I Am (Spartacus) Joe Six-Pack

[dianeduane]

This morning’s best read… and about time somebody said it. Brava.

Comments

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Oh, that was *fantastic*. *tears up*

[lady-autumnstar.livejournal.com]

What really annoys me is that the Government thinks I can't take care of myself and my family. Politicians want to muscle their way into our lives and run everything for us, from birth to death. If they'd just let us keep the money we earn, taking just enough in taxes to keep the potholes filled, we'd be fine. We really aren't as dumb or needy as they think.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Most of us...

But there are people who want to be taken care of, who don't want to make decisions or have to expend any effort to think or learn, who find life is just too gosh darn hard...

Even at that, I guess they're not all that dumb though, because they've sure as hell managed to get things their way.

[lady-autumnstar.livejournal.com]

they've sure as hell managed to get things their way.

You're absolutely right about that.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

There are people who for whatever real reason cannot take care of their families. Social services exist for those people because family, religion, and business do NOT take care of them.

[lady-autumnstar.livejournal.com]

That's just it, though. Family and/or religious groups should be taking care of these people, if they do need help. While I am sympathetic to their plight, my husband and I have our own family to take care of. I resent the dickens our of a government taking *our* money, that we work hard for, at gunpoint to give to people who do nothing to help themselves.

Oh, and lest you think I overstress the situation, YOU try not paying your taxes on time.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

"Should" is a wonderful word when it describes the true goals commonly shared by all, and I agree that they SHOULD be taken care of by family and faith (and this makes the HUGE assumption that "faith" is common and shared), but reality doesn't listen to should, and the world is not fair in any way, shape or form. There are huge gaps and the social services we have were created by the consent of the people who knew how things get when family and faith are not enough.

I agree that people who do nothing to help themselves might be undeserving, but I have never met anyone who was capable of helping themself who did nothing. I imagine there are some such. I have known people who were broken, beaten down, whose imprisonment in poverty and ignorance keeps them from doing anything effective, and I have known people who have managed to overcome those circumstances, and some who have died from them.

I have two brothers who have those same tax issues, for various reasons, in one case simply being due to profoundly sloppy and lazy bookkeeping, and "doing nothing" when he should have been (at least) talking to the IRS.

The government seldom resorts to gunpoint to take their taxes. They don't need to do so. They can take them from the banks, in most cases.

[rabidfangurl.livejournal.com]

Tell me, is the guy who just lost his job because it got outsourced to China and now is on unemployment to pay the rent "doing nothing to help himself"?

What about the blind lady who is on disability because she can't get a job, no matter how much she wants to (the blind have one of the highest rates of unemployment in this country)?

Or the single mom who works 50 hours a week for minimum wage and is still on food stamps because she can't afford to pay for both food and child care?

You know why Social Security was created? Because before it existed a majority of elderly lived in poverty. It was common for them to freeze to death in the winter because they couldn't afford heat.Pneumonia was referred to as "the old person's friend" because it killed quickly.

The social safety net doesn't exist to subsidize "people who do nothing to help themselves". It exists to help those who CAN'T help themselves, no matter how much they want to or how hard they try.

If you want to rail against a waste of the taxpayer's money, complain about defense spending. Does America really need to spend half our federal budget supporting the military industrial complex?

[lady-autumnstar.livejournal.com]

Yes, there are people who have no other recourse but Federal funding. Those are not the people I get annoyed with. The ones that annoy me are the welfare brood mares (and Atlanta is full of them) that have child after child just to get the government aid and use it to buy clothes, cars, and big-screen TVs and don't bother with the kids after they can walk. Or the homeless people who just don't want to be bothered to be responsible for themselves.

And yes, I know why Social Security was started, and I know what it has become. With the willing aid of the AARP Social Security is now funding people that should have managed their own health and welfare funding, but saw that they could get someone else to support them. It is now doubtful that anyone under 50 will ever get anything from Social Security when they are of age because there won't be anything left for them.

The Military is what guards and supports your Constitutional right to complain about how bad the government is, and how they shouldn't spend your tax money supporting the military industrial complex.

[iamfiction.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link. A good morning read if I do say so myself.

[mitchy.livejournal.com]

Oh that was superb. Thanks for the link!

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. I cheered.

[blue_ant]

Thank you for sharing this.

[thelauderdale.livejournal.com]

It was gold until it got to this point -

I wish I were only talking to one camp. But I'm talking to my own, too. We "liberal elitists." Because we say the same kind of things when talking about "the average American." We assume we know them...

Then it went platinum.

Thanks for linking this. The folks on my f-list should have a chance to see it too.

[tsukara.livejournal.com]

Oh, small world. I wondered why this looked familiar!

Thanks for linking again though. Something this good is always worth the second read.

[batyatoon]

Oh god, I want so much for this to be true, and I'm so scared that it isn't and we're deluding ourselves.

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

Excellent read. Thank you for the link.