[quote=cwaltz;637140]Stand behind it all you like. Our founding fathers knew all about tyranny but it wasn't tyranny of the majority they were worried about(they were far more concerned that one individual have too much power which is why our first government actually failed). I'm not going to stand by and allow someone to pretend that because I support programs that protect innocent children and the vulnerable that that somehow makes me a socialist(especially when there are people out there supporting the idea women should be forced to carry a child to term). I spent 12 years defending the very freedom she waxed poetic about. My husband spent 10 years doing the same. The same people who decry FDR fail to address the fact Social Security is responsible for keeping a large majority of the elderly from starving. Furthermore, I would state that it was a lack of regulation or failure of the government to act that brought about the Depression, just as it is a lack of regulation that has caused the "housing crisis." The government has a responsibility to its citizenry(its why we pay taxes) to provide a safety net in my opinion and I am sick to death of hearing that this particular opinion means I want to live in communist Russia).


Each of the posters here is certainly entitled to a different opinion than mine and I'll be darned if I would stoop to pretending their opinion was any less in keeping with American traditions then mine.


:Stepping down from my soapbox:[/QUOTE

Federal Regulation was what caused the Great Depression, namely the Smoot Hartley Tariff iniciated by Hoover which brought all international trade to a grinding halt. Ben Bernanke wrote a book about these very issues (he is our current Federal Reserve Chairman). The current housing crisis was caused by the government wanting to avoid a Recession after the Dot Com bust and 9/11. It still would have happened with or without regulation because of the mania created by cheap dollars. You can't avoid bubbles in a debt based economy. Before the housing bubble was the dot com bubble and now we have what appears to be a bubble in comodities. This exist because of our currency which can be created at will. Inflation is the result of too much currency chasing too few comodities. That is what happened with housing, with dot coms and what is happening with the comodities market. Doesn't have any relation ship to policies such as tariffs which limit free markets. Sure you could regulate interest rates like Paul Volcker did which resulted in stagflation but then you really see suffering and I thought that was what you wanted to avoid. You want your cake and eat it too.

[quote=lburgess;637398]
The housing bubble was created because lending standards were lax. People who never should have been given loans to begin with were given loans regardless of their ability to repay them long term. It also is a result of competing in a global economy where the standards for each country are different. Jobs have been shipped over to countries where it is cheaper to operate and the standards are not the same(Let's hear it for little Honduran children working to make our clothing)I'd be more than happy to discuss this with you via email as well. I'm taking your suggestion and attempting to stay on topic as suggested from here on out.

I completely agree! I live in a town in which 75% of people are on welfare/food stamps and I see this all the time!

In fact, a few weeks ago, one of my best friends was having a BBQ. Her sister-in-law (who has three kids and collects welfare/food stamps) offered to buy ALL of the meat with her food stamp money if everyone else bought all of the beer! I was shocked and couldn't believe that she has that much money to buy MEAT for about 20 people to eat ONE MEAL!!

I also remember a girl I worked with a few years back offering to take me to the store to buy groceries if I gave her cash. If I remember correctly, she was offering to let me buy $100 worth of groceries for $60 in cash. I couldn't do it...my conscience simply wouldn't have it. This same girl was the crazy co-worker who was going down to a local bar and getting drunk every weekend with her boyfriend...probably using the cash she was getting from people to pay for her booze!

Sorry to be so judgemental...I see nothing wrong with those who TRULY need some help to get it. But I have a problem with those who don't or who are simply wasting the money they are receiving.

Regardless of how entitlements are handled there is always going to be a stigma attached. The fact is that most conservatives don't appriciate their wealth being redistributed. It is fine to tithe and give to charity and that go to fight hunger but I have a problem with governement taking my tax dollars and deciding to give it to entitlement programs. This is not out of selfishness but because I feel that it isn't the job of governement in a capitalist society. Church and charities are better able to determine who to despense charity to.

Ok I was going to write a snippy little comment about how in my opinion I knew of a worse president than FDR but we are getting off topic here.

Ladies, there but for the grace of God go each and every one of us. Lets be thankful for what we have, whether we get assistance for it or if we are blessed enough to be able to provide it ourselves.

Yesterday I was in the store and ahead of me someone was paying with a food stamp card. The only way I even knew is because the woman After me kept obviously trying to look around me and see what the woman in front of me was buying. All I could think of was how incredibly sad that was! I was behind the woman using the card and I wouldn't have even known.

Lets pray we are never in the situation of having to use assistance. Really, I mean do we really think the majority of people needing help think, "man, I have it made"? Yes, maybe some do, but I think most just want the tide to shift for the better so they can provide for their families again.

Hear, here
Out here in Va, WIC requires that individuals get store brand cereal. I found this out a couple months back. I found this out because I noticed a young girl and a woman with a WIC folder. I pointed out to her that the Cheerios had story books in them and they were really good stories. The little girl lokked wistfully while the mom explained that the state had changed WIC recipients to requiring store brand. We struck up a conversation. She was a single mother with three kids, working while going to school. I ended up buying those Cheerios for the little girl and was totally in awe of this woman, who clearly has a tough mountain to climb. I felt a little bad because the kindness I showed bought tears to her eyes. I told her that I like to think that had our situations been reversed that she'd have done the same and to pass it on when she reached the top of her mountain.

Ahem, there are plenty of lierals who are wealthy. I have a problem with MY tax dollars being handed off to non profits (and yes they are doling out tax dollars to private entities)rather than having the government handle the problem.

This article said that she gets 280 in FS and another 65 from some other source.
You have got be kidding me if you think I am going to believe that she is going hungry when she has 345 a month for food. Her baby is only 4 months old. Wic should be covering the baby. If she isn't getting wic thats her fault for not applying for it. I spend less then that for my family of 4 and my dh is a big eater. We never go hungry.

What you are refering to is called endowments. I have issue with this also and I guarantee that the issue will be addressed soon because our government is insolvent. As a matter of fact all these issues will be addressed. Come 2010,Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid is bankrupt. Most local and state governments are loosing their tax base and will lack funding for even basic services such as garbage and law enforcement. Anyone recall NYC in the '70's, the biggest welfare entitlements of our nation resulted in their insolvency but guess who did a bailout. The FRS and the FDIC but somehow I don't think that it will happen this time since both the FRS and the FDIC along with all of their affiliate banks will be insolvent as well.

I think I'm sicken by the people here who haven't a clue what its like to go without...I read the article and thought, this is completely untrue. How many families of four actually get the $500 plus dollars is being exaggerated in the article. I am a family of two and I get a total of $15 for an entire month-(I went from $45 a month for two to $15)- in food stamps. I'm living in Michigan where jobs are becoming scarce, I worked at a worthless job for nearly 2 yrs making much less than minimum wage a week and no I'm not uneducated, I have a Bachelors Degree but there is a high amount of unemployment here and everyone is competing for that one to two job openings...people are losing their homes, their jobs and moving out of state so we have a great Exodus from the metro Detroit area, probably moving to your states.

People often assume that people on food stamps are lazy, uneducated people who just aren't trying hard but thats not the case. Alot of people that never thought they'd find themselves on food stamps are now finding themselves on it. From the article, you would assume that people get $500 plus dollars for food and thats not the case, it depends on what state you are in. THey're plenty family of fours here in Michigan only getting $250 a month. They're single people getting more than those with children, not everyone gets the same thing and most of it you can't survive on and thats just trying to get the basics. What can I do with $15? Not very much...

I get from the responses that most people here are sitting at home in their comfortable homes that probably have cabinents full of food that can't imagine what it would be like to have to figure out how to stretch food for an entire month on pocket change for most people. Even if I recieved $150 a month, it wouldn't cover what I need...I have a daughter allergic to milk and eggs, I myself have allergies to all meats except for chicken. So, it takes alot more for me to buy food. I work, just like everyone else, just at a lower paying job despite having a degree, (and I wouldn't be the first college grad to be working at a job they don't like,just trying to make ends meet). My friend has a Master's Degree and she is working at a job at a University, salaried position with three kids and she's struggling!!!

I live in the suburbs but I drive an old car, I can't buy myself something new, I sacrifice and go without and when I go into the grocery store, I'm trying to buy something to fill me and my child up without costing alot, it isn't as easy as you think. We're eating lots of spaghetti and lots of beans. We don't even have cheese in the house. We don't have snacks or hardly anything and our cupboards are pretty bear, and I get on here and read about people passing judgement on other people...it makes me sick. I got to the grocery store and theres women buying tons of prepackaged foods at Krogers etc. probably spending hundreds a month just to throw most of it away and then I go to Save-A-Lot and its a ghost town. The cashiers are sitting around because the people who CAN'T afford to buy just stopped coming. I hate articles like that one because they always quote unrealistic figures. They make it seem like people are getting enough when they really aren't. Until you step into someone elses shoes, don't be so quick to judge!!!