"Joe,
I am finally scared. Your forum speaks to many, and I don't care if you post this or not. I am venting at this point. I would like to remain nameless if you do post this, as I am rambling on and haven't sat down to check, and recheck anything I've written. However, I am truly am beside myself with all the negativity, scare tactics of the media, and down right stupidity of our government and the sheep that follow.
While we as Americans have always been taught that it is our god given right to be free, I never remember the history lesson that said it came by a handout.
I come from the "X" generation of spoiled brats that felt entitled to everything from cable tv, to fancy first cars, nintendo, pagers, etc! But, my parents and especially my grandfather taught me that I had to EARN these things and they called them privileges. My friends may have felt entitled to a car a 16, but I had to earn my first car via straight A's and a savings account to pay for the insurance.
I did what I was supposed to do and went to school, worked hard, held a job throughout high school and played sports too. I started working when I was 14 because it was the recession of 1990 and my mother said things were going to be tight. I figured I could pitch in.
I do not understand why it is okay for anyone to sit on their ass and collect money from my paycheck for benefits they have not once in their lives not tried to earn!
I understand that the programs that have been in place (like welfare) have a purpose, but they also have loopholes that are NOT monitored, and are NOT scrutinized. So where the concept had a wonderful purpose, the program has been taken advantage of and is now in need of serious reform.
Now there is talk of healthcare for all? So, more loopholes and more programs that take more money out of my check that I work hard for? What happened to EARNING PRIVILEDGES?
The amish have it figured out! They pull together, save all their money and when a fellow man is in need of medical care they pool their resources, pay cash and get a discount.
Have you ever noticed that if you didn't have insurance your bill is significantly less than what is billed to the insurance company?
For the first time in my life I am scared to death that I won't be able to pay my own way because of all the people that have their hand out in the form of entitlement! Who in the hell do they think they are?! And why is it our government's job to support them unconditionally!? I am not cold hearted! I am not referring to the family that fell on hard times and is working to pull themselves out. I am ONLY referring to all the ones working the system, waiting diligently for the first of the month and not doing a damn thing about their situation because they are entitled! There are songs about it people! More government to me simply means more loopholes, and more money out of my paycheck. Socialism just doesn't work. People need to work for their PRIVILEDGES!
Hard work, blood sweat and tears is what made this country. Why is their such a push for such instant gratification? You want what I have? Work for it! I want what the next guy has? Well damn it, I have to work harder to get there!
I am naive. Yet I truly believe that people are inherently hard working and good natured. It is the few by far that have ruined it for the masses and it is time these few, that are growing exponentially are stopped.
I paid attention in school, especially history. I learned from a wonderful teacher that if we do not learn and understand our past we are doomed to repeat it. He taught us that this could apply to a simple life lesson ie: a hot stove, or the fall of a great nation ie: Rome. He also said that whenever you really want to get to the root of the issue in politics, follow the money and you will most likely find the answer.
So, who is it that is really getting the benefits of all this proposed and current government spending? When is there finally going to be a government that works for the people and not for themselves? When do we as a nation put our foot down and stop asking the government to fix it and start fixing it for ourselves? When do we put pride back into our daily lives and stop the insanity?"
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
ANON for PRESIDENT!
ReplyDeleteIts about time somebody spoke up! This is exactly my feelings!!!!
ReplyDeleteI would like to say.
ReplyDeleteI have no objections to welfare to people who need it.
I am like you , i work , i bought my own first car, i work now and can hardly pay my bills.
Will we get social secuity, im just a few years from finding out?
BUT YOU FORGOT THE GOV DID NOT GIVE IT TO SOCIAL SECURITYM , THEY DID NOT GIVE IT TO WELFARE.
THEY GIVE IT TO THE VERY WEALTHY-WALL STREET
700 BILLION, SO STOP BITCHIN ABOUT HELPING A FEW POOR PEOPLE EAT AND STAY WARM.
THOSE WHO ABUSE THE SYSTEM SHOULD BE DEALT WITH.
Annon 12:43 has an interesting point. Who ever said that people on Welfare are asking for a handout, or not willing to work? These people need help, and God forbid any of you so against it will ever need help. The majority people on welfare are single moms trying to work and pay bill, pay daycare, and then have money left for food, and gas to get to work. I don't understand anyone can say that there are a few bad apples in the barrel so the whole bunch must be spoiled. No one complains about billions of dollars of foreign aid, but when it comes to our own people you'll be damn if they take your hard earned dollars for that..we do not live in a perfect world and by default our systems will always be flawed.
ReplyDeleteYou think the people who sit and do nothing are taking your money. did you read today about AIG who got 85 billion of your money and sent their executives to a spa resort just after they got the money at the tune of $440,000.00 Maybe we need to start looking at the big time spenders of your tax money. Or how about Washington Mutual who robbed people with their extremely high interest rates and then bailed out and paid their CEO over 21 million for 16 days of work. That is your money, going to them. The welfare system is no match to what the big wigs are taking from our economy everyday. And now we are going to have to pay back 700 billion for them. We should file a class action lawsuit against these companies for mismangement of our tax money.
ReplyDeleteWell thought out. These types of feeling resonate with most hard working Americans. But don't be scared. Just like all of those who came before us, the hard working people in our country will again carry the burden for the weak.
ReplyDeleteMay God bless you Anon, and may God Bless our country.
Capitalistic societies have never stood the test of time and this one will crumble to. Its only a matter of time before we see states petitioning the united nations for their own sovereignty, for their right to govern themselves. I dont think anything will save this union this time.
ReplyDeleteWelfare to those that have for generations sat on their asses waiting for the mailman needs to be stopped. Cut the crap about the majority being working single moms.
ReplyDeleteIm an American and I'm not scared
ReplyDelete, it's time to fight for what we believe in. We are all tired of giving to the welfare idiots and the people who won't work. If
you vote for Obama , you will lose
your freedom and every thing you own. He is a racist and a liar.
He wants to promote the buttheads
who won't work and give them a raise.
12:43
ReplyDeletethe problem is that no one will hold the people who abuse the system accountable. and if they do, they will be called a racist.
1:54, Why would you get called a racist for holding people accountable who abuse the system?
ReplyDeleteIts all colors abusing the system.
ReplyDeleteAll in all it's just another brick in the wall.
ReplyDeleteIf you are not a minority and try to get welfare or assistance it is near impossible. Why may you ask? It is a system built for poor minorities. I know a lot of people that have tried to get assistance but were turned away because of their race. If you ask me that is racism as well.
ReplyDeleteAuthor,
ReplyDeleteKeep your mind and both of your eye's wide open. Most of the working class, Repub. or Dem. feel the same way. Keep the faith because it will be folks that remember the values upon which this nation was built that will pick this nation back up when it falls on it's face.
How do we hold the greedy people accountable? Where do we, as citizens start? How do we stop Congress from putting the "add ons" to every bill?
ReplyDeleteSmaller goverment, unionize the tax payers.
ReplyDeleteWhat I really don't understand is how a person on welfare has to make no job notifications to the DEPT of Social Services, or Go out and actively seek employment at anytime while they are collecting. (this is for those bad apples you speak of) However if get laid off and want to collect unemployment I still have to obtain two (2) verifiable job contacts everyweek. Maybe all welfare recipients should have to do that.Hell maybe I should skip the unemployment and go for the welfare.
ReplyDeleteI still feel that the United States needs to take care of it's own before any money goes to other countries. Senior citizens have worked and "done their time", their care and medicine should be FREE!!! No one should have to decide on whether to buy medicine or groceries. The government budget should be overseen by citizens who know how to make a dollar stretch. There should be no homeless or hungry people here and no one should be without health care. Ok...I'll get off of my soapbox now.
ReplyDeleteIt all boils down to one thing in the end -GREED!
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that the people who feel a sense of entitlement and the people that think that anything you do, whether it be immoral, illegal or unethical, as long as you make a ton of money from it it is right-- now outnumber those of us who try and do the right thing.
ReplyDeleteThe best shot we have right now to get back some control is to make sure Gov Palin gets elected VP. Then every other election we have, we need canidates that have similar backgrounds. Hard working middle class people who want to do right by the citizens of this country.
ReplyDeleteAuthor-
ReplyDeleteI 100% wholeheartedly agree. There's a reason why America is called the Land of Opportunity. This is a Land of Opportunity for anyone who wants it. I don't have a problem with Social Security, disability or unemployment even. Welfare, though? Get rid of it. Stop sending our money overseas. And what the hell is up with spending $840 billion to bail out corporate screw ups? If I dish out all of my money recklessly, are they going to give me money, pat me on my back and say, "We're going to make it all better now"? No!
I'm a Gen X'er too and I was raised in part by my grandparents. I know exactly what you mean when you say that the people you grew up with had that whole feeling of entitlement. That attitude pisses me off more than anything. My grandparents taught me you earn what you have and want, and you don't take anything for granted. I'm right there with you on your thoughts. I want to earn the best life I can and I don't think its comforting to know that others can sit around and wait for the mailman.
First of all,in all fairness,there are plenty of white people on the dole!Look around and you will see.I know a white chick with 7 white kids who has NEVER worked and she has it better than I do with a working husband.People who really need it NEVER get approved.3 years ago when my husbands hours were cut back to two days a week(seasonal),we applied for assistance.They considered the $800 a month he made TOO much,never mind the fact our rent alone was $650.They told me that flat-out.They did offer health insurance for my daughter but guess what?When times got better,they cut it off-you see we went a couple hundred bucks over the limit,for the year!If it had not been for my mother and father helping us back then,we would have been in the street.Thats why I have no respect for the whole system.Years ago when I lived in Virginia I worked for the ABC store(like the dispensary here) and guess what the busiest week of the month was?As soon as checks came out,those poor people who either were too sick to work or could not find work somehow found the money and the strength to buy their gin and vodka and not cheap stuff either.And by the way,for those of you lucky enough to have never been inside a welfare office,they print the applications in like 25 different languages to make sure even the people who cant even bother to learn English can get the goodies they are promised.
ReplyDeleteAnd if Obama gets elected,look out!You will see more abuse and more women popping out babies because the Dems want people to remain dependent on Government.
Kudos to all you bootstrappers, but you guys have it wrong with welfare.
ReplyDeleteYeah, there are jerks who take advantage of the system who need to be weeded out. Not unlike people who manipulate the system for disability, or take unwarranted health leave from work. Likewise,there are jerks at the top bilking us out of our hard-earned money in the financial system (this is now more obvious).
But the majority of people will be productive for society if connected to the right tools. This means they need to be healthy and secure in a basic way - that's all. We need a system that can not only provide this but keep people accountable.
Furthermore, we need protections from job outsourcing so the poor can have employment. Tell me where are the JOBS for the lower classes?! They are being given for cheaper to immigrants by opportunistic business owners. How to stop this?
Regulation and enforcement of the law. Support to get people up OFF their asses, not keep them there.
It is not rocket science.
Yeah, it would be nice if people just GOT it, and welfare wasn't necessary...that people were taught at home to be hardworkers, etc. But face it, many are NOT. It is behavior that gets institutionalized and will affect you, if there is no behavioral intervention - as is happening on Wall Street. Shunning them and shaming them is going to make it worse.
Progressive principles take the ideals we all agree on (healthy happy families, for example; financially independent and productive citizens with jobs) and connect them to REALITY. You can't run a country on fantasies of how things ought to be with no provisions to get them there (*cough* No Child Left Behind *cough*)...you have to put something into the process to get the country there. Simple truth.
If you ever heard an Obama stump speech, you'd hear the difference between him and a typical Democrat. Clinton was all "sit back and let me take care of this". Obama has always said, "GET UP and DO SOMETHING TO HELP or it's not going to happen."
I am sorry you don't like the "collective" aspect of society....but that's kind of the point of civilization.
FYI
ReplyDeleteCharges are HIGHER if you do not have insurance unless you are willing to negotiate down, which can take a very long time. I can attest to that.
Merriam Webster's definition of capitalism: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market
ReplyDeleteMerriam Webster's definition of socialism: 1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done
Merriam Webster's definition of communism: 1 a: a theory advocating elimination of private property b: a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed
2capitalized a: a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism that was the official ideology of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics b: a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production c: a final stage of society in Marxist theory in which the state has withered away and economic goods are distributed equitably d: communist systems collectively
Which definition do you feel America fits best?
The letter isn't simply about welfare, but about all the prgrams with good intentions. About the abuse of the programs and the loopholes. It is questioning where to begin to end the government abuse of this nation.
ReplyDeleteTo 10:51, a collective civilization is not the point! I should not have to contribute to the deliquency of the lazy! The accountability, or lack threrof, is what pisses me off. This goes for Wall St, Welfare, Disability, etc...
The jobs for the lower class keep going to the immigrants? BS! Stop being so damn picky! The immigrants are getting the jobs the lazy delinquents are too above taking. I am not referring to the family that fell on hard times, I am not referring to the single mother working her ass off...I am referring to the losers that have screwed the system and they get paid. You know what the response from them is? That I'm just pissed I'm not getting some of the govt cheese!
Honestly, no...I'm just pissed they aren't cut off! My hard work should not benefit that POS, it should benefit the person that truly is in need and unfortunately there are too many ENTITLED people out there!