[lit-ideas] Re: [lit-id] The Poverty of Heritage

  • From: Andy <min.erva@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 15:37:29 -0700 (PDT)

I was just reading that governmental fraud pales in comparison to private 
industry fraud, case in point Enron, even if they are exceptionally bad.  
Private is something like three times more than government.  I don't remember 
where I read it, can't post the link.  The real rip off artists are the ultra 
rich, who get gargantuan tax breaks, sometimes twice, personally and because 
taxes subsidize their industries.  A regular person with a business would 
probably take out a loan to cover their needs.
   
  

Mike Geary <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
          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 


                
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