What Are They Thinking...??

[Dunkopf]

Life can be really tough. I lay in bed at 3 in the morning when I can't get back to sleep and worry about stuff like that. What would happen if I lost my good job? We could live for a while if we downsized immediately. As in walking away from our mortgage and do a BK. 5 kids in a 2 bdrm apt would be a blast. Get a job at McDonalds.

We have to get on Dave Ramseys plan before it's too late.

 

[DuppyDo]

What i dislike about the whole tax thing are those pork barrel projects that elected officals try to bring home to their communities.
Sometimes people need help with food , etc.in tough times. Other govt. waste is a crime, and big waste of hard earned tax dollars.I read one story , where the gov. payed $2750.00 for tiolet seats, thats per tiolet seat folks, and they bought hundreds...!This is the kind of stuff thats breaking us. Yes, gov. assistance for food stamps cost allot of big bucks, but at least someone is eating something, and not sitting on a $2750.00 throne to take a dump...!
Taxes are getting so crazy in states like Calf. and NY where i live, people with money are just packing up and moving to tax friendlier places,including leaving the USA. Thats going to make things even worse and tougher.We can hardly pay the interest on the national debt.
It's going to a real nightmare when all the coming of retirement age babyboomers who are teachers, cops, etc. with big pension plans comes due..Where is the money going to come from..? SS, medcaid,medicare...The scales are tipping to a state of no return.We just can't keep printing more money with nothing to back it...!This is one of the biggest reasons our system i going to collaspe.Its unsustanable, been building for a long time...
It really doesn't matter anymore,who's buying what with food stamps..We have much bigger problems than that...!!

 

[savingdogs]

I'm so afraid you are right, Duppy Do. It seems like what you just said is probably why a lot of us are reading on a Self Sufficient forum. We are hoping to prepare for what seems to be coming. :/

 

[DuppyDo]

Savingdogs...do you like the Pacific Northwest..? I spent some time a few years ago in northern Calf and Oregon, as well as a couple weeks on the Tolepa Indian Res. in Wash.
People were really friendly, just strangers i met along the way.I really loved northern Calf. up in the mountains.
I would consider moving thier but Calf has big money problems like NY, plus ya gotta watch out for those foreign pot growers running around the state and national parks...! They will kill you dead if you stumble upon their activities while hiking around...! Kinda scarey,,!
I like Wash. lots of blackberries..lol.. but it rains allot, right..? I don't know which is worse lots of rain in the Pacific Northwest or to much cold and snow in Maine..!!?? Someday i'd love to escape this wicked NYS, if i could ever sell my home...! A little farm somewhere..oh well,maybe a vision will come to me when the time is right( and i can sell my home).. In any case, just keep preparing for the worst, praying for the best...

 

[Dunkopf]

What i dislike about the whole tax thing are those pork barrel projects that elected officals try to bring home to their communities.
Sometimes people need help with food , etc.in tough times. Other govt. waste is a crime, and big waste of hard earned tax dollars.I read one story , where the gov. payed $2750.00 for tiolet seats, thats per tiolet seat folks, and they bought hundreds...!This is the kind of stuff thats breaking us. Yes, gov. assistance for food stamps cost allot of big bucks, but at least someone is eating something, and not sitting on a $2750.00 throne to take a dump...!
Taxes are getting so crazy in states like Calf. and NY where i live, people with money are just packing up and moving to tax friendlier places,including leaving the USA. Thats going to make things even worse and tougher.We can hardly pay the interest on the national debt.
It's going to a real nightmare when all the coming of retirement age babyboomers who are teachers, cops, etc. with big pension plans comes due..Where is the money going to come from..? SS, medcaid,medicare...The scales are tipping to a state of no return.We just can't keep printing more money with nothing to back it...!This is one of the biggest reasons our system i going to collaspe.Its unsustanable, been building for a long time...
It really doesn't matter anymore,who's buying what with food stamps..We have much bigger problems than that...!!

You should do that thing on BYC where it has you decide where cuts should be made. It will surprise you how small pork barrel spending, also known as earmarks actually is. It is all part of the bigger picture though. They need to cut a lot of things and do a lot of things differently.

Those toilet seats are part of no bid contracts. Why does our government do no bid contracts? All businesses gets bids before signing a contract. No bid contracts should be illegal.

Social Security used to be taken out of paychecks at half of what it is now. They doubled it to handle the baby boomers.There is 2.3 trillion in the fund to handle the baby boomers. Don't know about Medicare. That's why Obama is trying to get health care through. If people were healthier it would save a lot of money in the future cost. Can you imagine what it is going to cost to care for Americans with the obesity epidemic? Americans are much heavier than they used to be. It's a much bigger problem than smoking. The poorer people are the more obese people in the group. Reason is because of the food. You can fill up at McDonalds for 3.00. There is no solution without nannyism. So what are we going to do?

Federal taxes haven't gone up in a long time. They have consistently been coming down, with the last cut in 2009. the States are all sucking wind though. California in particular. Not because of taxes though. It's because of job loss and the housing bubble/Wall Street crisis.

My Mom who lives in Tx says that voters in Houston just voted to eliminate those cameras at red lights. Those cameras bring in 40 million dollars for the city. So now the good people of Houston will all have to pay extra somewhere to make up the difference, instead of just the people that run red lights. Those cameras also save lives and reduce the cost of accidents which is very high in the case of t-bone collisions. That's the kind of stupid stuff voters do in their overzealous attitude about cutting taxes. They cut off their noses to spite their face. Research needs to be done before drastic actions are taken. Use a scalpel instead of an ax.

 

[savingdogs]

Savingdogs...do you like the Pacific Northwest..? I spent some time a few years ago in northern Calf and Oregon, as well as a couple weeks on the Tolepa Indian Res. in Wash.
People were really friendly, just strangers i met along the way.I really loved northern Calf. up in the mountains.
I would consider moving thier but Calf has big money problems like NY, plus ya gotta watch out for those foreign pot growers running around the state and national parks...! They will kill you dead if you stumble upon their activities while hiking around...! Kinda scarey,,!
I like Wash. lots of blackberries..lol.. but it rains allot, right..? I don't know which is worse lots of rain in the Pacific Northwest or to much cold and snow in Maine..!!?? Someday i'd love to escape this wicked NYS, if i could ever sell my home...! A little farm somewhere..oh well,maybe a vision will come to me when the time is right( and i can sell my home).. In any case, just keep preparing for the worst, praying for the best...

We like Washington state very much and don't plan to leave. It reminds one very much of northern CA in places and Oregon, especially along the coast, it is much the same. It certainly does rain a lot, which can be difficult to slog through but you get used to it. It waters those blackberries though, keeps everything green.
The economy here is not great, we have high unemployment and people can't sell their homes, businesses are doing poorly and some have closed. Teenagers here can't find jobs. Mine actually is working online for businesses out of the area. So while it is still a nice place, we are not immune to all the current problems. Farms can be had pretty cheap though.....lots of people just lost them.

 

[CJW]

everyone pays taxes


if hubby paid alot in taxes, then you made alot of income....did you truly spend correctly to keep your life in order to pay for those repairs? Should someone be controlling your income to be sure you spend wisely so you don't have to suck off the govt system?

if you pay $5 or $35,000 you don't have a right to say how it is spent when received thru govt programs down to the penny......I mean last penny, the recipent to the level of control. Thru voting etc. you can sway what happens to your tax dollars....but total control of your tax money will not happen. I say to myself--live with it lol

why should someone in rough times get help? not a family alive hasn't had rough times....you need some cash to get out of those rough times, is the govt. supposed to just hand you money to get going again for your personal rough times. No....you must meet requirements to truly suck out tax dollars to be put in your pockets to get help.

what did you OWN when you had these rough times? You probably had alot more than any other person accepting help from the system.


just cause one finds themselves in hard times and does have alot in their life, doesn't mean a check is at your finger tips without having to work for it just cause ya paid into the system.

my tax dollars---I vote to sway what I want done with them, but we are funding a huge country....not everything is rosy in it at all

On paper it showed we made a lot of money. In reality we made very little. But self employment taxes have to be paid. Yes, everyone pays taxes, but some pay more than others.

We were doing quite well until we used some of our savings (which we had put aside for times of strain) when we had 3 blizzards and 1 snowstorm (without the wind, otherwise it would have been a blizzard) within a month. Our savings had taken a hit, but once the yards were dry enough (he hauled lumber at the time) he went back to work, and we started putting money back into savings. Things were going great until the truck started on fire. It wasn't our fault. But, we had some in savings, so we made do. When he did work, it was good money, but when you have thousands of dollars going out every month for business costs, and none coming in, it dwindles the savings quickly.

The insurance company went back and forth about whether to total it or not. This was our income source. All this while his leasor kept telling him they were getting a loaner truck "any day" so he could work. He sat around waiting for the insurance company to decide what to do. All this while he isn't getting paid, and since I wasn't on a full time schedule, I wasn't making much. The truck was out of commission for a month. A month where a large portion of our yearly income is being made, where we put money away for times like that. Winter was hard, but the summer months was where he made 70% of our income. After the truck got repaired, the shop where he had his repairs done at didn't fix something he asked them to fix-twice. It took over a week for a new place to fix it. Then, since his leasor didn't trust his truck, they didn't set his loads up so he would be making the money he was making the last summer. Then, the transmission blew up, costing us towing charges, and all sorts of bull.

All in all, he was unable to work for the majority of the bread and butter season, and even then, his leasor didn't want him going far, but he was under contract until September. September came and he went to work for another company. We were broke, all savings depleted, etc. Everything that we owned was on borrowed money. When times were good, we handled things fine. Heck, even when times were bad, we handled things good. Up until the end of July, we had perfect credit. Even after that, most of our bills were less than 60 days late.

Do I wish we made better choices? Sure. But we did take the proper steps to prepare for most of what happened. But when it all falls in your lap at the same time, something's got to give.

And it gave.

As far as "working for it" and having a check at our fingertips...I am pretty sure that we have paid our fair share of taxes (and military service) in order for us to get a couple hundred dollars worth of money to go to the grocery store.


Regardless of our personal story, IMO, there should be some form of control over the food purchases of those on SNAP. I'm not saying that they HAVE to buy 1 loaf of bread a week and 3 lbs of bananas, and a 5 lb bag of potatoes...heck, have them buy 20 lbs of bananas, but the food that is shown to be bad for health shouldn't be allowed, or at least extremely limited.

Health. It is about health. Good health isn't decided by habits over short periods of time...it's over long periods of time. Most people on assistance are on it for long periods of time. Our nation, as a whole would be healthier, and would be in less of a medical crisis if those who utilize assistance would be limited to better food choices.

I also use my vote. I have missed a few municipal elections, but I have participated in the process since I turned 18. I know things can't all be rosy, but we are all entitled to our opinions.

(And I won't even go into earmarks and reckless spending!) LOL

 

[Denim Deb]

I have known several people that get assistance from the government. And, I have no problem w/someone being on it for the short term when things happen. Nor do I have a problem w/someone being on it long term if they really need it. But, I have seen people on it that do NOTHING to help themselves. The won't buy the store brand of food, but have to have the name brand. They'll buy things that I won't buy because it's too expensive. 1 woman I knew was constantly going for government paid job training. She'd finish training, get a job, but find out it wasn't what she wanted to do, so she'd then go for more training. And, everyone that I knew that was on long term assistance did NOTHING to help themselves. Instead, they sat back and waited for someone to help them. If I ever found that I needed assistance, I would be trying my hardest to get off ASAP. I cannot say for every area, but in this area, for many, it's a way of life.

 

[DuppyDo]

Dunkopf....the local taxes are the killer for me, school & town taxes, not so much the fed. tax...We have 2-3 families living in a single family homes which is illegal here, yet the laws are not enforced.Those households, some with lots of children aren't paying their fair share.So the rest of the taxpayers , playing by the rules have to pay for the extra burden of school taxes and local health clinics.
People who can afford to and no longer have children in school and some who do have children in school are leaving the area. Just like all around America work is hard to find here.It wasn't long ago we had a thriving fishing industry, thanks to Govt. regulations, both sport and comm. fishing boats are tied to the dock most of the time now.We have construction workers, fisherman and other workers strugglin to find any work.
I volunteered to work part time at a local chicken farm, to learn more about chickens and because i had no work.After a year, the owner told me he'd pay me a bag of chicken feed per hr.I can hear the laughter already,yeah it does sound kinda funny, i know..But you know what, my granddaddy always taught me a half loaf of bread is better than none....
I only work their a few hrs a week, but it gives me food for my flock of 36 laying hens, all the free chicken manure i need for my garden and they give me a nice big package of fresh chicken every week.( they sell fresh eggs and meat birds).
So doing this helps me survive, have no saving to speak of, never had health insurance, thank God my house is payed off..Like many, i'm 1/2 step ahead of the bill collector and wondering how am i going to pay my property taxes this yr..!
I sell a little firewood. mow a couple lawns in season and i'm pushing 60 yrs of age.. Its a struggle out there.I'm grateful for what little i have.I don't know how in the world younger folks with kids and a mortgage are doing it, unless they have a 6 figure job.
Property taxes are killing me, i can survive the rest.The tax and spend madness needs to be brought under control.We need to help our own citizens.We cannot afford to give hand outs to foreign invader here illegally,who pay for nothing,this is a HUGE bill....Its great to give, but take care of your own first...sorry for the ramble folks, it just comes out...!

Savingdogs...i never got a chance to see coastal Wash. sounds nice...i was in the Northwest about 10 yrs ago, better times..
If things ever improve, i'd love to travel their again sometime and see the coastal areas. Rainy days get to me if too man are strung together...lol...Long snowy
winters can be a drag as well...working or not...nothings easy, eh...?

 

[SKR8PN]

Some of you mentioned earlier in this thread, about folks on assistance buying junk food, or even "gaming" the system.....check THIS out.


Pop goes the taxpayers Bridge Card



Woman uses Bridge Card to buy, return pop cans.
Updated: Monday, 15 Nov 2010, 5:45 PM EST
Published : Monday, 15 Nov 2010, 5:27 PM EST

By Joe LaFurgey
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - The customer's thirst was questionable.

As she walked down the pop aisle at the Wayland Hardings Supermarket Sunday night, her motive apparently wasn't to Do the Dew or search for the Pepsi People.

She was looking for quick cash.

"It is a little irritating. It's very irritating. In this instance, it was very irritating," store manager Steve Holland told 24 Hour News 8.

About 9 p.m. Sunday, a customer walked down the pop aisle at the Wayland Hardings, and picked up 42 pops in both cans and bottles.

She bought them on her Bridge Card, the federally-funded, state-administered debit card that allows people on public assistance to, among other things, purchase food with the swipe of the card.

The customer walked out the door, pulled the pop out of the bag, and fed the bottle and cans, still full of pop, into the bottle-and-can return machines.

As the glass and aluminum is crushed in the machines, they explode, gumming up the inside of the machine, spreading a sticky mess across the floor.

"It was a big mess last night," Holland said. "We had to pull the bins out and let them drain off and we flushed them with water, and put them back in this morning."

The yet to be identified customer walked away with $4.20.

Holland said he called the state. They told him the customer didn't violate any of the rules regarding Bridge Card purchases.

"I've been on the program a couple of different times. I just can't believe somebody would do that," said Hardings customer Brenda Wilkerson as she placed her empty return in the now-repaired machines.

But some in the state legislature can believe it.

A number of lawmakers, like Rep. Joe Haveman of Holland, have called for changes to the Bridge Card program, including restrictions on eligibility.

There have been calls to exclude certain foods, like soda pop, from the program. But so far the federal government, which makes up the rules, hasn't changed them.

Tales like the Hardings incident upset card recipients as much as anyone.

"It definitely defeats the purpose," Wilkerson said. "There are so many families that are out there, that need this stuff right now and somebody like that that's ruining the program for people that are really in need of it."





More than one way to get some spending money!!