You can buy a very small house and then "buy up" as you can afford it. 3) You can go into a partnership with other people/families and purchase a shared home in cash. 4) probably many more options, if you think about it.
The problem with these options is that none of us want to wait anymore. We want our house, and we want it now!
If you have a problem with what the author saying, I think you need to take a serious and hard look at your philosophies and expectations. America became what it was because of the hard work and sacrifice of those who came before us. It wasn't easy, and it wasn't free. We are heading back into a dark time and, like it or not, we will probably have to rebuild our country from scratch which means more hard work and sacrifice.
Is it fair? No, it isn't. But then again, it isn't fair that you were born in America and able to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle when you could have just as easily been born a street kid in Bangladesh.
For WHO to get ahead?
All for one and one for all, NO ONE gets ahead.
WE ARE GOING TO WIN!
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