America is turning into a two-class society..Poor and Poorer

[SAMSON123]

Gotta laugh at the fantasy of many in america who think they are middle class..... There are two classes VERY RICH and poor... and the poor are about to get even poorer. Hello democracy and capitalism...where are you when they need you?



America's Underclass: The Growing Gap Between the Rich and Poor
Posted May 18, 2010 09:00am EDT by Peter Gorenstein in Recession

Macro economic data suggest the great recession is over. But the gap between the haves and the have-nots is growing, thanks, in large part, to a jobless recovery. Wall Street Cheat Sheet’s Damien Hoffman says the growing underclass now accounts for about 10% of the U.S. population.

In this clip, he and his brother Derek, who jointly run the Wall Street Cheat Sheet website, point to several signs America is turning into a two-class society: 

    * -The foreclosure problem. 2.8 million homes were foreclosed in 2009.  RealyTrac expects that number to increase to 3-3.5 million in 2010.  Damien Hoffman thinks it could be even higher if "strategic foreclosures" become a more accepted practice.
    * - Unemployment.  The official rate is 9.9% but the wider measure of under employed and those who have given up on their job search is more like 17%.   That's more than 24 million Americans out of work.
    * - Record numbers using food stamps. The Agriculture Department said a record 40 million Americans, or 1 in 8 Americans, may not be able to eat without government assistance.  “This is the ultimate sign of an under class,”  the Hoffman Brothers say.
    * - Take a look at Dollar Tree Stores. The discounter's stock is near an all-time high while revenues are up 12.5% this year.  In other words, more Americans are chasing cheaper goods.


]http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/america%27s-underclass-the-growing-gap-between-the-rich-and-poor-487302.html?tickers=dltr,xhb,tlt,^dji,^gspc,kbh,xrt

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/america%27s-underclass-the-growing-gap-between-the-rich-and-poor-487302.html?tickers=dltr,xhb,tlt,^dji,^gspc,kbh,xrt

[Soul Crusher]

Just how they want it. 

[phreak]

Just how they want it. 

Exactly. If you want to compete with low-wage countries, you have to become one yourself again.

[doison]

This foreclosure bullshit is just disgusting.
At what point did all the fucking idiots think the American dream changed from owning a small home and a car to every fuckface making $45,000 a year thinking they deserve a million dollar home and a BMW?  

I have a very hard time feeling sympathetic for people that failed to prepare for the future and bought a home they knew they couldn't afford.  

It used to be that you'd save every extra penny to build up enough money for a 20% down payment on a modest home to raise your family.  
Now people that don't even know how to spell investment think they deserve the right to put 0 down on a home far outside their budget....sickening.

Don't give me the "people lost their jobs!  That's why they can't pay!"
You're SUPPOSED to prepare for that.  You don't go through life buying things with the idea that you will NEVER fall on hard times and will only continue to make more money every year until you retire.  

I "own" two homes (they're not paid off).  The first one was a very modest home that my wife and I bought when our first child was born.  We saved for that home from the day we got married.  Putting money into our "house" investment every month....even when it meant that we'd have to skip on other things.

So, while our fuckface peers around the country were going out every friday, paying $12 to watch the latest blockbuster, buying $400 jeans and phones, we were shopping with coupons and looking for sales.  

Later on, we buy a modest home with a solid down payment and a mortgage we can afford.....and continue to afford for a number of months without income should I lose my job.  
Of course, my fuckface peers were putting ZERO down on a 5 year arm for a mortgage they could only meet in the BEST case scenario for that first 5 years.  

Even later on, my wife graduates from medical school, we've continued to invest to help make an even better down payment on a new home after we sell our first home......only to see that all our fuckface peers have defaulted on their mortgages....making sure to call the bank on their $400 phones to complain about having no place to store all their $400 jeans once the home is foreclosed.  

So, we can't sell our home because the bottom dropped out of the housing market and have to drain our investments to make the down payment on the second home without the benefit of what we should have earned on the sale of the first home.


To top the whole thing off, we get to rent our first home to one of our fuckface peers with a 420 credit score.....and listen to his sob story about how he had to foreclose on his million dollar home when his $60,000 a year job was cut.  
Even better, we get to check that credit score and see that he doesn't pay his mortgage, car payments, student loans, or boat payments.

Of course, we need to rent the house to someone or we end up paying two full mortgages, so we get to watch him pull up in his BMW (that he doesn't make payments for) with his fuckface kid (playing video games on his $400 phone), stroll up to the house in his $400 jeans, make small talk about how outrageously expensive his kid's travel baseball league is, and listen to him ask "If I'm a few days late on payment, are you guys gonna like, change the locks or something?" while he signs the rental agreement.  

Of course, my wife has to be an absentee signee because she's at work giving top notch medical care to some fuckface's kid who's momma doesn't work.  So, my wife gets to give top end care....care that her own insurance wouldn't cover for our kids....at half the price, because medicaid won't pay full price.  (but they will pay half price for anything...even outrageously expensive procedures that hard working people with real insurance would never be able to afford)

[SAMSON123]

This foreclosure bullshit is just disgusting.
At what point did all the fucking idiots think the American dream changed from owning a small home and a car to every fuckface making $45,000 a year thinking they deserve a million dollar home and a BMW?  

I have a very hard time feeling sympathetic for people that failed to prepare for the future and bought a home they knew they couldn't afford.  

It used to be that you'd save every extra penny to build up enough money for a 20% down payment on a modest home to raise your family.  
Now people that don't even know how to spell investment think they deserve the right to put 0 down on a home far outside their budget....sickening.

Don't give me the "people lost their jobs!  That's why they can't pay!"
You're SUPPOSED to prepare for that.  You don't go through life buying things with the idea that you will NEVER fall on hard times and will only continue to make more money every year until you retire.  

I "own" two homes (they're not paid off).  The first one was a very modest home that my wife and I bought when our first child was born.  We saved for that home from the day we got married.  Putting money into our "house" investment every month....even when it meant that we'd have to skip on other things.

So, while our fuckface peers around the country were going out every friday, paying $12 to watch the latest blockbuster, buying $400 jeans and phones, we were shopping with coupons and looking for sales.  

Later on, we buy a modest home with a solid down payment and a mortgage we can afford.....and continue to afford for a number of months without income should I lose my job.  
Of course, my fuckface peers were putting ZERO down on a 5 year arm for a mortgage they could only meet in the BEST case scenario for that first 5 years.  

Even later on, my wife graduates from medical school, we've continued to invest to help make an even better down payment on a new home after we sell our first home......only to see that all our fuckface peers have defaulted on their mortgages....making sure to call the bank on their $400 phones to complain about having no place to store all their $400 jeans once the home is foreclosed.  

So, we can't sell our home because the bottom dropped out of the housing market and have to drain our investments to make the down payment on the second home without the benefit of what we should have earned on the sale of the first home.


To top the whole thing off, we get to rent our first home to one of our fuckface peers with a 420 credit score.....and listen to his sob story about how he had to foreclose on his million dollar home when his $60,000 a year job was cut.  
Even better, we get to check that credit score and see that he doesn't pay his mortgage, car payments, student loans, or boat payments.

Of course, we need to rent the house to someone or we end up paying two full mortgages, so we get to watch him pull up in his BMW (that he doesn't make payments for) with his fuckface kid (playing video games on his $400 phone), stroll up to the house in his $400 jeans, make small talk about how outrageously expensive his kid's travel baseball league is, and listen to him ask "If I'm a few days late on payment, are you guys gonna like, change the locks or something?" while he signs the rental agreement.  

Of course, my wife has to be an absentee signee because she's at work giving top notch medical care to some fuckface's kid who's momma doesn't work.  So, my wife gets to give top end care....care that her own insurance wouldn't cover for our kids....at half the price, because medicaid won't pay full price.  (but they will pay half price for anything...even outrageously expensive procedures that hard working people with real insurance would never be able to afford)

YAWN!!!!!!!

When hard times hit you...AND IT WILL... I want to see your attitude then.
How a person views the world and its people all depends on where they sit at that present moment. If things are good, they view those without with utter contempt...when things are bad, they scream...what about US. Suddenly you are one of your enemies.

[doison]

YAWN!!!!!!!

When hard times hit you...AND IT WILL... I want to see your attitude then.
How a person views the world and its people all depends on where they sit at that present moment. If things are good, they view those without with utter contempt...when things are bad, they scream...what about US. Suddenly you are one of your enemies.

What do you mean "when hard times hit you?"
I've PREPARED for that.  Perhaps you need to re-read my post.  I have PREPARED for hard times by investing diligently and living well within my means.  

I have prepared for the "hard times" that all the fuckfaces have created.

Please, if you may, let me know this scenario "AND IT WILL" that will change my attitude?  

Will it be when I lose my job?  
I'm a business owner, so if that should happen, It's not going to be from the boss tapping me on the shoulder some Friday afternoon.  I'll know well before the time comes......and, imagine this.....I'll PREPARE for it by cutting back on personal spending to make sure I have more savings and investments to fall back on.  

Will it be when my wife loses her job?  
If you read my previous post you'd see me write about working two jobs to put her through medical school.  I don't know if you know how that field works, but she's not going to have to worry about the boss tapping her on the shoulder some Friday afternoon.  And if for some reason she would need to stop working, we would most likely know well ahead of time....and PREPARE for it by cutting back on spending and increasing savings and investments.

Will it be when the housing market crashes?  
Too late, already made it through that without an attitude change.  

Will it be from growing personal debt?
Besides student loans, we don't have any.  We drove our first married cars until they died and "pretended" to make payments on them the entire time.  So...when they finally did die, we were able to buy a new car.......of course, it's not a fancy BMW with an $800 a month lease on no-money-down....but that's fine.  My wife gets to see those in the parking lot of her office.....when her patients drive them there.  
Of course, we still "pretend" we have a car payment, but that is so that when we reach the point of needing new cars.....we'll be PREPARED for it and have the money to buy them.


So don't give me your lazy tree-hugging "some day you're going to be sorry!" speech.  
You see, while my fuckface peers were our spending money they didn't have, my wife and I were going to grad school.  While my fuckface peers were spending money they didn't have, I was working two jobs and starting a business.  While my fuckface peers were spending money they didn't have, I was cutting back on spending and investing money every month.  

So....NOW, while my fuckface peers are bitching about hard times and how 'unfair' it is that all their debt (when they were spending money they didn't have) is being called in for payment......I'm sitting here glad that I PREPARED for the time the party train would collapse.

[MCWAY]

Gotta laugh at the fantasy of many in america who think they are middle class..... There are two classes VERY RICH and poor... and the poor are about to get even poorer. Hello democracy and capitalism...where are you when they need you?



America's Underclass: The Growing Gap Between the Rich and Poor
Posted May 18, 2010 09:00am EDT by Peter Gorenstein in Recession

Macro economic data suggest the great recession is over. But the gap between the haves and the have-nots is growing, thanks, in large part, to a jobless recovery. Wall Street Cheat Sheet’s Damien Hoffman says the growing underclass now accounts for about 10% of the U.S. population.

In this clip, he and his brother Derek, who jointly run the Wall Street Cheat Sheet website, point to several signs America is turning into a two-class society: 

    * -The foreclosure problem. 2.8 million homes were foreclosed in 2009.  RealyTrac expects that number to increase to 3-3.5 million in 2010.  Damien Hoffman thinks it could be even higher if "strategic foreclosures" become a more accepted practice.
    * - Unemployment.  The official rate is 9.9% but the wider measure of under employed and those who have given up on their job search is more like 17%.   That's more than 24 million Americans out of work.
    * - Record numbers using food stamps. The Agriculture Department said a record 40 million Americans, or 1 in 8 Americans, may not be able to eat without government assistance.  “This is the ultimate sign of an under class,”  the Hoffman Brothers say.
    * - Take a look at Dollar Tree Stores. The discounter's stock is near an all-time high while revenues are up 12.5% this year.  In other words, more Americans are chasing cheaper goods.


]http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/america%27s-underclass-the-growing-gap-between-the-rich-and-poor-487302.html?tickers=dltr,xhb,tlt,^dji,^gspc,kbh,xrt

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/america%27s-underclass-the-growing-gap-between-the-rich-and-poor-487302.html?tickers=dltr,xhb,tlt,^dji,^gspc,kbh,xrt

I have a family of 6. But, I'd hardly consider myself "poor"; and most Americans wouldn't consider me "poor" either, given that:


- We're on, what I call, 1^1/2 incomes (my wife hasn't worked full-time in 7 years, though she a master's degree in nursing).

- Our vehicles have been completely paid off for years; but, my van was recently totaled in an accident. So, I had to get a new van.

- My kids are in private school (and have been for years).

- What I pay in tithe, was once a full paycheck ten years ago.

- My wife and I usually go out to eat, every week or two.

I'm no Trump. But, one need not reserve any food stamps or gub'ment cheese for me. I'll be alright.

[doison]

I have a family of 6. But, I'd hardly consider myself "poor"; and most Americans wouldn't consider me "poor" either, given that:


- We're on, what I call, 1^1/2 incomes (my wife hasn't worked full-time in 7 years, though she a master's degree in nursing).

- Our vehicles have been completely paid off for years; but, my van was recently totaled in an accident. So, I had to get a new van.

- My kids are in private school (and have been for years).

- What I pay in tithe, was once a full paycheck ten years ago.

- My wife and I usually go out to eat, every week or two.

I'm no Trump. But, one need not reserve any food stamps or gub'ment cheese for me. I'll be alright.

That's because you go to work every day, provide your kids a means to succeed when they're adults, and live within your means. 

That used to be called "being a man."

Today it's called being poor because you're not "flossin' spinning rims" on your 72 month lease Benz you "bought" with no-money-down.
At least your kids will grow up knowing the difference between being a man and "daddy needs some new $400 jeanzz."  Too bad they're going to be even more of the exception by then....

[MCWAY]

That's because you go to work every day, provide your kids a means to succeed when they're adults, and live within your means.  

That used to be called "being a man."

Today it's called being poor because you're not "flossin' spinning rims" on your 72 month lease Benz you "bought" with no-money-down.
At least your kids will grow up knowing the difference between being a man and "daddy needs some new $400 jeanzz."  Too bad they're going to be even more of the exception by then....

Dude, spinners are sooooooo 2005!!!  

But, your point is well-made. Those stupid gizmos would pay my kids' tuiton for at least three months. My mother taught me how to prioritize for important things like school. Believe it or not, she learned to drive a 18-wheeler, to keep me in private school, until I went to college.

People like you and me are the ones who are going to get sodomized by things like ObamaCare and amnesty. That "tax-the-rich" spiel is pure BS.

[SAMSON123]

That's because you go to work every day, provide your kids a means to succeed when they're adults, and live within your means. 

That used to be called "being a man."

Today it's called being poor because you're not "flossin' spinning rims" on your 72 month lease Benz you "bought" with no-money-down.
At least your kids will grow up knowing the difference between being a man and "daddy needs some new $400 jeanzz."  Too bad they're going to be even more of the exception by then....

You're either an old guy or really really locked in a time warp. Flossin? I haven't heard that term in years. Spinning Rims? WTF where the hell have you been? 72 month benz leases and 400 dollar jeans?...Umm I can't even respond to that....damnn

[doison]

You're either an old guy or really really locked in a time warp. Flossin? I haven't heard that term in years. Spinning Rims? WTF where the hell have you been? 72 month benz leases and 400 dollar jeans?...Umm I can't even respond to that....damnn

Yeah, I've been informed that spinnin' rims is so 2005. 
I'm soooo not cool.  Let's focus on that instead of the real content of my posts.  If you can't respond to the 72 month benz lease and $400 jeans, then you are exactly what I'm talking about.  A quick google search of those terms will show you more than a few forum discussions about various types of 72 month payment plans. 


I'll go right along with you and admit that I'm like soooo not cool, so you don't have to mention that.  I'll freely admit it. 
So, with that out of the way, you said that hard times WILL HIT ME.....let me know what scenario you have in mind and how nothing could avert it. 

Show me how getting an education, working hard, living frugally, and investing wisely can't prevent the inevitability of hard times....

[Eyeball Chambers]

This foreclosure bullshit is just disgusting.
At what point did all the fucking idiots think the American dream changed from owning a small home and a car to every fuckface making $45,000 a year thinking they deserve a million dollar home and a BMW?  

I have a very hard time feeling sympathetic for people that failed to prepare for the future and bought a home they knew they couldn't afford.  

It used to be that you'd save every extra penny to build up enough money for a 20% down payment on a modest home to raise your family.  
Now people that don't even know how to spell investment think they deserve the right to put 0 down on a home far outside their budget....sickening.

Don't give me the "people lost their jobs!  That's why they can't pay!"
You're SUPPOSED to prepare for that.  You don't go through life buying things with the idea that you will NEVER fall on hard times and will only continue to make more money every year until you retire.  

I "own" two homes (they're not paid off).  The first one was a very modest home that my wife and I bought when our first child was born.  We saved for that home from the day we got married.  Putting money into our "house" investment every month....even when it meant that we'd have to skip on other things.

So, while our fuckface peers around the country were going out every friday, paying $12 to watch the latest blockbuster, buying $400 jeans and phones, we were shopping with coupons and looking for sales.  

Later on, we buy a modest home with a solid down payment and a mortgage we can afford.....and continue to afford for a number of months without income should I lose my job.  
Of course, my fuckface peers were putting ZERO down on a 5 year arm for a mortgage they could only meet in the BEST case scenario for that first 5 years.  

Even later on, my wife graduates from medical school, we've continued to invest to help make an even better down payment on a new home after we sell our first home......only to see that all our fuckface peers have defaulted on their mortgages....making sure to call the bank on their $400 phones to complain about having no place to store all their $400 jeans once the home is foreclosed.  

So, we can't sell our home because the bottom dropped out of the housing market and have to drain our investments to make the down payment on the second home without the benefit of what we should have earned on the sale of the first home.


To top the whole thing off, we get to rent our first home to one of our fuckface peers with a 420 credit score.....and listen to his sob story about how he had to foreclose on his million dollar home when his $60,000 a year job was cut.  
Even better, we get to check that credit score and see that he doesn't pay his mortgage, car payments, student loans, or boat payments.

Of course, we need to rent the house to someone or we end up paying two full mortgages, so we get to watch him pull up in his BMW (that he doesn't make payments for) with his fuckface kid (playing video games on his $400 phone), stroll up to the house in his $400 jeans, make small talk about how outrageously expensive his kid's travel baseball league is, and listen to him ask "If I'm a few days late on payment, are you guys gonna like, change the locks or something?" while he signs the rental agreement.  

Of course, my wife has to be an absentee signee because she's at work giving top notch medical care to some fuckface's kid who's momma doesn't work.  So, my wife gets to give top end care....care that her own insurance wouldn't cover for our kids....at half the price, because medicaid won't pay full price.  (but they will pay half price for anything...even outrageously expensive procedures that hard working people with real insurance would never be able to afford)

Very good post, that sums it well.

[Eyeball Chambers]

That's because you go to work every day, provide your kids a means to succeed when they're adults, and live within your means. 

That used to be called "being a man."

Today it's called being poor because you're not "flossin' spinning rims" on your 72 month lease Benz you "bought" with no-money-down.
At least your kids will grow up knowing the difference between being a man and "daddy needs some new $400 jeanzz."  Too bad they're going to be even more of the exception by then....

Again, very good post! Good for you Mcway, good to know MEN are still around!

[MCWAY]

Again, very good post! Good for you Mcway, good to know MEN are still around!

I just do the best I can, to provide for my wife and kids.

I know what it's like to struggle. I remember when my mother was on welfare. It was HUMILIATING. Sometimes, my mother would sent me to the corner store to buy something with food stamps.

I don't know about you guys. But when I was growing up, if the other kids saw you buying something with food stamps, they'd crack on you all day long (and twice on Sunday). Having to buy generic products (i.e. the black-and-white or black-and-yellow box of macaroni and cheese that simply said "Macaroni and Cheese") told every body you were straight-up po'.

[doison]

I just do the best I can, to provide for my wife and kids.

I know what it's like to struggle. I remember when my mother was on welfare. It was HUMILIATING. Sometimes, my mother would sent me to the corner store to buy something with food stamps.

I don't know about you guys. But when I was growing up, if the other kids saw you buying something with food stamps, they'd crack on you all day long (and twice on Sunday). Having to buy generic products (i.e. the black-and-white or black-and-yellow box of macaroni and cheese that simply said "Macaroni and Cheese") told every body you were straight-up po'.

Yeah, it was just a different attitude.
My parents were always struggling.  They got married at 18, right out of high school.....and it wasn't a shotgun wedding either, I didn't come along until they were 22.  My mom stayed home and my dad was a factory rat.  

I remember one time when he got laid off.  He got up the next morning, got dressed like he was getting ready for work, grabbed his lunch box and started walking towards the door.  I asked him what he was doing (I was only about 5-6 so I barely understood what being laid off meant...I thought it meant that he had to lay in bed and couldn't go to work).  He said he was going to get a job......so he left that morning and didn't come back until he had put in an application, phone call, or whatever with every place of business he could find.

I remember going with him to job sites on the weekends.  Obviously, with that many applications, he wasn't applying to only his 'regular' line of work....so when someone would call up and say they needed an extra carpenter the site that Saturday, he'd answer "I'm a carpenter, what time do we start?" I went along with him and learned how to hammer a nail and what your hands felt like after carrying cinder blocks around all day.
Someone called about hiring an extra plumber, he said "I'm a plumber, where do you need me?"  I went with him and learned about elbow joints, Tee joints, coupling, compression fitting, etc.  

They realized that they weren't poor because someone else wasn't "sharing the wealth," it was their own fault that they were in the situation they were in.  They also knew that if they didn't like it, they had the option of changing it....
Eventually my mom went to school.  She got her LPN, then RN, and then eventually her Master's....when she was in her 50's.  
My Dad kept working hard, slowly moved up to middle management, made some good connections and eventually started his own business.  


I was just raised differently than it seems some people were.  If you don't like your situation, then change it.  Don't give me any garbage about things being unfair...that's life.  

People make jokes about Indian doctors.  I know my wife's graduating class definitely had an over-representation of that minority.  How many of them came from poor families?  Just about every one of them were first or second generation Americans.  The first generation grew up poor and taught their kids to work hard and make a better life....

Of course....the hospital is still littered with people on disability because of their headaches, bitching that the medicaid they get for free isn't worth a damn......and of course bitching about "all the God damned foreign Doctors."  




*I admit that this has now become both a meltdown and arrogant full-of-myself soapbox rant, so there's no need to point that out.

[MCWAY]

Yeah, it was just a different attitude.
My parents were always struggling.  They got married at 18, right out of high school.....and it wasn't a shotgun wedding either, I didn't come along until they were 22.  My mom stayed home and my dad was a factory rat.  

I remember one time when he got laid off.  He got up the next morning, got dressed like he was getting ready for work, grabbed his lunch box and started walking towards the door.  I asked him what he was doing (I was only about 5-6 so I barely understood what being laid off meant...I thought it meant that he had to lay in bed and couldn't go to work).  He said he was going to get a job......so he left that morning and didn't come back until he had put in an application, phone call, or whatever with every place of business he could find.

I remember going with him to job sites on the weekends.  Obviously, with that many applications, he wasn't applying to only his 'regular' line of work....so when someone would call up and say they needed an extra carpenter the site that Saturday, he'd answer "I'm a carpenter, what time do we start?" I went along with him and learned how to hammer a nail and what your hands felt like after carrying cinder blocks around all day.
Someone called about hiring an extra plumber, he said "I'm a plumber, where do you need me?"  I went with him and learned about elbow joints, Tee joints, coupling, compression fitting, etc.  

They realized that they weren't poor because someone else wasn't "sharing the wealth," it was their own fault that they were in the situation they were in.  They also knew that if they didn't like it, they had the option of changing it....
Eventually my mom went to school.  She got her LPN, then RN, and then eventually her Master's....when she was in her 50's.  
My Dad kept working hard, slowly moved up to middle management, made some good connections and eventually started his own business.  


I was just raised differently than it seems some people were.  If you don't like your situation, then change it.  Don't give me any garbage about things being unfair...that's life.  

People make jokes about Indian doctors.  I know my wife's graduating class definitely had an over-representation of that minority.  How many of them came from poor families?  Just about every one of them were first or second generation Americans.  The first generation grew up poor and taught their kids to work hard and make a better life....

Of course....the hospital is still littered with people on disability because of their headaches, bitching that the medicaid they get for free isn't worth a damn......and of course bitching about "all the God damned foreign Doctors."  




*I admit that this has now become both a meltdown and arrogant full-of-myself soapbox rant, so there's no need to point that out.

I tagged along with my mother on occasion, helping her clean offices at night, after school. Heck, it saved her some money on school supplies. Instead of buying me notebooks, pens, papers, and calculators, she would give me those extra supplies that the workers at those offices threw away (I always liked those credit-card-sized solar calculators and those notebooks with the business logos on it; it made me feel as if I was an exec at school).

I learned how to cut the lawn and did that after school (which I HATED, with a passion). But, Mom had me do it, as it would shave a little off the rent, because the landlord didn't have to pay for someone to do yardwork.

[headhuntersix]

Funny how SAMSON melts away when real people doing real things, with real knowledge answer his bullshit threads,

[tu_holmes]

People like to bitch...

The one thing that Americans have become good at is complaining... Stuff is unfair... it's always someone else's fault... No one wants to take responsibility for shit.

The successful people are those who make the hard choices and deal with the consequences... If they're bad, they make another hard choice and they continue to attempt success.

As I used to see floating around...



PS... WTF does Samson always post about stuff going on in the US... It may not be perfect, but he can't show me anyplace better... The US needs to start paying them rent for taking up the space in their mind.

[George Whorewell]

In the Jungle where SAMSON was born, there is no such thing as rich and poor.

The apes share bananas with one another and society is in perfect harmony.

SAMSON learned English and obtained a computer from an explorer he maimed.

Now he dedicates all of his free time to making sure that America doesn't invade the jungle, destroy the banana harvest and install evil corporate warlords in the area that Slash and Burn the foliage to build McDonald's.

SAMSONS brilliant plan is to use the internet to try and convince gullible and stupid Americans that their country is going to collapse in hopes that an internal revolt will keep the bulldozers and lady Gillette's away from his hairy, feces flinging paradise.

Sorry SAMSON. The jig is up.  

[Dos Equis]

Great stories doison and McWay.  Great American stories. 

[MCWAY]

Great stories doison and McWay.  Great American stories. 

Just some background on how I grew up and how my life is now. In other words, I am indeed part of the “middle class” that SAMSON claims no longer exists or is on the brink of extinction.

Again, how many poor people live on one income with a family of six, with kids in private schools?

[Dos Equis]

Just some background on how I grew up and how my life is now. In other words, I am indeed part of the “middle class” that SAMSON claims no longer exists or is on the brink of extinction.

Again, how many poor people live on one income with a family of six, with kids in private schools?

I don't read most of what Samson posts, but it is good you and doison told your stories.  Reminds me of the proverb:

Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him.  Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.

This is one instance where answering a fool was the right thing to do.