Soup kitchen queues grow as US teeters on brink of new downturn

geoffky

The harder i work the richer my boss gets!!!! ps i dont work

Norfolk_Jim

Take away the safety net and theres always crime to fall back on, and we can always reintroduce the death penalty or reopen the mines in order to reduce the cost of jails. We can bring back the workhouses for the truely lazy and we can always reintroduce slavery and legalise brothels so that the unemployed youth will be able to earn a living. We could drastically reduce the NHS and encourage the non economic contributors in society to hurry up and die and stop being a burden on the rest of us.
Or we could persevere with the welfare state with all its faults, it still seems to be sufficiently desirable for half the world to want to come and enjoy its benefits.
My only gripe with it is that benefits have been divorced from work. Pure hand outs for nothing in return destroy the work ethic, but it could be fixed if the political will was there to do it.

IveSeenTheLight

geoffky wrote: »

The harder i work the richer my boss gets!!!! ps i dont work

the harder you work, the richer the boss gets and the more likely for you to have a stable job / get a higher pay rise. P.s If you worked

penguine

I've never been to a soup kitchen, but when I was a student in the US and struggling to get by, my roommates and I went to our local food bank. We would get a big brown paper bag full of whatever food happened to be available, some of it stuff you wouldn't really want to eat, including a brick of processed cheese helpfully supplied by the USDA.

I only went there two or three times, but some years later I started sending them donations every year just after Christmas (typical time for food bank stocks to run low) because I am still grateful they were there when I really needed them. I get their annual newsletters and they've changed a lot, they're now set up more like a grocery store with shelves for their "customers" to browse and choose the foods they actually like and will really use, and as the ethnic makeup of the city has changed they have become more accommodating of different dietary preferences.

dopester

penguine wrote: »

I get their annual newsletters and they've changed a lot, they're now set up more like a grocery store with shelves for their "customers" to browse and choose the foods they actually like and will really use, and as the ethnic makeup of the city has changed they have become more accommodating of different dietary preferences.

Good stuff - very good of you. I've donated on an irregular basis to the Salvation Army.. on the memory of how they were really nice to us, and treated us all to a Yorkie bar as cubs... (after we cleaned up one of their halls.)

However the charity food outlets advancing their range and choice... reminds me of that scene from Dad's Army. (2:33 in). Much nicer than before I'm sure, but I'd be grateful for basic foodstuffs -- although perhaps with a separation for how religious people need it prepared. Maybe it will have to revert to how you used to remember it, if demand on their resources for basics like food and soup-kitchens increases a lot.

carolt

fedupfreda wrote: »

Because the system makes it pay that way. I know of someone, living in council accommodation, who has given up on full time work because the only work they could get was paying minimum wage, and what with the costs to get to and from work, paying council tax etc they soon realised it wasn't worth the candle, they found some excuse (or rather gave their employer no other option) but to leave their employment, because they had kids they were able to get income support, housing and council tax benefit etc, they felt they were much better off as they were no longer exhausted doing a McJob for a pittance wage - to the point where that particular person has found sufficient energy to make a tidy profit at car boot sales/ebay ...:mad:

I have heard no end of similar tales (ok the rest are anecdotal and I have no actual proof) but you can see why some people do it. They are intelligent enough to realise there is no point knocking themselves out on a minimum wage job when there is a safety net waiting for them to fall into. Also intelligent enough to make a profit at the car boot, in this particular case. If there was no safety net people like this would still survive - somehow - and make a profit. They are modern day spivs. I can appreciate there are many cases of genuine need - and the safety net still needs to be there - but there has to be limits on it. The country can't afford it any more.

I think that's absolutely true and we clearly have the wrong incentives.

That said, anyone whose ever been unemployed knows that lack of confidence to go for a job - any job - kicks in, and is in its own way as high a barrier or higher than the wrong incentives being offered. I don't think 'luck' is really the right word to cover the huge inequalities of opportunity we have in our (rich) country.

I was fortunate - I went to excellent schools (well, partly making my own 'luck' here by being bright enough to get into the top grammar school in the country), and again the best university (again, I take same credit for this - I worked damn hard age 16, 17, 18 when some spend 2 years drinking). I worked to get a good degree. This enabled me not to need to be unemployed unless I so chose.

But the simple fact is that had I been born on a sink estate to the stereotypical '!!!!less single mother who didn't give a damn about my education, gone to the local sink schools and had no role models to give me aspirations beyond that, I would have faced enough inequality - or call it lack of 'luck' if you want - that hard work or natural brains would be very, very unlikely to rescue me from my starting point.

I agree with PN - to access the kind of 'luck' that dopester and PN believe in, you have to at least know or imagine it could be out there, and got by honest means.

That's why I'm a socialist. Albeit, a highly despairing one at the moment.

Really2

carolt wrote: »

No, I'd stop and spit.

Just joking. :eek:

Honestly.

Glad your a teacher of todays youth.:rolleyes:

Just joking

Honestly.:eek:

!!!!!! is your problem? is it some kind of attraction where you for some reason impulsively have to refer things to me?

I don't even bother to mention you I have better things to discus with some of the people on here.

Ever thought why they are thinking of moving the board Carol?

carolt

I'm not a teacher of today's youth.

I teach grown-ups, actually.

And it was a joke. In reply to Stevie J's amusing post.

Maybe you need to ask him why he referred to you.

Really, if you were starving in the gutter, I'd share my last crust of bread with you.

Honestly. :A

IveSeenTheLight

Really2 wrote: »

Glad your a teacher of todays youth.:rolleyes:

Just joking

Honestly.:eek:

!!!!!! is your problem? is it some kind of attraction where you for some reason impulsively have to refer things to me?

I don't even bother to mention you I have better things to discus with some of the people on here.

Ever thought why they are thinking of moving the board Carol?

While it was in poor taste, I do think this was an attempt at a bit of humour.
Maybe try let it slide and you'd feel better for it instead of getting wound up.

Really2

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

While it was in poor taste, I do think this was an attempt at a bit of humour.
Maybe try let it slide and you'd feel better for it instead of getting wound up.

Why should I? If it was a one of maybe.