I have a hard time buying that. What if i told you that as a avid Obama supporter, the lady was already on the mailing list?

 

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So basically it really boils down to two things:


1. What are her health issues? If she doesn't need to spend 4k/year on medigap insurance she's ok. Health issues can be almost anything, from the very serious to "on SSDI because of a bad back she has to ice." Which doesn't cost much, although it is not much fun.


2. Can she move in with someone else in a similar situation? Or even better, several other people? If so, she'll be ok either way. If she can find several roommates and they rent a house together, she could actually end up with a pretty decent standard of living.


Like I said, I'm not trying to be uncompassionate. I have no real problem with greater assistance for people like her. But I do take issue with the idea she's necessarily unable to survive on 16k/year because that just isn't true. Or that the solution is only to give her more money each month withotu taking a long hard look at how to make the money go farther, too.

Interesting thread. Learned a lot about Yuki.

 

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Also, 750 for rent in Harrisonburg?

I pay that in Brooklyn. More like 550 for a decent one bedroom, and much less for a crappy, "affordable" one.

 

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Anyone care to explain how someone on a tight budget is going to come up with the `2k needed to move in to a cheaper apartment?

Or how she is supposed to actually move?

And how is the market for 60 year old roommates these days?

Ffs, are any of you capable of seeing past your own experiences?

 

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I'm all for it. Minimum wage should be at LEAST $10 / hour. In 1968 the minimum wages was $1.60 / hour. Adjusted for inflation today that is $10.42 an hour. The minimum wage should increase every year and be tied to inflation. You know, like government salaries.

 

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It doesn't cost 2k to move within the same town. We don't know much about her circumstances, but if the house is worth anything that is obviously a potential source of funds.


FWIW, moving costs is totally the sort of thing the state or someone should be picking up to help someone out in a situation like this, assuming she couldn't afford to move on her own. It makes sense for everyone involved.


It's not about not looking beyond one's own experiences. Like I said in the very first post, we don't really know enough about her situation either way to know how much she really needs more assistance and how much it is a question of realigning her expenses better. Maybe she really does need more money from the gubmint. Maybe what she really needs even more than more money is someone to come in and help her figure out a better way to spend the money she has.


We just don't know. Assuming it is impossible to live on 15k/year is dumb. Millions of Americans manage it. Whether anyone should have to live on only 15k a year is a different question but it's not impossible.

I'm not sure raising minimum wage is the actual answer - minimum wage has a lot of other things associated with it, not the least of which is inflation. What good does it do to raise minimum wage by $3/hour if the cost of living goes up another $6k a year as a result? Answer: no good at all.

This is the plight of the so-called "working poor". In America we're much more concerned with keeping the wealthy wealthy and with making sure that the non-working poor have their expenses covered, but the working poor, people like this woman, who fall just outside the limits for assistance are screwed... and we want to tax them more to cover debt created by corporations that we bailed out, and to cover social programs for people who don't work at all...

Can you seriously tell me that increasing this woman's taxes by even $10 a week won't have a noticeable impact?

Some time ago I was accused of having hatred in my heart on this board for railing against this very concept.

Why don't you tell this woman about hatred in her heart when you tell her that you're increasing her taxes by an extra $25 a week because, you know, that's no big deal, it's only making the nation stronger - a nation which has forgotten her with its social programs and assistance for the most part.

Tell her about hatred in her heart as you increase her taxes to pay for the debt or to pay for more generational welfare or more corporate welfare. Tell her about hatred in her heart when she might lose her minimum wage job if her 20 year old beater car drops the transmission as she trundles over the bumpy ass road back to her little trailer in the woods. In fact, that might be the best thing for her because then she could go on full assistance because her income would drop the last little bit to allow her to qualify for it.

Americans, liberals, conservatives, Repubs, and Dems, you are seriously fkn dropping the ball for the working poor.


Oh and yes, it could easily cost her $2k to move. She will have to come up with moving costs, possibly a truck rental, she's 60 and will probably have to hire someone or hopefully have friends to help her move her heavy furniture. She will have to come up with first month's rent plus a security deposit which will be up to 2 month's rent in some places (typically one month's rent though).

Incidentally, this woman lives probably less than 100 miles from me. This entire region of central Pennsylvania has more examples of the "working poor" than most of you would care to count.

 

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She's on disability and works part-time below the limit. Calling her working poor is questionable. Her federal taxes are probably negative.


I don't disagree that our tax policy is hard on the working poor. But this isn't really the best example of it.

A. Are qualifications for foodstamps set by the states?
B. She didn't reach out to the White House. It sounds like she reached out to the campaign. There's no way an official White House Response would include a solicitation. If she reached out to the White House and got a campaign flyer they're unrelated.

 

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