Poverty is relative. The poor in our country would be well off in some other countries. The only way to eliminate poverty is to have everyone exactly equal and that will never work since some animals are more equal.

TooTall on March 10, 2008 at 11:05 AM

Rush (the band) said it best in their song The Trees many years ago when they sang that they’re now all “kept equal by hatchet, axe, and saw.” That’s what the Left wants to do to all of us. Keep us equal by keeping us all down.

Right now, higher milk prices are due to higher commodity prices in general and fewer producers and more demand. In fact if not for the program prices would probably be higher. Milk is a perishable product and it takes three years to grow a milk cow, that is not a business that turns on a dime.

Other than that I agree with the overall tenure of your remarks. Someone said that even house trailers have air conditioning as if that was nothing. Well I can remember people living in tar paper shacks, kids with no decent shoes and people who could not afford a decent vehicle much less than the gas to put it in..and that would have been back in the 60’s. A nice mobile home with central air and three bedrooms would have looked a like a castle to the poor people back then.

Today people think they are doing without if they can not afford cable.

1. If he/she thinks it’s right to substitute subsidized ethanol (at least 30% LESS energy/gal than gasoline) for real gasoline without reducing the price of gasoline at least 30%.

2. If he/she thinks it’s right to drastically increase the price of all food in order to create ethanol instead of drilling for and using our own oil, gas and nuclear power.

This should separate those really concerned from those who just like to brag about being concerned (aka Hypocrites)!

I think it stems from the fact that several of them worked for GM and had to move on to greener pastures. They never let go of the bitterness despite finding, and earning, a better life for themselves.

Besides all that, there is just something funny about a millionaire Politician telling the poor about disparity. Some message of hope: “You can’t do it!” buried in a message of “Yes we can – if you let me do it for you”.

I’d prefer a message of effort and accomplishment, failure leading to victory.

Your life sucks because some else has it better isn’t very inspiring…..

On a related note; I’m a big fan of theChris Gardner story.

I want a politician to counter this Socialist tripe with some rags to riches stories. There is a reason America likes the underdog.

The poor must do better for themselves.

How about not using food for fuel to start with.

Has anyone stopped to think that the poor may want to be poor

Not only are they obviously the poorest of the poor in America, but they dramatically reduce the pay of low skill workers in the US.

I’m sure then the Democrats will sign up for a strong enforcement/attrition policy…no?

I read somewhere that if you own two pairs of shoes, you’re in the top 10% wealthiest people in the world. Chew on that, silky.

TooTall on March 10, 2008 at 11:05 AM

In this country poverty is a state of mind. Anyone with average intelligence a little willpower and some elbow grease can elevate themselves out of poverty without a handout. The key word is can.

shibumiglass on March 10, 2008 at 10:53 AM

No, you understand me perfectly well. Why do you think McCain is the Repub nominee?

Grow Fins on March 10, 2008 at 10:14 AM

Nobody ever had to tell me that I needed to do better. I was always able to figure that out for myself. The last Democrat I voted for was LBJ, it was my first presidential election and I was 18. Very shortly after that I figured it out.

I listen to neighbors, and friends, who were just fine a few months ago who suddenly have nothing to chat about but their sad lot in life. Mass hypnosis I tell you!

dustoffmom on March 10, 2008 at 7:53 AM

Happens every four years.

It’s no coincidence that large cities provide the backbone of the “blue” states for dems. It’s here that the class division amongst dems stands out so clearly.

Did I misunderstand you?

shibumiglass on March 10, 2008 at 10:53 AM

I think you read exactly what I read. Having been homeless as a teenager I really don’t understand it. Not sure if it was HA that I got this from originally, but here’s a great example of why…

With a continuous discounting of labor and continuous rising minimum wage, we will see a growing number of people who will be working for that wage and it will eventually be called the “going rate” rather than “minimum wage”. When the rate becomes the important number in so many people’s lives nothing else will matter in the voting booth.

It’s pointless to tell the poor about how good they have it because everyone wants more than they have no matter how much they have. The era of farmers who just wanted to live off what the land offered is over. Even the farmers are parasites now demanding more and more entitlements.

The poor must do better for themselves.

On an abstract, ethical level, you may be right. But speaking pragmatically (and politically, as we must), this muscular social darwinist rhetoric is a surefire election loser. People who are struggling (yes, they exist here in Ohio, despite Captain Ed’s sunny blandishments) don’t like to be told “they must do better.”

Grow Fins on March 10, 2008 at 10:14 AM

I can’t believe I’m reading this. Please tell me you’re a democrat. You’re saying, essentially, forget prosperity, forget personal responsibility, forget everything America once stood for, if republicans have to become socialists to win, that’s what they should do. Did I misunderstand you?

This is why leftists harp on class warfare, and why they ridicule religion, and strive to relegate it to the private, subjective sphere: because religion holds open the possibility that the purpose of one’s life is something greater than material prosperity.

Marxism is quite at home in the democrat party. It’s hideous and ugly, to be sure, but it’s the face they’ve chosen.

Politics isn’t reality, a reality is that a lot of Americans are fat and happy morons who have no frickin idea how good they have it.

benrand on March 10, 2008 at 8:02 AM

Yes, and the reason they can choose to be moronic is because life IS so good here.
Sometimes I just get so angry! :)

We must do better for the poor in our country if we expect to continue to win in the red states.

How about we bypass the Democrats and those environmentalistas by punching wells into ANWR, building refineries, build nuke power plants and stop raising food prices by pulling the plug on this ethanol sham? That would go a long way towards lowering the cost of living and removing our dependency on foreign oil.

The R’s need to grow a spine and tell the enviros and their enablers to STFU and get out of the way.

Grow Fins on March 10, 2008 at 10:14 AM

So then the burden to supplement their income falls on who? Me? I’m barely middle class myself.
I agree that telling the truth on this would be political suicide, but we remain the most prosperous country in the world with the most opportunities and people need to be responsible for themselves.