Hard Times Generation - 60 Minutes

[Nbadan]

25% of American children live in homeless poverty and don't know where they will get their next meal.....but they still can't pass the TAKS test!

Video: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7358670n&tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel


Unemployment improved a bit last month but it is still nearly nine percent and the trouble is job creation is so slow, it will be years before we get back the seven and a half million jobs lost in the Great Recession. American families have been falling out of the middle class in record numbers. The combination of lost jobs and millions of foreclosures means a lot of folks are homeless and hungry for the first time in their lives.

One of the consequences of the recession that you don't hear a lot about is the record number of children descending into poverty.

The government considers a family of four to be impoverished if they take in less than $22,000 a year. Based on that standard, and government projections of unemployment, it is estimated the poverty rate for kids in this country will soon hit 25 percent. Those children would be the largest American generation to be raised in hard times since the Great Depression.

In Seminole County, near Orlando, Fla., so many kids have lost their homes that school busses now stop at dozens of cheap motels where families crowd into rooms, living week to week.

CBS (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/06/60minutes/main20038927.shtml?tag=contentMain)


Welcome to Jeb Bush's America....

[DMX7]

Welfare queens. All of them!

They probably trade their food stamps for drugs and the services of prostitutes.

[Wild Cobra]

Why are their mothers selling their food stamps?

[boutons_deux]

"Why are their mothers selling their food stamps"

Link? If this exists, how widespread is it? 25% 50% 75% 1%

Or is this yet another LIE from the right-wing, as in all people on unemployment and govt assistance are St Ronnie's welfare queens driving Cadillacs?

[DarrinS]

Either this group will decide that govt is my nanny and become a loyal Democrat voting block or they will pull themselves up by their bootstraps and become conservatives. The latter is better for our society.

[George Gervin's Afro]

Either this group will decide that govt is my nanny and become a loyal Democrat voting block or they will pull themselves up by their bootstraps and become conservatives. The latter is better for our society.

hey dumbass poor people don't vote.. Jesus Christ you guys are stupid!

[ManuBalboa]

If you are poor, don't have kids. If you are poor, don't have two kids. If you are poor, don't have three kids. If you are poor, don't have four kids.

[Drachen]

Manu, agreed, but what if they are upper middle class (family of four and ~80-90k) then both parents lose their jobs?

[Wild Cobra]

"Why are their mothers selling their food stamps"

Link? If this exists, how widespread is it? 25% 50% 75% 1%

Or is this yet another LIE from the right-wing, as in all people on unemployment and govt assistance are St Ronnie's welfare queens driving Cadillacs?
Just an obvious conclusion.

Mothers get enough food stamps to feed their children. If children are going hungry, they must be selling them for drugs or something.

Remember, my reply was referring to children in the USA going hungry.

[George Gervin's Afro]

Just an obvious conclusion.

Mothers get enough food stamps to feed their children. If children are going hungry, they must be selling them for drugs or something.

Remember, my reply was referring to children in the USA going hungry.

they probably sell them to buy detergent, clothes, and other things food stamps don't cover.

drugs? of course you'd assume that.

[Marcus Bryant]

The problem, of course, is that anything resembling a cohesive family structure, or at least a group of adults who can handle the welfare for an extended family including these children is tattered, at best. In the zealous push to maximize individual liberty in this country, the bonds of family and community have been largely destroyed. Whereas once upon a time large swaths of the population could grow up in poverty, but then leave it in a generation (in no small part due to growing up in a tight family), never to return, now we have successive generations mired in it, dependent upon public assistance. Progress.

[Marcus Bryant]

And this disease does not just affect the poor. We have created virtues out of helplessness, selfishness, and irresponsibility which, imo, are rampant from the top to the bottom of our society.

[Marcus Bryant]

The destruction of the family was orchestrated to liberate the individual. You have before you the results.

[phxspurfan]

Isn't living in motels really expensive? I never understood that week-to-week housing and even car payment thing. Who can afford to pay a payment every week?

[boutons_deux]

"destruction of the family was orchestrated"

... by whom?

... and how would the destroyers benefit?

[DMX7]

"destruction of the family was orchestrated"

.... by whom?

Don't ask questions. They only get in the way of his delusions.

[Nbadan]

Manu, agreed, but what if they are upper middle class (family of four and ~80-90k) then both parents lose their jobs?

If your a family of four making $80- $90k and only one parent loses his/her job...your in trouble...all of the sudden your income is cut in half....the home loan company won't take just half your mortgage....it doesn't take half as much to pay the water, electricity, and car payment.....

....its pretty clear that the wing-nuts have no sympathy for the poor, but now for the middle class tooo

[Nbadan]

Sam Seder on hard-times generation...


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Taking a closer look at Florida in particular, the segment focuses on several families who never thought they would be homeless, and the children who perhaps suffer the greatest burden, growing up without a stable dwelling and sometimes going hungry.

Several children are interviewed. Two of the kids describe sneaking into a Wal-Mart bathroom to use the sinks and to clean up before school. One child says she feels that her family's poverty is her fault because her parents have to support her.

Some kids are living with neighbors, some in cars and vans, others in motels. Near Orlando, on the road to Disney World, there are 67 motels that house about 500 homeless kids.

According to CBS and the U.S. Census, 14 million children throughout the nation lived in poverty before the recession hit, and now that number is 16 million -- a 2-million person rise in two years. via twitter

-- Lori Kozlowski L.A. Times

[Capt Bringdown]

By god, it's all a huge conspiracy. Evil doers plotting against the family structure, turning us all into welfare queens.
If only we all had the good sense to submit to traditional family hierarchies and eternal values, it would all go away!

[Winehole23]

If that's meant as a lampoon of Marcus, you have a tin ear.

[Marcus Bryant]

"destruction of the family was orchestrated"

... by whom?

... and how would the destroyers benefit?

We are.

[TeyshaBlue]

Don't ask questions. They only get in the way of his delusions.

Dude, if you ever had a complete, cogent post, it likely died of loneliness years ago.:sleep

[boutons_deux]

The VRWC is organized, focused, relentless, multi-decade logistics to pile up ungodly wealth and power, to turn the USA into the UCA, to return to the unregulated 1920s where Robber Barons and banks could execute their predataions and exploitation of people and environment without interference.

The intentions, victims, benefits, and (successful) effects are clear.

You have not proved that anyone had a plan or intention to destroy family life.

The loss of family life is a unintentional result of moving from an tribal, agricultural society to an urban, industrial, services, information economy, aided by cheap transportation, mass media, mass communications.

[Capt Bringdown]

If that's meant as a lampoon of Marcus, you have a tin ear.

Oh really, and how did you reach this conclusion if I was so off the mark?

[Winehole23]

A bit of familiarity. Addressing the man personally instead of just assuming I know what he means all the time.

Discussion is a clarifier. Reading with attention helps too. You can also use the search function to learn more about other posters.

(I doubt such an effort will sustain your hasty conclusions about MB.)

[Winehole23]

There are real people behind the avatars. You don't have to treat this forum like a bathroom stall.

[Capt Bringdown]

A bit of familiarity. Addressing the man personally instead of just assuming I know what he means all the time.

Discussion is a clarifier. Reading with attention helps too. You can also use the search function to learn more about other posters.

(I doubt such an effort will sustain your hasty conclusions about MB.)

I see you share an inflated sense of importance and condescension with your hero. Good luck with that.

[Winehole23]

I see you share an inflated sense of importance and condescension with your hero. Good luck with that.It's obvious you'd rather put other posters down for merely differing from you, than have a real discussion with them to discover what those differences really are.

Your choice.

[Capt Bringdown]

You'd rather put other posters down mindlessly than have a real discussion with them. Your choice.

That's rich coming from you, Mr Ad Hominen. Ditto for your little friend.

[Winehole23]

I talk to every single jackass in this forum. Been doing it for years. Occasionally, a conversation happens.

[Winehole23]

It'd be nice if it happened a little more often. Are you helping?

[Winehole23]

If I prefer some posters to others that indicates neither hero worship nor amorous intent as occasionally alleged.

[Capt Bringdown]

It'd be nice if it happened a little more often. Are you helping?

Apparently not, according to you, I've got a tin ear because I don't endorse know-it-all reactionaries. Now how's that a big improvement in the conversation dept, hmm?

[Winehole23]

Apparently not, according to you, I've got a tin ear because I don't endorse know-it-all reactionaries.No. I don't think you knew what MB meant. You might have asked him instead of just assuming. If you were really interested in knowing the content of what you glibly denounce, but I suppose that would defeat the intention behind your glib putdowns.

Now how's that a big improvement in the conversation dept, hmm?Dubious, but it's a start.

[Marcus Bryant]

Obviously the real conspiracy is a neo-liberal reactionary one, designed to bring back every leftist bogeyman of the past three centuries.

[Capt Bringdown]

No. I don't think you knew what MB meant. You might have asked him instead of just assuming. If you were really interested in knowing the content of what you denounce.

Do you have any ideas of your own, or do you only get off on telling others how to respond to your hero?
I read the "content," and the verdict is that it's pretentious, preposterous "blame the victim" crapola.


Dubious, but it's a start.
No, you don't understand. How is your calling me a tin ear such a great contribution to civility and conversation, O Spirit of gravity?

[Marcus Bryant]

The VRWC is organized, focused, relentless, multi-decade logistics to pile up ungodly wealth and power, to turn the USA into the UCA, to return to the unregulated 1920s where Robber Barons and banks could execute their predataions and exploitation of people and environment without interference.

The intentions, victims, benefits, and (successful) effects are clear.

You have not proved that anyone had a plan or intention to destroy family life.

The loss of family life is a unintentional result of moving from an tribal, agricultural society to an urban, industrial, services, information economy, aided by cheap transportation, mass media, mass communications.


Why must there be a specific plan or plot, with a given group behind it? Easier to understand, I guess.

[Winehole23]

Kicking each other around like ideological ragdolls is the bread and butter of this forum. Real discussion, infrequent as it is, is the jam and jelly.

[Capt Bringdown]

Why must there be a specific plan or plot, with a given group behind it? Easier to understand, I guess.


The destruction of the family was orchestrated to liberate the individual.

Why be consistent? Easier to contradict your own nonsensical viewpoint, I guess.

[Marcus Bryant]

Naturally one in a conspiratorial frame of mind would have read that as such.

[Winehole23]

I read the "content," and the verdict is that it's pretentious, preposterous "blame the victim" crapola. Blaming the victim?

http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5032154&postcount=24

No, you don't understand. How is your calling me a tin ear such a great contribution to civility and conversation, O Spirit of gravity?It isn't. I meant to piss you off.

[Capt Bringdown]

Kicking each other around like ideological ragdolls is the bread and butter of this forum. Real discussion, infrequent as it is, is the jam and jelly.

Wow, that's so profound...deep even. Congratulations on figuring everything out.

[TeyshaBlue]

Thread delivers.

[Winehole23]

Wow, that's so profound...deep even. Congratulations on figuring everything out.Thanks, but what I said was so shallow it isn't even shallow. It was strictly superficial.

(This forum isn't very hard to figure out.)

[Winehole23]

Do you have any ideas of your own...Probably not. Do you?

... or do you only get off on telling others how to respond to your hero?I suggested you should take it up with Marcus, is all. Feel free not to.

[boutons_deux]

Why must there be a specific plan or plot, with a given group behind it? Easier to understand, I guess.

Well, shit, United We Stand, Divided We Fall.

The VRWC is united in their objectives, they contribute many $100Ms to financing it, to buying legislators and regulators at all levels, etc, etc. It goes back to the VN and Nixon debacles.

A key objective of the VRWC is to divide and ELIMINATE the opposition, anybody who's not "with them", which is the lower 95%. Divided, the opposition falls. That's the real goal of busting unions, to divide unions into powerless organizations, or even better, have only isolated, weak employees with no power, and to eliminate a source of financing for Dems, just as slandering/scamming ACORN out of existence was to kill a source votes for Dems.

The VRWC is a simple concept, maybe not complicated and academic enough you, and it explains succinctly and accurately what has happened to UCA and what will continue to happen unstoppably.

When a theory matches all the facts, it becomes a useful theory.

[Winehole23]

Maier's Law: If the facts do not conform to the theory, they must be disposed of.

Corollaries:
1. The bigger the theory, the better.
2. The experiment may be considered a success if no more than 50 percent of the observed measurements must be discarded to obtain a correspondence with the theory.
http://www.angelo.edu/faculty/kboudrea/cheap/cheap3_murphy.htm

[Winehole23]

First Law of Scientific Progress: The advance of science can be measured by the rate at which exceptions to previously held laws accumulate.

Corollaries:
1. Exceptions always outnumber rules.
2. There are always exceptions to the established exceptions.
3. By the time one masters the exceptions, no one recalls the rules to which they apply.
ibid

[Winehole23]

Finagle's Creed: Science is Truth. Don't be misled by facts.

Finagle's Laws:
1. If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
2.1 No matter what result is anticipated, there is always someone willing to fake it.
2.2 No matter what the result, there is always someone eager to misinterpret it.
2.3 No matter what happens, there is always someone who believes it happened according to his pet theory.
3.0 In any collection of data, the figure most obviously correct, beyond all need of checking, is the mistake.
3.1 No one whom you ask for help will see it.
3.2 Everyone who stops by with unsought advice will see it immediately.
4. Once a job is fouled up, anything done to improve it only makes it worse.

Wingo's Axiom: All Finagle's Laws may be bypassed by learning the simple art of doing without thinking.

Finagle's Rules:
1. To study an application best, understand it thoroughly before you start.
2. Always keep a record of data. It indicates you've been working.
3. Always draw your curves, then plot the reading.
4. In case of doubt, make it sound convincing.
5. Program results should always be reproducible. They should all fail in the same way.
6. Do not believe in miracles. Rely on them.

[Winehole23]

Felson's Law: To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.

[Winehole23]

Campbell's Law: Nature abhors a vacuous experimenter.

[Winehole23]

Murphy's Metric Recommendation: We should go metric every inch of the way.

[TeyshaBlue]

http://www.angelo.edu/faculty/kboudrea/cheap/cheap3_murphy.htm

My alma mater! WTF???

[Winehole23]

Rocky's Lemma of Innovative Prevention: Unless the results are known in advance, funding agencies will reject the proposal.

[z0sa]

25% of American children live in homeless poverty

Your posted article does NOT say this, nor even imply it.

The accurate statement would be, if things continue unchanged, 25% of American children could live in poverty.

Furthermore, there is absolutely no proof more than a percentage of that 25% are homeless.

Nice try.

[Winehole23]

Rules of the Lab:
1. When you don't know what you're doing, do it neatly.

4. Experience is directly proportional to equipment ruined.

7. To do a lab really well, have your report done well in advance.

8. If you can't get the answer in the usual manner, start at the answer and derive the question.

9. If that doesn't work, start at both ends and try to find a common middle.
10. In case of doubt, make it sound convincing.

12. Team work is essential. It allows you to blame someone else.

13. All unmarked beakers contain fast-acting, extremely toxic poisons.

14. Any delicate and expensive piece of glassware will break before any use can be made of it. (Law of Spontaneous Fission)

[Winehole23]

(ok, i'll stop now.)

[Nbadan]

Wow, that's so profound...deep even. Congratulations on figuring everything out.

Wow....

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