Re: Conservative Deadheads? Veteran Deadheads? NRA Member/Hunting Deadheads?


"Darren E. Mason" <stcalvin@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"gwatts" <gwatts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Darren E. Mason wrote:

There are plenty of people in this country who started out their life
dirt poor but ended their
working career accomplished and wealthy.

Which means they have absolutely no idea what is is to be poor in America
today. None what so ever.

It sounds like you are dismissing the "poor life" that people experienced
in this nation 50
years ago. True? False? If I am wrong, then I guess I don't understand
your point. If I
am not wrong, then please read on.

Except that they can compare documented experiences of the poor today to
their own
personal experience (for example, during the depression) of being poor.
Are the experiences
of the poor today different from the poor 50-70 years ago? Sure. I
still think they are
comparable...and I would not so easily minimize the obstacles that people
of that generation
had to overcome.

Remember. Back then there weren't child labor laws, OSHA, The Great
Society, or a myriad of
other social programs that currently exist to help poor people get a "leg
up". My grandfather had to
have his leg cut off twice before the age of 30 (once below the knee, once
above the knee) due to a
bone infection for which there weren't any antibiotics. He also had polio
as a kid. He (nor his wife)
never owned a home. On his low-tech wooden leg he worked upright building
washing machines &
refrigerators (surrounded by asbestos), was a janitor, worked for a blood
bank during WWII, or
whatever job he could get to pay the bills. All of his kids had to work
as children and bring their
money home so that the family could pay the rent and buy food.

You know what? He never complained or said to others who had better lives
"You have no idea what
it means to be poor. None whatsoever." Indeed, he was poor from the time
he was born until the day
he died in 1975.

Do you want a society in which everyone contributes *in proportion to their
ability to do so*, that does not put up barriers for certain people and
classes of people, and that helps people who are genuinely down on their
luck,
-or-
Do you want a society that protects the wealthy and assists them in accruing
greater wealth while the middle class carries the primary burden?


.

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