[lit-ideas] Re: [lit-id] The Poverty of Heritage
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 17:31:18 -0500
I don't know about Canada, but in the US welfare fraud has always been peanuts
compared to corporate fraud of the government. And no profession seems above
it. Doctors defraud Medicare and Medicaid to the tune of billions, military
contractors defraud the government to the tune of hundreds of billions, housing
contractors defraud HUD of billions every year, it just goes on and on, often
with the connivance of government officials. The poor are very poor defrauders
of government, even with though they number in the millions, they can't
approach the damage done by the wealthy defrauders. Halliburton and KRB eat
the poor for breakfast and write it off as entertainment.
btw, we haven't had a report on what's happening on Theoria in a long time.
Are they celebrating the conviction of Lay and Skelling? : )
Mike Geary
Memphis
----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Stone
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2006 4:01 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: [lit-id] The Poverty of Heritage
At 04:47 PM 5/25/2006, you wrote:
Lawrence wrote:
> Neither is blaming the government for their poverty.
ck: Because the government is providing them with an income, Lawrence--the
very thing you've been objecting to, I thought.
Nah... I think Lawrence is objecting to 'exorbitant' government income. You
know like "I don't care if they pay your rent and buy you food, but damned if
I'm going to keep you in beer and smokes". That's perhaps an extreme position,
but in Canada, where it's almost as socialist as Europe, that 'beer and smokes'
has escalated to include "cell phones, big screen tvs, cars, etc". It kind of
ticks a fellow off who has a 'good' job and still can barely afford those very
same conveniences. I guess it must be the LACK of that 20,000 I pay to the
government every year so that those people can live.
I still haven't arrived at a decision about to what extent I condone
government support. I don't like what i see down South with utter destitution
on every corner of big cities, folks truly left to rot, but I can't go whole
hog either. I deeply resent that a good portion of my paycheque is divied up to
the rest of the society for their -- in many, many cases, chosen proclivities
towards 'poverty'. It's gone beyond just surviving above the poverty lines.
There is a very sophisticated, organized boondoggle going on that is draining
our 'welfare' system. These people are professional loafers who are living off
the government and there are tens of thousands of them.
In case anyone thinks I speak from a position of ignorance, I urge you to
visit 280 Sammon Ave in Toronto, an apartment I inhabited for 8 months in 1993
that my partner (at the time) and I called "Hell Hath Three Stories". I think
her and I were the ONLY people in the place who actually had a source of
non-governmental income. That place was a non-stop party, unless you actually
had to be somewhere in the morning. There are hundreds of buildings just like
it in Toronto and every other city in Canada.
feeling non-nostalgic,
Paul
##########
Paul Stone
pas@xxxxxxxx
Kingsville, ON, Canada
Other related posts:
