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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SilentZ who wrote (357762)	11/9/2007 3:32:24 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573980

I'd be happy to pay more in taxes if we could improve the system to make sure that people like that woman and her son had the basic essentials (a warm place to sleep at night, an address, a phone number, a bank account, presentable clothing, maybe some job training) to be employed. It's safer and happier for all of us. I don't want to just move further and further away from less fortunate people as I make more money and they're eating from dumpsters. I want the cities to be safe, happy places, and having people living on the streets trying to panhandle is so antithetical to that. It's also just morally wrong. Excellent post. I couldn't have said it better.

To: SilentZ who wrote (357762)	11/9/2007 4:01:38 PM
From: TopCat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573980

""I don't want you to give me money... can you take me and my son to get something to eat? Please!" I would've considered it, but had to get back to Albany. I apologized and said, "I'm sorry, I really have to catch my train." She sarcastically and somewhat angrily responded, "Yeah, you look sorry..."" It's understandable that you didn't have time to take them somewhere to get something to eat but how long would it have taken for you to reach in your wallet and give her a ten dollar bill? Your solution (so YOU won't feel guilty) is to raise taxes where that $10 you could have directly given to the person who needed it would turn into $2 (best case) after the cost of administration and distribution is deducted. <END RANT>

To: SilentZ who wrote (357762)	11/9/2007 5:08:01 PM
From: Tenchusatsu	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 1573980

Z, it's not just at Penn Station in Manhattan. It's all around the world. I've had beggars approach me in Paris, Florence, and Rome. (Not Germany, curiously, but that may have been a fluke.) My mom once took a trip to the Middle East, and she said that there were many child beggars in the streets of Cairo, some who even knew how to beg for change in Korean. I hate to sound callous, but I don't know any other way to put it. Poverty is everywhere. Even the richest people in America have but a small fraction of the resources necessary to combat it. Meanwhile no one has yet to invent the perfect society where poverty has been eliminated. Tenchusatsu

To: SilentZ who wrote (357762)	11/10/2007 3:02:53 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1573980

Unfortunately, it takes a disaster for some people to open their eyes. For me, it took getting asthma......in two years, I went from running 2 miles each day to having trouble walking a block. Had I not worked my tail off before getting asthma and developed a valuable asset out of nothing, I would be on the street right now. Its opened my eyes to how fragile the social network in this country is. My parents died when I was young. Most of my family is not affluent.....besides I would have have a difficult time asking for help. There are other people who are not as 'fortunate' as I......like the woman and her child that you describe. Its very sad that we can spend so much money killing people in a war and refuse to protect those who are citizens of this country. Talk about misapplied priorities.......... And if there are more and more angry and hopeless people like her and her son on the street (and it appears to me that the number is growing), what happens when they realize that fuckers like us are making more money while they're not eating? Do they get violent? That seems to be what happens historically. I'd be happy to pay more in taxes if we could improve the system to make sure that people like that woman and her son had the basic essentials (a warm place to sleep at night, an address, a phone number, a bank account, presentable clothing, maybe some job training) to be employed. It's safer and happier for all of us. I don't want to just move further and further away from less fortunate people as I make more money and they're eating from dumpsters. I want the cities to be safe, happy places, and having people living on the streets trying to panhandle is so antithetical to that. It's also just morally wrong.