Government shouldn't be spending anything to help anyone or anything in terms of welfare. The less government we have and the less intrusive it is the better. Politicans promise everything to everyone and attempt to provide it with government. We see the result of that in trillions of unfunded benefits first to government workers and then to 47% of the people in this country that rely on some form of government intervention or assistance in terms of money, food, housing, health care, and other free things like cell phones.

The result is unsustainable debt and long term unfunded obligations that are probably already unserviceable even by our great grandchildren's children. The government isn't helping anyone, they are merely racing us to collapse and eventual destruction just like they have done every 70 to 80 years since this great experiment started. The third round of that is fast approaching. Each depression has been ugly and each worse than the one before it. This one is going to be a real "doozie"!

Sit back and watch and try to enjoy the show. There is nothing anyone can do about it now. We're just going to have to do the best we can to get through it. Shed your dollars and stocks and buy silver and gold, stock up on tangibles, and find a nice, safe, isolated place to ride it out.

Now this really about says it all. You think I'm an individualist. Because a person who cares about others couldn't possibly disagree with you about anything -- only selfish pricks can do that, right?

Please. I'm not rich (in fact, I'm probably closer to the poverty level than you've ever been), so arguing for tax cuts isn't going to seriously improve my own level of income. I'm eligible for government handouts (but don't take any), so advocating for the elimination of those doesn't help me any. And I already have a feeling I know what your next opinion of me is going to be: no, I am not some corporate shill, ready to get on my knees for the first millionaire who looks at me the right way.

We're all codependent. I eat food that was grown by someone who I'll probably never meet, on a farm in some rural village I'll probably never visit. I buy this with money from my job, which is a small chain of hardware stores owned by a man I've met only twice. I also rent an apartment from this beautiful older woman from the city with that money. And I use it to pay for internet, which is provided by a company I barely communicate with, which I use from a computer composed of parts all over the world. Hell, I am communicating with you via firefox, which is the result of voluntary non-profit cooperation between several individuals spread all around the world, who probably don't even know eachother's full names.

I am an open-source software programmer. I've probably spent an entire year of time writing and debugging software that I never saw a cent for. And people use my programs -- they're not nearly as popular (or generally useful) as firefox, but get used -- and I have no idea who these people are or what they're using my programs for.

So yes, we're interconnected, we're bound to eachother, we're all part of a massive collection of over 6 billion interconnected persons. The difference is, I want things done without guns and prisons; while you do. You're the one applying your draconian standards to others, at the barrel of a gun. I'm not applying my draconian standards to anyone.

just an opinion. I wish the government would not subsidize private companies but I would rather the gov subsidize a company that produces jobs and taxes than to subsidize private citizens that just suck up taxes and the countries wealth.

It is simple. People need to be responsible for themseles. We have a socialologist here that disagrees. That is no new relelation as that is how her education indoctrinated her. We have people that take are of themselves, and we have helpless people, too. My question is simple and fundamental. What makes it so important to care for people that are simply a drag on the rest of us especially when survival is the point? Where does one draw the line between those that can and those that can't? Fundamentally who deserves to make it and surive? In the proteo days of "Lucy", who survived? Who are we to to upset the balance of nature? Who are we to go against the will of God and the universe? Who are we? Are we so signified that we think we can change the natural balance of eveolution? Somebody tell me. I'm very weary of giving my life's blood to people that obviously don't deserve it and simply breed more entitlement. Anyoneo care to explain why I should?

Then tell me, how much did you make at the Salvation Army? Since you seem to believe a person can't eat healthy with $4/day budgeted towards food (which I know to be false), I'd bet you were making the equivalent of $10/hr and seriously believe that's "starvation wages".

I do presume -- quite a bit. And I'm generally correct in my presumptions. But I don't presume anything to the scale that you do. I presume about individuals, especially those who are already following common and predictable behavior, not about the whole of civilization. To do that would be simple absurd.

You might be surprised. When my book got picked up by an international publisher owned by a European company my acquisition editor was in the US, Copy editor was in Canada and the managing editor back here. It all went fairly well until they send the book to India for what amounts to typesetting. OMG! The galleys were dreadful. I bucked and fumed and in the end when the book came out it was missing material and had material not belonging to me inserted in it. I am one unhappy camper, but my contract doesn't give me much wiggle room. If I publish again I'll go the route of the new options of self-publication.

When Romney was governor he outsourced state jobs to India - it was a mess. We don't need call centers in India to handle American governmental functions. That really finished him with me - and I voted for him for governor. Not to start a political argument, but to point out how much is outsourced.

Before you kvetch at the unions, be aware that all those 3rd world countries are unionizing as fast as they can because of the wild abuses going on there. And god bless 'em. Just call me "Union Girl" because I used to work for a union and I have been in mostly unionized workplaces in my life.

Of course there is cheaper labor and less restrictions - and we regularly impose life-endangering work on people we can't see. Like Walmart just did in a factory fire were a lot of folks were killed.

But more than that - we should ask:
Do you like a 40 hour week? Yes - thank the unions for that.
Like two days a week off? Yes - thank the unions for that.
Like the concept of a lunch hour and breaks? Yes - thank the unions for that.
And so on and so forth
Much of what unions have gotten us are things we now take for granted - like having holidays off - with pay.

I do my darndest to by local, buy union, buy American. Sometimes it means doing without - fortunately, I live a very frugal life.

It was not recently, however, the same wage structure applies today. It is not uncommon to be paid less than $10 an hour for professional work in non-profits.

I doubt that there is parity since it was in Alaska during a time of high inflation. We paid more for a gallon of milk there at that time than it costs in the stores here right now. The lower 48 is mostly very inexpensive to live in by comparison. That being said, I'd go back in a heartbeat and move in with my old roommate again. The kind of work I've done has been high stress and sometimes high profile, but never well paid.

@dawg, I sure hope you put more research into your book subject than you did in your last post to me. BTW, what is your books subject?

I was not trying to be mean but I am sick of narrow minded, onesided, uneducated/unresearched people (not saying you are) dumping on Walmart and/or any corp. There are so many people on here and out there that simply close their eyes to what could be and in most cases, what is the truth and what is bumper stickers for a policial party or thought. I have nothing for Walmart but I have everything against people who refuse to use their own brain.

A note before I stagger off to bed...

I worked for SEIU Local 888, Charlestown. My membership were often mentally disabled floor washers and lunch ladies. I used to be the call in-line for issues for the entire state. I've had to deal with PITA managers who were more like Stalin than you'd like to imagine. To your comment about unions - I will simply respond to the heaping pile of steaming dung you put out with the commentary that you have no freaking idea what you are talking about.

You go work for a union for a few years - especially a public employee based union - where they can't strike. Where a diabetic woman illegally terminated for being drunk when they knew she was diabetic - she was having blood sugar problems. Where we arbitrated (and won) against a major metro area for holding file clerks to the same standard as uniformed police officers. We have gotten huge judgments when the actions of public employers were so egregious that people lost their homes. And it could have been avoided by a common sense approach.

Yes, I had a few members who were problem people, but we also dealt managerial bullies who should have been terminated for their abusive tactics. Ultimately, we won more than we lost and mostly what we won was the rights of workers not to be abused.

Okay - enough - I've had it for now.

May not be around for awhile - I've got people coming out my ears for the next two days.

For many collecting disability has become a career. In the last 50 years the number of people on SSI disability has grown from 455,000 to 8.6 million. Currently 5.6% of adults are collecting it at a cost of $130 billion a year. That doesn't count the children receiving benefits.

Because in recent years the government has relaxed standards and now readily accepts unverifiable aliments like mood disorders, depression, back, knee, and joint pain 50% of disability payments are going to people with ailments doctors cannot observe or disprove. At the same time malpractice liability concerns prevent doctors from weeding out the malingerers.

Between 2010 and 2011 1,730,00 new jobs were created and and 790,000 people were added to the SSI disability rolls. This phenomenon indicates that many people are "gaming" or simply defrauding the system. In tough economic times where we face mountains of unsustainable debt we cannot afford to pay millions of people healthy enough to do honest work to sit on their asses.

A note before I stagger off to bed...

I worked for SEIU Local 888, Charlestown. My membership were often mentally disabled floor washers and lunch ladies. I used to be the call in-line for issues for the entire state. I've had to deal with PITA managers who were more like Stalin than you'd like to imagine. To your comment about unions - I will simply respond to the heaping pile of steaming dung you put out with the commentary that you have no freaking idea what you are talking about.

You go work for a union for a few years - especially a public employee based union - where they can't strike. Where a diabetic woman illegally terminated for being drunk when they knew she was diabetic - she was having blood sugar problems. Where we arbitrated (and won) against a major metro area for holding file clerks to the same standard as uniformed police officers. We have gotten huge judgments when the actions of public employers were so egregious that people lost their homes. And it could have been avoided by a common sense approach.

Yes, I had a few members who were problem people, but we also dealt managerial bullies who should have been terminated for their abusive tactics. Ultimately, we won more than we lost and mostly what we won was the rights of workers not to be abused.

Okay - enough - I've had it for now.

May not be around for awhile - I've got people coming out my ears for the next two days.

sheesh, marsh, a diabetic who gets drunk is too dumb to work.

Many points to comment on, but let me get this one first.

As so enlightened I am happy there is a government that will see to it that poor people get the opportunity to have affordable housing and that there be none of the racism I mapped for you or the predatory practices or mortgage brokers or bankers.

The place where this happens is America.

I think that's clear. Period.