Some want the poor to suffer - Neal Rubin, Detroit News columnist

[Bozita]

Last Updated: May 08. 2011 1:00AM
Neal Rubin
Some want the poor to suffer


I've been poor. I wasn't wild about it. And I wouldn't have appreciated anybody telling me I had to be bored, cold and miserable, too.

A state senator made news last week complaining that $2 million worth of the modern equivalent of food stamps had been spent out of state in January and February. "This abuse of tax dollars must stop," said Rick Jones, a Republican from Grand Ledge.

It sounded good — a stalwart ex-sheriff, standing strong for the taxpayers. But as long as Jones' complaint was on outrage, it was short on specifics, and shorter still on actual thought.

Also, while he put the figure at $2 million, the state Department of Human Services says it was really $1.5 million — about $1 million from FAP, the Food Assistance Program, and the rest from a lesser-used cash assistance program known as FIP. Jones' inference was that those shifty poor people are living the high life at our expense, and never mind the many legitimate reasons they might have for crossing the state line. But the subtext is even more harsh:
How dare they enjoy themselves?

How dare they!

He's hardly alone in that reflexive response. We'll profile a family down on its luck and show the kids playing a video game, and the angry messages stick like darts in the online forums — why are they whining when they have an Xbox? Or we'll print a photo from a homeless shelter where someone in the background is making a call, and get the same response — how bad off can the guy be if he has a cell phone?

more...

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110508/OPINION03/105080311/Some-want-the-poor-to-suffer#ixzz1LnKGJDGZ

[barbtries]

1. we've grown so mean

as a nation. it really saddens me.

[RKP5637]

2. IMO it's becoming a nation of assholes. n/t

[donheld]

4. Sociopaths

[RKP5637]

5. Yep, better word choice! Often I think that's unregulated capitalism at its grandest ...

[CrispyQ]

8. Me too. I don't remember such mean spiritedness toward the poor when I was a kid.

Was it cuz I was a kid or were we nicer back then?

snip...

Life's not always easy, and it's not always fun. Some days it's a struggle to find a reason to smile. But only poor people are expected to apologize when they do.

[barbtries]

9. i tend to believe

we were nicer back then.
then along came reagan and the greed is good and the one who dies with the most toys win gang.

[bobbolink]

10. Or maybe it depends on what side of the poverty line you are on?

[dajoki]

13. Exactly...

I know this from personal experience. And the government's poverty line does not reflect true poverty, it needs to be updated.

K&R

[OmahaBlueDog]

3. There are widely differing definitions of poor

Example: If a woman pays for food with EBT or WIC, but has acrylic nail sets and a lot of gold-looking jewelry, there is a certain segment of the population that terms that as "abuse."

To a lot of middle and upper class people, anyone who is not living in a coldwater flat with little food and no heat is not "poor."

[MinM]

6. The Detroit News is the conservative paper.

The counterpart to the supposedly 'liberal' Detroit Free Press.

So good for Neal Rubin. :daily:

[ck4829]

7. And yet the guy with more mansions than children has it so hard according to the right wing

[texshelters]

11. They hate Americans, and want you too hate the poor too

http://texshelters.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/kill-the-poor-and-other-republican-plans/

Peace,
Tex Shelters

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. Excellent article! Thanks for sharing this!

[provis99]

14. America has always been a Social Darwinist country.

Heck, the Nazis got their ideas on concentration camps, segregation and eugenics from us. So why are we surprised that this guy sounds like a typical American?