You're Right Patrice Lewis; Nobody in the Good Old Days...

[Anxious Girl]

I can't take libertarians seriously. If they were true to their supposed ideals, they'd move to Somalia and enjoy the tax free paradise.

Because no taxes = best country ever. Only those commie libbies want us hard working 'Muricans to pay taxes so that the government can take away our freedom!

[notsocommon]

I think it might be that those particular "Christians" have a strong belief that the just-world fallacy is actually reality. The working poor should just roll over and die if they can't afford a doctor, because if it weren't for their moral failings, God or Jesus would ensure that they could afford a doctor. It makes them feel better about themselves, because since they can afford a doctor, God or Jesus is rewarding them for their righteousness.

Thing is, in the world they want, THEY themselves would be the poor who can't afford the basics.

Think about it.....eliminate min wage, unions, eliminate various oversights and we ALL are screwed.

[notsocommon]

I can't take libertarians seriously. If they were true to their supposed ideals, they'd move to Somalia and enjoy the tax free paradise.

Libertarians make my head hurt.

Seriously? You seriously think there shouldn't be....say.....over sight of car manufacturing? You think they will make good, safe cars out of the goodness of their hearts? :angry-banghead:

[roddma]

"Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again."

There was no welfare state. Everybody pulled their own weight Guys like us we had it made

Sorry couldn't resist. But did they really have it made? As pointed out a shorter life expectancy and then no fall back when you lost jobs.

[FreeJosie]

"Boy, the way Glenn Miller played..."

:lol: :lol: :lol:

My 11 year old asked me tonight why people say nasty things about "kids today" because all of his friends are nice. I told him that people who say that have selective memories. That "back in my day, we all pulled up our bootstraps" argument makes me twitch.

[emesbe]

Don't read the comments! The ignorance and outright racism will melt your brain.

Speaking of government programs (which, of course, the author's family and those of the commenters NEVER EVER used) what about government works programs during the Depression?

[walnut]

Don't read the comments! The ignorance and outright racism will melt your brain.

Speaking of government programs (which, of course, the author's family and those of the commenters NEVER EVER used) what about government works programs during the Depression?

Too late... : ((((

[jenny_islander]

Don't read the comments! The ignorance and outright racism will melt your brain.

Speaking of government programs (which, of course, the author's family and those of the commenters NEVER EVER used) what about government works programs during the Depression?

Anybody descended from a Midwestern farmer who was active during the '30s is almost certainly an indirect beneficiary of government works programs. We just finished watching Ken Burns' documentary on the Dust Bowl. It's packed with first-person accounts by farmers who were writing then and people interviewed for the documentary who were children then. Some of them were facing literal starvation--the children in the family were already medically underweight and there was no relief in sight--until government aid workers arrived.

These were, by and large, people who were the first farmers on heretofore unbroken soil, come to make their fortunes on the crest of a boom in wheat profits, or simply to be owners rather than renters for the first time in their lives. They were doing the independent American dream entrepreneurial thing, and a combination of overconfidence, bad practices, and events too massive for them to control destroyed their hopes. And then the government stepped in to keep them alive and near their means of production* until times got better.

But BOOTSTRAPS!

*According to the documentary, while many families headed out of the Dust Bowl to find work, 75 percent stayed put until the drought ended.

[Stephanie66]

I had very bad timing with my cancer and am on Medical Assistance. (I am middle class and educated, but was at that "in-between" time with my new job. I actually considered WAITING to get a mammogram until I had insurance. Thankfully, I didn't, as it had already spread.)

I am tempted to post something. I did once, when a facebook friend (He is a friend in real life) went off the rails about Medicaid and Obamacare and how he hates us all for raising his premium. I politely said he knew my situation, and thank goodness for the safety net that saved my life. He DID respond, shaken, that he was sorry and "didn't mean me." as "I have always worked and am really sick." Huh? So others go to doctors for fun and haven't worked?

[Curious]

Is he fucking stupid? "I have health care- I should eat Big Macs five times a day, drink vodka instead of water and smoke crack, wheeeee!"

The truth is that people without insurance ignore early symptoms because they can't afford care. So instead of getting care at a point where a prescription or physical therapy would work, they end up getting far more expensive emergency care later.

And US health care is a beurocratic nightmare because there are so many health insurance companies to deal with. Single payer would have fixed that right up.

This is essentially what happened with me and likely the reason I am disabled. I probably would have eventually been disabled at some point because my spine is pretty fubar in some really amazing ways that even my (second) neurosurgeon was surprised about once he got inside there, but it wouldn't have been at 29.

I had no insurance, so I went 2 weeks with a ruptured disk (which is pretty unheard of, apparently due to the amount of pain). Fortunately (or unfortuantely, I guess actually), I have a pretty extreme tolerance for pain and I toughed it out until I absolutely couldn't take it anymore. I was still working right up until the day I went to the ER, in fact. I was losing feeling in one leg off and on, but I couldn't miss work so I pulled up those boot straps and I went!

As a result of no insurance, I got 2.5 days in the hospital and no aftercare. The dr. actually wanted to release me the day after the surgery, but the physical therapist threw a major fit and possibly some threats about releasing someone in my condition, so he agreed to one more day and told her she better have me ready to go the next day.

I won't go into the long boring details of what happened after that or the difference in my care during my second surgery, during which I had insurance (world's apart is an understatement, though).

No one should have to go through what I did though. I know people go through worse, as well. Lest anyone think I was a sloth that had no job and that's why I didn't have insurance. I had (still have lol) a 4 year degree that I finished in 3 years and was working in my field. However, I'd just gotten "laid off" (read: fired) from a country job because I was working in a politicized office and when the guy I was working for lost the election everyone that was in his camp got "laid off" when the new guy came in.

When my (old) boss opened his own office, he was kind enough to take me with him (the only person he did). Since the office was new, he couldn't afford to provide insurance though. I was very thankful that he took me with him and gave me a job, considering I had NO idea that I was being fired based on everything being said at the time (yes I was pretty naive about political things at the time). I wasn't going to quibble about insurance, when other people were out of work with no job prospects in sight.

As an aside, the reason they gave for laying me off was "because I didn't do anything." They confused me staying in my office all the time with not doing work. Actually, I was working in my office. I just didn't like standing around at the secretaries stations yakking with people I didn't want to be around (did I mention the office was very politicized). In reality, I was doing not only my job, but about 3 secretaries jobs as well. They gave me 2 weeks notice, but I really didn't have the desire to keep helping at that point, so cleaned out my desk and took my vacation time and never went back to the office after that day. I still had friends there though and they said it was pretty amusing when the people that always bitched about my hiding in my office not doing anything found out which people REALLY did nothing all day and how much I really worked.

[lizziesmom]

Farm subsidies are still there to this day. I get extremely tired of the judgmental people out there who make such extreme statements. I am well educated, worked from the times I was 16, paid taxes (income and property) and am quite self sufficient. I even bought a disability insurance policy.

Since 2005 I have been unable to work. Thank God for social security and the Affordable Health Care Act. Medical expenses are through the roof and having that income and the assurance that my carrier can't put a cap on my benefits or drop me really helps reduce the daily stress.

[already hungover]

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but it's hubris to think that you are too [fill in the blank] to ever experience the harsher realities of life.

"The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry." - Ernest Hemingway

[salsa]

I consider our (Canadian) national health program a sleep aid. I sleep better knowing that ALL our citizens can have their health needs taken care of.

I don't understand these "Christians" who think the working poor should just roll over and die if they can't afford a doctor. It's cruel and inhumane.

No, it's not; it's survival of the fittest. :roll: oh, wait.... we don't believe in evolution.

Well ... welllll.... middle and lower class people just suck, so there! :nenner:

[GolightlyGrrl]

I grew up surrounded by Patrice Lewis types, which is not a good thing for an impressionable, vulnerable, sensitive child. This type of "I've Got Mine, Fuck the Rest of You" thinking is so toxic and affects you in ways that are so corrosive. Sometimes you slip into their way of thinking and sometimes you think you deserve all the horrible things that happen to you. I'm finally starting realize how being basted and fried in this mean-spirited fuckwittery truly messed with my head, and I'm trying to get better. I just wish I would have seen the light sooner.

And it's so funny Patrice rails against the public sphere-education, healthcare, libraries, public parks, a safety net for our struggling-but seems to have no problem with corporate welfare, our military industrial complex or huge corporations not paying US taxes.

Ugh, this seems like something Patrice would do.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/0 ... f=politics