Bathwater

 

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  • #42570

    Henry Bacon Fisherfolk returning with their nets, Étretat 1890   Let’s try a different angle. How about the world through the eyes of children’s?
    [See the full post at: Bathwater]

    #42571
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Ocasio-Cortez says McCain was an “unparalleled example of human decency”, not for Vietnam, which might be understandable, but looking at his recent 30 years of unparalleled warmongering. Nice going Progressives! At this rate, Cortez will be able to keep up with the 1 million a year killed by Socialism for 100 years. But then, she does have the stamp of the CFR, as did McCain for sure.

    While it’s fun to talk about the children, and brings it home as they cannot have responsibility of action the way adults do, keep in mind that every parent — and sometimes both — will suffer as badly, in poor eating, in overwork, and endless, unfruitful worry over money. Of course, yes, the U.S. is already well on the way to being a Soviet state, and the real victims aren’t entirely those who are on food stamps and related care, but anyone who works. The all-in support of welfare, Medicaid, etc, has been calculated to be as high as $35,000/year. Better, actually, as you cannot be fired, which most working people are. You also have health care, which working people effectively do not. So you need to go from the streets to, I dunno, $40k with benefits to compare to being on the dole, and I kid you not. I have no idea why anyone works at all. It says something about how independent, how responsible and how proud they are as citizens, because it sure ain’t the math. The math says Social Services should come and take your kids if you’re NOT on welfare, for unconscionable risk and unreasonable abuse. So most are, as the article points out, and the U.S. makes it as terrible, as Kafkaesque, and as slave-like as possible, removing all outlets to work, to progress, or to advocate for yourself. In a way it’s worse than slavery, as it’s sort of warehousing lives-of-sentence without possibility of parole. Some charity! And people advocate for more!

    Anyway, the point is that the parent of these children are in the same, or worse situation. The parents know what they’re up against and to fear, the children largely don’t.

    “Still thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me — the present only toucheth thee:
    But, Och! I backward cast my eye on prospects drear!
    An’ forward, tho’ I canna see, I guess an’ fear!”

    #42572
    zerosum
    Participant

    “….I dunno, $40k with benefits to compare to being on the dole, and I kid you not….”

    Peanuts!!!
    Invert the pyramid.
    Its all trickle down to the elites.
    Remember the elites are the ones that made the systems so that the systems would be to their own benefit.

    #42573
    Ken Barrows
    Participant

    Just a few points,

    “Welfare” may include a child receiving Social Security benefits for a deceased (or retired or disabled) parent. It is basically an insurance policy Social Security gives you. We could mandate getting your own damn insurance policy, true enough.

    If you have Medicaid, the sky’s the limit potentially. If you want to be very sick, you will receive a lot of benefits, but it’s not really useful to count that in determining how the welfare recipient has it made. Now if a person gets Social Security Disability because she has a sufficient work record, she could pull down more than $1,500/month. If she lived alone, she wouldn’t get food stamps (SNAP). If she has a child or two, maybe. For kicks, check this out: http://gapmap.org/calculator/.

    If she has been lazy all her life and doesn’t have a sufficient work record, she could apply for SSI. If she prevails on her claim, it’s $750 per month. But to get it, she cannot have more than $2000 in countable resources (including everything in the bank). Doesn’t qualify for SSI? TANF (for those with children) is even stingier.

    There’s also subsidized housing. You get to pay 30% of your income for rent. In a large American city, that could save you $10,000/year or more.

    The “up to $35,000” won’t apply to many, possibly the Reagan welfare queen driving around in a new Cadillac.

    It is certainly true that without government subsidies having a child is prohibitively expensive. Maybe we should not give more to anyone who has a child. Of course, then we’d have to pay for an alternative. Or watch children suffer. Sterilizing people is another option.

    It is understandably very painful to see your money go to the undeserving. But seems to be that some of these “welfare” articles are exaggerating to express that pain.

    #42574
    zerosum
    Participant

    “…. It is understandably very painful to see your money go to the undeserving…..”

    Antonyms for undeserving
    Elite

    appropriate
    proper
    qualified
    suitable
    honorable
    useful
    valuable
    worthwhile
    worthy

    #42576
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    “Caring only about your own children while throwing the rest away with the bathwater is neither feasible nor viable. You’re bringing up children destined to fight and hate each other. For no reason that I can see at all. Do you enjoy the world of John McCain, where children were bombed for 50 years in two dozen or so countries? Or do you think that’s not such a good idea?”

    “McCain could succeed only because his country, and the world around him, failed. Don’t set up your children, and all children, to fail in the same way he did.”

    That was worth repeating. Thanks for posting it, Ilargi. Yet, however well reasoned and logical the arguments about the children, it seems unlikely for someone to “Love thy neighbor as thyself” (or “Love the neighbor’s children as one’s own) without some type of opening, or dropping of defenses, or heartbreak that we allow ourselves to feel, some recognition of connection at a deeper level.

    With so many Christians (for example, as one religion of many) in the world, relatively few seem to allow themselves to understand and follow the “Love thy neighbor as thyself” commandment from the Old Testament, despite Jesus later clarifying this “greatest commandment” by using the Parable of the Good Samaritan (illustrating who can qualify as one’s neighbor). Other religions have similar teachings, of course.

    I think that humanity needs to have a critical mass of those who “get it” and care enough to break the cycles of abuse and violence in our families and communities and countries. I think that essays like “Bathwater” are good reminders that can help with this.

    #42577
    Nassim
    Participant

    Cairo today – an example of a Failed State

    All the nonsense one reads about unfortunate “asylum seekers” begins to make sense. Not the skinny horse, mangy dog and skinny guys

    #42582
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Bathwater

    Well done you, Ilargi. One of the best essays I’ve read re: McCain’s death and the state of the world in 2018, with emphasis on the U.S..
    As a U.S. citizen, long gone, I’m not hopeful in the slightest; with a hat tip to Ocasio-Cortez as a reminder of why I’m so pessimistic.
    With sycophants like that; hope dies…

    Rather I turn to our circle of friends, who take care of each other through thick and thin.
    I’m thankful for that positive piece of this life.

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